Captain’s Corner: Brian Caudill

The Tampa Bay Times

While July was one of the hottest months on record, August will likely be the same. Recent years of overfishing and red tide events have certainly had its effect on successful fishing. Adding record high temperatures makes for challenging days on the water for sure. This week has seen midday low tides which are the toughest due to high water temperatures on the shallow flats. I’ve been focusing efforts on nearshore reefs for mangrove snapper, grunts and even a few tripletails on abandoned crab trap buoys. Tripletail will occupy anything floating, and when stone crab season is over, the limited number of floating buoys offshore makes it easier to locate a few to pick on. Once a tripletail is located, moving the boat just a few yards away and making a precise cast up-tide of the buoy will usually do the trick. Triple tail will chase a bait up to 10 feet from the buoy if the water is clear enough for them to identify the bait being offered, but it needs to make a close pass at first to grab their attention. Small sardines, and especially shrimp work very well. Tripletail fight hard and are acrobatic at times. They can definitely improve the morale on a slow day. They must be 18” in length to keep with a two fish per angler limit and are delicious as table fare.