Captain's Report - November 7, 2003
by Capt. Dave Mistretta
All last month, anglers dreamed of cold fronts pushing great amounts of fish their way. Now that November has arrived the fish are here, but dreams will change. Colder weather is guaranteed. Just about every week possesses strong winds and rough seas related to a cold front. The trick for being successful during this ever changing month is to have a flexible game plan. Fishing between each front can be both rewarding for your back and the cooler. Easterly winds prevail after each frontal passage calming the seas for at least five or six miles. That's pretty much all the distance you'll have to travel for big gag grouper. Their winter migration is in full swing. With every passage of northern air the grouper keep moving closer to shore, swimming from one rock to the other, looking for a place to settle. After each move the fish are eager to eat making it a much easier task to bring home dinner.
Frozen sardines and squid start to play an important role when your bottom fishing. Water temps are dropping with every shot of cold air. As these temps get down towards the seventy degree mark, a piece of cut bait might be more appealing to a big grouper than a lively pinfish or grunt. Last month was a different story. It was a must to have a live well full of pinfish for bottom fishing. All an angler needs to do now is open the freezer and grab a couple of 5 lb. boxes of bait, drive only a few miles from shore and catch a grouper for dinner. This can only happen in Florida during November (in between cold fronts of course). Once the water temps drop below 68 degrees things will slow down, but probably not until Christmas.
If you're a diehard live bait angler and must have a few finfish swimming in your wells, I'll give you a great tip. Pinfish and grass grunts will start their own migration. Their movement is opposite of the grouper. As the grouper slide east the pins and grunts head west for the winter. They will clash about two miles from shore, but the small bait fish are not that dumb. They stay away from any rocky structure, making a safer home on the sandy bottom. There is plenty of small shrimp and crabs burrowing around on these underwater sand dunes to keep their bellies full. This gives a live bait angler the chance to fill up almost immediately. Look for the schools of bait smothering these edges with the sonar. Once located, throw over a few small pieces of cut squid. The entire school will swim straight up to you looking for more food. You can either toss a large cast net over them or use gold hook rigs, both are quite productive.
Now, just because the grouper don't live on the sand, doesn't mean there aren't other predators nearby. These massive clouds of bait fish attract some of the biggest smoker kingfish of year. Big kings use the edges of the sand and the hard (coral and rocks) to hunt. Forty pounders are a common sight in the same vicinities as the pinfish and grunts. They will swim deep and close the hard bottom, then, at speeds of more than thirty miles an hour, shoot out onto the sand and attack. You can either slow troll the edges by weaving from hard to sand. If anchoring is your game plan, position the boat on the sand with the baits directly over the edge. This way the first thing the big smoker sees will be your baited hooks.
The artificial reefs about ten miles from shore will also hold good numbers of kingfish for this entire month. Many of the macks will be schoolies size (10 pounds), but still a lot of fun. Occasionally a big fish will surprise you and be mixed in with the schoolies. Spanish sardines, cigar minnows and blue runners are an abundant food source held by the man made structures. Immediately after a big cold front, inshore waters can get pretty dirty. Many of the inshore kings will work their way out to these reefs in search of food. Some of the best November king fishing I can remember, happened at these locations after a big front had pushed by. Kingfish from all depths zoned in on the artificial reefs, devouring everything in sight for a day or two. As water clarity improves the kings spread back out in all directions.
Enjoy the blacktip sharks and cobia while it lasts, they will soon be gone. The sharks stay until water temps drop below 74 degrees. That will be about mid month. Cobias hang around a little longer, not heading south until temp's drops to seventy one, normally around Thanksgiving. These two game fish are sure to make an appearance if you're inshore grouper or king fishing, especially if you're anchored and chumming.
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