Captains Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893

When people ask me when the best times to fish offshore, the answer comes quickly. The last 2 weeks of October and month of November in the fall and the last 2 weeks of April and the month of May. The reason for this is that we are blessed with water temperatures that bring the pelagic fish such as Spanish mackerel, bonita, kingfish, barracuda and cobia to our area. Trolling is in full force then with both artificial baits like spoons and plugs and live baits like Spanish sardines, hardtails, and blue runners. Matching the hatch is a term used by trout fly fisherman up north and it holds true here. If the fish are feeding on small baits, the use of small spoons or plugs is mandated. I often hear the phrase “Big baits, big fish”. The answer is elephants, a large animal eats small peanuts.
The strong east winds this past week kept us fairly close to shore. We had great success trolling all of the mid water artificial reefs such as St. Petersburg Beach, and Treasure Island. The material on these reefs have been placed in a rectangle 2000 feet long running North and South and 300 feet East and West. The published GPS number is the center of the reef and material can be found there, but the more productive structure will be found away from there. Pay attention to your Sonar and when a large structure is encountered enter it as a waypoint in your GPS.
Be on the lookout for schools of bull redfish. Last Thursday we encountered a school. Normally they will hit anything trolled past them. Several dolphin had herded them into a tight ball and they were intent on survival, not feeding