Captain’s Corner: Mike Gore

The Tampa Bay Times

If you plan on fishing this week or weekend you will have to pick your days. They are calling for high winds at the beginning and end of the week. This can make it tough if you get your bait in open water. There are still plenty of places to hide from wind and catch fish. If you can’t get live bait, artificial baits can be productive. I like to throw a topwater lure early morning or closer to dusk, otherwise a soft plastic paddle tail is my go-to bait.

The Kingfish bite has been on fire as of late. We just need the wind to lay down a little bit. Fish up to 40lbs are being caught within 6 miles of the beach. Trolling a bigger bait on a stinger rig has enticed the bigger ones to eat.

Inshore we are finally starting to see some small schools of Redfish get together. The ones I have seen have been from 20 to 50 fish. This is a site for sore eyes. It good to see them starting to show back up. They will eat live bait one day and cut bait the next. Try putting out both options and see what works best.

Some nice gator Trout have shown up. I am not use to seeing this many of them this time of year. Most of the gator Trout are being caught in about 2ft of water. The bait of choice has been a greenback belly hooked using a slow retrieve.