Captain’s Corner for April29 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

“All things come to those who wait” and this old adage came true this year. Traditionally kingfish, Spanish mackerel, bonita and barracuda, the mainstays of our Spring trolling season show up in our waters around St Patrick’s Day (March 17) . This year kicked off a month later and our waters are teeming with all of the above species. Spanish mackerel are thick along the beaches especially near the mouths of any of the inlets to the Gulf of Mexico on an outgoing tide. They can be caught by trolling small gold or silver spoons with trolling sinkers or planers, anchoring and fly lining live whitebaits or running to where they can be seen crashing into schools of baitfish and casting small hard bodied plugs to them.
Their larger cousins kingfish can also be found near the beaches, but the smaller, better eating schoolies (8 to 12 pound fish are more abundant near any artificial reef, wreck or the shipping channel. Spoons and plugs are very effective, but this year slow trolling stinger rigged live baits has produced better catches. Spanish sardines caught with a sabiki rig and deployed on site have been the bait of choice over any of the other live baits we have been catching.
Barracuda have been seen cruising the surface near every large piece of structure for several weeks and have been hesitant to strike. This will change any day and they will provide excellent catch and release action for the rest of the summer.