Saltwater Fishing Report for Sarasota, Florida.
Capt. Bob Smith
April 11, 2003
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Inshore & Offshore Hot!
We finally got some bad weather so I could knock out a report. The fishing has not changed much in the last few weeks. Kingfish are still hot on the “M” reefs in forty to fifty feet of water. We also had a few good days in twenty-five feet of water off of Lido beach. Live bait is the top gun here. From live shrimp to bluerunners, all have produced plenty of kings. There are plenty of Spanish mackerel and large barracuda in with the kings. An occasional cobia and a few sailfish have also been in the mix at the fifty-foot depth.
Running further offshore to the 70+ depths has found grouper and snapper on the hard bottom and amberjacks on the artificial reefs. The Red tide is still a factor in keeping your bait alive. You still need to grab it wherever you find it because the bait is playing “Hide N’ Go Seek” out on the reefs.
Inshore on the bay, the fishing has been excellent! Not 24/7, but the best it has been in years. Seatrout and Spanish mackerel have been hot on the grass-flats. Along with them we found some pompano, bluefish, cobia and ladyfish. We did have a couple of slow days but left the bay Wednesday afternoon with the mackerel action very strong on the flats. We were fishing on Steven’s Point grass-flats and drifting with live shrimp. It was non-stop action with the mackerel and a few nice trout, bluefish and ladyfish mixed in. This day we got mackerel up to three pounds but recently we had gotten them up to six pounds. All of the grass-flats have had good fishing but not always at the same time so you may need to move around to keep up.
Enjoy and Protect
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