The winter feels are here in Southwest Florida. We may not be in full blown cold season but it feels like it some days. Early cold fronts that have not been common the past several years, extreme low winter type tides and of course our northern visitors have made their appearance. The other, more notable signs of winter fishing is the invasion of big sheepshead in to our inshore waters. When the temps drop these delicious fish make their way inshore to engage their annual spawning. Sheepshead are big, hardy, tasty and strong fighting fish that feed exclusively on crustaceans like barnacles, shrimp, crabs and even sand fleas. Our sheepshead are a structure oriented species, meaning they like cover such as docks, rock piles, mangrove branches and you can sometimes find them along oyster beds where a lot of their food can be found. They have big strong jaws, lined with rows of rounded teeth resembling human teeth. They are quite the sight to see, but despite their strange appearance they taste much like the food they consume. Some people would compare their meat to crab. I typically target these fish using a sharp 1/4 ounce jig head tipped with a small shrimp or if need be a piece of a larger shrimp. The key is to cover the hook without giving them enough hanging off the hook where they can pull it off. Covering the hook makes them have no choice but to eat the whole bait. Their mouth is so full of teeth sometimes it is difficult to get a hook in them, needless to say it is not uncommon to miss them. Shrimp is an easy bait but if you can get your hands on fiddler crabs or sand fleas you’ll guarantee to deter the smaller fish like pinfish from picking your bait apart. They are the primary target this time of year, however, the redfish and trout bite has been phenomenal, reds have been a little smaller but the trout are getting jumbo. Everything has been eating shrimp, when targeting reds and trout I tend to use a jig head under a popping cork.

Late fall is an epic time to fish our waters, the snook are fully back in the inshore waters and hungry after all the work they put in during their spawning season. You will frequently find long, skinny female snook looking to get their figure back after giving birth to the next generation of snook. We have been catching our bigger snook on large greenbacks we refer to as turbos, these bigger baits are irresistible to those bigger slot and overslot snook. Beef up your leader because you will need it with some of these monsters, I typically step it up to 40 lb Fluorocarbon which is less susceptible to abrasion when those fish shoot under structure. Redfish are still schooling up towards the tail end of their spawn, mostly the mid to upper slot fish are what we have found around the mangrove islands, oyster beds and docks. Pinfish are hard to pass up but they will certainly eat greenbacks as well. Trout over grass flats and edges of bars and channels have been pretty good, just lacking in size at times. We have been targeting those trout with gulp shrimp under a popping cork. They absolutely love those baits but just about anything will work. At times when the wind is blowing it is best to use a bait you can slow retrieve like a shrimp immitation bait. We are starting to head into a change in season, cold fronts are pushing through and soon we will see a change in bait, tide heights and target species. As we begin seeing lower winter tides we will switch to shrimp and focus more on sheepshead as they make their way into our inshore waters to spawn. The fishing as always is great and will remain that way as we switch into a new routine.

Our fishing is firing off in Pine Island Sound despite our stint of hurricanes over the last several weeks. unfortunately there is damage left in their wake but it isn’t affecting our fishery and here at Floridaze Fishing Charters we are open and welcome anyone wanting to get out and catch a bunch of great fish. In between storms we have been catching great redfish that are still schooling up in large numbers as we are in the middle of their spawning season. Snook season is also in full swing for another month and a half and when we break away from the schools of reds we’ve been catching plenty of snook. The slot fish have been getting the best of a few of my groups since the season started; these fish are strong and not an easy fight especially when hooked in the mangroves or other structures. Our trout are getting into a great size range, many of the fish we are catching are in that 15-19 inch range giving my anglers plenty of meat to bring home. This fishing should get better and better in the coming months, fall is a personal favorite time of the year to target big reds, snook, trout and sometimes we get the tarpon to play along as well. Come get on the fish with Floridaze, you’ll leave with awesome memories of a great fishing experience.