One of best months slipped past me

If you are an avid angler or simply an outdoors lover, then maybe you feel like I do about October.

There are two months in the year that I forward to more than all the rest combined — those being May and October. I see them as “transitional” months when anything is possible. In May, the water temperature reaches that magical mark that brings in the best of the best fish — cobia, wahoo, mahi, marlin and the list just goes on and on. Then comes October when everything with fins or flippers is on the move. Some coming, others going and when they bump into each other, it’s like a clash of the titans.

So why am I writing about this? I am embarrassed to say that because of the storm, I just realized we are now in November and I feel like I totally missed out on October, one month I look forward to more than any other, even May. I haven’t made it offshore, I haven’t made it inshore and, in the proces,s have probably missed out on the best fishing, shrimping and crabbing of the entire year.

Lord willing, hopefully that is all about to change. I still have trees that need to come down and a dock that needs fixing, but I have come to the conclusion that those things can wait. They might need healing but, this time around, I need healing even more.

You have heard me say that nature is my church, and my plan is to make every day a Sunday.

So what caused this revelation of sorts? On Thursday, I began my day with a meeting on Hilton Head and, after that meeting, I decided to drive around to take a look at how the cleanup was coming along.

I had seen most areas of Hilton Head except Sea Pines, so, seeing how that is where I grew up, I decided to head there and take a look at some of the lagoons that hold huge redfish, flounder and other saltwater species. The tide was high and, because the lagoons are all inter-connected to the ocean, I just wanted to see if big reds were nose first into the flow of salt water that pours in at the top of the tide. What I found was shocking.

At nearly every one of my “honey holes,” there was so much storm damage and debris that hardly a trickle of water was making it through. If I were a first-time visitor to Sea Pines, I would have sworn the hurricane came through the previous day. It was on the way home that I made a decision, and that was to say, “The hell with all this. I’m going fishing!”

I may not have fished more than an hour or two these past few weeks, but I have tried to keep up with what’s biting and where. Since we haven’t had any serious cold weather yet, I am dying to get offshore because the trigger fish and grouper bite has to be good. About the only person I know that has made it out told me that he ran into storm debris and parts of docks around 30 miles offshore, and these items were covered with trigger fish and big triple tails.

Nearer to shore, the bull redfish are schooled up and, even though you can’t keep them, they are an absolute hoot to catch, especially on light tackle. Chunks of mullet pretty much guarantee you’ll catch them, but use circle hooks when fishing for these bruisers. Circle hooks eliminate gut hooking and, almost without exception, these hooks will hook them in the corner of their jaw.

Remember, these are the breeders, so handle them as little as possible and when releasing them, hold them by the tail and gently wiggle them back and forth until they try to pull away and only then do you release your grip.

Probably the hottest inshore fishing right now is trout — lots and lots of trout. You don’t have to have live shrimp because at this time of the year artificials work just as well.

My preference is a white or natural colored DOA shrimp imitation under a red Cajun Thunder cork. Why red? For whatever reason, they just seem to outfish green or yellow corks. Also effective are chartreuse screwtails, white GULP! tails and, believe it or not, topwater plugs like a Zara Spook. You may not catch as many trout on topwater lures, but the ones you do catch are generally bigger fish.

Hopefully by next week, the weather will let me get out on the water and I can give you some firsthand accounts.

Lastly, I want to talk trees. Just so you know, I loathe pine trees. I know that sounds rather severe, but after seeing what happened after Hurricane Hugo and now with Matthew, I am sure many of you now share my distaste for pine trees. Also, I have watched so many of our hardwood forests leveled so that pines can be planted for the timber industry.

If you walk into a pine forest, you’ll notice it’s extremely quiet. That’s because there’s no wildlife. On the other hand, hardwood forests teem with critters.

So now that you have a lot less shade, plant a hardwood. Live oaks are my choice, or if you want a fast grower try a river birch. They’re beautiful, they can handle storms and wildlife love them.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 9:04 PM with the headline "One of best months slipped past me."