Outdoors

Captain's Corner

By STEVE PAPEN, Times Correspondent
Published February 4, 2008

Tackle: Slugging it out with bottom dwellers such as big grouper and snapper requires heavy tackle. When anchored right, you should be dropping baits right outside their jagged, rocky front door. Sixty-pound tackle is the minimum on most of our trips.

Tactics: When bottom fishing, never set the hook, no matter how shallow. When the bait is on the bottom, reel the slack out of the line and raise the rod tip a few feet above the surface. Reel a hit as fast as possible and don't stop; this will set the hook and get the fish heading in the right direction. As the fish is coming to the surface, a steady crank of the handle is all you need, especially in deep water. If a larger fish is hooked, loosen the drag about halfway to the surface to prevent line breakage when it tries to surge back to the bottom.

Tips: To ensure good position, fish ledges or breaks that are facing the wind. If it is out of the north or south, look for breaks that run east and west, and vice versa. This makes anchoring on the spot easier because there is a little more room for error as the break should run right across the transom.

Steve Papen charters out of Indian Shores and can be reached at at fintasticinc.com or (727) 642-3411.

[Last modified February 3, 2008, 22:37:12]