Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Florida Sportsman

October is one of those months I think only a Floridian can truly appreciate. For the rest of the country, it’s the end of summer, a window closing on sunny days. For us, October is a kind of beginning. Our actual windows might not be opening just yet, but at least we can see through them in the morning. Condensation on my back porch sliders—my finely tuned hygrometer—looked like Niagara Falls for the last four months. I also have a wind-gauge on my porch, a set of chimes which informs me of the season change. They’ve been silent all summer. I’m expecting I’ll hear that east wind in the early hours any day now. In this month’s issue of FS, we cover some of the great fishing and hunting that…

As stewards of the great outdoors, it’s crucial that Florida’s hunters are aware of a real threat facing our state’s deer populations—chronic wasting disease. With a confirmed case in North Florida this summer, it’s time to shed light on what this disease is, its impact on deer herds, and the role hunters play in its management. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a serious neurological disorder that affects deer and related species—think elk and moose. CWD is believed to be caused by a naturally occurring type of protein called a prion which becomes misfolded and resists being broken down by the body the way normal proteins are. When these misfolded proteins are introduced into a healthy member of the deer family, they multiply and begin accumulating in and damaging the animal’s…

There was a time when greater Tampa Bay anglers would sneak past the Tarpon Springs area to flee the heavily pressured waters between the Manatee and Anclote rivers. Pasco County was the place to be. Redfish were abundant; boat traffic relatively light. Times are different, but while some things have changed, some have not. The Pasco coast is still well worth the visit. You’ll find snook, trout, cobia and mackerel here, but redfish top the list in abundance and availability. Thing is, they aren’t pushovers. Local guides have adapted to the fishing pressure and other changes on the waters. What they’ve learned is useful not only for local anglers, but for redfish anglers anywhere. “This area is kind of a mixture of mangroves, rocks and those exterior Gulf flats,” said…

Gear up and get ready for some rod-thumping red drum action. October is when we begin to see large concentrations of schooling redfish moving in nearshore areas of our region. These large schools of primary slot and upper slot fish appear to be following the seasonal run of finger mullet. Redfish area unique fish that thrive in a wide range of conditions varying from inshore creeks and mud flats to nearshore and offshore bars and wrecks. With sub-terminal mouths, redfish are primarily bottom feeders. When targeting any species my first choice is to always try and match the primary prey the target species is feeding on. This time of year, the Everglades City area hosts large quantities of finger mullet and shrimp that are being washed out of the backcountry…

‘‘Inshore action fires up with falling air and water temperatures as oxygen levels improve and barometers begin to jump with every incoming cold front. I love this time of year in the West Central Region when tropical activity tapers off and Gulf water temperatures start to drop. That means fall is on the way and fish will begin to migrate toward their winter haunts. This process doesn’t happen overnight but over the next couple of months, depending on the number and severity of cold fronts we experience. It has been argued for years whether the trigger in movement is based on water temperature or length of daylight, but I propose that it’s a mix of both. Shorter periods of daylight make for cooler air and water temperatures in both inshore…

My phone will ring a lot during the month of October. This will be partly because we are apt to get a cool northeaster, and partly because all the fish are on the move. Shrimp will start the process, and any of them that survive the reds, trout, croaker, crabs, largemouth bass, stripers, seagulls, and castnets, will enter an ocean full of jacks, sharks, bluefish, kingfish, and tarpon. It is a bad time to be a shrimp. By now, I’m hoping we have dodged any major tropical storms, but a welcome change in weather will signal the mullet that it is time to go hard. Whereas it starts in September, October is the month it gets serious. Sharks, tarpon, and everything else that eats mullet will be in the surf.…

The 2023 Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament attracted a fleet of more than 300 teams to the Jim King Park at Sisters Creek, July 17-22. While the focus is to catch a smoker, this Northeast Florida fishing tradition offers so much more. Kids participate in a dock tournament, spectators gather along the shoreline cheering on their favorite teams, local vendors serve up delicious seafood, and live music keeps the atmosphere vibrant throughout the week. This year’s storied event delivered a down-to-the-wire finish, but at the end no one weighed a fish as heavy as the Ponte Vedra-based Crowley’s did Friday morning. With a brand-new Contender 25T with Yamaha outboards and Ameritrail trailer at stake, it was perhaps the most hotly contested Northeast Florida kingfish tournament in recent memory— four 50-pounders were…

When the time comes that you can no longer stomach a problem, you need to act. When the proverbial can has been kicked up against the wall, and you’ve run out of fingers to point—act! Anglers, Floridians, we deserve better. Our inshore fisheries in the southern half of the state have been disappearing, and we know who’s responsible. And, sadly here we sit—on our hands. Bryan Heaberlin, from Crescent City, told me about a fishing trip on Lake Okeechobee in late July: “The run from the Kissimmee River was mostly in green, algae-filled water, and the closer we got to the lock, the brighter green the water got,” Bryan said. “It looked like green antifreeze, there was a lot of floating fish out in the lake.” Bryan said that where…

Hunters in Florida are fortunate to have more than 6 million acres of public land in the FWC’s Wildlife Management Area (WMA) system, with the commission working to increase that number every year. There’s a wide range of hunting opportunities available, but you must be willing to scout and not afraid to walk. Climbing tree stands are widely relied upon and many hunters are adept at setting them up quickly. However, their design can pose challenges when walking the woods in search of the perfect tree—one that’s both straight and branchless yet doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. An alternative to lock-on climbing stands, saddles allow hunters to scale almost any tree and sit or stand comfortably while suspended from a heightened vantage point. The concept isn’t new, but…

