By Capt. GEORGE TUNISON

The door is quickly closing, so get on the water soon to catch the tail end of local tarpon fishing and redfish schooling season. Although Southwest Florida has resident tarpon and redfishing year-round, fall brings the redfish gang all together for a flats schooling bonanza as the immature reds (those under 32 inches) and some larger adults gather or school in shallow water eating everything in sight, till falling water temperatures put an end to the party, usually sometime in November.

By then most migratory tarpon have headed south and local redfish schools have broken apart with the larger fish moving offshore for the winter, sometimes forming massive schools which are often seen by boats heading offshore, reef fishing or trolling. Immature reds stay behind, providing sight fishing opportunities throughout Southwest Florida’s clear water, cold period.

Like tarpon, redfish live for many years and a big bruiser or bull red may be over 50 years old.

Reds are definite chowhounds, especially during the fall spawning season, and are taken with live and dead baits as well as lures and flies. Spoons, soft plastic paddle tails on light jig heads, slowly fished shrimp fakes, and topwater plugs, are all standard redfish fare. One lure commonly Southwest Florida anglers, is the old-fashioned, largemouth bass spinnerbait.

Fly rodders score with gold spoon flies and lightly weighted streamers with the hook riding upwards. Big popping bugs will also result in explosive surface strikes. Due to a red’s mouth position, these fish will often miss a surface plug on the first try. If attacked and missed, and even though your plug is now understandably very freighted, don’t stop the lure, keep retrieving it at the same pace. Often a red will try several times before finding the hook. Stop the retrieve, it’s typically game over.

If you are the use-bait-sit-and-wait angler, rigging up is simple. You can simply tie a jighead to the end of your line, bait it and toss it out. I prefer a sliding fish-finder type rig which is safer for the fish because it utilizes circle hooks. First, add a 1/4 oz. sliding egg type sinker to your line, then capture it with a quality swivel tied to the end. Now, add your leader material to the swivel which needn’t be long, usually 12 to 18 inches is plenty. A 1/0 – 3/0 light wire circle hook completes the outfit for local reds.

With a keen nose and insatiable appetite, redfish are always one of the hungriest fish on the flats. Even with circle hooks, baits are typically deeply swallowed; often still gut-hooking the fish. Most times novice anglers have trouble detecting the strike caused by not paying close attention to the line. By the time they realize the fish is on, it’s swallowed the bait and is far back under the dock or mangroves, typically breaking the line and often killing the fish.

Adding a small float adds a visual cue helping these anglers react more quickly saving the fish from breaking off on the cover and from being gut-hooked.

To minimize gut-hooking and delayed mortality, I’ve switched to barbless hooks when bait/bottom fishing for reds and have not lost a single fish because the barb was missing and, I’ve saved quite a few deeply hooked fish that normally wouldn’t have survived, due to barb damage.

For the travelling flats angler looking for one of fishing’s greatest challenges, head a few hours south to Miami and Biscayne Bay, where the door is also closing on the hot, fall permit and bonefish angling.

Just like our resident Southwest Florida tarpon and redfish, permit and bone fishing in Biscayne Bay is also year-round, but fall hosts some of the best skinny water, sight-fishing of the whole year, for these top prize flats targets.

Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at 239-282-9434 or captgeorget3@aol.com.