October Fishing Report - 10/01/07
Our slightly cooler evenings and shorter days have brought temperatures down to about 84 degrees in our Northern Pinellas Waters. Snook were landed on each of my last two charters and the bite should continue to improve as October progresses. Clearly, many of the fish have moved in and are on inside points, islands, grass flats and mangrove shorelines and will be looking to fatten up soon. Fishing strong tides which occur during low light periods is still the key to success. Also, fall is an excellent time to throw plugs and jigs for snook. Pick an area where you have seen snook, such as a grass flat or along a mangrove shoreline, and spend an hour or two moving through this area and casting. A trolling motor or push pole is essential here. Even if fish aren’t concentrated, you’ll eventually get your lure in front of some more aggressive fish that will strike. Mirrolure’s Catch 2000 and Mirrodyne are both excellent choices. I’ve even had some success with gold spoons, a lure traditionally used to target redfish. A light colored Berkeley jerk shad rigged weed less on a lead head will also do the job. Although this approach takes a little more work, it pays dividends and also helps you understand specifically where the fish are. Once you locate a good area, you’ll likely find fish in the same spot year after year.
October represents the best month in our area to hook both large and numerous redfish. Fish gather in their pre-spawning aggregations this time of year. If you can get into casting position on one of these big schools without spooking them, fishing can be non stop. Schools can be located by either visually scanning grass flats at low tide, looking for the large wakes a school will put off, of by watching for the mullet schools. If there are redfish and mullet in the same area, there is a good chance they will be together. Last week, we came across this exact scenario….a sizable school of mullet that was interspersed with large redfish. We caught fish from 26 to 34 inches for two hours straight. For these larger redfish, cut bait of almost any kind or three to four inch pinfish seemed to be the bait of choice. This fishing should hold up though October so get out and find some of these big reds while they’re here. Once winters cold reaches us, they’ll be a whole lot fewer of them until spring rolls around.
A few larger trout seem to be showing up. Most have been encountered while fishing the flats for redfish although I have heard reports of concentrations of medium sized fish in some deeper holes. In a few short months, we’ll have all we want. The Spanish Mackerel seem to be slowly filtering in with numerous incidental catches in the inter-coastal waterway. Bait is showing up on the beaches now as well so you can rest assured mackerel will be roaming off the beaches in increasing numbers.
Last fall, we had a few days when some large Bonita were mixing in with the schools of mackerel. I was close to being spooled on several occasions on my inshore rods, having to start up and chase down these fish. Although not great table fare, these fish will scream a drag with the best of them. When fishing mackerel schools off the beach, watch for the occasional small torpedo coming out of the water. As Bonita are a tuna, they are quite thick and easy to distinguish from the much skinnier mackerel. When you see these fish, you need to move fast to get to them as they are constantly moving at a high rate of speed. If you have difficulty catching up with them, get in an area where you’ve seen a lot of activity and put out a chum block. If you have whitebait, start chumming with this as well. Although you may have to be a little patient, sometimes it’s easier to let these speedy fish come to you. As these Bonita are typically chasing small whitebaits, small silver spoons like crocodiles work well. Whitebait, matched to the size of what they’re chasing, is the best live bait. October is the transition month when things really heat up so it’s time to get back out on the water. Good luck.
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