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Trolling will not be as good as summer months but Kings will again stay very good until the second or third freeze. You don't even have to go very far some days, as just around the pass and the near shore reefs will hold some fish. Once we have a few cold snaps the kings will move offshore to the edges. Live bait is always a winner but the kings are frisky with the cooler water and Yozuri plugs, Mann's stretch 25's and 30's, and spoons. Also loads of bonito if you want something just for fun. Flounder should be very good this month fishing the leeside of most near shore reefs and around the pass using bull minnows, Fishbites and Gulps.

This month the pier will produce flounder, pompano, whiting and winter bonito. Flounder take the usual offerings of bull minnows, live shrimp, jigs tipped with fish bites and grubs. Pompano prefer fresh peeled shrimp, sand fleas and jigs. Whiting of course like fresh peeled shrimp too!!!. Winter bonito can provide excellent fun from the pier to occupy slow winter mornings. Most morning you can see bonito working the beach under the birds. They seem to feed best and be most active the first few hours of daylight. As they move in and out from the pier they can be caught on white jigs, straw and bubble rigs and small spools. Please do remember if you are not going to keep the bonito use a pier net and not a gaff as you will want to release them unharmed and a gaff surely means death and less fish for the future. Pompano and a few whiting can be found all winter, look to catch them best on the couple days just prior to a big cold front coming down from the north. The reason for this is most days we have a offshore wind blowing and the water is calm and clear and pompano get very weary. On the days before a weather front we normally get a heavy southerly breeze which kicks up a swell and beach break. This in turns stirs up the sand fleas and shrimp and gets the pompano rowdy. Large red fish roam the beaches in winter and can be taken on cigar minnows, squid and cut mullet, they are even a few keeper size mixed in with that large bulls so dinner is always available. The jetties still offer some good fishing days through the winter. Grouper roam the rocks looking for food and live or frozen cigar minnows work good and well as live pinfish. Remember the water here is very clear so fluorocarbon leader is a must, because of the all the rocks you will need at least 60 if not 80lb leader for the abrasion resistance. Bluefish and redfish on the falling tide, they like spoons, gotchas and cigar minnows. Pompano should be around for a least a month more and I have seen them stay all winter if the weather is mild. Pink, orange or chartreuse jigs, live shrimp and sand fleas do best. On the offshore side of the jetties you can find flounder laying on the sand bottom close to the rocks. Bull minnows, jigs tipped with fish bites and live shrimp fished on a Carolina rig with a Owner Mutu Light 1/0 hook is the way to go. On the pass side of the jetties there are some flounder but the snags make it hard to fish here, you loose a lot of tackle. Lastly flounder and most of the other fish here bite best on the falling tide, a rising tide is ok but not nearly as good. The falling tide brings lots of bait from the bay along with the tide and turns on the bite.

Wahoo and blackfin tuna will be active around the rock cliffs, the nipple and towards the spur. Yellowfin tuna will be in the mouth of the canyon and the rigs to the southwest. If you are going to the rigs be careful, I have heard of lots of floating debris and some rigs are badly damaged and they will only let you get so close before asking you to move on. Marlin are heading out to deeper warmer water now but a few white marlin will stay until the first freeze. Whites will be around the nipple and the flats about 35 miles out, the better bet is a spread of teasers on one shot gun rig. Have several pitch baits ready for when the fish appear. Using pitch bait will help out with the hook up ratio on whites over just trolling lures rigged with ballyhoo. Remember Red Snapper season closes November 1st. Don't let this stop you from bottom fishing though. Grouper have moved out to somewhat deeper water around the edge and offshore wrecks. Live cigar minnows, herring and hardtails are the best baits for them. I expect the grouper fishing to continue for several months like it was in October. Also if you have trouble catching throw backs, try a larger bait like Boston Mackerel or whole mingo snapper. Amberjack also like live baits but will that large braid slammer jigs and clouts.

This area produces many choices for the inshore angler this time or year whether fishing from the bridge, shore or boat. Redfish are the main targets and take a variety or baits. Seastriker spoons1 ½ oz to 2 oz, D.O.A. terror eyes, yozuri slab spoons, live shrimp and live pinfish do the job well. Sheepshead around the pilings are easy pickings on either live shrimp, fiddler crabs or oysters. One excellent method for catching sheepshead is for them to find you rather than you find them, do this by taking a garden rake with you and scraping the barnacles from the pilings them slowly sink and chum once you have scraped off. This will attract the sheepshead to you making them much easier to catch. A Carolina rig with a 1 to 2 ox egg lead and a #2 mustad 94150 hook is the rig. Flounder are much more abundant also and the trick here is a D.O.A. shrimp or gotcha shrimp tail tipped with fish bites. Live bull minnows and mullet also do will for the flounder. Check some of the bay reefs this month for grouper as with colder weather the often move into the bay. Live or frozen cigar minnows are the bait and maybe a live pinfish. Some good places to try in the bay for grouper are the cones 3024.747/8630.757, 3024.738/8620.230 and the barges at 3026.192/8629.523 and 3026.227/8629.531. Speckled trout , redfish, black drum and sheepshead are the the main focus here for the next while.. Trout roam the flats both early morning and evening, Mirr-o-lure top dog jr's , D.O.A shrimp and terror eyes work well. Drifting a live shrimp under a rattle cork over the flats does well for the angler who doesn't want the effort involved in lure fishing. Reds and sheepshead can be found around boat docks, bridge pilings and bay reefs. Lastly a good bet is white trout. They can be found all over the bay. They like close access to deepwater but with structure, with this in mind almost all the bridges and deep bayous hold white trout. Small pieces of shrimp or grub tails tipped with shrimp catch these small but tasty trout.

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