Fresh Royal Oak Fishing Reports

Fall patterns are shaping up nicely. Striped bass are starting to school and feed up for the winter. We are still finding some shallow when there is very little boat traffic. We have even caught a catfish while casting and jigging. There’s still some Redfish around and some Speckled trout. Techniques right now include casting to structure and breakers when found. Shallow and deeper water. We also will start trolling when we need to. It’s a great time to catch some nice fish for the dinner table. Mid November is usually the peak before they go deep and we start mainly trolling. But don’t miss out book a trip. The cooler weather is starting to kick them in high gear. Striped bass season runs till Dec. 10. We fish till the end. Then we’ll take a break till after the holidays and kick back up with catch and release of Striped Bass and start Cat fishing. Big Striped Bass start showing in mid to late November. It’s the perfect time to catch a Striped Bass of a lifetime. Don’t be left wishing let’s get fishing!

October is in full swing! Nights are a little cooler, the water temps are down some. It’s an awesome time to be on the Bay! Tides were back to more of a normal this past weekend. We found a few willing Stripers in the shallows. There’s still some Redfish around and speckled trout have shown up again. Fishing on the reefs in deeper water we are still catching spot and hard heads. You have to weed thru a lot of them to get some keepers but they are there. We also are seeing flounder. We had 5 flounder on Sunday afternoon unfortunately no keepers. We also had a King fish. But you don’t know unless you go. Patterns are staring to look more like fall time. Fish are feeding up for the winter. We have dates available so contact us and get on the books before it’s too late.

Started the Friday morning with a nice Striped bass right out of the gate. We were using 3 and 4 inch paddle tails casting to structure. We covered a lot of area but the bite was slow even though we had overcast skies. Once the sun popped out and warmed things up a bit, found some willing Redfish biting. These fish have become 1 of my new favorites. They have a subtle bite until you set the hook. Then it’s game on. They fight hard and try to run. When they are feeding their tail turns blue. It’s so beautiful against the gold colored skin. They are also very delicious. These fish have really made a big showing in the Bay this year. I really hope they stick around for years to come. Saturday we hit a different area looking for Blues And Macs. A few Bluefish have made their way up along with a few Spanish Mackerel. It’s been a trolling game to find them. Occasionally we can find some to cast to also. We boated some nice ones before the front came with high winds. So we moved back up into a tributary and switched methods. Sure enough we found a small Speckled Trout and more Redfish. These Reds and Specks will stick around until the water gets pretty cool. I think we have a ways to go for that yet. The Striped bass bite will also start heating up more with season change. There’s still a lot going on to fish for. Book a trip to create your Nauti Hooker memories and have a good time.

Well folks it’s August. Hot weather is back.The weather looked ok for Saturday but was iffy for Sunday. Saturday we saw some repeat clients. That is always great to have.It was their yearly family vacation fishing trip. As usual we started catching bait first. A lot of small spot and some croaker mixed in which we throw back. The spot is what we want to use for live lining for Rockfish. After gathering enough we ran to structure where we were catching when the seasoned closed. Rockfish season was closed for 2 weeks and just opened back up. Another boat was already there and nacho red but that’s ok plenty of room everyone. We set anchor and started dropping baits back to the structure. It wasn’t long before we had our first bite. It was a nice big catfish. They were hungry and chewing for sure. They gave everyone a pretty good fight. After a while we had another bite that was a little different from the others. This one was a runner. Yes sir Kelsey pulled in a 23 3/4 inch Rockfish. They finished the day with 12 catfish and 1 Rockfish.Everyone had a blast just look at that little one sleeping on the ride in. Plum wore out form reeling couldn’t even finish his candy bar.

Man has it been hot! We have had a little break this past week with temps in the 80s and low humidity. A lot is happening fishing wise. Bottom fishing we are seeing a lot spot, perch and croaker. Some big spot have started showing up. We have had 2 weekends back to back were we have seen a perch over 11 inches. Perch are very tasty for fish tacos and just breaded and fried. Bluefish and Spanish mackerel are knocking at our door. With this hot weather coming on again I think we might see more of them showing up. We had a slot keeper red drum! Nikki caught her first red drum and is hooked on them. Keepers have to be between 18 and 27 inches. Well folks you’ll know when you hook one because they pull hard. I have also gotten reports of large Red drum breaking on the surface feeding. When I say large I mean 40 inches or bigger. I haven’t been near them when it’s happened but I have very good intel that they haven’t been far from us. Rockfish season opens back on Aug1. So we will also be targeting them at times. August is upon us and the kids will be back to school soon so book a trip before summer is gone. Get those kids on the water and let us show them a good time. Bottom fishing is great for kids because it keeps them engaged constantly and you never know those XL red drum might start busting bait on the surface in front of you. I hope so because I always have rods ready for that kind of thing. We have also been saving the sea turtles 1 ballon at a time. Folks please don’t release balloons into the air. When they get in the water turtles try to feed on them and it will kill them. I always remove them from the water when I can.

Wow November came in with a bang. The cold snap has really turned on the bite.Phil booked a trip in the PM for him and his friends. We found birds working straight out of the gate. The fish were up and down quick. But we stayed at it and caught a couple. The birds were moving fast and as the afternoon went on the fish seem to get hungrier! There were lots of boats around chasing the schools. We found some good marks and stayed at it after the other boats left. Sure enough wham fish on. A nice 28 incher in the boat. It was an almost perfect drift. We were moving with the school of fish. With no other boats on them. We made 2 long drifts and we’re reward with some nice fat fall Stripers. We ended with a 5 man limit of 10 fish with 5 of them 26 to 30 inches. We were still catching and releasing them when we called it a night. All this with light tackle rods and lures. The time is now. Don’t be left wishing let’s get fishing!