Captain’s Corner for June 29 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

Offshore fishing has been full of surprises so far this summer. Normally the preferred targets of choice have been Spanish mackerel and red grouper at this time of year. Several other species have provided other alternatives. Spanish mackerel fishing has been spotty, but their larger cousins, king mackerel, which should have left the area a month ago, have more than filled the void. The kingfish have been active in all depths with our most consistent catches being near the western end of the shipping channel and on the wrecks in 60 feet of water and deeper. Slow trolling live sardines, hardtails, and small blue runners under the surface with the use of trolling sinkers or downriggers has produced many fish 20 pounds or better.
Red grouper have been biting well on the usual mixture of live and frozen baits in the 70 to 90 foot depths. Bonus catches of Lane, vermillion, and yellowtail snapper along with large white grunts have occurred when we make use of 1/0 two hook snapper rigs or large sabiki rigs cut in half and tipping the hooks with squid strips while targeting the red grouper with conventional tackle. Kingfish, barracuda, and sharks have been striking stinger rigged flatlines deployed when bottom fishing. The activity created when bottom fishing draws in these apex predators. After picking up the anchor, spending 5 to 10 minutes trolling a figure 8 pattern with either live baits caught on site or spoons and plugs have produced quite well lately.