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Sarasota and Venice
Capt. Rick Grassett
April 30, 2006
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southwest Florida Fishing Report for 4/23 through 4/30/2006
Fly anglers fishing with me on the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, caught and released a variety of fish during the past week in the Manatee River and in Charlotte Harbor. Spanish mackerel, trout, snook and ladyfish were caught and released on Clouser flies. In addition, a couple of snook and several trout were caught and released on DOA shrimp on Saturday.
Jim Williams, from Big Bend, WI, and Art Garcia, from Cedarburg, WI, fly fished with me from Monday through Thursday this week. We fished the Terra Ceia Bay area on Monday and found a blitz of nice Spanish mackerel in the 18” to 20” class and large ladyfish in the Manatee River only a ¼ mile after leaving the boat ramp. We spent a couple of hours catching and releasing them on Ultra Hair Clouser flies. There was a good bite of Spanish mackerel and little tunny in Tampa Bay last week, but by the time we got there on Monday it wasn’t going on.
The skinny water fishing in the Terra Ceia Bay area wasn’t going on either, so we headed south to Charlotte Harbor on Tuesday. We had a good day with trout caught and released on Clouser flies on deep grass flats near Sandfly Key and on the outside of Bull and Turtle Bays. They caught and released more than a dozen trout with about ½ of them between 17” and 19”.
We fished hard for reds and snook on Wednesday and Thursday and found the fishing to be very tough. The highlight was when Art caught and released a 26” snook with a chartreuse and white Clouser fly while wading a sand bar near the Gallagher Keys. He was able to sight-cast to the snook, which was the lead fish in a group of 3 fish. The remaining two snook followed the hooked fish in, still looking for the fly that the other fish had gobbled up. We cast to lots of reds and snook that either followed, spooked or ignored us.
Mark Nichols, of DOA Fishing Lures in Stuart, FL, and I fished the Sarasota CCA Photo All-Release Challenge on Saturday. The goal of the tournament is to catch and release a slam (snook, redfish and trout) so I chose to fish in Gasparilla Sound, since the chances for catching trout have been best there. Ironically, trout have become one of the hardest species to catch due to last year’s extended red tide. We caught a couple of short snook, several short trout and an estimated 22” or 23” trout that spit the hook before she could be photographed, all on the DOA shrimp in night glow and fire tiger colors provided for us by DOA in the tournament tackle box.
The good news is that the best catches of reds and snook in the tournament came from the east side of Sarasota Bay and the mouth of the Manatee River on flies, DOA shrimp, Cotee jigs with grubs and Exude slugs. Snook to more than 36” and reds to almost 30” were caught by winners of the tournament. The trout winners caught their fish in the Terra Ceia Bay area.
Next week’s tides, although only two-tides per day, have more than 2 ½ feet of water between high and low tides. Fishing the flats for reds along the east side of Sarasota Bay and trout in the Terra Ceia Bay area should be good options. Snook season will close on May 1st, so any snook caught must be released. Handle them gently and release them quickly so that they can successfully spawn during the closed season.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
www.flyfishingflorida.net
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