September is a great month to fish here in the Panhandle. Mature pilchard schools blanket many flats throughout the bays and provide much-needed forage for inshore game fish. Look for speckled trout, redfish, mangrove snapper, Spanish mackerel; they like to be near these schools of bait. A couple of throws with a cast net can load up your livewell and provide hours of fast-paced action.
Topwater and surface lures fished over shallow grass flats have done very well early in the morning. During the day I’ve been switching to jigs and soft plastics fished in potholes and sandbars. On high tides, look for redfish to be laying up or cruising right along the shoreline and in flooded reed beds, tidal creeks, and throughout the shallows. As the tide drops out, I switch to looking for redfish in holes on the flats as well as docks and other medium-depth structures.
Some of the bigger speckled trout will oftentimes be found in the same environments as redfish and can be caught using similar tactics. The bulk of the trout I have been catching, however, have been on broken bottom or grass flats about 2–4 ft of water using jigs and shrimp patterns. Depressions carved out from current running over points is another great type of area to look for schools of trout to stack up. Keep in mind that more often than not trout are in at least a small group of fish, so if you catch one there are likely more around.
There are still some good redfish being caught around the bridges and in the pass. Outgoing tides are the best shot to get fish feeding on the surface. This time of year look for some tarpon to be mixed in around the bridges as well. They often end up in the bay in the fall chasing big bait pods, and this year is no different. While you may see these fish rolling on the surface, more often than not they will be feeding on the bottom. I typically use soft plastic-style jerkbaits or swimbaits to target the tarpon, but they will eat all kinds of live baits as well.
There are a ton of different kinds of fish you can catch on structures right now around the bay. Monster mangrove snapper, grouper, red snapper, redfish, black drum, flounder, and the list just goes on. When and how you fish a particular structure will kind of determine how many of those species you will actually get to catch. Fish like snapper and redfish will come up in the water column so you can catch them on flatlined or lightly weighted rigs, whereas the flounder like to be down on the bottom. Grouper can be caught trolling big plugs or by dropping big baits down on the bottom near the structure.
Lastly along the beaches as it cools off look for the pompano to start running along the shore in the surf. Walking the beach with a jig is a good way to be active, get some exercise, and catch dinner in the process. Or you can set up a chair, chunk a couple of rods out with sand fleas, drink a cold one, and wait for them to come by. Both tactics are effective and enjoyable.
Good luck! If you have additional questions about what’s biting, how to catch them, or if you’d like to book a trip, I encourage you to give me a call or shoot me an email.
