Captain’s Corner for March 28 Dave Zalewski 397-8815
The grouper closure ends April 1st and it looks like our trolling season will begin around the same time. Last week’s charters allowed us to do some scouting which produced some great news. Spanish mackerel showed up in scattered schools feeding on schools of extremely small baitfish which required us to use 00 spoons behind a # 1 planer and 2 inch skirts rigged with a 2/0 long shanked hook behind a small trolling sinker to generate strikes. Larger spoons did not produce a single bite. Diving gannets and flocks of terns dipping down to pick up remnants of baitfish led us to stop in the 40 foot depths to try trolling on our way to the 60 foot depths where bottom fishing produced almost constant action.
Water temperatures are not ideal yet, but the appearance of the mackerel should lead us to start thinking about trying to intercept some of the northward migrating cobia which are able to tolerate somewhat cooler water and are usually some of the first pelagic species to arrive in our waters. They are structure oriented fish and will be found stopping and taking up residence near the channel markers in the Egmont Channel, artificial reefs (especially the mid-water reefs in 40 feet of water), and all the wrecks.
Tip:
During the grouper closure we have been targeting the smaller reef fish such as white grunts, mangrove snapper and triggerfish with snapper rigs baited with squid. Because of the numbers and activity of these species we have spent a longer time on each spot that we fish. This has led us to wait for some length of time before we have dropped down larger grouper baits e.g. Spanish sardines and pinfish. Keeper grouper have been lured in by the commotion caused by the smaller fish. After the 1st we are going to stick with this game plan while bottom fishing.
