Saltwater Fishing Report for Sarasota, Florida.
Capt. Bob Smith
January 25, 2006
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sheepshead on Harts reef
Fishing has been a very quiet for the past three weeks! Moving around the bay would produce at best only a stray bluefish or ladyfish for most of the guide-boats in radio contact with me. The “I” reefs just offshore were dead and the water was very silty. We couldn’t lose bait. The weather has been perfect for the last week and we started to get some nice sheepshead on Harts reef, in the middle of the bay.
The water is very clear on the reef and you can see all the piles of structure on the bottom in six to ten feet of water. Drop your anchor in a sandy spot and let the boat drop back to the structure. You can fish straight down with a split shot or use a float and let your line drop back to the structure. Casting a weighted line into the structure will get hung-up. Sheepshead don’t eat fish, so I use live shrimp. The live shrimp are very large now, so you will need to break them up. A very sharp 2/0-3/0 hook on 30-40 pound mono leader works well. The fish have been running 2-4 pounds with a few shorts under 12”. Don’t confuse this fish with the freshwater sheepshead in the north. This fish is good to eat and not related.
Offshore, the snapper have been good at about 18 miles out. A few grouper have been found in the same area. The bad news is that the area is overrun with Tomtate grunts. They will eat a lot of your snapper bait, live shrimp and I don’t like to use them for grouper bait either.
The silty coastal water is due to the high winds we have had this month. I feel that as it clears, the fish will move back closer to the coast and into the bay.
Enjoy & Protect
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