By late summer, most people in south Florida have had enough of hot weather and begin looking forward to the first cold fronts of fall and the cooler temperatures they bring. But while everyone enjoys the change of season, fishermen probably look forward to it the most, because with cooler temperatures come annual southerly migrations of fish, and the cold fronts can transform a lackluster fishing scene into a red-hot bite overnight. Sailfish begin to congregate along the east coast of Florida, and king mackerel gang up around Key West, where commercial, sport, and tournament fishermen target them relentlessly. But in the southeast corner of the lower Gulf of Mexico, the pocket of water that lies between Marco Island and Key West, extending east to Florida Bay at the terminus of mainland Florida, cooler weather brings a variety of species that spend the entire winter there.
LOTS OF VARIETY
Spanish mackerel, redfish, and cobia are the three main species you’re likely to encounter in greater numbers than usual, with excellent red and gag grouper fishing on the numerous wrecks of the lower Gulf as well. The redfish, cobia, and groupers will be found on structure, while the Spanish mackerel will roam the open Gulf following baits schools. Fortunately, there should be plenty of bait for them to follow, and that’s why they come—huge schools of threadfin herring and Spanish sardines winter in this area, attracting predators, birds, and fishermen. There’s a lot of life in the lower Gulf, and the fishing can be spectacular.
Last winter, I made many trips to the Gulf off of Cape Sable, the southwestern-most corner of mainland Florida, with variety fishing in mind. The game plan usually consisted of some running- and-gunning in the morning, looking for telltale signs of feeding mackerel, and they were always easy to find. Spanish mackerel don’t feed in a subtle manner and it never took long to locate a school.
WHERE TO LEAVE FROM, WHERE TO FISH?
You can easily reach the shallow waters of the lower Gulf of Mexico from several south Florida destinations, including Marco Island, Everglades City or Chokoloskee on the southwest coast, Flamingo in Everglades National Park at the extreme tip of mainland Florida, and Islamorada or Marathon in the Florida Keys.
It’s easy to find the feeding Spanish mackerel schools, but if you need some wreck numbers, get a copy of Chart #9F, Sanibel to the Lower Keys, from Waterproof Charts. This excellent chart lists dozens of wrecks and reefs along the southwest Florida coast, and with a little experimentation, you can find a productive fishing spot in no time. For more information, check out the following websites:
Marco Island information- www.marcoisland.com
Everglades City- www.floridaeverglades.com
Chokoloskee - www.chokoloskee.com
Flamingo - www.flamingolodge.com
Islamorada and Marathon- www.fla-keys.com
Waterproof Charts- www.waterproofcharts.com
The Spanish were thick about 6 to 8 miles off the beach all winter, and we almost always found them in relatively shallow water, from 15 to 25 feet deep. The large schools typically had feeding birds hovering frantically above them, dipping down to scoop up the terrified baitfish fleeing from the swarming mackerel below. In their efforts to eat the same bait, the mackerel crashed the surface repeatedly, and skyrocketed clear of the water’s surface time after time, so it didn’t take a genius to know where to fish.
We would idle up close to a school and put out a frozen block of chum, and then begin tossing out small handfuls of glass minnows, which we had thawed from a frozen block in a bucket of salt water on the way out.We would then anchor and the combination of the block chum and the glass minnows would keep the mackerel around our boat indefinitely, so we could cast to them.
LIGHT TACKLE FUN
Spanish mackerel make great light tackle targets, and we like to cast jigs to them on 6 and 8-pound-test spinning gear. It’s vital to use wire leaders because the mackerel have sharp teeth that make short work out of mono leaders, but fortunately, the mackerel rarely get leader-shy. I prefer Malin’s BOA Titanium wire, since it’s both extremely flexible and it also stretches a little, but any other flexible wire will work too, like Berkley’s Steelon. Some guys even use braided line in slightly heavier pound-tests as it holds up to the teeth pretty well, at least for a while.
Fly-fishing for Spanish mackerel works great too. All you need is a seven or eight-weight rod and a Clouser’s Minnow in green and white or blue and white, rigged on a wire shock tippet, and you’re in business.With either spin or fly gear, cast as far as you can from the boat and work the fly or lure back quickly, with a decidedly erratic motion, and the mackerel will come slashing after it right away.
If you’re fishing with kids, or people who aren’t adept at casting, take along a sabiki rig so you can catch bait from one of the numerous bait pods you’re almost certain to encounter on the way out. Mackerel attack live bait voraciously, it’s just that we prefer casting hardware at them. Live shrimp drifted under a small cork are deadly too, and will provide non-stop action for small children.
It’s possible to catch dozens of mackerel on a typical outing, and we release most of ours, but they make excellent table fare, and you can keep 15 fish per-person, per-day, although few people actually retain that many. And in the lower Gulf, you rarely have to worry about whether a Spanish will be big enough to keep—the fish run very large down there, and it’s rare to see a fish anywhere near the 12-inch minimum size limit. In fact, 5 and 6-pound Spanish aren’t uncommon, and we’ve caught several over 7 pounds.
If the mackerel fade away on you, it’s usually easy to find them again by simply repeating the entire process. Start looking for the birds again, or signs of feeding activity, and if neither can be found (a rare occurrence), look for those bait pods rippling the surface. Fishing around a pod of bait almost always produces a strike, and it pays to keep a live bait out on a slightly stouter rod, because smoker king mackerel lurk around those same bait pods, as do cobia.
COBIA AND REDFISH TOO!
The fall and winter months offer great fishing for cobia and large redfish in the Gulf too, but they’re harder to find than the mackerel. It can be hit-or-miss with those two species, but fortunately, you can combine your efforts on Spanish mackerel with those for cobia and reds by working structure in the Gulf.
If you have the numbers for one of the dozens of wrecks or natural reefs (see sidebar), and you find Spanish mackerel feeding close by, try to get anchored over the spot and chum the mackerel to it with glass minnows and block chum. Chances are the mackerel will already be all around many of these wrecks. Then, while some of your anglers fish for the mackerel, one or two others can drop a bait to the bottom in search of a cobia or large redfish.
Live pinfish soaked on the bottom on 20-pound-test with a 50- pound fluorocarbon leader almost always produce a strike from nearby reds or cobia, and I never go to the Gulf without at least a dozen pinfish in my livewell. Grouper, snapper, bluefish, and jack crevalle also eat pinfish enthusiastically, so they make great allaround bait for producing rod-bending action.
EXPERIMENT WITH STRUCTURE
You never know which wreck will hold what species until you try it, and many times the fish will pop up on the surface behind the boat, alerting you to their presence. Other times, you’ll never see them at all, only knowing they’re there when you finally catch one. If you’re intent on finding a big cobia or redfish, move from structure to structure until you do. Don’t linger on a wreck if it doesn’t produce after a half-hour or so.
The Gulf has produced some very large redfish for us over the past couple of years, all of them larger than the 27-inch maximum slot limit. Large schools settled on a couple of specific wrecks and stayed there for several months, and we found them consistently. But you can rely on finding cobia a lot more, even though they tend to move around quite a bit.
No matter where you fish, deploy a combination of techniques, one for bottom dwellers including reds, cobia, groupers, and just about everything else, and one for Spanish mackerel. It’s always possible, of course, that the Spanish mackerel will eat your cobia rod, and the giant redfish will jump on the 6-pound spinner meant for the mackerel, but that’s what makes the Gulf truly fascinating when the weather cools down.
For non-stop fishing action and incredible variety, there’s no better place to be, and the waters of the lower Gulf are seldom crowded, meaning you may just have all of that action all to yourself.