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Sarasota & Venice, FL Fishing Report for 3/9 through 3/1

PostPosted: Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:46 am
by Capt. Rick Grassett
Anglers on the Snook Fin-Addict caught and released a variety of fish during the past week. Trout, redfish, snook, Spanish mackerel, pompano and ladyfish were caught with lures and flies in north Sarasota Bay and Venice.

Frank Watson, from Canfield, OH, and his grandson, Eric, fished north Sarasota Bay with me on Monday morning. They caught and released trout to 18” and large ladyfish on Cotee jigs with grubs and DOA shrimp. D. Reece and Jim Van Tassel, both from Dayton, OH, fished “snook alley” in Venice with me on Monday evening. They caught and released 15 snook to 23” and a lookdown on Enrico Puglisi shrimp fly patterns.

Sarasota winter resident, Merrill Zinder, fished Sarasota Bay near Buttonwood Harbor with me on Tuesday. The trout bite was on as he caught numerous trout to 20”, Spanish mackerel and a pompano on Cotee jigs with grubs. Fly angler, Mark Ross, from San Francisco, CA, and Conrad Ross, from Sarasota, FL, fished the same area with me on Tuesday afternoon. Their catch included several Spanish mackerel and nice trout caught on an Enrico Puglisi finger mullet. Conrad also caught and released a redfish on a CAL jig with a shad tail.

Cliff Ondercin and Brie Willett, both from Sarasota, FL, fished with me on Wednesday evening. Snook have started feeding on larger baitfish and shrimp and are more selective than when they were gorging themselves with glass minnows. They scored on about 15 snook with Grassett’s Grass Minnow and Skitterbug flies. Several of the snook were caught on DOA shrimp and white bucktail jigs.

Fly angler, Dan Chudick from Grand Rapids, MI, and his dad, D. Chudick from Bradenton, FL, fished Sarasota Bay with me on Thursday. After spending a couple of hours hunting for cobia in the coastal gulf waters with no success, we returned to the bay. They had fast action with trout, ladyfish, Spanish mackerel and a redfish caught on Enrico Puglisi flies and Cotee jigs with grubs.

D. Reece, from Dayton, OH, got out for one more trip on Friday before returning home and had a great day. We fished a sand bar at low tide where reds were trailing mullet. Dick caught 5 reds, all about 3-pounds, on CAL jigs with shad tails before the bite slowed. We dropped out into a little deeper water where he caught numerous trout on Cotee jigs with grubs and an Enrico Puglisi finger mullet fly pattern. The largest trout, about 3-pounds, was caught and released on a fly.

I teamed with Rusty Chinnis, from Longboat Key, FL, to instruct a fly casting school at the Longboat Key Recreation Center on Saturday. The students all did good and are well on their way to enjoying the sport of fly fishing. Next week’s tides will be favorable for fishing the flats for reds, snook and trout as we head towards a full moon. Spring has sprung and fishing is really turning on!

Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
(941) 923-7799
E-mail [email protected]
www.snookfin-addict.com or www.flyfishingflorida.net

PostPosted: Sun Mar 16, 2003 9:45 pm
by RudyGomez
Hi Rick,

Welcome to the new Forum :D

Thanks for the report. All-in-all sounds like you had a very productive week on the water.

Thanks

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 5:38 am
by Capt. Rick Grassett
RudyGomez wrote:Hi Rick,

Welcome to the new Forum :D

Thanks for the report. All-in-all sounds like you had a very productive week on the water.


Thanks for the follow up.
Rick Grassett