Sarasota Fishing Report Capt Jim Klopfer 4/19/2014
Capt. Jim Klopfer
April 19, 2014
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
I ran charters every day this week, and despite breezy conditions, charters were fairly successful, including quite a few decent trout. The wind and "dirty" water (caused by the wind churning up the sand) made for more challenging conditions than we normally experience in mid-April. Still, anglers landed speckled trout to 25", bluefish and Spanish mackerel to 2 pounds, jack crevelle to 5 pounds, sheepshead, mangrove and lane snapper, red and gag grouper, sea bass, flounder, and ladyfish. Most of the fish fell for live shrimp though DOA and Cotee jigs caught a few, too. Big Pass, Stephen's Pt., and the flats north of New Pass were the best spots.
I started the week off on Sunday with Sarasota resident Paul Brunelle and his son Jay, the trip was a birthday present for Jay. They have their own boat and wanted to see some spots and techniques. We started off bottom fishing in Big Pass, catching sheepshead, snapper, and grouper. Then, we drifted the pass and caught ladyfish, Spanish mackerel, and jacks. A move up north resulted in speckled trout to 20", mackerel, and a lot of ladyfish at the Middlegrounds, Country Club Shores, Mooring, Bishop's Pt. , and Stephen's Pt using jigs and live shrimp.
On Monday Buddies Tom Brundz and Tim Gekas took their sons Zach Brudz (11) and Justin Gekas (14) out on a charter. A drift in Big Pass resulted in very little but a move to the Yacht Club Channel produced speckled trout, gag grouper, sea bass, Spanish mackerel, and loads of ladyfish using jigs and free lined live shrimp. I hit a couple of Bird Key docks looking for sheepshead but the pinfish were so thick we could not get a bait past them. We finished up at Marker # 5 with Zach landing a nice Spanish and Justin catching a big ladyfish.
The Bucko family from Wisconsin fought the wind on Tuesday morning. We basically picked at them, catching fish (sheepshead, ladyfish, snapper, trout, and a mackerel) in Big Pass, the Yacht Club Channel, and Radio Tower casting jigs and free lining shrimp. We finished up with a little better fishing at Country Club Shores, catching bluefish, trout, and ladyfish.
Chris Hardwick from Darien, CT took his two boys and dad out on Wednesday. It was cool and breezy following the front that had moved through the night before. Action was sporadic at first, they caught a few ladyfish in Robert's Bay and some sheepshead, mangrove snapper, and a flounder at the Siesta Drive Bridge. We did finish up with some decent action on bluefish, slot-sized speckled trout, and Spanish mackerel at Stephen's Pt, mostly on glow CAL jigs.
Keith Williams from the UK took two of his sons, Toby (5) and Thomas (13) out on Thursday. It was Toby's first fishing trip. They caught quite a variety of species. With a slack tide, I worked the structure along the north side of Siesta Key in Big Pass and the nearby deep grass flats with live shrimp once the tide picked up. Sheepshead, mangrove snapper, red grouper, lane snapper, gag grouper, speckled trout to 18", flounder, jacks, and ladyfish were caught on shrimp.
I had the best charter of the week on Friday with Ron Beech from Miamisburg, OH and his two sons Nathan (13) and Chris (16). They caught a bunch of species, including speckled trout to 25", Spanish mackerel, silver trout, jack crevelle to 5 pounds, gag grouper, sheepshead, mangrove snapper, ladyfish, sea bass, and more. Big Pass started off slow then the bite turned on as the tidal flow increased. Nathan caught a big jack and they all caught snapper and sheepshead. The current became too strong to fish so we moved to the deep flats where they caught mackerel, ladyfish, and trout. Chris had the hot hand with the speckled trout, landing two fat beauties of 21" and 25" on large live shrimp.
Dick Wahba and his 12 year old son Charlie from New York City finished off my week. Conditions were difficult, NW winds at 15-20 knots with dirty water, but we worked at it and wound up with a decent bag of fish. A couple of slot speckled trout along with several smaller ones, a decent silver trout, 2 12" mangrove snappers, jack crevelle, and a couple of very large ladyfish hit free lined live shrimp near ird Key.
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