Captain’s Corner for October 13    Dave Zalewski  460-9893

Stone crab season begins October 15 and crabbers are allowed to bait and place their traps in the water before opening day. In the past crabbers would place their traps, marked by an individually assigned colored buoy, in the depth they thought would be productive. With the advent of highly accurate GPS they now are able to place their traps precisely on rock or stone bottom. The traps are baited with fish carcasses and become a chum pot and protective structure for smaller reef fish and their predators. Red grouper fishing has become catch, photo, and release with the recent closure, but gag grouper will remain open until December 2. Trolling for gags can be exciting and productive for those willing to invest the time.  A #3 planer, 30 feet of 50# monofilament leader followed by a large broken-backed small lipped gold plug or large jig head with a plastic curly tailed or shad shaped jig head or a large lipped deep diving plug  is all that is needed. 4 .5 to 5 knots is the ideal speed.  When a strike occurs, it is necessary to keep the boat in gear for a short while to pull the fish away from the structure.

Some kingfish, Spanish mackerel and the bonus cobia will also be caught at this time of year on the deep trolls, but it is wise to deploy a surface trolled bait while targeting grouper to cover the entire water column.