Captains Corner, Dave Zalewski

The Tampa Bay Times

Dave Zalewski 460-9893

Gag grouper season open September 1 and it is going to be hard to stop targeting Lane, vermillion, mangrove snapper along with white grunts. Once both red and gag grouper closed. We downsized tackle and targeted these smaller species which provided non stop action and tasty table fare. Many of our trips consist of families with kids and grandkids. The key to success is to provide plenty of activity for the young ones with light tackle that they are comfortable with. The snapper can best be caught on Swiss cheese hard bottom areas n the 60 to 90 foot depths with the most consistent depth to be 60 feet. We used to start bottom fishing with half of the party using a 2 hook “chicken” rig and the other half using conventional grouper tackle. Now all of our terminal tackle consists of two hook rigs. We were experiencing straightened out hooks when a large grouper would strike the 4/0 hooks we were using. The solution to this problem was to start employing 4X 4/0 hooks. The X indicates that the hook has been manufactured to 4 times the strength of a standard hook.
We plan on reverting to the old game plan when the party wants to target gags which consists of fishing on higher profile ledges and rock piles along with changing back to the standard knocker rig which has the sinker riding next to the hook; or a swivel sinker, 2 feet of 60 pound test leader attached to a 6/0 hook. For quite some while we have been venturing offshore with squid and frozen sardines for bait which is all that is needed to catch the smaller snapper. Once gag season opens we will be stopping to catch pinfish either by use of a sabiki tipped with a squid tentacle or by a trap .