Captain’s Corner: Tyson Wallerstein

The Tampa Bay Times

 Prior a few windy days brought on by Dorian, we were being treated to some of the best fishing in months. Fishing for Schooling redfish, jack crevalle, Spanish mackerel and mangrove snapper has been red hot at times.

 With so much bait around finding potential feeding areas have been fairly obvious, flocks of dipping terns or high diving pelicans actively working the edge of a grass flat, could lead you to your only stop of the day.

 New moon tides tides this past week provided some good redfishing; this is the time of year when we start to encounter schools of redfish with good regularity. These redfish are most likely moving in from the gulf and staging up on grass flats near the passes. Look for the usual signs, such as clean water and the presence of mullet, but also keep an eye on any suspicious mud clouds along the outer edge of the flat indicating the presence of a school of fish. Fall redfish will often stage on the outside edge of the flat and never move up with the tide, this is probably due to all the fry bait out in deeper water.

 Mangrove snapper have been schooled up heavily around near-shore structure. Jetties and reefs in as shallow as 15 foot of water are holding keeper mangos up to 14 inches. Setting up to create a down-tide chum slick will enable you to bring the fish right behind the boat, then it’s a matter of fooling the larger fish while contending with wolf packs of 2 to 4 pound Spanish mackerel, be sure to bring plenty of hooks.

Capt. Tyson Wallerstein