Biscayne Bay fishing

22 Oct Biscayne Bay fishing

Biscayne Bay fishing

The entire estate of Florida just went through one of the worst natural disasters to date in recent history: the Hurricane Irma. After causing havoc and total destruction in the Caribbean, The Giant storm entered the Florida Keys as a Category four hurricane, then went over the whole state as a category three and still left as a powerful tropical storm, bringing Florida plus four more other states to their knees.

Flooding, lost of power, property damages, fallen trees among other issues were the aftermath of Irma’s path. The Florida Keys, most specially the lower keys suffered substantial damage and destruction and were the most affected area in the state of Florida.

Hurricane aftermath

I’m blessed and happy to say that nothing happened to my property and fishing vessels. It took me at least 10 days after the hurricane before I was able to get back on the water to assess all the changes that the storm made to the fishery.

As far as Biscayne bay, the most visible changes happened in the ocean side shorelines, where the storm surge almost pushed the shoreline in, destroying some of the vegetation and dumping more sand, sediment and debris into the shores.

As result, most ocean side shorelines now have bigger and wider sandbars. It will take some time before this new shoreline and bottom configurations begin to hold crustaceans, sea worms bait fish and such, whom will start to bring the permit, bonefish and tarpon back to their feeding grounds. As far as the inside and bayside flats, no major changes were noted.

The bait migration in Biscayne bay

As per the fishing, the fall bait migration is in full force and with the bait, the tarpon and snook have been actively feeding along the shorelines and bays. We have had some very good days catching good numbers of baby to mid size tarpon and some snook in Biscayne Bay. Find the bait and the predators won’t be too far behind.

King tides

Fall Time comes with the biggest tides of the year. Like I have said before, Big tides can be negative or very positive for fishing, as long as you know how to utilize them in your favor.

Permit love big tides and strong current. with the right weather conditions and visibility, the fall can be a great time to encounter big numbers of big permit feeding on the flats. The permit fishing has been great when the right tide conditions have lined up with clear skies and moderately light winds.

Bonefish, snappers and Barracuda

Bonefishing can be a bit tough in the fall due to big tides. These strong tidal periods send the fish to areas that they don’t normally access due to lack of water and food. Do your homework finding those places and you will find bonefish. You will also see fish actively mudding during the lowest stages of the tides.

This is also a great time to fish for big mangrove snapper, big mutton snapper and barracuda. A live well full of pilchards or finger mullet always gets the job done.

As we get into November, we will soon be making the transition into winter time. The first cold fronts will start to move in and with that, some other great fishing opportunities and scenarios will open up.

That’s it for now. Go fishing and take the kids with you!

Jason Townsend with his first Permit ever | Biscayne Bay fishing

Father, son and permit | Biscayne Bay fishing

Biscayne Bay fishing

Biscayne Tarpon – Biscayne Bay fishing

Capt Alex with a beautiful Biscayne bay Tarpon caught on fly