"Seeing Red"
Season hasn't begun, and the charter business is a little slow but the fishing is red hot. This time of year really excites me, with October being a transition month anything is possible. The old standby's are here in large numbers, and they are hungry. I began yesterday as any other day in beautiful South West Florida with a trip to my favorite bait haunt inside Cayo Costa State Park. The bait wasn't as easy to get today as most days but after what seemed to be a hundred casts of the net and an empty chum bucket I was finally able to fill my wells. The bait came in all shapes and sizes, a lot of small Whitebait and a lot of pin fish were the order of the day. I quickly ran to Useppa Island where I've seen large numbers of Red Fish cruising around the Oyster bars. The key to success this time of year is a quite approach and a long cast. I prefer using 10 lb. braid with 20lb leader. Dropping the size of your gear helps when casting long distance. It wasn't long before we had a tournament sized Red boat side, and when there's one, there's a hundred. October is great for large schools of Redfish but you have to be careful, always try to pick the fish off the back side of the school to avoid spooking the rest. If your approach is quite and you can make the long cast, then it's all over with. When everything works out just right, you could easily boat 40 Redfish in a morning. Snook seem to be moving away from the passes and into the mangroves, DEEP in the mangroves. Whitebait seems to be the ticket with the big Snook, however it doesn't matter how good your bait is if you don't put it against the mangroves. The Snook are spawned out, so they have lost a lot of weight. It's time for them to fatten up for the long winter months ahead, so the chew is on. Gag Grouper have been hit and miss around the passes, the keys is big bait. Large pin fish will do it, and when I say large , I mean LARGE. If you think your bait is to big, go BIGGER! Use pin fish you can fillet, and you will have a successful grouper grab. We had solid luck hitting Tarpon in the ICW's with large whitebait free lined. Now do you understand why I love October, everything eats! So why are you sitting around? Get Up, Get Going, and " GO CATCH EM"
Captain Jason Marsh
www.AnglersChoiceOutfitters.com
239-246-3579
