Captain’s Corner: Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Water temperature is currently hovering around the 70 degree mark which remains comfortable for Spanish sardines, threadfin herring and hard tails along with their predators Spanish mackerel, kingfish, Bonita, and sharks. Seabirds are much better at finding schools of bait and it pays to be vigilant whenever one is seeking pelagic fish. When small terns are dipping into the water, the bait fish are usually small. Pelicans can indicate both small and large baitfish below. When a pelican dives from high above it is targeting large baits such as mature sardines and threadfins. When the pelicans are flying close to the water and rolling over, the baitfish are glass minnows or juveniles of the other species.

Knowing the size of the bait is needed to determine what size of spoon to select when trolling. If the birds indicate smaller baits, then a 00, 0 or 1 spoon should be selected. Pulling a much larger spoon will not match the bait will usually result in fewer if any strikes.

Scattered kingfish can still be found around many of the artificial reefs and offshore wrecks. They have been suspended in the water column and # 2 and 3 planers followed by 30 feet of leader and a blue or gold spoon has been the key to catching them. Slow trolling blue runners or other larger baits will work, but because the fish are scattered the use of hardware trolled at 6 knots allows more territory to be covered.