Sarasota Fishing Report Capt Jim Klopfer 4/12/2014
Capt. Jim Klopfer
April 12, 2014
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
I had quite a diverse week of charters, a couple of family trips in Sarasota Bay, a fly fishing charter, and a freshwater bass fishing charter. Weather continued to be an issue this past week as another severe front moved through the area. Monday was breezy, Tuesday a rain-out. Fishing was steady before and after the front. Sheepshead are still biting in the area and the speckled trout bite was good on Saturday on the west side of the bay using live shrimp and Gulp! Specks to 20" were caught and released. Largemouth bass to 5 pounds hit Rapala SkitterProps and white spinnerbaits in Lake Manatee.
On Monday Shawn Hawthorne from Hastings, MI went out on a charter with his buddy Rob Case and children Leah (15) and Collin (13). Strong winds were predicted by mid-morning, so I started off hitting the deep flats before it became too breezy. Spanish mackerel, trout, jacks, sea bass, and ladyfish hit jigs and shrimp. As was forecast, the wind picked up out of the south and we "hid" in Big Pass along the north end of siesta Key. Bottom fishing over submerged structure resulted in non-stop action on sheepshead, mangrove snapper, and gag grouper. Most of the fish were small, but they put enough on ice for dinner. Tuesday was breezy with a line of rain and thunderstorms moving through, Wednesday VERY windy, no fishing for me.
On Thursday Dave Noble from Hampstead, NC spend the morning fly fishing. Fishing was fair following the front, the water coming in from the Gulf of Mexico was filthy. Still, using Clouser patterns, Dave caught slot speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, silver trout, ladyfish, snapper, and jack crevelle.
Tom Medved and his brother Bob from Minneapolis, MN were in St Petersburg this weekend and wanted to go bass fishing. This is not something I do everyday, but is a nice change of pace. We met at Lake Manatee around 6:45 and as we headed out fish were popping near the bridge. Bob hooked an average bass, then lost a nice one, and landed a channel catfish on a topwater plug in 15' of water! Tom landed a nice pair of bass that were pushing 5 pounds. The Rapala Skitterprop in gold worked best. Bob got hot later in the morning with a white spinnerbait. They caught around a dozen fish with steady action, a fun morning with excellent anglers!
The Zordich family from Youngstown, OH, Steve and Kathy along with their boys Steven (11) and Alex (08) had a productive trip on Saturday morning with great weather. The water near the passes was dirty, so we started at the middlegrounds, catching a nice bluefish along with several small trout and ladyfish. A move to Country Club Shores produced more ladyfish and trout, then a bump up to the Moorings resulted in a lot of speckled trout, several pushing 20". Most of the fish hit live shrimp though Steve caught several using Gulp!
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