The harvest moon usually appears in September but this year it fell on October 6th. That coupled with northeast winds has made for extremely high tides. These tides can make it difficult to find fish. If you have a boat that draws very shallow water you can access places where redfish are feeding. They are way back along the tree lines feasting away on fiddler crabs and mud minnows. Berkley Gulp crabs or shrimp, mud minnows on a jig head or a chunk of mullet should do the trick here.
If shallow water redfish aren’t your thing it’s a good time to try for snook in some deeper water. With a good influx of migrating mullet a live lined mullet or artificial bait resembling a mullet will work. Tossing a topwater plug at daybreak should draw the attention of a snook or trout. If you hit a cloudy day try throwing that topwater at any time, you’ll be surprised at the results. Fish dock pilings, dropoffs and creek mouths in the ICW during the day and the bridges and dock lights at night. The best hours at night are between midnight and dawn. The next month should prove very effective for snook so get out and give it a shot.
I fished the morning of the full moon and had one small jack on a fly. I never seem to have any luck at this time but I keep on trying. The next morning I went out and did better. Throwing a topwater High Roller Rip Roller I hooked into a snook that appeared to be about 22” when it jumped. The fish jumped twice, spit the plug and was gone. Five minutes later I hooked into another fish using the same plug. This one didn’t get away and turned out to be a 6 ½ lb trout.
I wanted a picture of the fish but I had left my camera in my truck at the boat ramp. I filled the live well with water, put the fish in it and headed back to the boat ramp. All the while I had to keep the fish moving so he wouldn’t go belly up. At the ramp I got a fellow who was fishing at the pier there to snap a picture of the fish. His mouth fell agape when I let the fish go back into the water. I told him it needed to go make babies and that a picture of a fish lasts a lot longer than one on a dinner plate.
Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports that the surf was a little rough this past week but it didn’t stop Bob Burns from landing an 18 lb king mackerel. Flounder Joe was at it again for flounder to 4 lbs. Bill Allgire says there’s plenty of Spanish mackerel around along with bluefish up to the 6 lbs.


Photo: Capt. Rob Ottlein with a 6 ½ lb trout that was caught on a topwater plug. The fish was released alive.