Captain’s Corner for August 29  Dave  Zalewski  460-9893

Offshore fishing continues to be as hot as the weather, with a few bonus species added to the usual mix of red and gag grouper, white grunts; mangrove, yellowtail and vermillion, snapper on the bottom and Spanish mackerel, barracuda and bonita in the water column. The bonus species are tripletail and mahi-mahi. We have always been a proponent of taking the time to stop and pick up floating trash encountered while traveling back and forth to the area that we plan to target. Both tripletail and mahi-mahi are attracted to debris of any size that is drifting with the current. Balloons usually do not hold fish because they are wind driven and fast moving. The Boy Scout motto is “Be prepared” and that is what is necessary when fishing debris. We are now prepared on every trip by having several light tackle rods rigged with a 1/0 circle hook for the tripletail and a 2/0 or 3/0 long shanked gold hook for the mahis tied directly to the mainline. The reason for the gold hook is that mahis will often strip the bait from the hook and the flash of the gold hook will often trigger a bite on the bare hook.  Mahis have relatively small stomachs and can be filled up by over chumming. Small slivers of Spanish sardine ¼ in wide are ideal. Cutting some with a pair of sharp scissors while in a partially frozen condition and storing them on ice in a zip lock makes for less confusion when a school appears. Live shrimp fly lined to tripletail is the bait of choice, but the head of a squid with the tentacles waving often out fishes the shrimp.