Half-Hitch Tackle
Report for 10/01/2006
Surf Fishing
Surf fishing will be great. The bull reds will be cruising the surf at sunset devouring all types of cut bait and of course live bait if you have it. The fall run of pompano will be happening and the whiting will be picking up nicely. Fresh shrimp on a double pompano rig will be good for both species. I recommend our custom pompano rigs due to them being made from 100 percent fluorocarbon. Use a 1 oz pyramid for line 8-12 lb test, a 2 oz for 14-25 lb test, and 3 oz and up for 30 lb test and up. Spanish mackerel and bluefish will get close enough for anglers to throw gotcha plugs or bubble straw rigs to them to have some serious fishing fun as these fish can fight. You will also be able to catch hardtails and ladyfish from the surf as they chase the baitfish right onto the beach. Bubble straw rigs, clark spoons, and the most popular gotcha lures will also do the trick nicely.
Bottom Fishing
October is your last chance to fill your freezer for Red Snapper as the season comes to a close on October 31st. The key will remain to use as light as tackle as possible using long fluorocarbon leaders and adding a little stinger hook for the short strikers. Chumming them up over wrecks and free lining your baits down among the chum will be a good method for bringing home the big ones. If you don’t want to chum them up, use as light a weight as possible with a long (6’) fluorocarbon leader and a red daiichi 5/0 circle hook. Drop a cigar minnow to the bottom and crank your reel about 10 times and hold on! Nice grouper will be caught in good numbers 20 miles out with the water temperature dropping and the most productive areas will be on natural hard bottoms and offshore wrecks. The shelves 30 miles south of Cape San Blas will be a popular area to visit and bring aboard some nice fish. Live bait for the grouper will be readily available around the buoys and over the shallow wrecks, but make sure you bring some frozen cigar minnows/northern mackerel as back up and use a Carolina rig with 80lb fluorocarbon leader and 10/0 mustad circle hooks. Trigger fish never leave us and are great table fare. Use a double drop rig with squid on #4 owner flyliner hooks. Amberjack will stick around wrecks and towers, my favorite lure is the AJ glow jig.
Trolling
Troll now for your last shots at Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, mahi-mahi, wahoo, and marlin before they move beyond our realm of reach. Offshore areas such as the squiggles will produce some mahi and wahoo with a marlin a small possibility. Trolling ballyhoo skirted with an blue/white islander will work for all, but if wahoo is what you are after, use a panhandler or yozuri bonita lure. For the mahi, use a Boone seaminnow. The Spanish will be running the buoy line along with the last of the kings. Try trolling the buoy line with Christmas tree rigs for the Spanish. The king mackerel will be around the buoy line and inshore wrecks, using the old faithful Duster rig with a cigar minnow will work great. Live hardtails slow trolled is a favorite for the bigger kings.
Bay Fishing
October is the month we’ve been waiting for when it comes to fishing the bays. With the first cold front comes the bite and it comes hard. The trout and reds will be hitting topwater plugs like the Mirrolure Top Dog Jr’s and Heddon Spooks on the flats pretty much all day long and other artificials to include gold spoons, gotcha grubs, bass assasins, and DOA’s will all be working. For live bait, use a live anything (shrimp,S pinfish, LY, finger mullet) underneath a Cajun thunder or popper float to catch your limit. My favorite hook is the red Mutu light 1/0 on a fluorocarbon leader. You can even go deep fishing the channels using a Carolina rig with a ½-1 oz egg sinker and a 18 inch fluorocarbon leader ending with a owner mutu-light circle hook using live shrimp/LY’s will be the ticket. This rig is also deadly on the flounder as they start to congregate in the channels and along the bars for their move offshore. The bull reds will start making their presence known along the beach and in the cuts. The ladyfish and bluefish will still be with us throughout the month of October, so using a heavier fluorocarbon leader to save a lure or so might be wise. Spanish mackerel will be in the bay and along the buoy line and can be an easy catch as they will devour most anything thrown to them. Troll a Christmas tree rig with a clarkspoon around the bay up into the buoy line.
