It’s been a beautiful start to the week on the water with nice conditions for both inshore and offshore anglers to kick off October. Fall fishing is here despite the warm days our nights are getting longer and the fishing patterns are in transition. For the weekend angler it’s not looking too great with another Nor’easter bringing rain and onshore flow through next week.
Offshore the bite was good this week. We’re seeing some Blackfin action on the troll, mostly fishing 150-250 feet. Cedar plugs, feathers, spreaders, and a small bird make for a deadly Tuna spread this time of year that will also catch Mahi and any of the other pelagic predators out patrolling the ledge. A horse ballyhoo on the planer is a good idea to pick off a bonus early season Wahoo. The bottom bite was hot for the boats that made the trip earlier this week with lots of Vermilion, Triggerfish, AJs, Mutton’s, and a few Mangroves.
Inshore the bites been hit or miss since Helene. We had just started to see the water cleaning up and the pre storm bite was wide open but it slowed down some in the aftermath. The low tides have been short windows the last few weeks but the fishing has been steady for Redfish, Trout, and Flounder back in the creeks and along the ICW.
Around dawn and dusk topwater fishing has been really fun, one benefit of the all the clouds and rain in the forecast is that the plug fishing is usually pretty good all day in those lower light conditions. Throwing topwater plugs has long been a favorite past time for me, it’s hard to beat that moment you see the boil and hear the slurp of a fish taking down a bait off the surface, or watching a fish fin and follow the plug then inhaling it as you pause.
If you’ve never thrown topwater in the salt give it a shot this fall. Try a Zara Spook, Bomber, Top Dog, or my new go to the Yozuri pencil. Certain plugs tend to work better under different conditions. When it’s windy with some surface chop a big plug with a rattle will get more action, if it’s slick calm that might be too much noise and a smaller bait like the Mirrolure Top Pup can be more effective.
The main key to success when plug fishing is how you work the bait, I firmly believe it’s more important than color, shape, or sound. If you can make that plug imitate a wounded bait it will get bit. Everyone has heard of walking the dog, that tic tac, back and forth action is absolutely what you want. Where you really will dial in getting more bites is varying the speed and changing the cadence of the retrieve. I tend to have the most success on Redfish and Trout with long awkward pauses, extremely slow tics, spurts of movement instead of steady pulses. When you do get hit don’t react to the visual stimulus. This was a hard lesson to learn, it’s instinct when you see that big boil on your bait to Bill Dance slam back a hook set. This is exactly the wrong reaction. Keep working the bait until you feel the fish pulling back. Redfish in particular aren’t designed to eat off the surface, their anatomy favors feeding down. To eat a topwater they will either raise their entire head out of the water or get right under the bait and roll over to suck it under. Either way it results in lots of bumps and misses, if you jerk a hook set too early it just pulls the plug away. If you keep working the bait or pause it they will usually strike again.
Jax beach local Miles Mailloux already made his trip to the pumpkin patch sight fishing this Redfish in the flooded Spartina last week.
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