Sarasota Fishing Report Capt Jim Klopfer 12/01/2012
Capt. Jim Klopfer
December 1, 2012
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing was good this week on the deep grass flats near both passes this week. Speckled trout, mackerel, bluefish, pompano, sea bass, flounder, and ladyfish were caught this week. Pompano are showing up in Big Pass. Tripletail are being caught in the Gulf of Mexico in 30 feet of water. Snook are hitting Rapalas and other plugs in creeks, canals, and rivers.
Josh Koritz from St Louis, MO and his 19 year old son Alex started the week off in fine fashion. We left Ken Thompson Park and ran out to New Pass where there had been a bunch on Spanish mackerel. I was surprised to find a big swell and it was pretty "sporty". We put a half diozen Spanish in the box using gold Cotee jigs and Rapala X-Raps then decided it was just too rough. As I idled to the Middlegrounds I noticed some bait "dimpling" on the surface. A couple of tosses of the net resulted in a vwell full of VERY nice pilchards. It was slick calm and the free lined live bait produced some exciting bites, sometimes chasing the pilchards completely out of the water and eating them in mid air! They caught 15 or so macks to 3 pounds and several trout and ladyfish. The tide quit and the bite slowed so we ran to a flat near Bird Key and Josh caught a 20" speckled trout and they both landed snaller trout and ladyfish.
I spent a few hours in the Myakka River inside the state park on Tuesday. My target was bream but the river was ate up with tilapia! They are an invasive species and anglers are required by law to remove them. The good news is that they are fabulous eating with snow white tender filets. I put 8 fat ones in the coller using live worms, great fun on 4 lb test. I also caught shellcracker, bluegill, and brown bullhead.
I fished the tidal portion of the Myakka River later in the week. Cooler temperatures have resulted in snook migrating up the river. These fish are pretty active and will eat plugs and jigs. 30" snook are caught often and fish to 40" are not uncommon.
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