I'll be there October 1-10. I plan on catching slews of reds, specks, smacks, and if I get tired of that, I may turn to shark fishing. I think I'm going to deploy more live pinfish this year for reds, as those seem to get immediate attention. Of course I'll cast net for mullet too, but patiently waiting for a school and putting a good cast on them can be frustrating.

Yeah I know it is red hot in October. I plan on changing things up a little bit this year to. Going to concentrate on catching a wider variety of fish. Plan on trying more lures this year. Put some cracked crab out on more poles. Live piggies in surf at night. And going to try free line too. Definitely going to through out a rod with skipjack and just let it sit on the big rod. I can't wait to get out there. Not going to spend money on a boat trip this year. No need to. Between the four of us I think we can get our Pops on a lot of fish. This is my birthday present and our Pops Father's Day and birthday present. He looks forward to this every year. To get all of his boys to gather at one time. Doing what we love to do. Thanks for your help. This is going to help make this happy family tradition very successful. If you want to trade stories pm me at mikkimaus777@yahoo .com. Thanks again outdoorsman and cuda my name is Wes.
WoodyRed

Do you go a lot Lindsey

Are the horse mullet in the surf right now. When we went in mid October lat year we had trouble catching the big horse mullet,plus there was a size limit on them. But the year before we went in August and they were all in the surf,and no size limit.the problem was the sargassam was horrible. Last year we couldn't get the reds to bite finger mullet, but when we switched to horse mullet we caught em. Can anyone help me.
Thanks WoodyRed

I've been going once or twice a year for about 10 days at a time for 25 years or so. Granted, not all of it was spent fishing, but I have learned a great deal in the last 10 years or so, and I feel like I'm becoming less and less of an amateur every time I go. I've usually got the fish completely pegged by about my 4th day down there. It's frustrating when patterns you expect to see don't develop, and changing on the fly is still a challenge. But if you stick with it, you can usually start to nail 'em.

Hopefully, the strategies I have planned for this year will work earlier on, but I feel like I have the knowledge to adapt more appropriately now if I have to. Heck last year we were catching snook off the Caldwell. Who would have thought that? Now, I might expect a couple. I've noticed too that the fish prefer mullet in the fall. I couldn't give away live shrimp under a popping cork in proven spots last year, and it was baffling. Now I know not to even try, and just go straight to mullet or finny baits.

Lindsey, I have only seen one snook caught on HCP all the years I have fished there. And it was a little one caught by a tourist from Mexico. I convinced him that it was illegal to keep it and he let it go. I know they are there and on the jetties. Can you share how you caught them? Thanks in advance.

Gladly. It was mid September of last year. Hurricane Ingrid had things all funky. We were being pelted by episodic heavy rain bands, and the fish (for me anyway) were hard to locate. My buddy, a local, was throwing an electric chicken jig and caught a couple in the wade gut along the pilings on the north side throwing towards the bank. With having been basically skinned for the trip, I was not above potlicking my new friend. I started throwing a Reaction Strike 4.5" mullet in bubblegum/glow and started getting hits. It translated into 3 landed snook in the 14"16" range,a no-dot red, and probably another 3-4 snook that fell off the hook on the way up. Surprisingly, I failed to land a speck using that presentation that night. The saltwater never ceases to amaze me. I'll try to post pics of those catches.

Amazing! Thanks for the share! Would love to see some pics. Snook are in my species bucket list. would love to catch a keeper.

Just a few weeks ago, we had spent the day soaking slide baits and decided to hang out at the speck spot to see what the regulars were doing. There were lots of trout milling around mixed in with skipjacks. Quite few good ones were landed. Then I saw what looked like a red fish but it was real dark colored and was easily the biggest trout I had ever seen. My pb was 28.5" and this looked a lot bigger. Got me kinda stoked. Don't fish for trout much these days but I may try it on my next trip.