Captain’s Corner: Jay Mastry

The Tampa Bay Times

Light wind and calm seas have allowed for pleasant trips offshore and fishin’ has been worth the while.  On a recent 13 mile trip just south and west of Pass-a-grille we had non-stop action bouncing the bottom in 47 feet.  Grouper, snapper, triggerfish, porgies and grunts chewed everything we offered them during a one stop drop over an area of natural hard bottom on an incoming tide.  Having a variety of baits and enough anglers to target a particular species proved most effective.  Most of the “mangos” preferred the whitebait we offered on twenty lb. tackle.  Shrimp work best for the triggers, hogfish, porgies and grunts.  Our bigger grouper were caught on bigger baits.  Frozen sardines to start and then live pinfish when the bite slowed.  Heavy tackle, with 80 to 100 lb. leaders or bigger, will generally get you fewer bites but may be necessary to level the playing field.  Depending on the bottom you’re fishing, the heavy stuff may be required to wrestle the ones you want to keep out of their rocky domain.  Many in the offshore crowd are taking advantage of the calm conditions and reporting banner catches.  Some venturing 20 to 30 miles are catching monster mangrove snapper along with their grouper.  Others are wearing out yellowtail snapper while anchored and chumming them to the boat.  While the whitebait will inevitably abandon the flats when it gets cold, until now in our mild conditions we’re still able to cast net them on many of our areas shallows and having some in the well before heading offshore is always a plus.

Captain Jay Mastry