Thursday, October 30, 2003

October ended with a very strong bite. We have been having excellent catches of snook and redfish. There are good numbers of fish in the back country and still some very large fish on the outside. Bait remains plentiful near shore keeping the action hot. November is shaping up well with mild weather forecasted … at least for a while. Once the cool fronts change to cold, things will tighten up a bit …

In the last couple of weeks, the big snook have been hitting top water “walkers” consistently. It seems the faster the plug is walked the better they seemed to like it. The bite has almost always occurred early in the retrieve as; the fish have not been wanting to follow the bait at all. They have been slamming the plugs just as it begins to move. Unlike in the warmer months, when you can see the fish follow the bait seemingly trying to decide whether or not to eat it, these late October, early November fish make their decision very quickly and race to the bait. Make long casts to your hot spot, walk (or run) the bait about 20 feet and then pick it up for the next cast. On the days with good clarity, we have been covering a lot of water presenting the baits but just a few times in a single spot. The fish know that the bait is there and they have been coming after it. When the wind has turned west and south, making the water more turbid, spending a little more time in a spot has been the trick.

With ample supply of bait, it has been hard to anglers focused on the artificial baits. Most want to pick up a scoop or two of “volunteers”. The live bait fishing is much more relaxed, but no more productive in recent weeks. Although on a recent fly fishing trip, a handful of little hunters release next to a little mangrove pocket, turned on a pile of fish that we could get to eat our flies until they were “stimulated” a bit.

The tarpon bit has held strong. The llast three trips have put 18 fishing in the air. Most are smaller fish in the 15-40 pound range. Although, yesterday, Chris Carter of Akron, Ohio, put his first dinosaur aloft. Chris now "understands". Chris and his partner, Sue Beevine caught some very nice snook under one of the Chamber of Commerce blue skys.

November is going to be great!!!

If you would like to book a charter with Chokoloskee Charters, contact The Captain @ www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com; ([email protected]) or call him @ 239-682-9920. Tight Lines!