October is Brown Marlin Season!!

September has ended and so has Hurricane Season!!!! However, October means snook season is wide open and so is the fishing. The big snook are beginning to fatten up for the winter and are they exceedingly aggressive. Tarpon are still plentiful as are the redfish and permit. However, October brings in the first of the cold fronts and the first of the Brown Marlin!!!

As the water cools off a bit, we see our run of Brown Marlin (cobia, ling, gummers, lemon fish) the fish hold near just about any structure and bait source. Live baiting is a sure thing, but my anglers catch just as many on artificial. A 40 pound class cobia on 8 pound spinning gear ranks with any fishing that you will find. It is not uncommon to hook five to six fish per trip.

While we catch permit all year in this area, October is perhaps the last real month of the permit season. The big schools move to wherever is that they go with the arrival of the fast moving cold fronts and the waves of snowbirds coming in from up north. I think the permit leave this area for a big thanksgiving feast somewhere else! Get to them now, or wait until March!!!

Large white bait will be easy to find and the threadfins will be fairly close to shore. In recent weeks we have found dense schools of Spanish sardines and cigars minnows. These frisky baits really light up the snook.. However, mullet are plentiful and growing fast. A tank full of volunteers usually assures a good tide of snook fishing!! Big mullet - Big Snook!!

I fished a couple fine anglers, David Daniels and Mike Ostow from the Dragon Club (Tampa, Fl.). The Dragon Club is a men’s social club established in 1925. This is the second year that they held an event here and from the sound of things it won’t be their last. David released a tarpon ~50 lbs on eight pound spinning gear taking top honors out of 18 boats in the tarpon division. Mike balanced the points out with a good tally of small snook. Last year, I fished with event coordinator, Kevin Cureton who shared top honors in the snook division. They all are an excellent group of guys and a lot of fun to boot!

Bobby Garris, fishing with his brothers down from North Carolina, boated seven snook and three redfish, along with an assortment of other fish over the weekend. All had a great time together.

My wife, Vickie and I, took a little afternoon jaunt this last week. We saw only two boats between Choko Pass and the Houston River (one of which was aground waiting for the water to rise!) I love mid week in September and October. Vickie released two nice snook, but harvested one other along with a nice grouper. The grouper, baked with her parmesan cheese and chive sauce was something special. (You will have to talk to here for the recipe).