The combination of strong tides, excessive bait and warm water slowed bottom fishing, especially for grouper, almost to a stop last week. We were forced to target cooperative species such as mackerel, mangrove snapper and barracuda.

Large schools of Spanish mackerel have shown up in several areas and depths. They can be seen crashing into masses of small baitfish within 30 yards of the beach near any pass. These fish are accessible to boaters trolling small spoons and to anglers who wade to the first sandbar and cast small spoons (No. 0 or 00). Mixed with the Spanish are ladyfish, jack crevalle and occasional bluefish. The hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset are best to target these beach fish. All the artificial reefs are holding decent numbers of mackerel and some large barracuda, which often make their presence known by cutting a hooked mackerel in half. Have a stinger rig ready for barracuda, and when a mackerel is boated rig it live with a live-bait hook through the nostril and one or two treble hooks dangling along the bait. Trolling around area wrecks has produced barracuda, Spanish mackerel, bonito and a few king mackerel.

-- Capt. Dave Zalewski charters the Lucky Too out of Madeira Beach and can be reached at (727) 397-8815 or by e-mail at Luckytoo2@aol.com.

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