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

Each year we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) because this is the time that the migratory fish; Spanish mackerel, kingfish, bonita, cobia, and barracuda begin to show up in our area ushering in a welcome change from just bottom fishing. Cobia, being the hardiest of the bunch show up first and take up a short residence at high profile structure which consists of wrecks, artificial reefs, and the buoys along the shipping channel. They are time consuming to target and are usually considered an opportunistic species, showing up when least expected.
Tip: Check out each marker that you pass for both cobia and tripletail at this time of year.
Bonita and Spanish mackerel are the next to show and can be found crashing into schools of bait which are now just beginning to show up in our waters .We have observed scattered schools of bait on a daily basis from near shore out to 40 feet of water
Tip: Even though it was rushing the season, we just had to try some trolling, and experienced some success wit Spanish mackerel near John’s Pass and also at markers 9 and 10 in the Egmont shipping channel.
Barracuda will show up and will be visible on most of the wrecks and artificial reefs soon, but will prove to be very frustrating. Each year they can be seen, but will refuse anything presented to them.
Tip: It is usually about 2 weeks after they first show up until they start feeding . Once that occurs, great light tackle action will be had from these feisty battlers until they leave in the fall.