Captain’s Corner for August 13 Dave Zalewski 727 460 9893

Spanish mackerel have finally shown up in quantity in the gulf. Up until recently the only anglers that were successful targeting them were those fishing Tampa Bay. Once the mackerel arrived so did their predators which include barracuda, sharks and kingfish. Fishing for kingfish has been extremely good for this time of year with many fish taking up residence at the western end of the shipping channel, mid-water artificial reefs and wrecks, and many of the mitigation rock piles on the natural gas pipeline. Barracuda, one of my personal favorite fish to target, because of their ability to put on an aerial display when hooked like a billfish and also their slugging it out with an angler staying deep and slugging it out like an amberjack will be found at the same spots as the kingfish and mackerel.
Shark fishing has not been as good as in past years close to shore because of the lack of mackerel. Now that they have arrived, hammerhead, blacktip, and bull sharks can be targeted near any entrance to the gulf by chumming with frozen chum and having some patience. Mackerel filets, bonita, and whole butterflied mackerel are all excellent shark baits and should be deployed throughout the water column by use of balloon floats. Heavy tackle is not required for many of the sharks targeted because of the lack of structure where they are caught and downsizing tackle provides for some memorable battles. Be prepared by having a float ready to release the anchor and chase the fish down when the big one decides to take the light tackle bait.