Captain’s Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893

We never know what fishing is going to be like after a tropical storm/hurricane such as Elsa blows through our area. The after effects of this storm because of its lessened severity has produced some great opportunities for those anglers who prefer not to make the long run seeking red snapper.

Red tide has shut off the Spanish mackerel near the beach, but there are plenty of them on the near shore and mid-water artificial reefs. They have been joined by pelagic predators bonita and barracuda. Trolling small spoons behind #1 planers at between 5.5 and 6 knots over the structure scattered over these reefs is the ticket for the Spanish and bonita. Large spoons and plugs will produce barracuda along with slow trolling live blue runners on a stinger rig,
Red and gag grouper have been biting well in the 60 to 80 foot depths along with white grunts, porgies and a scattering of mangrove snapper. The red tide has extended as far as 3 miles offshore and it has been difficult to keep live bait alive when crossing a patch of it. The solution has been to keep a sharp eye out for schools of Spanish sardines and threadfins. Once spotted, a sabiki rig should provide all the bait needed. Squid and cut threadfins have been producing well when live bait cannot be found.

There seem to be more kingfish that have taken up residence for the summer than usual and deploying either a live or frozen sardine or threadfin while bottom fishing often will be worthwhile