Thrashing and slashing kingfish, huge schools of Spanish mackeral, packs of hungry snook, big schools of redfish and easy to catch speckled trout cloud my mind this month. My angling style is generally about action. I am not a purist except on the day I go fishing. If I choose to go after kingfish then I have tied stinger rigs the night before and filled the livewell full of whitebait before heading out. If I am red fishing, I have studied the tides, picked fishing areas and decided on the bait of choice before the boat leaves the dock.
October is an incredible fishing month that I find is feast or famine. The weather is temperamental and the fluctuations in wind direction and speed more often influence my style of fishing then my desire of species.
My recommendations are based on experience and each comes with its own story. Heading offshore a couple of years ago my crew and I encountered a large flock of seagulls diving well within sight of Boca Grande Pass. As we eased into the area we found huge bait pods being slashed by kingfish, bonita, mackeral and sharks. Anything that hit the water got attacked and it went on all day. I have read about the kingfish following the baitfish southward for years but never encountered it. My goal is to have another one of those days and I will go just outside Boca Grande many times hoping it happens.
Snook fishing is often talked about being great in October. I find them to be pretty hit or miss, but you can happen upon a large school if you are lucky. Three years ago on a new moon I fished an oyster bar on Burnt Store bar. It was a higher tide phase with incoming water. We chummed with whitebait and caught a snook on every cast for hours and left the fish biting. No monsters, but we easily could have boated 100 snook in the 22”-28” range. I still think about that trip, but have yet to reproduce it in October. Years before that I stumbled onto a school of snook, redfish and big trout in front of Pirate Harbor in the middle of a grass bed. I am sure I was expecting only trout, but this spot was stacked on a high outgoing tide. The area produced for about
5 days and the fish moved on……forever!
Bonita or little tunny are a member of the tuna family and put up a fight that will make your arms ache. Late in October I encountered seagulls up in the air a mile due east of the pass. Guessing they were ladyfish we headed over only to see bonita flying through the waves chasing bait and sharks chasing the bonita. It was quite a sight to see and these fish move fast, but mashed our topwater baits when an accurate cast was made. Hard to believe this was happening inside the harbor area, but it was and later I heard of large kingfish above 30 pounds caught in the days that followed.
Speckled trout will begin to show in big numbers. I have caught so many of these fish that my trips blend in together. The one thing I can tell you is that the bigger trout eat bigger baits. A larger topwater plug is a lot of fun and it will attract lots of smaller fish swiping at it. Fishing the outside of Bookelia is a fine place to make a memory. The only problem is that mackeral will often invade the pack and bite off your lure with a simple fix of heading to the tackle shop the next day and re-stocking.
Redfish can be found in big schools and can be fished from the shallows to the beaches. Some of my most exciting redfish trips came on a calm early morning trip long before other boats came out. Cruise way outside the bars and look for a wave of fish rising inches above the surface. Approach a long way off with a slow trolling motor with a chugger type of plug. Cast to the perimeters and outside of the school anticipating their direction. Redfish are so reckless early in the morning before any boat traffic. One fish mashing your plug will have you missing work come Monday! In contrast to this style of redfishing, outside the passes are known to have schools of redfish moving through. On one fine morning we stopped just outside Boca Grande and anchored. Bottom fishing pinfish with a sliding sinker rig was the method and we connected with a bunch of oversize redfish that grabbed our baits and about yanked the rods out of our hands. Easy fishing and we were definitely in the right place at the right time. I have fished this area unsuccessfully several times since then.
The simple rule for fishing October is go as often as possible, select your fish species based on the weather conditions, consider the tides and change spots often. The fish are on the move but if you catch one of their stop over areas it will have you going back year after year.
