Rick Davidson (grassflats2@yahoo.com), Editor
"The RedManiac"
With the close of scallop season, most offshore and inshore fisherman are waiting expectantly for cooler water temperatures that will herald some the best fishing of the year. Offshore fishing in the past month has been challenging in terms of grouper, with algae and high temperatures forcing most offshore boats out to 60 to 80 feet. However, things are beginning to change…
Offshore Charter Captains
Captain Brian Smith, www.bigbendcharters.com
Grouper have been difficult inside of forty miles. One needs to plan on moving around to many spots to catch a few fish. If weather and seas permit, the best technique is drifting. Drifting saves the time on the anchor detail, covers more real estate and literally keeps you moving along. Best bait: Persistence! Cobia are spotty, but it is worth always having a free-lined live bait off the stern. Use mono leader if you don’t want to tangle with sharks, although they can add variety to a slow day. Red snapper are being caught in waters, deeper than eighty feet, but one or two 'red surprises' happen to anglers in the sixty foot depths. Best bait: cut sardines. Florida snappers and sea bass are in the forty foot hard bottom areas, but they also may require some searching. Best bait: Squid or cannibal bait.
Captain Walt Carlson, www.captainwalt.com
Now that scallop season is over, it's time to get back to fishing! Sea trout fishing has been good and now with cooler weather on the way it should get even better! With early morning high tides, several of my buddies have catching BIG trout on top water plugs, working the shoreline. This has been working for redfish as well. Just about any top water plug will work! I have it on good authority that sand trout are being taken out by the sand banks near the old position of offshore marker 18. They have been mostly small but still fun to catch! The color that seems to be working is 'candy corn', from SaltWater Assassin.
Grouper fishing, my specialty, has picked up and just like the trout bite, it will get better as the water cools. We are still fishing in the 60ft to 70ft and getting some nice red snapper to add to the catch. I’ve been using mostly frozen bait, especially threadfin herring and Spanish sardines--and I always bring plenty of squid.
Tight lines and good fishing!!
Captain Wiley Horton, www.tunersportfishing.com
The algae growth that has hampered bottom fishing this summer is breaking up. We've been catching our fish in deeper water since June and the snapper bite has been steady. Much of this month I’ve been readying my boat (including a new paint job) for the busy season coming up. This is what I see coming in the near future. September is a fine time to catch red and mangrove snappers in deeper waters and the grouper bite will continue to improve. October is a transition month offshore; the shorter days will result in cooling water temps and more pleasant fishing conditions. The pelagics (kings, cobia, Spanish) will move inshore on their migration south following the bait fish pods and become targets of opportunity. Snapper will still be hot and the grouper bite will be much better after Halloween.
Inshore Charter Captains
Captain Steve Rassel, www.lastcastrass.com
With water temps finally dropping below 86 degrees the fish are beginning to become more active. Trout can be found all along the flats now, in depths from 2 to 12 ft. They are hitting a variety of baits, especially plastics in natural colors and baits with yellow or white in them. Fish shallow early and deeper as the sun warms up the water. Redfish are showing up in large schools around the creek mouths and shallow flats—2 ft. or less- but some are also being found on the deeper flats. They can be taken on standard redfish baits, including gold spoons, and live and cut bait. There are still a lot of big bluefish, mackerel, ladyfish and sharks in water over 6 feet. They will hit any plastic that is retrieved at a quick pace.
Captain Tommy Thompson, www.flanaturecoast.com/capttommy
Inshore fishing with artificials has been challenging with a lot of grass complicating the issue. However, shallow water on outgoing tides will frequently clear enough to fish with topwaters, a successful approach in the early morning or late evening. Fishing creek mouths can be successful, especially when there are large numbers of baitfish present. Redfish are active and hungry in that setting. Flounder can be found in sandy holes and caught on jigs such as the DOA TerrorEyz. There have been a number of tarpon spotted on the deeper flats; however, most have been moving fast and are not eating when traveling. Our best luck for trout fishing has been fishing structure and sandy patches in the grass flats on a falling tide in the presence of baitfish, but we expect considerable improvement in the next few weeks. It should be a great fall!
Captain Rick Bouley, www.naturecoastflatsfishing.com/
September began with early morning high tides with the fall being directly opposed by a determined west wind which slowed the current to a trickle. This seemed to discourage the aggressive bite that had been the norm in late August. Reds, trout and large black drum were still plentiful in the creeks, but it seemed that only the smaller slot size fish were coming to the boat with any regularity on the weak tides. However, the second week of the month brought with it full moon tides and a much more aggressive bite. Top water plugs produced well in areas where the floating grass was not too bad. DOA Baitbusters or other plastic jerk baits along with spoons and spinner baits were the ticket in the grassy areas. Schools of large reds, jack crevalle, bluefish, and Spanish were numerous and easy to spot on the incoming tide out in front of the creeks in 2 to 4 feet of water. I had no fly fishing customers this month, so no report for the fly rodders.
