Captain’s Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893

On a recent trip offshore to a hard bottom area 20 miles offshore where we were hoping to catch white grunts, Lane, vermillion and mangrove snapper along with red grouper we made five stops without a fish in the box. The party that I had onboard and myself considered it a successful day. First stop netted a large pink flamingo pool toy that had been blown offshore. Plastic has no place in the water and should be removed. Next stop was a mylar balloon that had been released on land and was blown offshore until the helium was depleted. These balloons become translucent and resemble jellyfish that a turtle may feed on. When ingested they may cause death or serious distress. One of the kids onboard was next to spot trash and directed me to two discarded bait boxes. Even though they are made of cardboard. They are plasticized to repel moisture and should be brought back to shore.
Next was a 50 foot length of yellow nylon rope that easily could have been caught up in someone’s running gear resulting in an expensive repair. Finally reaching the 80 foot depths one last piece of trash was spotted, a cut off crab trap buoy with a length of line attached. When we went to pick it up mahi mahi could be seen swarming around it in the crystal clear water. For a change we were prepared. Breaking out three light spinning rods, one with a 1/0 circle hook, one with a yellow and white locally produced pompano jig and one with 3 hooks from a large sabiki. These mahi are small and chumming must be done with slivers from a sardine. Large chunks will fill them up and they will be on their way. Pandemonium ensued for awhile with multiple hookups. There is no size or bag limit in the gulf federal waters. We caught our boat limit of 4 person and left them biting. Many more could have been harvested. Leave some for the next angler