All Hail October!

Summertime is great, probably the most celebrated season of all. Kids love it because it signals the end of the school year. Adults love it because it’s the season of beaches and ballparks and family vacations. It is likely that more songs have been written about summer than all the other seasons combined. Seems everybody is excited to see summer coming, but toward the end it gets so dadblasted hot. Or is it our tolerance for summer heat wearing thin? Either way, fall cannot get here soon enough.

Fall is when days grow shorter, and the scorching temperatures of late summer begin to moderate. Coastal water temperatures will begin to cool; and herein lies the magic.

We are fishermen. Catching fish motivates us. The more we catch the more motivated we become, and the more fun we’re having.

Fall is also the time of great changes in our bays and estuaries – equinox tides, cooler weather, reduced fishing pressure, spawning and bait migrations – judging by the improvement in fishing success you could imagine that fish like the fall as much as we do.

Fall is also the season of serious decision making. Fishermen who are also bowhunters have a hard time deciding whether to sit in a tree or wade a reef. Wingshooters are torn between sitting in the shady edge of a sunflower field or sight-casting redfish on a shallow, grassy flat. Let’s don't even bring up the problems football can cause.

So, there you have it; fall is a wonderful season with a truckload of options. More than most of us can manage, when you get right down to it. Someday, when I get big, I hope to do a better job of prioritizing my fall calendar. Until then I’ll probably just go fishing and hunting a whole bunch of days and watch a lot of football games.

So, how might we go about getting in on this incredible fall fishing opportunity? To begin, the water temperature will no longer be pushing 90° on the flats by lunch time, which means leaving the dock at o-dark-thirty will no longer be strictly necessary. I won’t be doing it unless there’s a solunar feed happening right at daybreak, that’s for sure. Speaking of solunar tables and when to leave the dock, I will be flexible and try to be on the water in a likely spot thirty or forty minutes ahead of the predicted feeding period – whenever that might be – morning or afternoon.

Fishing a more leisurely schedule makes it easy to include family members, especially youngsters, which I heartily encourage doing as often as possible. Teach them to be good anglers and to respect the resources they are enjoying.