Captain’s Corner: Jay Mastry

The Tampa Bay Times

Easter Sunday and the days after have produced some banner catches of kingfish over the years.  If the weather allows, this year won’t be any different.  Spring kings have shown up in many of their traditional hotspots.  In spite of windy and rough conditions we caught kings and mackerel half way out the Ships Channel on Thursday.  All were caught slow trolling Spanish sardines and full grown whitebait we cast netted a mile off St. Pete Beach.  There was widespread activity reported from a tournament last weekend.  There were kings caught off St. Pete Beach and Blinds Pass.   Others were caught in the Ships Channel and others just off the beach in Manatee County .  There are scattered reports of kings caught off the Clearwater hard bottom and some of the mid-depth artificial reefs and wrecks including the “Betty Rose”.  Though water temperature continues to rise, migrating kings will tend to linger longer to take advantage of the abundance of bait in our area.  Tarpon don’t mind warm water.  They thrive in it.  Those experiencing early symptoms of “tarpon fever” have been tugging on em’ for a couple weeks.  Tarpon have already been attracted to the major bridges in Tampa Bay .  They congregate along these structures to ambush baits swept through them by the tide.  Soon we’ll be seeing large schools of silverkings rolling on the surface as they migrate up and down along our gulf beaches.  Choose to work the slow moving bunches that haven’t been disturbed.  Proper presentation of baits and patience is the key.

Captain Jay Mastry