Captain’s Corner for May 13 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

Fishing for Spanish mackerel came to a screeching halt last week. They had been abundant on the artificial reefs and near the entrance to every pass entering the gulf. Conditions are perfect with clear water, bait of all sizes being seen at several different depths. The only thing missing are the fun to catch on light tackle speedsters. This should be a temporary condition and it may take one day or even one week for things to return to normal.
Normally at this time of year we target Spanish mackerel as our first fish of the day. Now we are not stopping near shore except to catch pinfish, squirrelfish, hardtails and Spanish sardines over hard bottom areas about 2 miles from the entrance to the passes. It has been taking only a short time to fill the bait well with choice baits. If there are children onboard, it is difficult to ask them to stop fishing for bait because this is such a fun activity for them.
Red grouper, mangrove snapper, Lane snapper, and white grunts have been very active in the 70 to 80 foot depths, and the bottom fish have been our primary target. We always carry frozen sardines and squid along with the live bait caught on sabikis because the fish seem to bite better on one bait better than another on any given day.
Kingfish are still around in sufficient numbers to warrant deploying a flatline with either a live or frozen sardine during each period of bottom fishing. We have been returning to port with from 2 to 4 kingfish on every recent trip.