Sarasota fishing report Capt Jim Klopfer 8/8/2015
Capt. Jim Klopfer
August 8, 2015
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
It rained heavily over the weekend and on Monday, but since then the weather has been perfect, warm with southeast breezes in the morning. Fishing was excellent early in the week, then tapered off a bit. Bait fish are everywhere near both passes and chumming remained the most effective technique, though anglers this week also caught fish on Gulp! Shrimp and fly fishing. Speckled trout to 24", Spanish mackerel to 3 pounds, mangrove snapper to 12", gag grouper, black sea bass, flounder, jack crevelle, ladyfish, catfish, and more were landed by clients on charters this week.
Sunday and Monday were both wet and windy, on Tuesday I took out Nick Ferrara from CT and his buddy Brian. I was expecting the water to be discolored from the rains, but was pleasantly surprised to find it decent, and also cooled off several degrees. Bait was a bit tough, but once loaded up, the action was VERY good. The boys caught around 75 fish, with a lot of "double headers". A couple of the trout were over 20", along with several decent ones and plenty of little guys. Gag grouper, black sea bass, mangrove snapper, ladyfish, Spanish mackerel, jack crevelle, and catfish rounded out the species list. Both the Middlegrounds and Radio Tower were equally productive.
Tim Lee from northern California and his friend Florin Marica went on Wednesday morning. Tim is a fly angler and did quite well, catching a couple dozen fish including speckled trout, jack crevelle, Spanish mackerel, and mangrove snapper on Clouser Minnow patterns. Florin chipped in with around 30 fish, including a 19" speckled trout and several nice Spanish mackerel. Radio Tower and Middlegrounds were the hot spots.
Charles Metts from Columbia, SC treated his girlfriend Janem, her daughter Claire, and her boyfriend adam to a charter on Thursday. We ran across to the radio Tower and cast Gulp! Shrimp on jig heads for an hour or so. Everyone caught several fish including speckled trout, jacks, ladyfish, and a nice flounder. The wind quit and so did the bite, so I ran to New Pass and loaded the well with bait. We spent the rest of the trip at one spot, catch more of the same but adding decent sized mangrove snapper, sea bass, and Spanish mackerel.
On Friday Dan and Mary Gray took out their son Brad who was in town from Africa. Action was steady on a variety of species, though nothing large was caught. We began at first light casting Gulp! shrimp at the radio Tower, catching trout and ladyfish. I caught bait and moved to the Middlegrounds where they landed more trout and ladyfish, along with jack crevelle, sea bass, and mangrove snapper. We finished up near Bird Key where gag grouper, Spanish mackerel, and flounder were added to the list.
I finished up my week with Scott Watson, his son Matt, and his friend Charlie. The bite was a bit slow, for whatever reason. The water did warm back up, perhaps that was the reason? Still, they caught a couple dozen fish; trout, snapper, and ladyfish.
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