SEPTEMBER ON THE WATER
Now is the time for some of the best fishing of the year and is often overlooked in southwest Florida. With school back in session, summer vacations over, and our northern friends out of state, this may be the time you will find the least number of anglers and boat traffic on the water.
With temperatures gradually cooling over the month and thunderstorms tapering off, days become more predictable and enjoyable. Of course, this is the height of hurricane season so that can change suddenly. Fish are more active throughout the day as water temperatures are cooling down ever so slightly.
Snook gradually exit the beaches and Gulf passes where they spend the summer months and begin to transition back inshore. Fish for snook around oyster bars, shorelines, sand holes, and structure such as riprap, docks, piers, and bridges. Top water lures are a good choice over the early morning and evening hours. There’s not much better than watching a big lunker snook explode on a top water bait. Live bait is the best bet during daytime hours. A variety including pinfish, pigfish, pilchards, thread herring, small mullet, and live shrimp are some of the most popular
We are stepping into the best redfish (red drum) fishing of the year, especially if you like to hunt and target big redfish. Reds begin to travel in schools throughout the inshore waters where it’s possible to cross paths with several hundred in a tight pack herding bait across the flats. Keep an eye open for a disturbance on the water, almost looks like a boat wake with no boats around to create the wake. The schooling fish are generally traveling in a direction parallel to an Island or long bar. Once you figure out the direction they are heading, try to get well ahead of their path as quietly as possible, get in position and get ready. Often, they are moving faster than you think, a couple hundred yards is a good starting point. While schooling they will eat most anything, but it’s in your favor to rig with something you can throw a long distance as they do not always follow your anticipated path. A few baits that come to mind are mid to large top water plugs, spoons, and cut ladyfish or mullet steaks. If targeting reds with live or natural bait, circle hooks are the way to go. Traveling in schools, they are competing for food and suck down a bait pretty quick. The use of circle hooks reduces the chance of gut-hooking and allows for a healthy release.
Sea trout begin moving back into shallower water to feed; this is a great time to work a top water plug across your favorite trout flats. Plenty of sea trout will be caught under the endless schools of baitfish, look for birds and surface activity. Trout fishing gets better, and fish get bigger as the water continues to cool over the month.
Calm seas over the month allows anglers to comfortably run deep into gulf waters. Fishing depths seventy feet and deeper with grouper and snapper as the main target. Blue water species like blackfin tuna, mahi, and wahoo are a possibility if you run deep enough.
Spanish mackerel, sharks, snapper, jack crevalle, bluefish, pompano, permit, tripletail, tarpon, cobia, and others are on the list of what we may expect to hook into over the upcoming months.
It will not be long before tourist season is upon us with roads and waterways becoming crowded. That’s not the case for September, if you want to spend time fishing or just on the water without a crowd, due it now. Season will be here soon!
Keep up to date with fishing regulations and seasons as they change often. You can visit http://www.myfwc.com for all current state and federal regulations. Also, you can upload the Fish Rules app on your phone. It has current regulations and seasons with pictures to help identify fish.
For charter information, please contact us at Gulf Coast Guide Service and “Catch the Action” with Capt. Bill Russell, call or text (239) 410-8576, website: http://www.fishpineisland.com, email: [email protected].
Capt. Bill Russell is a native and lifelong resident of Pine Island who has spent his entire life fishing the waters surrounding Pine Island and Southwest Florida. For the past 30 years, Bill has been a professional fishing guide who takes pride in customizing each trip to ensure everyone on board has a great time and will return again. Come join us and “Catch the Action.”
