9/30/15 End of September backcountry fishing report

September is almost over and we are starting to get into 'Fall' mode in the backcountry.  The last couple weeks we have started to see the early signs of the 'fall bait run.'  The first hint of cool and more northerly winds starts bringing down all kinda of baitfish both on the atlantic side and in the gulf.  Lots of mullet can be found in many areas, plus plenty of pilchards, threadfin herring, bunker, and other varieties of bait.  Packs of hungry tarpon, sharks, snook, redfish, trout, and more can be found feasting on them.  Usually mid october is when the bait run is in full effect and you can really witness the gangbusters craziness of it, but we aren't quite there yet.  Fishing has been pretty good too.  I myself have had a few days fishing in the deep everglades in the last 10 days.  All three of those days we boated plenty of snook.  A few redfish have been in the mix as well which is nice to see.  Expect to see more and more reds as things cool off, and eventually when it is cold the black drums and sheepshead will make their presence known.  Today I had my brother and aside from the snook and redfish, we got a couple juvenile goliath groupers, and landed one out of two small tarpon for a boat SLAM.  The conditions were not great with a moderate westerly breeze and took us a little bit to get on good bait, but we made it happen.  The few other trips I've fished have been half days and that has been mostly snapper fishing in the bays, with a handful of trout and ladyfish mixed in.  But you can still get some good size snappers fishing chunks or pilchards as opposed to shrimp.  Elsewhere Capt. Vinnie Biondoletti reported some bonefish the other day staking up in some spots.  With the super high tides they did not see much poling for them.  Capt. Mike Venezia fished Capt. Jeff Beelers daughter Harley in a kids tournament they had fun with some snook, snappers, and other things and she won top honors in their division.  Way to go Mike and Harley!  Capt. Bill Bassett reported some lunker mangrove snappers and several big trout in the bay on a half day trip last week.  October is coming up soon and as I mentioned it can be really good fishing.  If you are wanting to fish the everglades it is an opportune time to do so, give us a call!

Capt. Rick Stanczyk