Where to Find the Hottest Fall Fishing Action
Fall is here, and as the calendar moves on, so do the fish. As summer winds down and weather and water temperature changes begin, migration patterns are in full effect, meaning the fish are on-the-move. Knowing where to fish and what to target will ensure an active fall fishing window ahead of the big Bahamas wahoo tournaments in November (such as Bimini Wahoo Mayhem, Wahoo Smackdown) and the Costa Rica billfish tournaments starting back up in January. We caught up with HMY Yacht Sales Professional Brian Komer to get the skinny on where you can find the hot action, offshore and inshore, during fall. Born in North Miami and raised in Palm Beach County, Brian grew up backcountry fishing with his family in the Florida Keys which quickly progressed into his love for offshore fishing, especially in south Florida. He may be slightly location-biased, but he’s not wrong when he says, during fall, “South Florida and down into the Keys is a major hot spot.”WHERE TO FISH & WHAT SPECIES TO TARGET
Florida
Florida—particularly on the east coast, from central Florida in places such as Fort Pierce and Cape Canaveral, south to the Keys—is unsurprisingly still a hotbed of activity in the fall. The main attractions are the hard-charging sailfish and they deservedly get tons of attention. The tournament circuits (live bait, dead bait, anything goes) kick off the first week of November and run through April, from Palm Beach down to the Keys (following the migratory pattern down the narrow continental shelf).
Brian loves this time of year in south Florida because, in addition to sailfish, anglers have a chance to catch a wide variety of sportfish, including cobia, dolphin, blackfin and yellowfin tuna, and wahoo.
Mid-Atlantic
If you’re looking for marlin, this is your honey hole. Brian says the white marlin fishing here, particularly around New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, is phenomenal and overall, it’s been a crazy season.
Northeast
In a previous article, HMY Yacht Sales Professional Mike McCarthy detailed the insane summer season around the Northeast canyons, with a particularly epic tuna bite.
Dominican Republic & Mexico
