Capt. Rick Davidson, Editor (grassflats2@yahoo.com)
Fishing report October 2022
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Fishing has been on fire this month. After a relatively slow summer the fish have come back strong. This is one of the best fall fishing seasons I’ve seen in my years of fishing Steinhatchee. We had some great tournaments, including the first spearfishing tournament in Steinhatchee, and the famous Nauti-Girls tournament. With the whitebait migration, we’ve had tons of Spanish mackerel, and kingfish in great quantities. Offshore fishing has been great, with giant grouper, amberjack and cobia, and a possible world record vermillion snapper. Inshore, redfish and trout are hungry and covering the flats. And we even had some unusual catches….several bonefish, a sennet, and two 30+ inch snook. In spite of a somewhat windy month all told, you can tell by the pictures that the fish are there for the taking.
Click on any photo to see larger version!
Fishing Forecast November 2022
This should be another great month, although at times it may be inconsistent, which is always the case when the weather changes frequently. Baitfish will continue to flood our area. Trout are being found almost everywhere, but look for mixed areas of grass and sand in 3 to 4 foot depths. Areas west of Dallus Creek, near the Bird Rack, the Doghead area to the north, and the flats between Rocky Creek and Sink Creek are great places to try, and there are lots of sand trout in those areas as well as spotted seatrout. Many are scoring with Gulp shrimp fished on jigs beneath Cajun Thunder or popping corks. In deeper waters fish jigs near the bottom. Suspending plugs such as the Live Target Spanish Sardine, Mirrolure Mirrodines XL, and Paul Brown Lures have all been taking nice trout and redfish in waters less than five feet in depth, and on less windy days, now is a great time to throw topwater plugs in the shallows nearshore. This is one of the few times of the year that you may even want to target flounder along with your trout fishing by fishing jigs along the bottom in sandy areas. Flounder can be tough to get into the boat….they will hang onto a Gulp lure all the way to the boat without actually being hooked so make sure you’ve got them by giving them time to actually eat the jig. Fish very slowly, moving a jig along the bottom, especially in and around creek mouths. Moving off a little further out, to the nearshore bars such as Little Bank to the north or the One Way Bar to the south, look for bait pods and expect to find everything there…..trout, mackerel, kingfish, cobia….and sometimes even schools of bull redfish. Offshore, gag grouper are still the target of choice and fishing both dead baits (squid or sardines) on the bottom, or trolling over live bottom with lipped diving plugs will produce some excellent fish. And there are lots of kingfish out there as well. Near the end of the month, if we get some severe cold fronts, slow down your presentation no matter what you are fishing with. We have the Salty Gators Club Fishing tournament this month on the 5th. This is really a great time to get out there and fish. Rent one of our rental boats and we’ll put you on some fish, or contact one of our guides to get some local knowledge. You’ll catch fish this month….I guarantee it.
