Captain’s Corner for September 9 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

It may have been the extremely cold winter that we are trying to forget or it may be a natural cycle, but the normal red grouper timeframe is far from normal. Several trips through the summer to the 90 to 110 swiss cheese depths which are usually teeming with red grouper proved disappointing and it was necessary to come back into the 60 foot range to experience the activity from the various bottom fish that we were seeking. Labor Day weekend proved to be the turning point for the deeper water fishing. Saturday mornings lack of wind and tide offshore allowed us to drift fish because of the inability to hold the boat in position. The slow drift produced many red grouper of various sizes ranging up to a 15 pounder and resulted in the charting of several new interesting spots.

Tip: Keep a marker handy and toss it overboard whenever a sizeable fish is hooked so that you can easily return to the spot and explore it more thoroughly. Experience has proven that there are usually more than one keeper on a spot.

Flatlines deployed while bottom fishing again produced a number of species attracted to the activity and natural chum slick produced when grouper are reeled up from the depths and the pressure change forces out their stomach contents. Smaller reef fish also become easier prey for the apex predators as they swim back down to the bottom. Barracuda, several kingfish, small amberjack, Spanish mackerel and sharks all were attracted to the frozen sardine deployed on the stinger rig.