Big Wading Surprise!
-Capt. Chris Martin
With October upon us, there are certain factors to take into consideration for those coastal anglers who wish to be proactive in their approach to successful fishing. Everyone should pay special attention to the fact that each day will be just a little bit shorter than the day before, resulting in a lessened amount of sunlight hours each day. It is at this time of the year when you might wish to begin transitioning to the presentation of dark-colored lures, and even start experimenting with some of the more common plastic suspending baits like the standard sub-surface Corky, and its cousin the Fat Boy, or even lures like the Badonk-A-Donk SS, MirrOdine, or Catch 2000.
Keep in mind the importance of the imagery of the silhouette of these baits. These darker, suspending lures tend to imitate a silhouette more symbolic of that of a mullet instead of that of a shrimp. And the darker the silhouette will mean better reflection of the bait against the sunlight beaming down upon the lure. The primary bite will start to come during the very early and very late sunlight hours of the day. With the days shortening, even the most infrequent weekend fisherman should be able to take advantage of these prime-time periods.
Things should cool off a bit in October, but if that doesn’t happen as we might expect it to then the fishing patterns will almost certainly become somewhat similar to that of springtime, where the coolness of the morning will still be outdone by the warmth of the afternoon. With all of this, and with the anticipation of higher tides this month, anglers should focus their efforts primarily in the areas situated deep within the heart of the back lakes. The backcountry has given up some handsome late summertime trout at times.
A couple key ingredients to your success will be for you to locate nervous baitfish or diving birds. Place yourself along shorelines consisting of patches of grass mixed with either shell, sand, or mud, and make special note of any schooling mullet in these areas. Look tight to the shoreline for redfish, and search for them in some of the more murky water covering the grass and mud. The trout in these back regions will be found over grass in the more decent green and clear water, but they’ll still prefer some of the sandier bottom structure at times. You may also wish to begin introducing smaller baits in these secluded lakes during October because it’s important to downsize in an effort to imitate the small silver shad that we should be finding in our bay system right now. Later on, when wintertime sets in hard, you’ll want to remember to use a larger bait size in order to more closely imitate mullet. Until next time, tight lines to all!
