The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893The rapidly rising cost of fuel, bait and tackle has caused us to modify our daily game plan as to where to fish and species to target. Most anglers, myself included, have always thought the further we go offshore, the bigger and more plentiful the fish will be. In the “good old days” when boats of all types were much slower many species were caught 3 to 5 miles offshore. For years anglers have not even thought of targeting bottom fish such as grouper, white grunts, Lane, mangrove and hog snapper this close to shore. There are several ways to find spots that will harbor these species. Paying close attention to your bottom machine will indicate hard bottom and once spotted, stopping and dropping a baited hook will soon reveal if this is truly a new honey hole. Many of these close inshore areas have not been fished in a long time. It is easy to get fooled by the indication on a sonar of hard bottom either close or far offshore. Often the limestone will be covered by a thin layer of sand and will not harbor life of any size. Another way is to look for abandoned stone crab traps with their markers. Stone crab season has ended and most traps have been removed. Those that remain have usually been moved from the crabbers strings and have lodged in a ledge or hard bottom. For a few more weeks barring any major storms the gulf will have exceptional visibility and areas of limestone will show up as dark spots beneath the surface the same as a cloud shadow. The easy way to tell if it is a shadow or hard bottom is to look at the deck of your boat. A shadow will darken the deck. If hard bottom is below, no shadow will exist.

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