Captain’s Corner: Jim Lemke

Capt Jim Lemke Times Correspondent

With the cold fronts starting to roll in to the Tampabay area. it’s also dropping are water temps down to the mid to low 70’s has the bite fired up inshore and offshore.

The Snook fishing is on fire with these cooler temps at night. We have been finding them around and up the major rivers, creeks, and residential docks. A ton of smaller snook along with some over slot snook mix in. the best bait is still a scaled sardine or whitebait with a white 4-inch jerk bait coming in second.

The Redfishing is just starting to get better on the flats. I look for mullet schools in the 1 to 3 foot of water on the flats and use your trolling motor to get in position and setup. If you just chase them like is what’s happened over at Weedon Island no buddy will catch them. The best baits are live baits like Sardines or pinfish for artificials a Jerk Baits or paddle tail jigs.

Fall always means big schools of Mackerel in the bay and off the beaches along with some drag screaming fun. It’s some of the best fun fishing and just not for the kids but for the adults to. I use a 2x long shanked hook in a 3/0 a short piece of 60 or 80-pound fluorocarbon leader and hold on.

Capt Jim Lemke charters out of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater and can be reached at (813) 917-4989 and at captjimlemke@gmail.com