October 2017 Port Canaveral Florida Fishing Report

Other than a couple stellar trips near shore and a couple great cobia trips let’s just pretend September didn’t happen. Hurricane Irma and the sea conditions produced by every other storm pretty well shut us down the entire month.

Near shore will be the light that shines in the darkness for the beginning of October. The beach and very close structure may be the only place to catch anything at least for the first couple weeks of the month. The bull reds will be here in force. They show like clockwork around the second to third week of October. They will be in huge schools kicking up mud if you can see mud in mud :). You will also find them on any unique bottom formation such as roll downs or structure but what you really want is the bait. We will continue to have great action in the surf, jetties, piers and harbor structure for snook, mangroves, black drum and sheep head. The mullet run is still happening so we should have some nice black tip and spinner sharks right along the beach also. Honestly if you are considering a half day trip the first couple weeks of October or you are looking to take friends and family on your own boat then do yourself a solid and stay close. Stay very close, not only will you save fuel and get more fishing time, you will actually catch something.

I’m not working for any of the professional fishing report magazines, forums or shows so I have the privilege to just be honest and say I don’t know. Sea Leveler historical data shows that if we can find clean water we have a decent shot at some mahi action and a few black fin tuna and sail fish in the mix. Our amberjack fishing should be decent and we can have some good action from vermilion snappers and trigger fish but that will be toward the later part of the month. I don’t think it is official yet but we should have a few 3 day weekends toward the end of the month that we can keep 1 red snapper per person. That actually wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do right now with the trashed water but by the end of the month it shouldn’t be a problem for anyone to get the their limit of 1 decent red snapper per person for the dinner table. October is going to be a tough month for offshore but like I said I don’t really know. I hope everyone gets out there and proves me wrong. The years we have went into the month of October without storms have had some fantastic fishing. Bottom line is we need at least a solid week of calm seas to get things right.

Captain Greg has been fishing the waters of Port Canaveral and the Atlantic for over 30 years. He has the largest and most highly rated private charter business in Port Canaveral, Sea Leveler Sport Fishing Charters. Greg and his team of full time captains fish well over 200 days each per year. We have kept detailed catch history for every trip ran since 2010. You can access this history at www.sealeveler.com/reports.  His engineer wife, Amber, has analyzed the catch history along with other historical data such as water temperature and weather patterns. Greg uses his fishing experience and knowledge along with his wife’s statistical analysis to bring you the best fishing report available for Port Canaveral. Greg will give you the honest truth on how the fishing has been along with his best prediction of what to expect by using all of this information.