Captains Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893

We like to say that the fall kingfish season starts on Columbus Day October 9th. This year it did not for us. The only kingfish that we landed was about 12 inches fork length much below the 24 inch length required by regulations. Many other trolling fish stepped up to take the place of kingfish. Spanish mackerel, bonita, and barracuda fishing has been great for the past week. Spanish mackerel and bonita can be caught near the mouth of any of the entrances to the bays often within a hundred yards from shore. A lot of time can be wasted by blind trolling to find fish. We prefer to travel until we see either diving terns and pelicans, striking fish on the surface or schools of baitfish on the sonar. Once this occurs it is time to deploy the #1 planers 30 feet of leader and small spoons to match the size of the baitfish. Now that the stone crab traps have been put out, once a strike happens, it is worthwhile to note the nearest trap so that one may use this as a reference to return to the area of the strike.
The barracuda and cobia are the first fish to appear on the fall trek from the Panhandle to their winter residences in the Keys and Cuba. WE have seen and caught both species on the near shore and mid water reefs trolling both hardware and live bait or rigged ballyhoo.
The water temperatures are dropping and the kingfish will be here soon. We will look for them on the artificial reefs and all along the shipping channel.