Captain’s Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893

Fishing this past week has been exceptional for a wide variety of species. Spanish mackerel have been abundant on all of the near shore artificial reefs such as St Petersburg Beach and Madeira Beach. Mixed in with the mackerel are hard fighting barracuda and bonita. On Friday we encountered numerous undersized kingfish along with the mackerel. Spanish mackerel and juvenile kingfish look very similar both having golden spots. Spanish mackerel have to be 12 inches in length from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail with a bag limit of 15. King mackerel have to be 24 inches fork length with a bag limit of 2. Spanish mackerel have a black spot on the first dorsal fin that is not found on the king. Also the king mackerel has a pronounced dip in the lateral line below the second dorsal fin. The baitfish are still relatively small and we have been using 0 and #1 spoons to best “match the hatch”. Use of a #1 planer with 30 feet of leader has been most effective, but for more sport a trolling sinker with 12 feet of leader can be used. Make sure that the trolling leads used have black swivels instead of shiny ones because the Spanish mackerel will strike at anything that resembles the flash of a wounded baitfish.
We have been venturing out to 80 feet of water after trolling and targeting bottom fish. Lane snapper have been the fish of choice, Targeting them with spinning tackle and the use of a two 2/0 hook snapper rig with a 3 or four ounce sinker beneath the hooks. Strips of squid work the best for these great eating fish. Red grouper also inhabit the same area that the Lane snapper do and