Captain’s Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

 Dave Zalewski 460-9893

After a brief hiatus, Spanish mackerel have returned to many of their usual summertime locations. Trollers are doing well using small spoons and either trolling sinkers or #1 planers. By using a trolling sinker instead of a planer and light tackle mackerel put up a much better fight. We often start out when stopping on an artificial reef using both the planer and sinker combo to see which is producing best. Normally at this time of year we find them right close to the beach, often just outside the swim buoys. So far this summer the mackerel have tended to stay offshore and we have had the best results on the mid-water reefs such as South County and Indian Shores.

Offshore in the 80 to90 feet depths the Lane and vermillion snapper fishing has been exceptional for those downsizing tackle to a 2 hook dropper rig, smaller 3/0 hooks and 3 ounce sinkers. Larger hooks will allow these smaller fish to steal the bait without getting hooked. Chumming with slivers of frozen sardines and squid is very effective at times. On the new and full moons we stay away from that because the currents run the strongest and may draw the fish away from the boat instead of to it.