When we finally made it out of last winters clutches, I would have never thought I would be saying that I was ready for a cool down. But after the hottest summer on record that is exactly what I am looking for! I’m pretty sure that I am not alone in my quest either. While we did have a very productive summer the fishing seemed to tapper off a bit in August and the first part of September. The heat finally got to both fish and fishermen, but right on schedule mother nature sent us a reprieve. The first cold fronts started to find there way through the state around the 3rd week of September. And with the cool winds came longer nights and cooler water temperatures. All that together got the attention of many of our inshore and near-shore species, and they began to get ready to feed! 
On several of the trips I ran early in September we looked for Trout and Spanish Mackerel around all the passes from Anclote down to Honeymoon, and most of the time as long as the water was moving they were pretty easy to find. Along with the trout and Mackerel there were always a few small sharks and even a few Cobia. Live bait was always the best choice and just freelining them back into the current was just about alway met with a strike. When we got to the highest part of the tide it was time to look for redfish. All summer we have had pretty good numbers of reds around the trick was getting them to eat. Cut bait around most of the grass bars would get you a few, but it was tough going for a few bites.
The past two weeks have really seen alot of life start to come back to the flats though. The water has cooled down a few degrees and the mullet have started to school up in big numbers. I have been fishing these mullet schools on the last of the incoming until the first couple hours of the outgoing. The reds and trout have started to use the schools of mullet for there feeding pattern and we were even able to catch a few snook out of them.
The next 6 weeks should be awesome, the bait is as thick as I have seen it and the fronts are starting to cool the days. The Kingfish and cobia will be here soon along with all the others that follow the bait for a living. Fall has arrived so get ready to get out and do some great fishing.
Lets go fishing,
