October

Heck yeah! Here we go October is here and the fall transition is right on track.  As an angler you know that October is the month that the fall fishing begins and even though you can still catch fish on the rigs and outer islands due to the water temperatures the fish are on the move.  As the days begin to get shorter and the Fall Equinox as hit, the larger tides start the big migration of bait fish and predators into the interior marshes where us anglers are quick to pick them off.  Those anglers that fish artificial lures definitely love this time of year because we can coax fish into biting almost anything.  As shrimp, ponies and mullet migrate in for the winter months this signals to the predator fish to be right on their heels to begin the feeding frenzy before the winter sets in and times get hard.

As the tides begin to push and pull large schools of bait speckled trout, redfish, drum and other predators will locate themselves at choke points and gorge on the bait to stock fat and oil for the long winter. During this month you will find diving gulls at the mouths of major bayous and slicks out over oyster beds.  These signals are what us guides look for to find not only spots where we can catch fish but also where the majority of predator fish are located.  If I see birds diving or slicks over reefs in a lake or large bay I know that the bait has migrated into this area and the predators are there also.  Then I can key in on main points, coves or choke areas where fish will likely be feeding.  Once I am confident that the fish are there I then can watch and follow the fish to the interior bayous and deep holes once the water temperatures drop.  

With fish feeding heavily on shrimp primarily you want to match your bait with the size and silhouette of the bait present.  I like to use the Voodoo or DOA imitations under a VersaMaxx Bolt cork.  This combination is truly deadly to interior speckled trout.  The VersaMaxx Bolt by design has a unique sound that triggers strikes and being the ONLY wired cork that has the ability to change depth in seconds without having to cut or tie any knots keeps you fishing more and at the correct depth.  One little trick is to always remember that the larger the size of your artificial shrimp the larger the fish you will catch.  Why is that so important?  The reason is that the smaller juvenile specks, even though they are very aggressive, cannot inhale the larger bait so majority of the time you are going to only catch keeper fish and that makes you fill the ice chest faster!!

Now as a guide I love to fish artificial baits as much as I can but live bait is always aboard.  I normally will use live bait to get the school gathered up in the area we are throwing then I will switch to artificial baits.  One thing that I also do is use a Joy Fish Chum Bat www.leefisherfishing.com to throw live shrimp out to where my clients are fishing to keep the school gathered so we can keep catching.  I watched a guide in Florida when I was pre-fishing for a redfish tournament use this product and it worked so well to pull fish out of the mangroves via live chum. I got off the water later that day and hit the local tackle store and voila there was this funny looking plastic bat with the top cut out.  I purchased on and as soon as I got home I tried it and was amazed at how it fans out the bait that you put inside of the bat.  This is a very inexpensive tool that I have never seen any guides ever use here in Louisiana but us guides at Bayou Charters do and it absolutely produces results.  I promise once you use one you will love it!  The only issue is that .30 shrimp are kinda hard to just throw out hoping that they work for you.

Now for you redfish anglers, this is the month that the redfish will flood the marshes due to the high tides and influx of bait into the inside marshes.  Duck ponds and shallow broken marshes will product the majority of redfish but if you do a little homework and try deeper passes and openings of major bayous you could find those massive schools of redfish that stage in deeper waters before they move shallower.  It always seems that the redfish like to chase gold spoons and chatter baits in shallower water but if you are fishing deeper I like to use live shrimp or cockahoe minnows drop-shot rigged.  With the amount of grass in the interior marshes due to last years warm winter weedless style baits work well and if you want to try something different use a buzz bait.  This style bait is an awesome topwater bait that attracts every species of fish and will create explosive strikes from the most finicky fish.

With the way September finished with a bang and lots of fish the fall looks to be one of the best we have had in years.  The speckled trout are already showing up and the redfish are getting on the hard points looking for bait.  If you have a few vacation days left at work this is one of the best months to use them up sliming the deck of your boat!

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