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Kingfish
Posts: 1201
 
Location: Tampa Bay | Nature Coast: Captain's Corner
By Ed Walker, Times Correspondent
In print: Saturday, July 26, 2008
Several trips offshore last week provided a welcome respite from sluggish summer flats fishing. We ventured out past 35 miles and fished natural bottom such as rock piles and ledges, as well as artificial structures such as wrecks.
Chum, they'll come
Because mangrove snapper are spawning, we were sure to bring lots of chum. Mangroves are finicky eaters, and they seldom bite a standard grouper rig. By keeping a chum bag in the water at all times and chopping up fresh threadfin herring, we were able to draw the snapper all the way to the surface — until sharks and barracuda showed up. We landed snapper as heavy as 5 pounds by freelining, and after the predators appeared, we switched to rigs with 2-ounce sinkers and 6-foot, 30-pound test fluorocarbon leaders and started catching them again.
Bonus fish
We caught a variety of reef dwellers including gag grouper, barracuda and amberjack, but the big surprise was cobia. Normally the late summer is not considered the best for the tasty brown fish, but many appeared in our chum line. We landed eight with the largest about 40 pounds. We kept four and released the rest. Another unexpected species was sailfish. One drifted by out of range of our baits, with its sail sticking out of the water. At one point it jumped completely out of the water.
Ed Walker charters out of Tarpon Springs. Call (727) 944-3474 or send e-mail to info@lighttackle charters.com.
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/article737468.ece
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Offshore Trips - Ed Walker | SPT