With the hottest water of the year in our rearview mirror, October ushers in a welcomed change. Gradually cooling air and water temps really help the bite. Our late summer fishing was downright difficult compared to the consistent and world-class fishing the Florida Keys is known for. The arrival of large schools of pilchards throughout the Keys archipelago is one of the first signs that things are about changing for the better. Pilchards are in my opinion the best live bait around and with them converging in the Keys the action will soon take off. Sometimes it is not so much what you are after, as what you are after them with. Get yourself a small mesh castnet, watch a few videos on YouTube and practice loading and throwing in…

‘‘Swim jigs are great search baits to run through these grass lines and find the fish. Pay attention to depth, water temperature and vegetation. Welcoming the slightly cooler temperatures this month as we ease into fall, we look back at one hot summer, hotter than I recall in recent history. I’m no meteorologist but I suspect the Atlantic surface temperature being hotter than normal contributed to the coastal heat we felt. Mullet are always the first to come to mind in the fall. The annual mullet migration runs down our beaches and infiltrates our inshore waters, often triggering feeding frenzies like those seen in National Geographic. It’s an incredible sight to see but can be frustrating fishing due to the amount of bait in the water. Find a way to…

‘‘That entire coastline, stretching about 30 miles, with many creeks, is protected from easterly winds. It’s also sparsely fished compared to other areas. Cooler autumn weather inevitably improves both inshore and offshore action. I fished several inshore October tournaments during the past three years, and on each trip we whacked the redfish, sometimes collecting modest paychecks at day’s end. Whether in a blustery northeast wind or a balmy sunny day, those fish were prowling the shallows and generally speaking, “they hungry.” Contestants around Cedar Key sometimes had a tough time either catching fish or getting pounded by waves, because the town sits 2 miles offshore with scarce protection from wind. Its inshore waters are muddy with oyster beds, very hard on boats and even kayaks when the tide drops. The…

‘‘Anglers who have a taste for flatfish need to remember that flounder season closes October 15. We all remember the days when the air temperature is just right, the water is clear, and the fish cooperate. October seems to have more than its fair share of these perfect days and it is a great month for exploring Northwest Florida. There is a long list of gamefish that are found inshore but redfish are one of the most sought-after in the coming weeks. And they can be found everywhere this time of the year; tidal creeks, rivers, passes and cuts, grassy shorelines, oyster bars and rocky areas, and grassflats. In October, reds typically seek out inshore structure with dark bottom because it retains heat longer than light-colored sand. This type of…

As fall waters begin to cool from those summer highs of 80-plus degrees, Northeast Florida seatrout begin to move from deepwater river and bay habitats to shallow water ambush points. Here, seatrout tend to school in big numbers and often school in the same sizes as well. Many seasoned speck fishermen feel the fall, winter and spring are the best time of year for targeting “gator” size spotted seatrout, the ones with the snaggle teeth, long dark bodies and vicious attitude. Seatrout spawn in these months, when water temperatures are in the 70-degree range, and the roe-laden females weigh more during these times. Jacksonville’s Eddie Cabler has refined his gear, lures, and approach to target big seatrout. At last count, Eddie has caught and released 11 Jacksonville seatrout weighing over…

‘‘ The ICW from Deerfield Beach south to Government Cut will have baitfish schools and feeding predators from one shoreline to the next. There’s nothing better than walking out your front door and feeling a hint of fall. You can almost smell it in the air. After four months of sweltering heat, temperatures are finally returning to more normal levels as we welcome October in South Florida. Dropping air and water temperatures signal the fall migration of baitfish and predators on the beaches and in the bays. Schools of scaled sardines, Spanish sardines, threadfin herring, finger mullet, larger silver and black mullet, flying fish and ballyhoo invade our waters. I look forward to October every year because I know once these baitfish arrive so will the schools of hungry Spanish…

‘‘These schools of redfish can range from a dozen fish to upwards of a hundred and you shouldn’t have difficulty telling them apart from mullet. October has arrived and the Gulf of Mexico is finally cooling down. Water temperatures peaked a month ago, and now a few early-season cold fronts will try to make their way to Southwest Florida. This starts the transition of fish moving from their summer homes in the Panhandle and taking up residence here to overwinter. We’ll also start seeing massive schools of baitfish moving down our coastlines. Tripletail, bonito, kingfish, cobia, and mackerel are just some of the different gamefish that will push into our area hot on the heels of these forage fish. In the back bays, sheepshead, bluefish, pompano, and big trout begin…

October is one of the most dynamic and exciting months to be an angler in East Central Florida. Shorter days, the arrival of north winds, and cooler water drive mullet migrations southward out of higher latitude estuaries and into the ocean. As mullet by the millions cover the surface in dense schools, gamefish lurk around every corner to take advantage of this mass exodus of food. In the Indian River Lagoon, these mullet schools will travel close to shore as they weave around mangrove shorelines, points of land, and docks on their way to the nearest inlet. Snook, redfish, ladyfish, trout, and jack crevalle can be found blasting through these schools day in, day out. The western shoreline of the Banana River between the NASA Causeway and Pineda Causeway is…

‘‘A topwater plug is hard to beat when the schools are active on the surface but fishing a 2-ounce bucktail jig with a soft plastic trailer will keep bites coming when the fish sound. October is a strong competitor for my favorite month of the year to fish in the Panhandle for many different reasons but the main one being redfish. The bite can be out of this world in the coming months and October is typically the peak of the action with slots and bulls caught with ease compared to the rest of the year. King mackerel, tuna, and red snapper are going to be the hot bites for offshore and nearshore anglers. The first mild cold fronts to reach the Panhandle kick everything off for a good transition…