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

One month ago water temperatures were in the 70’s and we were both trolling and bottom fishing on most trips offshore. In a normal year trolling stops around Thanksgiving because low water temperatures send the baitfish and their predators (Spanish mackerel, kingfish , and barracuda) south to warmer water. The last cold front with its hazardous winds which muddied up the water and dramatically dropped water temps into the 50’s slowed the metabolism of most offshore species.
Our last trip offshore started in 50 foot of water, which had been producing banner catches before the front. Anchoring over a limestone outcropping that always produces resulted in a few white grunts and nothing else. The fish that we caught were cold to the touch that indicated warmer water had to be found before there was any chance of putting fish in the box. We continued west to the 80 foot depths where the fish were more active, but still not as aggressive as they were the week before. It required a lot of chumming, use of squid, for the scent placed in the water and a lot of patience while waiting for the fish to start feeding. We returned to the dock with white grunts, a few red grouper, Lane snapper, and porgies in the box and great memories and photos of the bull redfish and gag grouper that were caught, photoed and released to provide future anglers the excitement of the battle.
Chumming can be counterproductive on days when the tide is running strong offshore and a weighted chum basket dropped to the bottom from the front of the boat will lure the bottom fish to the presented baits.