Fall is my favorite time of the year to fish in southwest Florida, and November didn’t let me down. The redfish bite was excellent in Charlotte Harbor. Anglers enjoyed catching good numbers on D.O.A. Cal Shad Tails and Zoom Super Fluke. Snook was the name of the game - they were feeding strong as they moved off the beaches onto the flats and gorging themselves to prepare for winter. My client Doug Piatt, from the Ormond Beach area, bought a new bay boat and wanted a little refresher in running and fishing Charlotte Harbor so I ran his boat for a 4-hour trip. We started on the deeper flats while waiting for the tide to come in and his son Spence caught a beautiful 37-inch snook on his second cast of the day on a Red and Gold D.O.A Cal Shad Tail. It was a great catch, and he might be chasing another fish like that for a while! He is a awesome fisherman and also banged up some wild rainbow and brook trout with me this summer in NC. We caught a mix bag of trout and lady fish until the tide came in. Then we headed into the back county where we caught a number of large snook and a red fish on soft plastics and live pin fish. Captain Ed Hurst and I took a fly fishing trip to Idaho and Wyoming in October and we had the pleasure of floating the North Platte River. We had a great guide, Mike “Hack” Patterson, the owner of Hack’s Tackle and Outfitters in Saratoga, Wyoming. It was my first trip to that area, and the trout fishing and scenery were fantastic. I was able to return the favor when Mike and Captain Ed Hurst fished Charlotte Harbor with me this month. Fly fishing conditions were pretty tough with winds at 20 knots ad cloudy skies. While we didn’t land any trophys, we caught numerous juvenile snook, mangrove and mutten, snapper, trout, jacks and ladyfish on Clouser and Deceiver flies. We also got a good laugh at the number of blowfish hitting our flies. Anglers fishing Charlotte Harbor continued to catch redfish snook, pompano, trout, flounder, jacks and ladyfish. All on of D.O.A. Cal Shad Tails, Deadly Combos and Zoom Super Flukes. In Sarasota, the sheepshead bite turned on catching them along the bridge and dock pilings on live shrimp. Anglers fishing with me drifting the deep flats caught a mixed bag of blue fish, trout, ladyfish, jacks and some mackerel later in the month. The fish were caught and released using D.O.A. Cal Shad tails and deep Clouser Minnow flies. In the shallower flats and around docks we caught and released redfish and a few snook as they moved off the beaches onto the flats, transitioning to their winter holding spots.