October 2025 Fishing Report – Boca Grande, Fl

Fishing in October 2025 looks promising. For the first time in years, summer passed without a major hurricane. The water in Southwest Florida is beautiful, and the recent cooler temperatures have brought excellent fishing. Anglers are catching redfish, snook, tarpon, trout, snapper, and some pompano. October is one of the best months for inshore fishing here in Southwest Florida. The fall bite is excellent right now, and will stay good through October

Family time redfish

• Redfish can be caught and harvested year-round in Southwest Florida with a slot limit of 18″-27″ and a 2 fish per boat limit.
• The redfish have been schooling up for the last month or so, and this trend is expected to continue through October. Fishing big schools of reds is one of the reasons they call it “Red October” here in Boca Grande and the surrounding area. I have been using a combination of artificial baits such as a  Johnson Silver Minnow (great for covering grass flats) and a Berkley J-Walker (effective for surface strikes), along with live sardines and pinfish, which work well for chumming once schools are located. The artificial baits help me and my clients cover vast amounts of water to discover where the redfish schools are. Once we locate them, we start live chumming to keep them in the area. This technique vastly increases the number of fish we can catch, and catching 30-50 fish is pretty common.
• Look for redfish up tight to the mangroves on high water in the Whidden Creek and Bulls Bay areas, around the oyster bars in Turtle Bay, and around the oysters on the east side. On low water, look on the outside of the sandbars in front of Turtle Bay and Burnt Store Marina.

 

October snook in Boca Grande

Snook

Fall Time Tarpon

Nice October trout

• Spotted Seatrout can be caught and harvested year-round in Southwest Florida with a 3 fish per person bag limit and one fish over 19″.
• Trout fishing has been steady along the outer bars and deep grass flats in Pine Island Sound and Gasparilla Sound. Look for bait pods in 3-5 ft of water and start fishing. Live sardines are hard to beat right now, but I seem to be getting more big fish on the Gulp Dragon Tail in the Key Lime Chrome and Big Money colors.

Snapper at the table.

• There is no closed season for mangrove snapper in Southwest Florida. Inshore anglers must adhere to a 10″ minimum size limit and 5 fish per person in state waters.
• Snapper fishing remains pretty good, but it has definitely slowed down from last month. Look for snapper around any structure, especially closer to the passes, as they begin to move offshore for the rest of the fall and winter. I love to target snapper this time of year and I have been eating a lot of fish.
• Live sardines and shrimp are working best. Chumming is very effective, so you may want to grab a chum block and some extra shrimp.

• Pompano can be caught and harvested year-round in Southwest Florida with a 6 fish per person bag limit and 11″ minimum fork length.
• Pompano are migratory, and one of the best times here in Boca Grande is Fall, from September through November.
• Pompano jigs in pink and white have been working the best recently. You can also tip the jig with shrimp if the fish are being picky.
• Look for pompano along the sand bars and beaches. Target the ares with deeper troughs that parallel the bar or shoreline.

• King Mackerel are open for harvest year-round with a 3 fish per person per day limit and a minimum size limit of 24 inches fork length.
• Spanish Mackerel are open for harvest year-round with a 15 fish per person per day limit and a minimum size limit of 12 inches fork length.
• Time to bust out the smoker and make some fish dip! King and Spanish Mackerel have begun to show up along Boca Grande beach and North towards Venice. Nearshore fishing for Mackerel and other species is going to improve as we move into November. Slow trolling with live Threadfin Herring and Silver Mullet is deadly for King Mackerel. Spanish mackerel love live sardines, and chumming them up around nearshore structure and the passes works extremely well. Trolling small Clark spoons is also a great technique.