Capt. Brent Gaskill
With the absence of paying charters I had the opportunity to take my wife fishing on Sunday. She’s been working from home and was thrilled with the opportunity to get out to do something fun and safe away from others. Our targets would be both king and Spanish mackerels so the morning began by searching for bait. After a couple of unproductive stops on our way to the gulf, diving pelicans gave away the location of bait bunched up tight to the beach just outside the pass. A single throw of the cast net yielded more than enough hand-sized threadfin herring for the morning plus more that went on ice. Experience dictated that there was no need to travel far from the bait to begin fishing. We set 2 rods, one free-lined and the other with a small trolling lead, both outfitted with stinger rigs. We began slow trolling just outside the baitfish in 10-feet of water and it didn’t take long to have our first mackerel on. We never ventured past the 18-foot depths, with 14-feet deep seeming to be the sweet spot. All of our fish caught were large Spanish with one screaming bonita mixed in to keep it interesting. We never connected with a king in the two hours we fished, although one could speculate with a couple of cut-offs. As for the excess baitfish in the cooler, it was bagged and frozen for use later as chum or cut-bait for redfish.
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