Captain’s Corner for March 27 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

Even though red grouper season will open on April 1, it will be hard to stop fishing for Spanish mackerel and kingfish. We are experiencing one of the best spring kingfish runs in recent years. Frank Bellamy could not have picked a better day to invite some friends from Georgia to experience our spring time fishing. We started trolling at the Treasure Island artificial reef with a spread of 31 and 2 planers followed by both large and small spoons along with a locally manufactured hard bodied bait normally used for inshore fishing on a flat line on the surface. Because of the extremely clean water planer leaders were downsized to 40 pound test and lengthened to 25 feet. Action was fast and furious as soon as lines were deployed with bait and fish hanging close to the high profile structures scattered throughout the reef.
Many of the kingfish were just under the 24 inch minimum fork length limit, so the next stop was the South County reef hoping for larger fish. Kingfish and large Spanish mackerel were caught on almost every pass over the 3 barges and the tug “Orange” that were sunk to provide the high profile structure that proves so attractive to baitfish and their predators.
The last stop for the day was offshore in 70 feet of water to give the party some catch, photo and release grouper action along with light tackle white grunt fishing. The stinger rigged flatline with a dead sardine produced several of the largest kingfish of the day. After the kingfish were attracted to the area by the commotion caused by the bottom fishing several were caught by casting that same hard bodied bait and retrieving it with a twitch bait action to simulate a wounded baitfish.
The day was summed up when one of the guests stated “ How are we going to go back home and wait for the bobber to twitch after this”