Anglers now is the time to get out there and do some fishing. With the cooling of the Gulf waters our inshore and nearshore game fish are hungry and ready to take your offerings. The inshore and back country bays, coves, mangroves, and oyster bars are holding a lot of trout and red fish right now. lures are a great way to cover ground and to learn how to use them, Th nothing like a big trout or red fish hitting a top water lure, On each trip with clients I teach them on how to throw and retrieve lures and watching them catch fish on them is what its about for me. My go to top water lures are Spook Jrs, & Skitter walks (SW08) colors that work best for our area are white, bone, mullet, trout, & chartreuse. Suspending lures are great to use when the sun gets high. Mirr O Lures 17MR in the 808 color and Blue Back Dines are candy for trout and red fish. Now for soft plastic baits a white jerk bait, red & gold, gold, and white with a pink tail all work.. I rig them a few different ways one way is weedless style with a 5/0 skip gap hook. The other way is with a jig head 1/16 oz to 1/8 oz when fishing in 3 feet or less. Live bait is also a great way to catch trout and red fish, pin fish, fresh cut mullet, and green backs are all very good baits to use. But when we get colder fronts passing by the fish will move closer to springs and muddy bottom to seek warmth and live shrimp on the bottom or suspended with a b is the way to go. The trout are ranging from 17 to 25 inches and the red fish are ranging from 20 to 27 inches.
Sheepshead and Black drum are in the area and feeding great on live shrimp. Look for rocky bottom, oyster bars, springs, deep holes, & sea walls are homes for these guys. What I like to do is to get live and frozen shrimp. When I anchor up on a spot I will take the frozen shrimp about a hand full and pinch them into small pieces to chum the water to get the bite going. Then I take a 1/0 J hook with a small split shot just to keep it on the bottom and a half of a shrimp, keep a tight line the sheepshead are great bait stealers. If the first spot do pay out in 20 minutes move to the next spot and repeat.
Our near shore waters are holding tons of Spanish mackerel right now, start off in 6 feet around spotty bottom and work your way out to around 10 feet. Live green backs are the bait to use but pin fish will work. A 1/4oz jig head with a white gulp 3" shrimp or a trigger x shrimp will also produce some awesome action. Look for the bait schools heading south as the water keeps getting colder. Shallow water grouper action is on fire but the season is over today.
Book a trip this is the best time of year for fishing, you will catch fish BIG fish.
