Kings and Reds!
Capt. Bob Smith
October 5, 2008
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sarasota Florida Fishing Report
By Capt. Bob Smith
Saturday morning at first light, we anchored up at the south end of Zwicks channel where the channel starts to choke down. We had none-stop redfish action until we got tired of catching them. Most of the redfish caught where in the slot. We also caught some keeper size flounder and snapper. Live bait, shrimp, or fish with a small splitshot worked well.
Kingfish and Spanish mackerel are hot along the beaches from New Pass to Point of Rocks. Small kings and large Spanish are taking live bait and artificial lures. For now, you just need to look for the birds to find the fish offshore or fish around the numerous artificial reefs within three miles of the beach. Along with the macks, we are finding barracuda, sharks, and little tunny. Sometimes a keeper size grouper would not be unusual.
We have had good runs of kings along the beaches in September for the last few years. I feel this is due to the mild winters that allowed large schools of baitfish to remain in the bay all during the winter. The Redtide also gave the baitfish a head start three years ago by killing off most of the predator fish. That first summer after the Redtide, the shrimp never left the bay and got too large to be good live bait. Give me "Hand-Picks" meant, find me some smaller shrimp.
We are also seeing an increase in some species on the bay like look-downs, Bermuda chubs, 12" barracudas, etc. I don't mean that we never caught them before; we are just doing it more often. Some fishermen have told me that they had to start carrying a fish identifier book. Not a bad idea for anyone new to the area. If you like to eat fish, it is nice to know if you have a large black sea bass or a small black grouper.
Enjoy & Protect
More Fishing Reports:
