Snapper, grouper await the right drift

The absence of Red Tide so far has lead to large bait schools smothering many areas, luring game fish from all directions.

Small threadfin herring have landed on the grass flats in the bays. Once we see these 2-inch minnows on the flats, it's usually a sign to go mangrove snapper fishing. We caught plenty of giant mangrove snapper this past week; some with row in their bellies, indicating a migration of these tasty reef fish.

As the tide slowed, we enticed the snapper to the surface, which allowed big ones to be caught on light tackle. Using a trickle of cut-up minnows, we free-lined a small chunk with a hook in it. As the snapper attack the chunks, they eventually ate our offering. The incoming tide seems to be the best time to try this tactic. Avoid a fast current. A slower current allows the chum to drift down, luring them up.

These fish have keen eyesight, so light tackle will help your presentation. We use 20-pound test tied directly to a 3/0 hook. Sometimes the bigger snappers will break off, but that's a small price to pay if the action is hot.

Grouper fishing has started to produce modest catches. We have been catching red grouper at all depths from 70 to 110 feet of water. Working the rolloffs and edges of the sand and limestone bottom is working best. A lot of bait stacks can be found smothering a pothole that will also hold a big red grouper or two. We have met our limit of one per person by drifting through these bait stacks.

Dave Mistretta captains out of Indian Rocks Beach. Call (727) 595-3276, or visit www.jaws too.com.

Stalk tarpon and snook under the lights

Night fishing this time of year can be an effective way to target tarpon and snook.

Dock lights are one of the easiest ways to find snook. Lights around passes tend to hold a lot more fish than lights off the beaten path in the intercoastal waterway. Use a trolling motor on a low setting to get close enough to quietly set the anchor. Once you cast, be ready for the strike. Pilings become the biggest factor in landing fish. I like to use braided line; it gives you a good chance if a fish wraps around a piling.

Speckled seatrout can be found at night also. These fish are easy to target around lights. They will eat just about everything you throw at them. Jigs and scaled sardines are good choices, but it is hard to beat a free-lined shrimp as bait. Whenever I anchor at a light, I see shrimp skipping out of the water trying to get away from snook and trout.

There are a lot of bay area bridges holding tarpon. I like to find the brightest street light on the bridge. Bait will usually hold right under the light. Once I pick a light, I will anchor on the up-current side of the bridge. This allows me to drift baits back to the shadow line where the fish are cruising, looking to ambush bait. An anchor buoy will help you get away from the bridge faster. When a tarpon strikes, drop the buoy and start the motor quickly to work the fish away from the pilings.

If your intention is to just go out and catch anything this weekend, then the mouth of Tampa Bay is the place to be. Acres of small baitfish are being attacked by Spanish mackerel and bonito.

Rob Gorta charters out of St. Petersburg. Call (727) 647-7606 or visit www.captain robgorta.com.

Last chance for great tarpon fishing

What's hot: This weekend is your last chance to do some great tarpon fishing along the beach. The schools are large and plentiful. This changes after the Fourth of July holiday. Most of the schools move offshore to spawn. They will not return to the upper parts of the bay until August. The best action is early morning from Honeymoon Island south to Longboat Key.

Tips: Use pinfish, crabs or threadfins under a cork or free-lined. Let the tarpon come to you or move to the school with a pushpole or trolling motor. Outboard engines spook the school away. Egmont Key is crab city. Most fish are feeding on crabs. Dip-net some crabs and drift out the pass with the crabs free-lined. Move to the outside of other boats before putting your boat on plane. The Sunshine Skyway's shadow is a great spot to free-line threadfin. You need a float on the end of your anchor. When you get a strike, untie the anchor line, throw the line and ball in the water and chase down the tarpon.

