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Sarasota and Venice
Capt. Rick Grassett
June 26, 2005
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southwest FL Fishing Report for 6/12 through 6/26/2005
Anglers on the Snook Fin-Addict connected with several tarpon during the past couple of weeks. A persistent red tide bloom in the coastal gulf and inshore waters of Sarasota and Longboat Key has had me fishing further south to find clean water. I’ve been fishing primarily out of Placida (near Boca Grande), where the water quality is great. I’ve also fished a couple of days south of Venice and in the Peace River. We’ve had plentiful tarpon in these areas, even though they haven’t been very aggressive.
J.C. Leverage, from Kure Beach, NC, fished a couple of days with me during the week of June 12th. We opted to fish the backcountry of Gasparilla Sound one day and the Peace River at Punta Gorda on another day. He connected with snook and a 15-pound tarpon on CAL jigs and DOA TerrorEyz. Anglers during the rest of the week had shots with flies and live bait, but no hook-ups. We did have a couple of bites, but with limited opportunities it is tougher to convert that into jumped and landed fish.
Dennis Ondercin from Middleburg Heights, OH, and his son, Cliff Ondercin from Sarasota, FL, tarpon fished with me near Gasparilla Pass the following week. They had lots of shots, a couple of bites and landed an estimated 110-pound tarpon on Thursday. Thursday was the best day with tarpon daisy chaining in the trough next to the beach only 20 feet from the sand in some instances. Cliff had a fly in several schools, but they didn’t bite. He finally hooked up by suspending a live crab under a float next to a daisy chaining school. Even then, it took a while to get a bite.
One other tarpon was jumped on Saturday, also on a live crab suspended under a float. Although this isn’t a technique that I use a lot, it’s made a difference by keeping bait in front of tarpon for a longer period of time.
Tarpon seem to be behaving a little more normally for the last several days. As we head toward the first quarter of the moon next week, hopefully we’ll get a good bite. We are still in a prime part of the season and things could turn on at any time.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
www.flyfishingflorida.net
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