September winds can make catching scattered specks tough
Mother Nature unfortunately doesn’t always cooperate for fishermen, and that forces anglers to change their patterns this time of year, according to Hopedale guide Capt. Charlie Thomason.
“We’re going to start getting a lot of winds in September, so the pattern starts to be where we want to still be fishing out in the Sound or Black Bay, but the wind and weather is going to drive us into having to start fishing toward the inside,” he said.
Speckled trout are hard to come by this time of year. They become sparse and scattered, and Thomason usually only catches a few.
“Because of (the weather), the trout fishing is going to be kind of canceled out because the trout won’t be moving in; they’ll still be outside,” he said.
Instead of fighting the trout battle, the veteran guide spends his time focusing on redfish.
And a big key to red success this time of year is knowing how to fish a hard tide.
“Normally, we have a lot of east and southeast winds that start blowing, so you’ll start getting these harder incoming tides, so you’ll be looking for banks where the water runs along those banks,” Thomason said.
Focusing on banks with defined points — but not spending too much time on them, is key.
“In September, you stop, use your Power-Poles, fish a little bit, and just move up like two boat lengths and stop again,” he said. “They’re not going to stack up really heavily because there’s so much water movement they’re not going to hang together; they’re going to be a little bit scattered.”
On these points, Thomason throws live shrimp threaded on a jighead.
“Threading the shrimp on keeps them on the hook better, whereas if you just had it through the horn, as you’re popping it and fighting that current, it rips those shrimp off,” he said.
He’s a huge fan of the Versamaxx line of corks, and he likes the Hybrid style this month.
“It floats kind of high in the water, and it produces a really high-pitched sound that the fish that are around will pick up,” he said.
