Sarasota Fishing report Capt Jim klopfer 9/18/2014
Capt. Jim Klopfer
September 18, 2014
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing Continues to be good on the deep flats near the passes. Radio tower and Middlegrounds produced best for me this week. Cooling temps seem to have resulted in an increase in Spanish mackerel, the bite has been good along with mangrove snapper, trout, flounder, jacks, grouper, sharks, sea bass, bluefish, and ladyfish. Bait is still plentiful on the bars near both passes.
Trip of the week went to Billy Chasteen from Colorado and his twenty-something year old daughters Kim and Rachel, who fished with me on Thursday. The tide was dropping fast as we left Centennial park. Bait was a bit tough on the low tide, but I loaded up near Bird Key. a lot of it was small, with some decent pieces mixed in. I hit Marker #5, and fishing was fair. They caught a couple of Spanish mackerel, trout, ladyfish, and other species, but the bite was a bit slow and the cormorants were really a nuisance! So, i moved over to the radio Tower where action was better. Along with more macks and trout, mangrove snapper, jacks, sea bass, and gag grouper joined the list of species caught. Kim had the hot hand, catching the most and also hooking a shark that just about spooled her before it bit through the leader. The tide quit and so did the bite, so I eased over to New Pass where I saw some birds diving and re-loaded up on bait. One toss and i could barely get the net over the side. We finished up at the Middlegrounds as the tide turned to come in with an INSANE bite! It was three fish at a time at first, then settled into pretty much a bite on every cast until it was time to go home.
The Stearns family, Craig and Doug and their sons Corey and Zach had a very good trip to end my week. The tide was incoming for an hour, and they caught flounder, Spanish mackerel, speckled trout, and snapper in the Yacht Club channel. The tide quit and the bite slowed. I made a couple of moves; nothing much. We finished up at the Middlegrounds with very good action as the tide picked back up. Snapper to 12", speckled trout to 20", bluefish and Spanish mackerel to 3 pounds, black sea bass, gag grouper, jacks, and ladyfish were landed. All of the fish hit live pilchards.
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