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

The early onset of summer water temperatures may account for the lack of a consistent Spanish mackerel fishery offshore in the gulf. Last year at this time we were limiting our catches instead of catching our limit. For the past week we have been lucky to return with a dozen. Other species have taken up the slack. Kingfish normally are gone at this time of year, but slow trolling small blue runners, Spanish sardines and hardtails near the channel markers at the west end of the shipping channel has been producing enough fish in the 10 to 20 pound class to make it worth the time. Spoons and plugs, normally more effective because of the ability to cover more territory have not been producing well.
Red grouper and white grunts have been the mainstay for shorter trips in the 40 to 50 foot depths with enough keepers to keep it interesting. Larger and more abundant red grouper. Scamp, vermillion, mangrove and Lane snapper have been biting well in the 80 to 100 foot depths. The algae on the bottom has required us to change our grouper terminal tackle from the traditional 4 ounce swivel sinker, 2 feet of leader to a rig that has the 4 oz sinker on the bottom with a dropper hook attached to a 3 way swivel. This rig has proven very effective and the length of leader material from the swivel can be adjusted to account for the thickness of the algae.