The water has cooled a little, the days have definitely gotten shorter and the early fall pattern is here. A lot less finger mullet around in most areas then before, less of the little bait rippers and less bait around in general. The shrimp that are around seem to be smaller then usual so a 3 inch shrimp imitation would be better then a 4 in most waters right now. Little minnows are starting to be a big part of the diet and are good to imitate right now. Most of the finger mullet left around are in the 5 inch range, though some smaller 3 inch are around. So this leaves you with the option to go big or go for big numbers. Small baits and shrimp will have you catching a lot more fish but the big fish know this is the time to feed on the bigger baits like larger finger mullets and medium, spot, croaker, perch etc. It’s also a good time to try to drown a fiddler and with the shellfish beds open it’s also a good time to get some shellfish for dinner bait and use it for bait if you have the skills and techniques. The crabs are still around pretty thick so there is really nothing stopping you from the full seafood platter.
Did a short flounder trip and got 1 but did a short flats trip the day before and caught about 6 reds and 2 dink flounder and kept getting short strikes from perch and baby flounder. Watched one chase my bait all the way to my rod tip, little guy just wasn’t big or fast enough. I’ve heard fish like to follow baits for a long ways but he followed it hitting it the entire cast.
This guy coughed up a 6 inch finger mullet half digested and hit my 5 inch finger mullet.
Not really that big of a flounder and look at the size of the mouth when open. Caught in 6-8ft of water and it instantly ran up to the surface and jumped.
