November started out a little rough on the fishing scene as Hurricane Sandy skirted the east coast bringing some very strong winds to Florida. That was followed by a cool front which really slowed the action for several days.
We adjusted to the conditions for a few days, targeting redfish with to jigs and live shrimp instead of the live sardines that had been the norm. It paid of pretty well on several trips, with some decent numbers of reds being caught. These were all slot fish in the 22 to 24 inch range. Last Thursday afternoon, Jay Sandza and Tom Iverson managed to boat ten nice redfish fishing the oyster laden shorelines of Rookery Bay. The reds took Berkley Gulp shrimp on 1/4 oz. jigheads as well as live shrimp.
As the waters settled down by last weekend, the sardines showed up again in large numbers. I fished the annual two day Redsnook tournament with Doug Poe and Jim McGuire. Despite good bait being plentiful, we found the fishing to be off on the first day with only small snook to 25 inches and reds to 23 filling our card. A family medical emergency forced Jim to head back to Alabama after day one. We recruited my son Capt. Ben Geroy to fill in on day two. Fishing turned out a little better filling the card with reds to 23 inches and a 31 inch snook caught at the last spot by Ben. We ended up 6th in the field. A good time to benefit the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
Fishing improved the last two days with some larger redfish to 26 inches being boated on each trip as well as some good snook action with fish ranging to 27 inches. Joe McGurrin boated this nice 26 inch red on Monday morning…
Another cool front is moving through today as I write this and I expect the pompano and sea trout action to heat up after it’s passing. Cooler waters usually move these fish into the backwaters in November. I have a very busy month ahead and am looking forward to some great days on the water!
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