Captain’s Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

 Dave Zalewski 727 460-9893

So far our fall kingfish efforts have resulted in disappointment. Trolling both spoons and plugs or live sardines or blue runners has yielded mediocre results at all of the usual spots. We have tried all of the near shore and mid water artificial reefs along with the shipping channel from markers 11 and 12 all the way out to the Tampa sea buoy with an occasional “schoolie” king. Targeting the kingfish’s smaller cousin, the Spanish mackerel, has been much more productive at most of the usual kingfish spots with many of the fish approaching the 5 pound mark. The key has been matching the spoon size to the size of the bait the fish are feeding on in a particular area. Starting out at a spot with both a number 1 and a number 2 planer both outfitted with different sized spoons will soon reveal what setup to use by noticing which is producing the best. Hopefully the majority of kingfish are still to the north waiting for another cold front to drop the water temperature and force the baitfish that they feed on to begin their southward migration.
The 60 foot depths have been producing great catches of hogfish, white grunts, porgies along with a few gag grouper which are still in season. Triggerfish are being caught on almost every bottom fishing spot and provide a strong fight on light tackle. They have to be 16 inches measured at the fork and the majority of them fail to meet the cut.