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Deep grass flat action continues to be excellent in Sarasota.
Capt. Jim Klopfer
June 16, 2012
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
The deep grass flats in five to eight feet of water near both Big Sarasota Pass and New Pass continue to provide great action and variety for my clients. D.O.A. CAL jigs, Gulp! Shrimp, Rapalas, flies, and live shrimp and baitfish are all producing, depending on conditions. Redfish, speckled trout, silver trout, Spanish mackerel, BIG sea bass, flounder, mangrove and lane snapper, jack crevelle, ladyfish, gag grouper, and black drum were caught this week on charters. Snook and redfish action has slowed in the shallow water.
I had a great trip on Sunday with Jon Copp from Zionsville, IN and his 16 year old son Sam. We started off catching big sea bass, jacks, and small trout at the Radio Tower flat on Gulp! Shrimp. We hit a couple of mangrove shorelines and docks, no snook but several nice mangrove snappers. At the last spot, Marker #5, Sam picked up the fly rod and caught a dozen fish including two Spanish mackerel, several trout to 17", and ladyfish on white and green/white Clousers. Jon caught silver trout, speckled trout and ladyfish.
Mark Kimler from Madison, W. VA took his two boys Wesley and Willie, along with a friend Drew Vess out on Monday morning. They caught a bunch of fish including speckled trout to 20", silver trout to 14", flounder, jacks, sea bass, ladyfish, snapper, and catfish. Jigs worked well early but by late morning live shrimp were producing better. The Radio Tower flat was the best spot.
Scott Morehouse and Bryan Czapor from West Virginia caught over a hundred fish on Tuesday! We stated off catching a couple of jacks and a snapper on Rapalas at first light in Phillippi Creek. We moved to the deep grass flats near Big Pass and they caught speckled trout, jacks, and ladyfish on shrimp and jigs. I netted up some bait and although it was small, it was usable. And I had a LOT of it! We sat in one spot for over two hours and caught fish on nearly every cast including several Spanish mackerel, a ton of speckled trout, jacks, sea bass, and ladyfish. Heavy chumming kept them close. We finished up at the Radio Tower flat with Scott landing a 21" trout on a Gulp! Shrimp and a big sea bass while Bryan caught a bunch of trout on live shrimp.
Mike Yarbrough fro Berwyn, PA took his dad Jim from Lagrange, GA out on Wednesday. Fishing was a little slow at first as we picked at the trout using jigs. But, the tide turned to go out and some live bait chumming resulted in very steady action on speckled trout, sea bass, jacks and ladyfish near the Twin Bridges.
Tim Rink and his 18 year old son Jason from Grainger, IN did a 6 hour morning trip on Thursday. We started off with Jason catching a 20" redfish, a keeper mangrove snapper, and have a black drum shake off at the boat using live shrimp in Phillippi Creek. We moved up to the Radio Tower flat and made several long drifts casting Gulp! Shrimp on 1/4 ounce jig heads. Tim caught a 16" and an 18" speckled trout while Jason put a nice black sea bass in the box. They also landed flounder, jack crevelle, lane snapper, ladyfish, and a big sailcat. The tide turned to go out and we made a move into the Yacht Club channel and chummed the trout and Spanish mackerel up. The boys got a bite on almost every cast! On the way in we hit a couple of docks and caught mangrove snappers to 12" and got "freight-trained" twice by something big. All-in-all, a great day of fishing.
On Friday I had two father/son teams, Steve Nicholson and his son Max and Scott Higgins and his son Nate. Both boys are 13 years old. We started off at the Radio Tower casting Gulp! Shrimp, catching trout, ladyfish, and a couple of gag grouper, but the action was sporadic, a lot of vegetation had moved in. We moved to the Marina Jack flat and put a 21", 20", and 18" speckled trout into the boat using large shrimp under a cork. Max lost another keeper trout to a 4' shark, pretty exciting! We finished up near Bird Key with a flurry of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and a mackerel using pilchards.
Brad Williams and his 15 year old sone Bradley from Kokomo, IN caught a couple dozen speckled trout to 20', sea bass, flounder, gag grouper, jacks, and ladyfish on Gulp! Shrimp at the Radio Tower and Bird Key flats. I caught some bait and they caught redfish, jacks, snapper, and flounder under docks near the Siesta Drive bridge.
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