Sarasota Fishing Report Capt Jim Klopfer 12/7/2013
Capt. Jim Klopfer
December 7, 2013
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
This week clients and Capt Jim caught a variety of fish using several techniques in different locations. Fish were caught in Sarasota Bay casting jigs, free lining shrimp, and fly fishing, along with a little plug casting in freshwater. The deep flats near the passes yielded speckled trout to 16", Spanish mackerel to 2 pounds, bluefish to 2 pounds, jacks, gag grouper, sea bass, and ladyfish. On a day off I caught largemouth bass, channel catfish, jacks, and ladyfish in the Manatee River on an X-Rap.
I did a little River fishing this week on the Manatee River between Ray's Canoe Hideaway and Rye Rd Bridge. The Manatee has a lot of variety; I caught ladyfish, jack crevelle to 4 pounds, largemouth bass to 3 pounds, and a 2 pound catfish, all on gold Rapala X-Raps.
I fished with Brian Ferry from Dayton, NJ and his 12 year old son Connor mid week. They started off catching ladyfish, sea bass, and grouper on jigs at the Radio Tower, then moved into Big Pass and caught ladyfish and jack crevelle. The tide turned to come in and they caught more ladyfish and speckled trout to 16" free lining live shrimp.
Later in the week Allen Hartman from Roanoke, VA and his buddy Jim Wilcher who lives in Riverview, FL went out on a 6 hour trip. Allen fly fished the entire time, while Jim spin fished. We started off hitting the mouth of Phillippi Creek at first light on a hard, outgoing tide. Jim caught a Spanish mackerel on a Rapala, but that was it. We moved to the flats near Big Pass. Allen caught a bunch of ladyfish, a nice 16" trout, and a couple of 2 pound bluefish using a chartreuse Clouser Minnow. Jim pitched in with a nice sea bass, a decent Spanish mackerel, and plenty of ladyfish using a jig head and Gulp! Shrimp. We also found a lot of ladyfish in Big Pass near South Lido Beach.
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