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Sarasota and Venice
Capt. Rick Grassett
October 5, 2003
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southwest Florida Fishing Report for 9/28 through 10/5/2003
Anglers on the Snook Fin-Addict caught and released reds, trout, snook, pompano, flounder and jumped tarpon during the past week. The best action was with reds and snook in Sarasota Bay.
Scott and Sissy Daniels, from San Antonio, TX, collected their trip with me that they purchased at the CCA-Texas banquet in San Antonio on Tuesday. They opted to tarpon fish, so we fished canals in upper Charlotte Harbor. Tarpon were fairly plentiful, but finicky. We jumped a pair of tarpon on root beer DOA TerrorEyz, one of them about 30-pounds, but didn’t land either. They also caught and released a couple of snook to 26” casting the same lure under docks.
Fly angler, John LaManna from Bradenton, FL, fished Sarasota Bay with me on Wednesday. Being fairly new to the area, he wanted to get a feel for Sarasota Bay and hopefully catch a few fish with a fly. He had a good day catching and releasing several trout to 21”, a 24” red and a nice pompano. The pompano and a few of the trout were caught on a small yellow Ultra Hair Clouser near Big Pass. The largest trout and the red were caught on an Enrico Puglisi Reds Critter while wading a sand bar on the east side of the bay.
Mike Plaia and his brother, Pete Plaia, both from Bradenton, FL, fished Sarasota Bay with me on Thursday. They had a great day catching and releasing 5 reds to 30”, 4 or 5 snook to 23”, several trout and flounder. We fished Roberts Bay with DOA Tiny TerrorEyz and CAL jigs, where they caught and released the trout and flounder. A couple of snook were also caught on DOA Deadly Combinations and a larger snook cut through 30-pound fluorocarbon with a single headshake! We headed north in the afternoon where they finished strong with the reds and another snook or two on the east side of the bay. At the end of the day we bumped into a large school of reds, had several hookups and landed a pair of big reds on DOA Deadly Combinations with glow shrimp and a Cotee Flats Spoon. It was exciting watching reds fight over the Cajun Thunder float while a fish was already hooked with the DOA shrimp!
Erwin Edelman, from Sarasota, FL, fished the Mote Marine Laboratory/Snook Foundation Snook Shindig Tournament with me on Friday evening and Saturday morning. A couple of goals for the tournament were to gather data for research and to raise money for the Snook Foundation. Anglers who chose to fish in the research division were issued permits by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, so that any snook could be held in a live well before being turned over to tournament officials to scan them for implanted tags and record data. Erwin caught and released several snook to 22” on an Enrico Puglisi Bay Anchovy fly (none were tagged) near the Venice Inlet on Friday evening. On Saturday morning, he caught his first pompano ever on fly with a small yellow Ultra Hair Clouser near Big Pass.
Reds are still schooling and snook are beginning to stage on the flats as they move toward the backcountry. Next weeks tides will be favorable for flats fishing and snook fishing at night around lighted docks and bridge fenders.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
www.flyfishingflorida.net
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