Rick Davidson (grassflats2@yahoo.com), Editor
October was a great fishing month in spite of some challenging weather. Inshore, large schools of redfish were found throughout our area from the shoreline to a mile offshore as they are congregating for their spawning migration. Early in the month I took Doug and John Barrett out to find some fish on a midday low tide. We fished some of the rocky areas around a mile offshore and found 8 slot redfish and around 50 trout up to four pounds. The next day there was a group trip of doctors from the University of Florida that took out five of our guides and in spite of windy conditions, caught multiple limits of trout and redfish. Several other large corporate parties had similar success. Later in the month, the Sea Hag hosted two tournaments, the Sante Fe Raider Roundup tournament and a club tournament for the Gainesville Offshore Fishing Club. The winning redfish in the Santa Fe tournament was a legal redfish that weighed over 9 pounds, a true rarity. Tommy Thompson and I fished both tournaments and caught over 35 trout to 3.6 pounds, but never could locate a redfish. The trout was big enough for third place in the Santa Fe tournament and first place in the club tournament.
Offshore, there were similar success stories, with some excellent gag and red grouper catches, an onslaught of kingfish and Spanish mackerel, and plenty of cobia still in our area. For the GOFC tournament, in spite of tough weather, Mark Rustemier scored with a 21 pound cobia and 10.5 pound grouper, and Jay Peacock came in with a 9 pound kingfish. Amberjack have been stretching lots of lines as well for those familiar with the offshore structure locations.
NOVEMBER 2008 FISHING FORECAST
November should continue the excellent fishing. As water temperatures continue to cool, remember when fishing inshore to slow down your presentation if you're fishing with jigs or plugs, even moving to suspending lures to keep your bait in the strike zone longer. Later in the month is also a good time of year to fish live shrimp as bait-stealing pinfish will not be as plentiful. As the water temperatures get down below 70 degrees, look for the fishing to improve in the afternoons over areas of dark bottom that will hold heat. Offshore, the grouper bite will continue to improve, with some feeling that November is one of the best months for the gag fishery. Trolling diving lures will be productive while the water temperatures remain high, but live and dead bait bottom fishing will be most productive. Kingfish and Spanish mackerel will be around for at least part of the month. While it's a little early, be looking ahead to more severe cold weather, which may move the trout and redfish into creeks and the river, and can also begin the sheepshead spawn on the Steinhatchee Reefs. While it's unusual for this to occur before January, it's always something to keep in mind when you're doing some nearshore bottom fishing. Run over to the reef and drop some shrimp down. You may pick up a good-sized flounder as well.
Remember that the Ship's Store will have everything you need for a successful trip….live pinfish and shrimp, frozen squid, sardines, cigar minnows and chum, and plenty of tackle.Here are some guide reports for this past month:
Captain Steve Rassell, www.lastcastrass.com , (352) 359-5902
The cold front that swept in in late october will carry over into the 1st week of nov. this will cause a slow down in the flats action. with the water warming a few degrees a day now the fish will be bitting again good by tuesday the 4th. still plenty of reds and trout. also some sand trout showing up if you know where to look for them. November is a great month for inshore fishing.
I have some days open---wanna catch em?--give me a call!
Thanks, Steve
Captain Tommy Thompson, www.flanaturecoast.com/capttommy, (352) 284-1763
My goal is never to load a cooler with fish, but for my anglers to have a good time on the hunt for reds and big sea trout. For that reason, you'll rarely find any sort of live or cut bait aboard my skiff, and all the rods are rigged with a variety of artificial lures. In fact, I encourage my clients to keep only the fish they plan to eat for dinner and never to freeze fish for 'later on'.
October has been a great 'hunting' month, as we've had a variety of weather conditions. Some days the reds schooled up and followed big stingrays; the next day they simply disappeared, leaving only trout to bite. Other days we found reds scattered over the shallow, 1-foot flats to the north of the river; the next we found them down south. Finally, with the water in a cooling-down phase, we're entering a winter cycle with most of the big (over-slot) reds heading offshore to spawn and the smaller ones (usually under-slot, but plentiful) running up creeks on the flood tides. With water now below 65-degrees, trout are becoming sluggish and seem to be willing to eat baits moved very slowly, almost in front of their noses.
November will be a great month for sight fishing reds and to start seeing trout bunched up along rocky creek mouths. I'm planning on putting a few more scratches and dents in my skiff's hull in our shallows, but am hoping to have a new coat of gel applied while I'm in North Carolina for Thanksgiving.
If you're interested in a 'catch-and-release hunting for big fish' trip, please give me a call. And if you're interested in some more in-depth information about fishing our beautiful Big Bend, take a look at my weekly Fishing4Cast on the Florida Sportsman Magazine website at http://www.floridasportsman.com/4cast/bb/index.html
Captain Steve Hart, www.legallimitscharters.com, (352) 498-0299
The fishing in October has been good, but as usual the wind did blow and made it hard to get offshore some days. The grouper bite is pretty good using both live and dead bait starting in depths ranging from 40 to 60 feet. So far I have not been finding many large concentrations of grouper in any one spot, so you may have to move around some. Amberjack have been showing up and that is always fun, and on any given day you can always top off your box with a nice catch of Florida Snapper and Black Sea Bass in depths as shallow as 20 feet. I believe that the fishing will only get better in the next couple of months and hopefully the weather will cooperate so come on down and lets go fishing.
