The Best Fishing Day

Editor`s Note: Capt. Dan will be at the outside boat ramp Saturday, October 18 to ferry folks to the Open House on Seahorse Key, which takes place coinciding with the Seafood Festival. He`ll begin trips at 9 a.m. and continue through mid-afternoon.

I do believe October is the best month of the year for fishing Cedar Key. For the last four years, the 10th of October has stood out to be a great day to fish for me and my guests.

Last Friday the 10th was another excellent day angling the fish from Cedar Key. Our trip took place from 8:30 a.m. Until 1 p.m. High tide was at 11:00 a.m. I was hoping for a good start fishing the last two hours of the incoming tide. Didn`t happen.

Things didn`t get active until the first two hours of the outgoing tide. It took off real good, too. We anchored up at Deadmans Key thinking we`d snatch up a few redfish there. We fished the west side there with no luck, so I moved us around to the east side and the leader of our group, Winfrey Lane, 85 years young, hooked up with a 20-inch red fish we stowed in the cooler.

We had plenty of fresh shrimp and many GULP scented lures to use for bait, but the favorite was sliced up strips of pinfish we had caught earlier. Meat on the hood. I call it "redfish candy." They love it and it has been a redfish bait I have used since I was a boy.

That was the only action there at Deadmans Key. I wasn`t through with redfish yet. The tide was going out as I headed over to Seahorse Key and another oyster bar on a grassy point. On the way we crossed over some grassy areas with slight depressions on the bottom of two to three feet. I found one with a little redge and achored up. Right away we all had trout on. We caught more from 18 to 20 inches than smaller ones below the legal limit of 15 inches.

We tossed eight plump speckled trout into the fish box, then I continued over to the redfish hole at Seahorse. The tide was running out pretty hard now, so I anchored up accordingly and the guys tossed out some more pinfish strips along the edge of the oyster bar. I was hoping to bring a redfish home to the wife and cat, so I floated a large shrimp out over the bar. I set my rod down to help the men on the bow net their fish, when I heard Jerry on the stern holler, "you`ve got one!"

I was too busy up front, so he snatched up my rod and pulled alongside a 21-inch redfish I netted and hoisted over the side. In approximately eight minutes, we socked away three more redfish. Many times you fish for awhile and nothing happens, then the fish will school by and all of a sudden there`s action all around the boat and inside, too.

We ended up with eight speckled trout and four nice redfish. A really fine cooler of fresh Florida fish. Excellent table fare.

I`ve always held October 10th as a special day, it`s my momma`s birthday, as well as a great day of fishing the oyster bars and mangrove islands of Cedar Key.

Capt. Dan....call me at 352-486-1656 or email shanadan50@hotmail.com and check out my web page www.inshorefloridafishing.com for cool pics.