Captain’s Corner for November 10 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

What’s Hot:
As far as fishing offshore in the gulf it is anyone’s guess. The high winds and rough seas forced us to cancel all of our trips that were scheduled in the past week. Downtime was spent checking tackle, doing routine maintenance and building stinger rigs in preparation for the expected Spanish and king mackerel invasion. The rapid cooling of the upper reaches of the gulf and the high surf conditions caused by Hurricane Ida will certainly cause the major fall migration to reach our waters.
The long trips offshore to bag grouper will no longer necessary because the fish will tend to congregate in waters between 20 and 60 feet in depth. Once the sea conditions return to normal, it is all too easy to run past the fish and be disappointed by the lack of fish in the deeper water.
Tip:
Stone crab season opened on October 15 and the buoys attached to the traps provide a visual reference for both bottom fisherman and trollers. Crabbers place their traps on limestone outcroppings where the crabs live. Wherever there is an accumulation of traps you can be sure that some great grouper bottom is also closely nearby. Anchoring over the ledges in these areas will produce gag grouper, mangrove snapper, triggerfish and white grunts. Grouper can be caught by trolling large lipped plugs, or by using a #3 or # 4 planer with a large jointed plug or curly tailed jig trolled at 6t knots. Trolling spoons, plugs and rigged ballyhoo alongside the lines of traps will result in Spanish mackerel, kingfish and possibly a cobia. Tripletail can often be seen lying next to the crab buoys and a sharp lookout should be kept