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Captain's corner

By MIKE MANNING

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 5, 2000

October is one of the best months for fishing on Florida's west coast. Gulf water temperatures start to cool, which sparks the fish to feed.

David Park of Oregon agrees. His day of fishing had plenty of action.

The areas where we caught our fish had similar characteristics. We fished outside points and inside creeks, which all had rock piles or oyster bars with moving current.

Fish were caught on the incoming and outgoing tide.

We didn't catch a lot of fish in one spot. We moved frequently, catching fish and moving to our next destination.

Our bait of choice was large greenbacks. We free-lined the bait in deeper water (over 4 feet) and used a floater in shallow water. The float kept our bait out of the grass or rocks and in line for the strike zone.

We used 10-pound test tackle with a 25-pound fluorocarbon leader. The leader, which is invisible to fish, improved the strikes. Park would catch a snook on one cast and a redfish on the next.

We caught 20 snook and 17 redfish on a great day of fall flats fishing.

- Mike Manning charters out of Port Richey. Call (727) 848-0795.

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