Captains Corner, Jay Mastry

The Tampa Bay Times

About all the positives I’ve been able to take from these back to back to back weather systems that have rolled through our area is… you need not have to worry about finding a parking spot at the boat ramp and they have provided a wonderful opportunity to try out any foul weather gear you may have gotten for Christmas.  With each passing front, live bait becomes a bit more difficult to gather but there are plenty of alternatives.  Pinfish don’t mind gnarly conditions and may be castnetted, hook and lined or caught in fish traps.  Shrimp, either dead or alive make great bait for nearly everything that swims.  Squid and frozen sardines can’t be beat when bouncing the bottom for grouper, snapper, grunts and a variety of others.  We deal with these conditions each year at this time.  We just need to fish through them when we can.  If you just gotta go, seek shelter on the lee side (away from the wind) of any shoreline you’re fishing.  Residential canals offer a safe haven when dodging the wind and this time of year may be the most productive.  Speckled and silver trout, redfish, sheepshead, mangrove snapper, ladyfish and others will often gang up along the seawalls and dock lines of these protective waterways.  Bring a 2 ½” mesh castnet with you if you go.  This time of year large schools of mullet may be seen running these canals as they work their way to the gulf to spawn.

Captain Jay Mastry