 |
Sarasota and Venice
Capt. Rick Grassett
September 14, 2003
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sarasota & Charlotte Harbor, FL Fishing Report for 9/9 through 9/14/2003
Anglers on the Snook Fin-Addict did very well during the past week with redfish, trout and bluefish. Reds are schooling in Sarasota Bay and Charlotte Harbor. In Sarasota we also found hungry big bluefish schooling with the reds.
Tom and Jamie Minnick, from Cincinnati, OH, fished Sarasota Bay with me on Thursday. After fishing in the gulf on a head boat the day before and catching small snapper and grouper, they weren’t sure what to expect on the bay trip. Fortunately the trip far exceeded their expectations. We started slowly, catching a small snook on a MirrOlure She Dog and had another one jump off near Big Pass. With a rapidly falling tide that was lower than I had anticipated, I decided to head north to hunt reds.
I poled a bar near Buttonwood Harbor and we began to catch small reds on CAL jigs with shad tails and jerk worms and DOA Deadly combinations. I bumped into a large school of big reds, up to 9-pounds, with bluefish in the 4 to 5-pound class mixed with them. We lost count after about 15 reds and a dozen big bluefish. The fish would rarely show themselves, choosing to stay in deeper water. We would occasionally lose them and then locate them again by probing the deep outside edge of the bar by casting MirrOlure She Dogs or DOA Deadly Combinations out deep to cause the school to show themselves. When the reds and bluefish finally moved on we began to catch trout to 18”, so Tom got his Sarasota Bay slam. A great day!
On Thursday evening, I joined Capt. Bill Miller in the studio for his “Hooked On Fishing” TV show, which airs in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties. He showed video clips from our trip last Monday and we fielded questions from the audience. It is a very well done TV show with good instructional segments.
Dale Vollrath, from Sarasota, FL, and Tim Graham, from Nokomis, FL, joined me to fish Charlotte Harbor on Saturday. Since we arrived in the dark to avoid the rush at the boat ramp, we fished a couple of docks along Little Gasparilla Island for snook with lures and flies just before daylight. Tim caught and released a small snook on a DOA Tiny TerrorEyz.
Next I headed for an area on the west side of Gasparilla Sound searching for a school of reds that a friend had located the day before. Although we didn’t find them (and they didn’t find us), we caught lots of trout to 18” on DOA Deadly Combinations, MirrOlure She Dogs and fly poppers. Our best action was on outside sand bars near Turtle Bay, where they caught 4 reds to 5-pounds on CAL jigs with shad tails and jerk worms. We got back to the boat ramp just ahead of the afternoon monsoon.
Next weeks tides should be favorable for juvenile tarpon in upper Charlotte Harbor and reds on the flats.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
www.flyfishingflorida.net
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
