September 10, 2010 – Shades of Fall Fishing
The first wave of the fall mullet run has pushed into the rivers and along the beaches of the space coast. This massive amount of baitfish starting to flood through the area has the redfish, tarpon, and trout feeding heavily. This action will continue for another month or so as the mullet continue to push through our area. The best and most reliable fishing has been for redfish up on the flats. In the early hours of the morning, live finger mullet has been working best. The redfish are more schooled up and are shallower as well during the first few hours of daylight. Once the sun warms the flats, the larger redfish have been dropping off the flats, and holding in deeper potholes. The fish in the potholes have been readily eating cut mullet or dark colored jerkbaits.
John and his son Joe joined Capt. Peter for a day of redfishing in the Banana River. They started the morning off chasing two schools of 30 to 35 inch redfish. Each of the schools had between 20-50 redfish, and were fairly easy to fish due to their constant tailing and actively feeding along the flat. Pictured is Joe with the first fish of the morning, that he sight casted within one of the schools.
Once the anglers had their fun sightfishing the tightly packed schools of redfish, fishing heavy concentrations of non-schooling fish in the deep water took up the rest of the morning. The anglers caught over 12 redfish and a solid trout during the trip with multiple double hookups. Pictured is one of the doubles.
Scott Martin of Satellite Beach, fresh off a spectacular performance in an inshore redfish tournament the week before, decided to test his angling skills in another tournament the following weekend. This was a catch, photo and release junior only tourney with prizes going to the longest fish, the most fish of any kind, and several other odd categories. Capt. Rocky took Scott back to the Banana River where he had had success with tarpon, a particularly long fish, and several other species. Scott was able to hooked six poons and land the one pictured the below. (This was his very first tarpon). He also caught seven trout, a giant ladyfish and a number of other fish for a grand total of thirty on the morning. Scott’s tarpon was easily the most spectacular catch for the tournament and he received several good prizes as a result. And his overall fish total finished second on the day.
The Lee family made the trip to Florida from California for fishing/alligator hunting with Capt. Peter. The primary goal of the fishing trip was to target shallow water redfish. By sightfishing in the clear water on the flats and fishing sandbars with live mullet, the anglers quickly landed seven redfish. The fishing only lasted for three hours so the Lee’s could get back to the resort for a quick nap before their alligator hunting trip that night. Most of the redfish were in the 33 inch range, with two making the slot limit. After 10am, the redfish moved up very shallow and were actively tailing and cruising. This has been the pattern as of late, with the fish being deeper earlier in the morning.
Kurt and Chris from Denver, CO were down working beachside in the Sebastian area and could help taking a day off to go fishing with Capt. Roland. The ocean had been exceptionally calm so they insisted on going just off shore for whatever was biting. It was a good decision as the Bonita have moved in to a few hundred yards of the beach and are more than willing to provide some great light tackle action. Bonita, little members of the tuna family, hit hard and can rip a 100 yards of line off the spool in a matter of seconds. The duo caught seven in a couple of hours of fishing along with three small sharks. The rest of the half day charter was spent ‘inside’ the Inlet and around the grass flats. Snook was the primary target but a couple of great tasting flounder turned up instead. Pictured below are Kurt and Chris holding ‘tiny’ tunas.
Curtis and Kim Landry of Indialantic had been watching the surf from their condo on the beach and wanted to do the same thing. So back at it again and the bonito did not disappoint them either. Both hook and landed some nice fish. The big surprise on this half-day charter was a nice triggerfish that decided to join the action.. It was another beautiful day on the water.
Bill Pesci fished with Capt. Peter for a couple of days in the Banana River. Bill recently moved to the central Florida area, and had a week to fish prior to going back to school. Trying to avoid the heat, Capt. Peter opted to fish from sunset till early evening one day, and early morning the next.
On the first trip, the anglers fished a shallow flat that the redfish move up on to feed later in the day. The anglers fished cut-bait, and intercepted the single redfish as they finned along and foraged through the grass as the sun setted. After landing a handful of redfish, Capt. Peter took the anglers to some select docks that have lights that shine into the water that attract redfish and trout at night. Bill and his father, Bill, had steady trout action for the rest of the night. The trout school up heavily under some lights during this time of year. Under some of the lights, you can see dozens of the spotted seatrout laying up on the surface, ready and willing to take live bait, artificial, or fly. Most of the trout are smaller (12-16 inches) but a handful of 20-24 inch trout are caught almost every trip.
On the second trip, the goal was to sightfish redfish all morning. The morning started off by fishing a school of 50 redfish in 12 inches of water, Bill scored this beautiful fish (pictured) out of the school. After playing with the school of redfish for a while, they moved to a flat where Capt. Peter push poled Bill along mangrove shorelines in very shallow water, 7’’, sight-casting to patrolling redfish.
With the rising water, the redfish along the shorelines and in the mangroves are feeding heavily, and will readily take a bait or artificial. Sight-casting to aggressive redfish in shallow water is a ton of fun!
Native Sons Fishing Guides
Captain Rocky Van Hoose
321-986-9588
rvanhoose@cfl.rr.com
Captain Brad Jones
321-626-5072
jonesmelb7@bellsouth.net
Posted by Rocky Van Hoose on September 09, 2010 at 06:53:53 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment