October has been a great month for fishing along the Nature Coast. Light winds and cooling temperatures have not only made fishing more comfortable but they have also helped to make the inshore fishing more productive. No species of fish benefits more from cooling temperatures than the Nature Coast Speckled Trout. As water temps begin to cool a plethora of baits move into the shallows to feed and take up residency for the impending mild winters we have. Glass Minnows, Threadfins, Pinfish, Silver Mullet and Mud Minnows all become more prevalent and give hungry Redfish and Monster Gator Trout plenty of options to choose from.
This time of year most Big Gator Trout tend to feed on bigger baits in order to store up fat for the winter. Because of this a large Pinfish or Silver Mullet stands no chance if it crosses paths with a hefty Trout looking for a meal. Therefore, I tend to upgrade the size of baits that I normally use on a regular basis. Instead of using regular shrimp I switch to Large Select Shrimp, instead of using a Puppy Spook, I will switch to the full size Zara Spook. These bigger baits are what hungry fish are looking for this time of year.
On a recent charter this was definitely evident as JC Livingston and I went searching for Large Gator along the Nature Coast. We started targeting trout along a patchy grass flat ranging from 2-3 feet of water. As I poled him around I notice that a majority of the trout we were seeing were staging on the edges of many of the potholes we were drifting over. However, they didn't seem to be interested in JC's smaller 3" Berkley Gulp! shrimp. I immediately had JC switch to a larger 5" Berkley PowerBait JerkBait and the next Pothole we hit WHAM!! A 23" Speckled Trout came out of its Pothole and nailed the bait. After a strong fight we brought the fish boat side, snapped a photo and sent him on his way. A few casts later JC brought his jerkbait over another pothole and WHAM!! a 24" Speckled Trout was thrashing around on the surface. Once we switch baits it was like we turned a switch on and every other cast we were getting strikes. In total we landed over 40 Speckled Trout a majority of them were between 17"-24" inches. What a Great Day and all were released to fight another day.
So if beautiful weather, awesome strikes, and great fights is what gets you excited, give RED HOT FISHING CHARTERS a call today.
Capt. Kyle Messier
(352) 634-4002
kylemessier@yahoo.com
WWW.REDHOTFISHINGCHARTERS.COM
