Captain’s Corner: Ed Walker

The Tampa Bay Times

By Ed Walker

As the year winds down local anglers have just one week left to grab a gag grouper for the frying pan. The end of the year is also the end of the season and it will not open back up until June of 2021. On top of that the gag bite has been spectacular. Recent cold fronts have mixed up the best places to fish but when you find the right area the fish have been very happy to see a live pinfish on a hook.

We usually target the closest spots to shore that we can. Sometimes this is as shallow as 12 to 18 feet of water. Lately however, heavy west winds have muddied the inshore water so much that the grouper stop feeding. It seems they are still there but just do not bite much in the dirty water. When it clears the shallow action comes right back. Before that we have had to move out 12 to 25 miles. Simply running until you are out of dirty water has been the key to staying on the fish. There is simply no better time to fish for gags than immediately after a major cold front, as long as you find the clean water.

In depths of more than 35 feet we like to use conventional tackle with the minimum amount of weight required to force the bait to the bottom. In most cases 3 or 4 ounces is enough. After experimenting with 60 lb monofilament line and getting defeated by some big gags, we went back to 80 lb line to try to turn the real big fish before they get to the rocks.