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Sarasota and Venice
Capt. Rick Grassett
January 10, 2004
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southwest Florida Fishing Report for Jan. 4-10, 2004
Anglers on the Snook Fin-Addict had good action with reds, snook and trout during the past week. Negative low tides concentrated reds and trout in potholes and troughs. Fly fishing for snook at night was also hot.
Fly anglers, Keith McClintock from Lake Forest, IL, and Victor Feldman, from Champaign, IL, fished “snook alley” in Venice with me last Sunday evening. The bite was hot as snook gorged themselves on glass minnows. A fast moving tide is critical for this fishing and when it is, anglers are usually rewarded. Keith and Victor caught and released more than 20 snook to 23” on Grassett’s Grass Minnow and Enrico Puglisi Micro Minnows.
Kip Mehring and his 10-year old son, Brandon, from Oak Lawn, IL, fished north Sarasota Bay with me on Tuesday. We found fast action with trout to 18” and reds along the drop off of a sand bar near Bishop Point. They caught and released more than 30 trout and ladyfish and 3 or 4 small reds on CAL jigs with shad tails.
Wednesday morning I awoke to almost 20 mph winds gusting about 25 mph. We decided we would break the fun rule if we went fishing (if it isn’t any fun don’t do it), so I postponed the days fishing for a better day. Kip and Brandon fished with me again on Thursday. We headed north to the Terra Ceia Bay area, where we found reds in potholes. They caught and released 6 reds, 5 small ones and a 32”, 12 ½-pound monster, on CAL jigs with shad tails and Cotee jigs with flashtail grubs. Surprisingly, we didn’t catch any trout in the potholes. We finished the day with fast action with large ladyfish.
Chris Peterson, from Bellmore, NY, fished north Sarasota Bay near Buttonwood Harbor with me on Friday morning. Again with a very low tide, reds were concentrated in potholes. Chris caught and released 6 reds to 24”and several trout to 17” on CAL jigs with shad tails and Cotee jigs with grubs. We stopped for a couple of drifts at Stephen’s Point as we headed in and caught bluefish, ladyfish and trout.
I had an interesting trip on Friday afternoon with Erhan Tatishev, from Russia and his 10-year old son, Al, a student at Nick Bollitieri’s Tennis Academy in Bradenton. They wanted to learn to fly fish and they made good progress with their casting, but didn’t catch any fish on flies. The language barrier was sometimes a problem, but Al would jump in with an explanation in Russian when necessary. After switching to spinning tackle, they caught about 10 trout to 18”, including 3 slot size fish, and numerous ladyfish.
Next week’s tides should be good for fishing the flats or fly fishing for snook at night. Whenever possible, fish when fronts are approaching or in the windows between fronts. Fishing immediately following a front can be tough.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
www.flyfishingflorida.net
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