October in S.W. Florida once again. This month if you like to eat stone crab claws it opens the 15th at midnight. If you scuba dive you can go in at midnight to harvest these delicacies. It is fun and spooky at the same time and depends on how good of a dive light you have. LOL They like to hang around rocks and docks where they feel safe. Until out of the darkness comes some thing like the sun shining and they try to hide in any little crack to get away from the light. Warning if you try this wear gloves. They are not fast but they seem to grab you with the other claw when you are measuring the other one. The claw needs to be at least 2 ¾ in. to harvest. Check the FWC regulations as to how many you are allowed to have. This should be the time of year that you can find gags and red grouper in the fifty to eighty foot range where there is some ledges or good hard bottom. I like to start out with frozen baits and if you bring live bait then as the bite slows send some live ones down. It is a good practice to check in forty to fifty feet of water on your way out to catch some squirrel fish/sand perch to bring out with you. Keep the live ones alive in your well and if a few swallow the hook keep them on ice because they make great cut bait too. Some anglers like to drift for the red grouper. This is a good method but it takes a little extra weight to keep it down on the bottom. I personally like to anchor up on a spot and get things going by chumming and just getting the fish to bite. This attracts other species that may make the ride to the dock because they are good eating. Lane and mangrove snapper like these kind of areas too. You may find some porgies and maybe a trigger fish. While you are traveling out, keep your eyes out for birds searching for food, they tend to fly high in the sky as they search and if there is something there to eat they will be very close to the surface of the water. This could be some Spanish or king mackerel, maybe a tuna or bonito. If you see flying fish there maybe a sailfish around the area, if you have some small blue runners or jacks alive hook one and send it out to draw one to it. If you have enough grouper or snapper you could set up some rods and troll back in the direction you are returning to. This is productive and you are fishing as you travel back toward land to add to your bounty. Also this is the time of year you may encounter the school reds/red drum close to the shore searching for food to fatten up to return to the Gulf to breed. These are the ones that are usually over the twenty seven inch limit but are fun to catch. Back in the day we called it RED October, we will see after the red tide last year. If you would like to come along with Capt. Bart to experience S.W. Florida fishing and make some memories, call 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com  A phone call will get you a quicker response than e-mail. And always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{

Hello fellow anglers. October in S.W. Florida and it has been a long hot summer. This month the waters should start to cool down and the migratory species should start moving south with the large schools of bait moving too. the Spanish and king mackerel will be close by. One way to target the kings is to slowly troll with blue runners, small jackfish or big threadfin herring. This is most productive around the schools of bait and trolling around the edges or some of the artificial reefs along the coast where the bait has gathered up. Doing this type of trolling you may also get tangled up with a cobia too. Doing some bottom fishing on some small ledges or hard bottom, you can find gags and red grouper along with mangrove snapper in the fifty to seventy foot range. If you find some hard bottom with some soft corals growing, you should be able to find some nice lane snapper. The way I like to start bottom fishing is with the frozen baits like squid, Spanish sardines or shrimp. Also if you have a live well, on your way out you can stop over sandy bottom and catch some squirrel fish/sand perch. The squirrel fish you hook in the stomach throw in the cooler because they are great cut bait for grouper and the live ones keep in the well. After you have started a good bite and it slows a bit then send down the live baits. This works well feeding the small fish and then sending down a live whole meal for the bigger guys. Just make sure you are ready because they will grab it and head for cover. This is where you cannot let them win. If they get to the ledge, it is all over. It is difficult but the first five feet is critical to keep there head facing the surface and you stay in control. If the spot you are fishing holds mangrove snapper, they will take a live bait and usually they are much larger.  They are great eating and give a good fight. This time of year we call Red October, when the bull reds migrate to shore to feed. They will come all the way into the Harbor to fatten up for the migration offshore to spawn. This will let us know how bad the reds were affected by the red tide last year. These are usually over the twenty seven inch limit but they are fun to catch and release. This will be the first season that we have an offshore boat available in our fleet. It is a SCARAB Sport thirty foot long with a cuddy cabin with a porta potty for the ladies. This boat runs twenty five to thirty knots and I can get out there in a short time. On a eight hour trip we can fish in the thirty mile range. This gives you more fishing time and less riding, but this depends on the wave conditions. So if you would like to bring a group of  up to six anglers, give Capt. Bart Marx a call 941-979-6517 or e-mail captbart@alphaomegacharters.com  phone calls will get a quicker response. And always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{