September brought high daytime and water temperatures which made fishing early morning paramount for success. Water temp was 87-89 degrees and as a result fish sought colder hangouts and their metabolism slowed down significantly. Leaving the dock about 6:30 and returning between 10 and 11 am was the answer to having success.
We started to see moving schools of redfish on the high incoming tides in the backcountry and moving slowly poling along to get in position we were able to land quite a few nice reds between 23-27 inches. EArly morning Snook bite was good as they pounced on small Cuban Anchovy patterns in size 4. Most of the 40 snook caught were 14- 17 inches although we did manage about 5 over 22 inches and topped out with a beautiful 26” lineside.
Mangrove snapper were also pretty easy to catch on the small baitfish patterns.
We probably landed close to 100 of them for the month. They have to be 10 inches in length to keep and we caught probably 4 or 5 legal fish, which were released.
TARPON were cruising around in Charlotte Harbor staying mostly in the 20 foot holes. We did manage to hook two silver kings using 550 grain shooting heads and a Black feathered tail Seychelles special…overall length of fly is 7 inches.
Overall fishing was good with no signs of Red Tide in the Harbor.
Beach fishing was iffy at best. October should bring some False Albacore into shore if water temps get down in the mid 70’s along with Spanish mackerel, for some serious rodbending experiences. Trout fishing was on fire for the lattter half of the month . Doa paddle tails {Brown with chartreuse tail} worked well.
Early October has been good for snook in the early-mornings so far. Water temps are approaching high 70’ at present….
Fishing will improve this month with different species to target…One of the best months of the year…
Go out and bend a rod!
Capt. Al
