Oh what a little shot of cooler weather can do for your MOJO. The days of high humidity and sweltering heat seem to be behind us for now. With cool mornings and perfect sunny Florida afternoons to look forward to this is the time of year that I love to fish the most. Although the cooler weather has slowed down the boating traffic on the water lately, the fish haven't slowed down a bit. In fact some of the biggest, badest and best catches of the year may be occurring right now as we speak.
With the mass migrations of Huge Redfish returning to their creeks from their spawning grounds offshore, now maybe the best time to home in on your trophy Redfish before next spring arrives. Over the last few weeks I have spotted larger and larger schools of BIG Redfish milling around in many of the shallow creeks and coves scattered through out the Nature Coast. The only problem that we've been having lately is that there are even more Rat Reds mixed in with these big schools making for some exciting runs and aggravating sight casting shots.
Schools of 15-30 Redfish have been common with most of these fish ranging between 16-35" the challenge has been to find one with in the 18"-27" slot. We have been targeting these fish in water as skinny as a few inches and with the water being so crystal clear sight casting has been the best method for weeding out our catch. Spinning gear with Berkley Gulp! shrimp and live shrimp have been extremely productive but if you are itching to get a shot at some of these big fish with fly gear there are a ton of great opportunities to be had.
Speaking of fly gear during my last day off I decided to splash a new kayak that I recently picked up. The FlatsStalker is a standup kayak that is ideal for shallow water fly fishing (pics posted on photo gallery). With an extreme low tide I decided to sneak up on an area in Ozello that I knew was almost going to be bone dry. When I arrived in my creek the whole area was lit up with tailing Reds. I would guesstimate around 25+ were nice fish and there were even more smaller fish staging in some of the scattered small potholes. As the tides started to drop I noticed that all of the tailing Reds soon congregated with some of the smaller Reds inside these potholes and once I anchored my self outside one of the bigger potholes where these fish were working it was "GameTime!" First throw of the fly, WHAM!! Rat Red. Second throw of the fly, Wham!! 21" Redfish, Fifth throw of the fly, WHAM!! Another Redfish. In total I caught over 7 Reds in this short period of time before they wised up. However, my catch of the day on this day was a 16" Flounder that I sight fished amongst these Reds.
If the Redfishing and kayak fly fishing didn't get your Mojo going yet, I recently spent the day fishing with Steve Earheart and we were rewarded with great weather and even better Speckled Trout fishing. He and I spent the day working some deep grass off of the Foul Area in Homosassa with jigs and between Steve and I we landed over 60 Trout with plenty of shorts but we did catch some of the nicest keeper Trout I have seen in some time. In total we each landed a Gator Trout over 21" and we both landed a Pompano pushing 4lbs. This was definitely a great day even after that fact a cold front had just passed through a day before our trip.
So now that great Florida weather is hear to stay and some of the best Redfishing, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, and just plain old fish catching is occurring right now, think about adding a Red Hot Fishing Charter to your holiday plans.
**RED HOT FISHING CHARTER GIFT CERTIFICATES MAKE GREAT GIFTS!!**
Capt. Kyle Messier
(352) 634-4002
kylemessier@yahoo.com
WWW.REDHOTFISHINGCHARTERS.COM
