When the Weather Cooperates
This month will by trying but the days that the wind is no howling you be able to fill the box. The water temperature has dropped down in the 60's and most everything except the redfish in the creeks are feeding pretty aggressively. The last of the mullets are schooled up and heading toward the ocean and when you can find areas that are holding these mullet, you can find big schools of trout and a few reds. If you throw a cast net, a live finger mullet or a small fillet from a fresh mullet will generate big bites. If you do not have a net, don't worry, you can still get a good bite from your favorite soft plastic of slow moving crank bait. A favorite soft plastic is a Gotcha 4 inch curl tail attached to a 1/4 ounce lead head jig. Fish your soft plastics SLOOOOOW. Toss the soft plastic up near the edge and slowly drag it back off into deeper water. The bite is going to be a slight tap or more often it will just feel heavy. Lift up on the rod tip and start turning the reel handle. You should then feel a fish pulling back. I rarely set the hook this time of the year because I want the fish to suck the bait down and if you rare back and bust them, you will more often miss the fish.
For the crank baits try to find one that looks like a mullet or small minnow. I like one that sinks slowly or suspends. Great lures this time of the year are:
Mirro Lure Minnow
Mirro Lure Morrodine
Bomber Long A Blue Back
Bomber Long A Black Back
Rattle Trap Blue
Rattle Trap Chrome
With this arsenal of lures in your box, you should be able to find and land a box of trout if you are working them correctly and are in the right place. If you work them slow, you will generally get more strikes and if you really want to increase your hook up ratio, take the factory hooks off and replace them with Daiichi Death Trap trebles.
When the tide falls out and you are in very shallow water and see some cruising by, you can chunk a Rattle Trap GOLD floating lure at them and possibly get a few to react with a positive outcome for you and not so positive for the fish. The floating Rattle Trap has some real small hooks so be sure your drag is backed way off or change them out with a little stouter one. Do not put hooks on them that are any more than one size larger or the lure will not work properly.
The seabass have turned on and you should have not problem finding all you can keep. As of this writing (12-3-09) the regulations on myfwc.com, state you can have 15 seabass per person and they have to be at least 12 inches long, on the Atlantic side. On the Gulf side they have to be 10 inches long with 15 per person. The grouper and snapper are still biting real good with limits on most trips. A live bait like a cigar minnow has to be best but almost any gut bait or frozen minnow type bait will work.
By the time this hits the press, it will be about time for the winter Wahoo bite in the stream. I like a fast trolled bait, say 6 to 8 knots. Deep divers usually work best for these hard pulling bad boys. Try the Sea Striker Chute Rigs in bright blue and white or red and white. Get the heaviest you can find 4 to 6 ounces as they will swim deeper than the lighter ones. If you take a cutting wheel on your Dremel tool and cut off the top half of the lip, it will dive do about 15 feet or so, just like a diving plug.
Another real good wahoo lure is the Cedar Plug in red and black. You can purchase these unrigged or rigged. I like the unrigged ones so I can use a small piece of wire as these fish are real toothy and can bite right through the heaviest mono.
The jetties are producing good numbers of sheepshead with some flounder, drum and big reds mixed in.
James Howard and Phil Baker with some nice winter time trout.
Good Fishin
Capt Jim Hammond
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