-- DOUG HEMMER

Either we or times are changing

Changes: Either times are changing or we are changing. A few years ago everyone put away their kingfish tackle for both live baiting and trolling by mid May and spent the summer bottom fishing above the limestone areas in 90 to 120 feet of water primarily for red grouper, lane snapper, a few yellowtail snapper and white grunts, hoping that the occasional school of small mahi-mahi would show up for a change of pace. The kingfish tackle would sit in the garage gathering dust until the kingfish showed up again in mid October. For several years we have targeted kingfish throughout the summer by either slow trolling a spread of live bait on stinger rigs near any of the wrecks 60 feet or deeper or deploying the same bait while anchored and bottom fishing. Bill Larson hooked and landed a 38-pound kingfish on 20-pound test spinning tackle, which inhaled a large bluerunner that he had pitched out while we were bottom fishing.

Tip: When slow trolling, several baits hook the smaller baits through the nose. Large baits, such as bluerunners, should be shoulder hooked, which will cause them to swim deeper and helps to prevent tangled lines.

-- DAVE ZALEWSKI

How to handle bluewater fish

What's hot: Bluewater fishing is heating up. With long stretches of good weather, large weed lines are forming 50 miles and further offshore. Marlin, wahoo, dolphin and sailfish are under and around the weed lines, which run north and south and sometimes stretch for miles. At other times, you will find only big patches. Marlin will eat dolphin, ship jacks and small tuna. Weed lines are like a nursery where small fish can hide and feed on plankton. Floating debris, tide rips and water temperature changes all draw bait fish. You will find predator fish in these areas.

Location: Bluewater fishing 45 miles offshore southwest of John's Pass, Treasure Island, is an area we call "Tuna Turnpike" for all the blackfin tuna we have caught the past 18 years. Fifty to 60 miles offshore is "Wahoo Way, " and 60 to 130 miles out is "Dolphin Drive." These areas produce good catches. Work an area over if you find any floating objects. Marlin fishing is best starting on the 100-fathom curve and working your way to the steps, 130 miles southwest from John's Pass. The steps are easy to find on a chart. It drops off from 100 fathoms to 1, 800 fathoms.

Tackle: For bluewater fishing, it should be at least 50- to 80-pound class terminal tackle. We prefer reels that can hold at least 800 yards of line. Smooth drags, fighting belts and chairs and a good set of binoculars are essential. Trolling lures are most productive because you have to cover a large area to find bluewater fish. Once you find fish, stay in that area until you are no longer catching them. Mark the area on your GPS and hit the spot again the next day.

Larry "Huffy" Hoffman charters out of John's Pass, Treasure Island. Call 727 709-9396 or e-mail him at huffyl@tampabay.rr.com.

Fish strongest tides when targeting snook

Great trip: When targeting snook, I normally fish the strongest tides. I target the outgoing tide after the full and new moons. James Slayton, his wife, Tamara, and his 10-year-old son, James Jr., wanted to fish on a day that had the slowest tide of the month, and the tide was incoming when we should have been fishing outgoing. But they wanted their son to catch a snook. I said there was no way the snook would feed under these conditions. How wrong I was.

The first cast produced a 12-pounder for James Jr. During the next three hours, they caught and released 20 snook in the 6- to 15-pound class. What should have been the worst action of the month turned out to be one of my best trips. You never know what kind of trip you're going to have even when the conditions are for or against you. Mother Nature will sometimes make you question longtime formulas.

I can only guess why the feed was so good. Maybe the dolphins tried to feed on snook when they should have been feeding. Maybe the strong westerly winds dirtied the waters and made it hard for them to find bait. Whatever it was, I will never try to talk someone out of a trip. In the future, I will tell the customer what the conditions are and let Mother Nature run her course.

