Saltwater Fishing Report for Sarasota, Florida.
Capt. Bob Smith
January 3, 2003
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Snapper, Seatrout and Pompano!
Inshore and offshore fishing has been very good! It is just a matter of getting the weather to cooperate. Offshore at the Cuda Hole area in 45 to 50 feet of water, the Mangrove snapper have been hot. Live shrimp fished on the bottom with a ¼ to ½ ounce of lead on light tackle is what it takes. Don't be surprised if you hook a permit or grouper while fishing with the live shrimp. It is also a good idea to take some live pinfish and a heavier rod for grouper. A few keeper grouper are being caught in the same area. Trolling with Stretch lures has produced little tunny, bluefish, mackerel and an occasional kingfish.
We have started to find plenty keeper size sea trout on the bay. Yesterday I started late, 11:30 AM. Another guide boat had been fishing Zwicks channel on an out going tide that morning and did very well on trout along with a few pompano and bluefish. By the time we started, the tide had changed and Zwicks had filled with silty water. We found nothing but a few catfish. I could see the color change moving slowly east over the grass flats. We needed to get out of this silty water if we wanted to find fish. I just moved a little north to the entrance of the Rim canal and drifted the grass along the sandbar just north of the entrance. Here we found plenty of trout to 18" and an occasional pompano. We spent the rest of the afternoon here and had no trouble making our limit. Most all of the trout were over 15" and were fun on the eight-pound tackle. All we could get was very small live shrimp for bait. The shrimp worked very well when we kept a live one on the hook. We fished the bait free-line, no float no weight.
Enjoy and Protect
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