Captain’s Corner for October 29 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

This October’s fishing for both benthic and pelagic species has been great as it usually is. The recent small cold front that we experienced that kept us in port for a few days made the fishing outstanding. Spanish mackerel are a sure thing for anglers trolling hardware or live bait from just off the beach to a mile offshore near every pass entering the gulf especially on an outgoing tide which flushes all manner of bait from the bays.
Tip: The most commonly used baits for Spanish mackerel are live small threadfins or scaled sardines hooked through the nose with a long shanked thin wire hook which allows the bait to swim naturally. An often overlooked bait is live shrimp that can be fished with the same type of hook placed under the horn.
Kingfish have been trickling into the area for a few weeks and the front generated the first of several major pushes that will hit our area. The larger solitary fish are in the same areas inhabited by their cousins the Spanish mackerel and requires patience and large slow trolled baits such as ladyfish, legal Spanish mackerel or blue runners to elicit a bite. Smaller fish “schoolies” are more numerous on all of the mid water artificial reefs such as Indian Shores and Rube Alyn and can be targeted by either slow trolled Spanish sardines or small blue runners caught on site by the use of sabiki rigs or trolling plugs or king spoons behind planers at about 6 knots.
Tip: The key to planer fishing is using a 25 to 30 foot leader between the planer and what ever lure is selected.
This is the time to take a youngster fishing. The weather has cooled down and long boring rides are not necessary to enjoy often non stop action.