Captain’s Corner: Ed Walker

The Tampa Bay Times

By Ed Walker

Fall fishing has started off a little odd this year. Up in the Nature Coast area things still seem summer-like. The water is warm and dark and there are few bait fish and not much surface activity. Typically, the migration of baitfish and associated coastal pelagic species comes from the north and gradually works its way south along the coast. Somehow the biomass of bait skipped over us and is now firmly entrenched south of Tampa Bay.

We recently heard about a good kingfish bite south of Sarasota so we ran down the coast to check it out. As soon as we crossed Tampa Bay we encountered massive bait schools. From there south for 30 miles we ran through huge bait pods, frothing schools of mackerel and sharks, bonito, and some small kingfish. In some areas there were acres of threadfin herring and whitebait with swarms of diving birds on them. We had a good day on the kings and mackerel along with too many small sharks. The whole time we were in awe of the sheer volume of bait and typical fall-like activity.

Later in the day as we ran home we ran right out of the activity and cruised from Redington Beach all the way to Tarpon Springs without seeing much of anything. Hopefully a strong cold front will drop the  water temperature and some of this churning fish activity will show up in our local waters but for now south is the direction you want to go for fishing along the beaches.