Captain’s Corner for March 29 David Zalewski 460-9893
It’s time to break out the trolling tackle and concentrate on kingfish and their lesser cousins Spanish mackerel. The gulf erupted for us while bottom fishing in 60 feet of water southwest of John’s Pass. The bottom fishing on a small ledge adjacent to a larger piece of jumbled rock bottom started producing white grunts, porgies, triggerfish, short red grouper and gags that would have been keepers beginning June 1. The stinger rigged flatline with a frisky Spanish sardine caught with a sabiki rig on the way to our bottom spot did not produce any strikes, but when two bottom rigs were cut off and a kingfish was brought to the surface where it bit through the monofilament leader it became evident that a change in tactics was called for. The live bait was substituted for a frozen sardine which was cast out and allowed to sink towards the bottom. We were rewarded with a long run and battle by a kingfish. Sardines were cut into small pieces and dropped right off the transom to join the natural chum that was caused by the bottom fish expelling their stomach contents on the way to the surface. Switching to two flatlines produced numerous hookups from kingfish. A large cobia showed up in the chum line and frustrated us by refusing everything that we presented to him. Live and dead sardines, pinfish and a blue runner all were tried with no success. A 30 inch gag grouper did rise from the depths and inhaled the blue runner creating a memorable catch and release moment for the angler on the light kingfish tackle. From now to next winter we will be deploying two flatlines, one with a frozen sardine and one with a live sardine or hardtail every time the anchor is dropped to bottom fish because every species of pelagic fish found in our waters will be attracted to the commotion and chum being expelled into the water.