Captain’s Corner for May 13 Dave Zalewski

In the past as soon as the majority of the kingfish left our area , we would put away our trolling tackle and concentrate for the most part on bottom fishing in the 70 to 90 foot depths for red and gag grouper, white grunts, mangrove snapper , and yellowtail snapper. The kingfish have left us , but there are still plenty of species to target trolling. Gag grouper trolling in the 30 to 40 foot hard bottom areas has provided exceptional action.
Tip: For years the majority of trolling for gags has been conducted along the shipping channel going into Tampa. The channel averages about 40 foot deep. Hard bottom rocky areas that receive less pressure than the channel are accessible to the average boater without a long run offshore. A broken backed gold lure trolled behind a #3 planer, the large lipped stretch plugs in gold or blue produce the best.
Barracuda have made their presence known by schooling on the artificial reefs and wrecks for several weeks. They have just become active in their feeding and provide great action by slow trolling any large bait such as live blue runners or mackerel caught on site and deployed with a stinger rig.
Spanish mackerel action has left something to be desired offshore, but the best action has been right on the beach within a 100 yards. Trolling small gold or silver spoons behind a #1 planer, or sight casting small locally manufactured plugs into the schools of bait have produced exceptional action.