The wind has been relentless, but the fish are chewing in almost all the portions of the lagoon system. Last weekend I found a pretty big school of black drum on a bridge for an hour. The big schooling black drum are here, but it has been inconsistent and a challenge to find them. When I find them, they have eaten every time. This is the opposite of 2017-2018 when I found hundreds almost every time, but I could only get one eat.
The low water levels and lack of seagrass has the flats pretty slow, but skipping the mangroves in canals on the Banana and central Indian southward have been producing. The water has been as clear as I have seen it in a very long time. You can see fish sitting near the bottom under mangroves.
Juvenile tarpon are were enjoying the warmer weather, but that looks to change. Suspending twitchbaits and finger mullet were what they wanted. This time of year they can be extremely picky and may not eat at all.
Surprisingly big snook were deep in the mangroves. These fish are extremely smart. Skip a live mullet deep into the mangroves. They are incredibly hard to keep out of the mangroves.
A lot of rat redfish with a few nice ones in the mix have also been deep in the mangroves. The rats will eat anything as long as you skip it far enough under. The slots have been pickier, and the one I got ate a mullet I threw at a pile of snook.
Small black drum are often a little less deep in the mangroves. They will eat shrimp or soft plastics on the bottom, but they key is to be slow. It also helps to be able to see them.
The trout fishing has been much slower this week, but there still are some in the canals. These are the least picky and most aggressive of targeted species. They usually are best just outside of the mangroves, and the canals can hold some big ones during cold snaps.
Get ready for big changes with the incoming cold. It will likely get really slow for a lot of things inshore and nearshore for some time with big black drum and sheepshead being the exceptions.
Nice report Kurt!