Apalachicola River

UPPER APALACHICOLA RIVER (Jackson, Gadsden, Calhoun, Liberty, Franklin, and Gulf counties): Striped Bass and Sunshine Bass fishing in the tailrace of Jim Woodruff Dam and the upper Apalachicola River should pick up as water temperatures drop starting late October or early November. During early morning and evening hours, stripers and hybrids will school near the surface and should be readily taken using top-water plugs and crankbaits. During the day, fishing on the bottom with live shad, shiners, or small eels will typically be more productive. The bag limit for stripers, hybrids, and white bass is 20 fish per day, aggregate, but only three may be Striped Bass and must be 18 inches in length or greater. There is no size limit for hybrids or White Bass.

LOWER APALACHICOLA RIVER (Gulf, Liberty, and Franklin counties): Striped Bass and Sunshine Bass fishing in the lower Apalachicola River and the Intracoastal Waterway should improve during the fall. Larger fish will begin moving out of their cool water refuges and start foraging throughout the lower river as water temperatures decline starting in late October. The best bets will be bottom fishing deep channels using bucktail jigs or crankbaits baited with live or fresh shrimp. Areas of outgoing tides near the mouths of the Apalachicola, St. Marks, Little St. Marks, and East rivers as well as the slack tides near bridge pilings can yield large stripers. The bag limit for stripers, hybrids, and White Bass is 20 fish per day, aggregate, but only three may be Striped Bass and must be a minimum of 18 inches total length. Fall is normally a time for good Florida Bass fishing in the lower river. Dipping live shrimp along the steeper, grass-lined banks of the St. Marks and East rivers is one of the more popular Florida Bass fishing methods. Speckled Trout, Redfish, and Sheepshead will also move into the lower reaches of the Apalachicola as water begins to cool. Bucktails, spoons, crankbaits, and live or dead shrimp should all be productive.