Captain’s Corner: Jim Lemke

The Tampa Bay Times

Captain’s Corner: The fishing is great, but can you get to them

Capt Jim Lemke Times Correspondent

With the summer like air temperatures here in the next couple weeks the Snook will be moving out to the beaches in big numbers and the Tarpon will start cruising the beaches. It’s a great time of the year to fish.

With the Snook on their way to the bay area beaches and passes, you would think their biological clock is telling them to start moving to their summer spots like the front side of Weedon island or all the passes in the bay area. The best times to fish for them is still the early morning and evening on the first few hours of the outgoing tide with live bait.

The Redfishing is just starting to get better on the flats. I look for mullet schools in the 1 to 3 feet of water on the flats and use your trolling motor to get in position and setup to fish the big sand areas on the flat. The best baits are alive or dead baits like Sardines or pinfish for artificials a Jerk Baits or paddle tail jigs.

The big schools of Mackerel are in the bay and off the beaches along with some drag screaming fun for kids of all sizes. It’s some of the best fun fishing on spinning or fly-fishing.

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