-- Doug Hemmer

Snook bite has been great

What's hot: The snook bite has been great when low light conditions allow anglers to disguise their presentation and take advantage of the snook's strong appetite in the morning. The water is cooler, which makes the fish move more while searching for a meal. Sardines have been the best bait while freelined and swimming naturally in the current. There is an abundance of male snook crashing into the pods of glass minnows that are prevalent along the swash channels parallel to the sandy shoreline. The smallest greenback in the livewell work best when tossed into clouds of bait. A 25-pound fluorocarbon leader is heavy enough if there is a 20-pound female mixed with the males. Back the drag off the reel, as there isn't anything that can cut the line. Anglers need to fight these fish quickly to the boat so revival time is minimum and the fish survive the Florida heat.

Tactics: Snook are weary of what is around while on the clear Pinellas County beaches. Along with lighter leader material, a 1 or 2 hook is a good match. Making long casts and using the wind to increase distance will convince these linesiders to chew.

Jim Huddleston charters out of Tampa, Palm Harbor and Clearwater and can be reached at 727 439-9017 or at jim@captainhud.com.

Gulf hits 80 degrees

Summer is here: The Gulf hit 80 degrees in 45 to 60 feet of water, which now has a greener tint. Visibility was 20 to 25 feet Thursday as some students finished final certification dives on the Tug Orange and Betty Rose wrecks. Seeing a half dozen Goliath grouper up close is an unforgettable experience for a new diver. Norbert Gutzmore found free-shafting the fastest way to learn spearfishing, with good-sized mangrove snapper and hogfish as targets near the Tramp Steamer.

Spearfishing legends: Several legends will join host Sheri Daye on Friday and June 30 at the Blue Wild Spearfishing Seminar, Expo and Film Festival, being held at the IGFA Museum in Dania Beach. More than $30, 000 in prizes have been donated for a raffle to benefit the Boca Raton Society for the Disabled. Friday night the first Spearfishing Film Festival will feature action video and a 1950s film of Art Pinder. More than 200 divers are registered but more than 400 are expected, and tickets might sell out Friday. For more information see www.thebluewild.com.

Chad Carney teaches diving and spearfishing in the Tampa Bay area and can be reached at (727) 423-7775 or visit his Web site at www.mobilescuba.com.

-- Chad Carney

Baird Named Helmsman for America's Cup

  St. Petersburg's Ed Baird has been named the helmsman for Switzerland's defending champion yacht Alinghi in tomorrow's 32nd annual America's Cup in Valencia, Spain. Baird is a veteran sailor and was a coach for New Zealand's 1995 America' Cup entry. He also participated in the 2000 and 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup for the U.S. on Young American and Stars and Stripes respectively. This is the first time Baird has been a helmsman in the America's Cup. Of the 17 member crew generally used by yacht's in the America's Cup, helmsman is the highest profile. The first race of the America's Cup is tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. on the Versus Network.

Tarpon fishing not bothered by warmer waters

What's hot: Water temperatures are creeping up into the high 80s in the shallower parts of the bays, due to extremely hot conditions. Lack of rain doesn't help, since the afternoon thundershowers are nearly void from the once normal summer patterns. It doesn't seem to bother the inshore tarpon fishing action. They seem to be swimming at many locations in the bays and along the beaches.

Tactics: Offshore, water temperatures are a bit cooler, which have kept the king mackerel chomping at many anglers lines. The artificial reefs that are holding bait are the best for attracting these summertime macks. Light winds have made the water clarity extremely clear, requiring a definite down-scaling of tackle. Wire leader needs to be shortened in length and dropped a few sizes in diameter to get more bites.

Early morning approaches for many game fish work best, since the sun's angle is low. After chasing fish around in the dark all night, an easier offering at daylight is often welcomed by a big game fish. Plus, they can't see the knots, leaders and hooks, compared to mid day. Once the sun is high, an afternoon sea breeze will often help the big kings get activated again. The wind makes th water choppy, allowing your presentation of baitfish more appealing.

Sunset is another option. After a long day of sunny weather, a big fish will often grab a bite to eat as the sun gets ready to set. This action is the opposite of a bite at daylight. The angle of the sun keeps the fish from seeing every twist in your knots and hides the heavier leaders.

-- Dave Mistretta