October Fishing

October in Crystal River can be very touch and go with fishing. Our cold fronts start to trickle in and the weather will go from 80 degrees and sunny to 50 degrees and foggy, over night. This october however, has been one for the books.

Knocking on wood as I type this* but our weather has been phenomenal; and the fishing even better! We had a short and sweet cool front roll in at the beginning of the month, which turned the trout bite from 0 to 100. Theres plenty of large healthy trout perusing the grass flats on the outgoing tide, and their bait of choice has been a root beer or pearl colored soft plastic.

Because the weather has been so cooperative, i’ve spent many days offshore on wrecks and ledges catching limits of Gag Grouper. If you haven’t experienced this yet, you’re missing out! Theres nothing better than almost getting yanked out of the boat by a 15lb fish that hits a hard trolling bait like a freight train.
Gag grouper season on the nature coast runs from june 1st and runs through december 31st. I’m currently booked through the end of November, but have availability in December.