Florida Fishing & Hunting in Late September

[fishslap]

My wife is house sitting in Orlando in late September and wants me to hang out with her for all or part of the time. Not sure I want to yet. I don’t have a hunt planned during the period but was going to try for a returned CO muzzleloader elk tag. Things that interest me in Florida are:
-Fly fishing for exotics such as Mayan cichlids, tilapia, and peacocks in that order.
-Shooting some iguana

Should I go for a few weeks? Any guide recommendations for the activities above? I don’t mind driving a few hours south either. I can work remotely and taking some vacation day time isn’t an issue.

Any other hunting/fishing I should consider that time of year?

 

[effinalders]

I lived in North Florida for a long time. One of the things that I always wanted to do, but never got around to is Tarpon Fishing. There should still be some in Boca Grande during that time frame, but the height of the season has passed, so it probably won't be as crowded.

I can't really advise on the things you listed as I never fished South Florida.

 

[dribeerfeht]

Relocated Floridian here...use the Florida Sportsman (magazine) website for good info. I'm from Jupiter FL, but have hunted (deer, hogs, birds) and fished (fresh, salt, and everything in between) all over the state....still do when I can.

 

[effinalders]

I loved Florida Sportsman when I lived there. I thought about mentioning it in my post, but wasn't sure if it was still in publication. If it has a searchable database or old editions that you could look through it might be worth signing up. I remember that it used to have breakdowns of best options by region each month. You could probably look at previous years editions for the time period you are thinking about going down there to get some ideas.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Go fly fishing for tarpon, that’s all I’d do if I lived in Florida.

 

[dribeerfeht]

Go fly fishing for tarpon, that’s all I’d do if I lived in Florida.

Love to sight fish! Especially Tarpon and snook. Fall bait run should start that time of year causing all kinds of havoc on the beaches and inshore. Fall shrimp should start too. Lots of opportunities!

 

[young7.3]

We were in Florida for 5 weeks and I discovered flounder spearing. We were in Carabelle on a private beach but Im sure you can do a little research and find some spots.

Essentially, you walk the shallows at night with a light and spear and gig the flounder while they are waiting to ambush prey. Super fun and great tasting meat!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sizthediz]

Unfortunately non of that will happen in Orlando. South to Miami/ keys for peacock and iguana( not even sure if you can hunt iguana here better check with fwc website) not sure about tarpon that late in the year either. Snook, trout and reds inshore. Offshore for groupa.If I was gonna go for poon, boca grande is the place. Good luck have fun

 

[fishslap]

Thanks guys. Good advice. For some reason I don’t have much interest in tarpon. Redfish or grouper sound interesting.

 

[Jmoore]

We were down there last year late summer and fished okeechobee for one day then headed a couple hours south to boca raton for a few days and hunted iguana and caught some peacocks and snakehead.
It was a blast.

 

[fishslap]

We were down there last year late summer and fished okeechobee for one day then headed a couple hours south to boca raton for a few days and hunted iguana and caught some peacocks and snakehead.
It was a blast.

Thanks. That’s what I was thinking about. Did you hire a guide for the iguana and peacocks?

 

[Jmoore]

Thanks. That’s what I was thinking about. Did you hire a guide for the iguana and peacocks?

Yes sir. For the iguanas we went with jp outfitters and the fish we went with Jurassic Park Fishing Charters.
Both guys were great and I have no complaints.

 

[Jmoore]

Now that I’m thinking about it. My wife went to play pickleball one evening….. me and the boys aren’t for sitting still so we got some cheap stuff at walmart and hit the road side canals and caught some 2-3# peacocks that way too.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Love to sight fish! Especially Tarpon and snook. Fall bait run should start that time of year causing all kinds of havoc on the beaches and inshore. Fall shrimp should start too. Lots of opportunities!

Yeah sight fishing for bonefish and tarpon is amazing. Amazing to the point that I can almost (almost) see living in Florida for the opportunity.

I just got back from an ascension bay and landed some tarpon and lots of bonefish. No permit though, I had one on the line but he popped off, must not have set the hook hard enough.

That’s the hard part, setting the hook by stripping line, just not second nature to me. Bone fish are easy, tarpon you really have to strip hard.

 

[hhat]

If you haven't found something to do and want to drive a couple of hours west, I would recommend Badfish Charters Tampa. They can probably get you on some hogfish this time of year.

 

[Rich M]

If you want to flyfish for exotics, you'll have to head south. Orlando doesn't have populations of oscars and such but Miami does (3-4-5 hrs drive). You have to go to the Keys for bonefish and such - figure up to 8 hrs driving.

Drive from Orlando to Boca Grande is gonna run you about 3+/- hrs. To Canaveral is about an hour once you hit the main roads.

I live in Orlando and fish salt around Daytona and we have some tarpon but not a lot. Mullet run will be in full swing so fishing should be good.

Sebastian inlet will have snook - snook are badass. Strong and fast. they jump too - first one I caught, thought it was a tarpon. About 2-2.5 hr drive from O-town.

You could get a guided hog hunt on the St johns, run around in airboat and either hunt over bait or w dogs. Nearshore fishing the FL east coast is about to be on fire. Jim Ross might have some days open, he'll get you on fish if you wanna pay to play.

FL is a big state - from Orlando Key West is about 8 hrs, Pensacola is about 9 hours. You gotta factor in traffic too. I-4 from Orlando to Tampa is 2 hrs at 2 am and can be 4 hours or more during rush hour periods. The traffic sux, lotsa folks shuttling around. Factor this into your thoughts.

If you want to take the wife someplace interesting for the day - take her to St Augustine. You can also take her on a river boat ride in Sanford FL. Beach would be New Smyrna. Merritt Island National Wildlife preserve has nice beaches too and some dirt roads to see birds and gators, Haulover canal to see manatees by the hundreds.

Have a nice trip.