Despite lots of wind fishermen are catching some fish: mostly reds and some flounders and few seatrout. Ladyfish are dominating lots of the seatrout drops. A ladyfish eye sight is excellent. They are fun to catch but deemed no value as a food. Ladyfish can make an excellent bait are large fish such as sharks and tarpon. There are some late season tarpon is our waters as well a few triple tail on the flats. Most of the shoolie redfish are 15 to 16 inches. The schoolie redfish seem to be a little larger for this time of year. In recent days very of the reds are less than 14 inches. The schools of redfish don’t appear to be as large as most years but likely due lots of bait the fish that are being caught are healthy. The bite has on the outside, near the barrier islands, in the mid areas as well up river or in the heads of the creeks. In short redfish can be found right now all over!
Big tides can muddy water and strong winds and currents can generate can make fishing tricky. Its said redfish will bite in the muddiest of water and will. In general when you find clean water, bait, and currents that aren’t too fast or slow the fish will often times respond! As we head into the fall the outlook looks good! Bait appears to plentiful. Seatrout numbers are rebounding and redfish look fat and healthy. Fishing around wood structure like pilings and fallen trees fishermen might lots of black drum that pushed in from the sound.
The shark bite is declining as the season change. There are still lots of small bonnet head sharks around (20 to 22 inches) as well some larger ones. Some big shark can be found but the shark bite is falling as fall approaches the coast. The whiting bite has been a up and down. Usually just chunk out a bottom rig and something good will happen. In recent days its still likely to catch a bunch of whiting but most are on the small size. One fisherman boasting about how the seatrout is said he caught about 75 but similarly most undersized with only a few keepers. The small can provide lots of activity.
The most frenetic activity is ladyfish! They can be great on light tackle but mess in the boat so handle with care. To target the ladies fishing a gully on high outgoing could one after the other as well fishing a point on the last of the incoming. When trying to catch a few for supper best would be redfish, whiting and seatrout in that order. Its likely you could catch a flounders as well! Even on the poorest weather days we still catching some nice ones! As fall progress the bite will likely be steadily improving.
Hope this of interest and help!
Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan, Coastal River Charters