Captain’s Corner: Rob Gorta

The Tampa Bay Times

The fall fishing is in full swing.  The beaches are covered in baitfish.  Threadfin herring and scaled sardines can be found up and down our coast. Spanish mackerel, kingfish, bonita, sharks and jack crevalles are the prominent species that are on the prowl.  There are some small redfish schools that continue to invade are shallow water flats in search of crustaceans.  Pinellas point has a couple schools in the area.  Sea trout, one of the most popular and easiest of all to catch is slow to show up on the grass flats, I think they were hit the hardest with the Piney point discharge disaster.Slow trolling threadfin herring this time of the year off the beaches may produce several pelagic species to bite.  I start by locating schools of baitfish less than a mile from the beach and deploy baits on a light drag setting using light wire to prevent cut offs from toothy fish. Twenty pound braid on a 6000 series spinning reel will prevent from getting spooled by a large king, or any other large fish, just take your time and fight the fish accordingly. Stone crab season is here, so keep an eye out for Tripletail hanging out right next to the crab pots floating on the surface, also lookout for the offshore redfish, they are in spawning mode, eating everything in there path.  I have seen thousands at a time.  

Captain Rob Gorta

727-647-7606

www.captainrobgorta.com