October Backwaters Continue to Produce as Promised

One of my favorite months of the year to fish, October has not been a disappointment. We have had a great run of redfish in our area as well as plenty of snook, flounder, seatrout and a few tarpon in the mix. Live baits have been plentiful and with wells loaded, it has not been hard to do a little live chumming to get fish into the feeding mode. Redfish have been the main focus and have been abundant through out the area with mid-upper slot fish being the norm and a quite a few over size fish caught and released.{%image_id=35463%}{%image_id=35464%}{%image_id=35465%} As usual the best action has been on the higher tide stages while fishing flooded cover and oyster laden shorelines as the fish move under the cover to feed on hiding baitfish, crabs and shrimp. On the lower tides, I have been concentrating on edges of shallow flats and points that have deeper troughs running along them. Snook are everywhere right now ranging from the beaches and passes to the more remote back bays and creek mouths. We are catching loads of snook in the 18 to 23 inch range along with a few ranging to 32 inches. Baby tarpon are giving us action in several of the deeper holes, creeks and channels in the backwaters. These feisty fish are running from 10 to 30 lbs. There is no better time of year to fish SW Florida backwaters than right now! -Capt. Todd Geroy