Outdoors Column | Weather creates perfect conditions for catching fish
Despite strong winds, local captains have been finding fish, and lots of them, without traveling far from their comfort zones.
Over the past week, 15-25 mph east-to-northeast winds lingered. Luckily the wind direction made the nearshore waters fairly calm within a mile from land, and hungry predators stayed close to Anna Maria Island’s white sandy beaches.
“I’ve been zig-zagging from about 20 to 25 feet,” said Capt. Jonathan Soultatos. “There’s a lot of bait on the beaches from medium to horse sized shiners. There’s also lots of bait schools just offshore, I think they’re threadfins. Once we see the bait schools crashing and birds diving we head toward them and that’s where we find feeding fish.”
Soultatos and others have been finding plenty of mackerel, sharks and early season kingfish providing exciting action for light tackle anglers.
“We get set up and chum heavy with the whitebait, bringing the fish to us and getting them fired up. There are as many mackerel as you want to catch. For the sharks you can throw out a bigger bait or chunk of bait,” said Soultatos said, who has his anglers use light to medium spinning tackle with the live baits.
“The people who mostly freshwater fish or come down from up north love the sharks.”
While most mackerel are between 12 and 20 inches, their bigger family member kingfish are known to grow much larger. On Monday, Soultatos’ anglers landed seven of them. The biggest was landed by a 9-year old angler, hauling in a massive king around 45 pounds!
“For the kingfish I use techniques I picked up on the east coast where I grew up. I’ll troll around with a belly strip of mackerel and live bait, bumping the engine in and out of gear. This seems to bring them in and then they find the live baits.”
The forecast for the week ahead is more east winds, although not as strong as the week past, before shifting south ahead of a possible front. More fish could push in once we get a strong cold front, according to Soultatos.
“This fishing just started. Last year I did it until January off the beach. What turned these fish on the last week was the water temperature dropping a little, and with the first real cold front we have it will be even better!”
It’s best to fish with a slight trace of wire or heavier mono leader with a long shank hook for the toothy mackerel species. They will cut off lighter leader as they slash through the water for bait.
Spanish mackerel have a 12-inch minimum size limit with a bag limit of 15 per harvester. Kingfish have a 24-inch minimum with a 3-per harvester bag limit. Both make decent table fare and are excellent smoked.