The Fall Fishing Extravaganza is in full swing here along the Nature Coast. And as with every fall fishing season there are lots of incredible fishing events to look forward to over the coming weeks. Acres of Jacks, Macks, and Bluefish will be an incredible site to see, throwing large plugs for skinny water Gag Grouper will give anglers a workout, but the skinny water action for Redfish, Black Drum and Speckled Trout will be the talk of the town. Throw in the arrival of many different species of migratory birds, tons of Manatees making their Pilgrimage back into our spring fed rivers and incredible fall weather and you can see why the Nature Coast of Florida is the place to be this month.
With Florida's rain chances deteriorating for the rest of year, most visitors of the Crystal River and Homosassa areas will be amazed at how clear our local shallow flats will be this month. Gin clear waters are what the Nature Coast is known for and when you add that magical 72-62 degree water temperature amazing things happen on these shallow flats. Mullet schools will begin to congregate over the coming weeks in preparation to make their offshore "Run" to spawn. As these schools of mullet begin to swell into thousand fish schools a variety of hungry predators will be following these schools every move. Dolphins, Sharks, Tarpon, Snook, Speckled Trout, and especially Redfish love following these schools of mullet. Although many of these species will actually eat mullet, most of these species are opportunistic feeders. Redfish for instance do not like to waste too much energy to feed, they actually would rather eat what the large schools of mullet stir up off of the bottom as they feed. Shrimp, Crabs, Eels, and Mud Minnows are easy pickens for hungry Reds in these cruising schools of mullet.
They great part about this time of year is that many of the larger schools of schooling fish including the Redfish and Black Drum have now scattered about the flats. Normally during the summer months most anglers look for that one major whopper school of fish. This time of year there tend to be fish literally everywhere and the more real estate that anglers fish over the coming weeks the better opportunities anglers will have at catching some incredible numbers of fish. As of late it has not been uncommon for some of my anglers to experience some 40-80 fish days. Although there are still a ton of little rat Redfish and Black Drum running around we still have had a few banner days where it every fish you land is one of the monster outside of the slot fish. Just ask Jim Ferman, Bill Small and Steve Straske who made the trip up from Tampa and were rewarded with incredible weather and an epic day of oversized Redfishing.
Although some weeks will feature a cold front here and there other weeks will continue to feature the banner weather days that Florida is known for. The sights and sounds that are inundating our Nature Coast waters right now are truly incredible and anglers from all over the world are continuing to enjoy the best fishing and scenery that Florida has to offer. Keep an eye on our website @ WWW.FLORIDAFISHINGADVENTURES.COM to keep up to date with some of our most recent epic catches.
Capt. Kyle Messier
(352) 634-4002
kylemessier@yahoo.com
WWW.FLORIDAFISHINGADVENTURES.COM
WWW.CRYSTALRIVER-FLYFISHING.COM