 |
Sarasota and Venice
Capt. Rick Grassett
June 18, 2006
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Capt. Rick Grassett’s Fishing Report for 6/5 through 6/18/2006
Anglers fishing with me on the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, had good tarpon fishing during the past couple of weeks. Tarpon schooled heavily as we headed towards the full moon on June 11th. Tropical Storm Alberto threw us a curve for a few days, but other than not being able to fish the gulf for a few days, no harm was done. Anglers scored with both flies and live crabs.
Larry Ford, from Longboat Key, FL and Pete Molinari, from Sarasota, FL, fished with me on Monday and Wednesday. It was rough on Monday morning as we headed out of the Venice Inlet and we almost turned around, but decided to stick it out for a while. That proved to be a good decision as conditions improved to near perfect. A brief shower passed through and tarpon schools popped up everywhere following the rain. They had several bites on live crabs, jumped 3 tarpon and had two of them to the boat, a 60 and a 70-pounder.
Wednesday was a much different day. Although conditions were great, tarpon schools were moving fast and not giving us many decent shots. That changed late in the morning when we got on a school that was not showing real well, but moving slowly. We fished them for more than an hour, pitching live crabs to the “black spot” of the school, which was mostly staying deep. After several bites, Larry jumped and landed a 95-pound tarpon to end the day.
Fly angler, Bill King from Osprey, FL, fished with me on Tuesday and Friday. Bill connected with a pair of tarpon on black and purple bunny flies on Tuesday. The second fish stayed on and he successfully fought the fish through numerous jumps and runs for about 45 minutes, then Murphy’s Law struck. The tarpon, after showing signs of surrender, blasted off one more run and a backlash in the backing popped off the spool, wrapped around the reel handle and broke the backing at the reel. Not only did Bill lose what would have been his first tarpon landed on a fly, but he also lost his fly line.
We evened the score on Friday. We got on a happy school, first thing in the morning and connected 3 times in a row with an Enrico Puglisi Black Mullet (black and purple). The first fish broke us off on the hook set, the second bite was a missed hook up, but the third time was a charm. Bill hooked up firmly and fought the tarpon through numerous jumps and runs until the estimated 90-pounder was alongside the boat. Congratulations Bill!
Dana Weinkle, from Bradenton, FL, and his guest, Skip from Louisville, KY, fished off Siesta Key with me on Saturday morning. We didn’t see much early and then tarpon started popping up, moving fast and acting like “full moon” fish. We persisted and got on a nice school that was moving slower around 11 AM. Skip connected with an estimated 130 or 140-pound brute with a live crab, obviously a big female and one of the lead fish in the school. We followed the school south in an attempt to keep from being spooled. We finally popped the fish out of the school and she headed offshore. Unfortunately, on her way there she found her way to freedom by swimming the line around an abandoned crab trap breaking the line. We got on another school after that and had another bite, but that was it for the day.
Tropical Storm Alberto moved through on Sunday and Monday dumping about 6 inches of much-needed rain, although it would have been better if it weren’t in the form of a tropical storm. The coastal gulf was like a washing machine through Thursday. I fished with fly anglers Craig Purse and Guy Schiller, both from IL, beginning Thursday through Saturday. Since the coastal gulf waters were still too rough to fish on Thursday, we headed south to fish the Peace River and canal systems of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte for juvenile tarpon. We found plenty of tarpon up to about 40-pounds in the river and one canal, but they wanted nothing to do with the variety of flies that we cast to them. However, we did catch and release numerous spotted and silver sea trout and a couple of Spanish mackerel on a 2/0 size Enrico Puglisi flies in the Peace River.
The following day we headed into the coastal gulf waters out of Venice. Although conditions were much better, there wasn’t much happening. We found that tarpon had moved offshore into 20 or 25-feet of water due to murky water along the beach. We had a couple of shots and caught and released a tripletail on a 2/0 black and purple Enrico Puglisi mullet. Conditions got even better for Saturday, but most of the tarpon remained far offshore. Guy jumped a pig of a fish, which ate the fly on the surface about 15 feet off the bow. After several exhilarating jumps, she shook the fly loose and landed with a hollow splash! That was our best shot of the day. We fished numerous tarpon schools in deep water, but it was a tough situation with a fly rod.
Tarpon should return to a normal pattern this week. As the water clears closer to the beach, they should move in closer. We are having a great season so far, so hopefully that trend will continue.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
www.flyfishingflorida.net
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
