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Sheepshead and Spanish in Sarrasota with Capt Jim
Capt. Jim Klopfer
February 18, 2012
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sheepshead have invaded the docks and other structure along the north end of Siesta Key and Bird Key! Most of the fish are solid two pounders or better, very few "short" fish. Live shrimp with a 1/4 ounce egg sinker has been the ticket. Gag grouper and flounder are also being caught. Schoolie bluefish are in both passes and hitting gold D.O.A. shad tail jigs. Legal speckled trout are on most of the deep flats and silver trout are still in the deeper channels.
Early in the week two couples from Ontario, Canada, Ed and Connie Morrison and Dave and Karen Duval fished with me. They wanted a few fish for dinner so I headed up to fish the docks surrounding Bird Key. It was a tad breezy, making anchoring difficult, but they ended up with nine sheepshead to 4 pounds in the box, along with catch-and-release action on gag grouper and flounder. A move to the nearby flats resulted in speckled trout and ladyfish. Everything was caught on live shrimp.
Brownsburg, Indiana anglers John McIntire, Chuck Woody, and John Inabnit had a good morning with me on Thursday. The fish box contained five nice sheepshead in the 3 pound range, a bluefish, a flounder, and three slot trout. In addition, we landed ladyfish, gag grouper, and a redfish. Gold D.O.A. CAL jigs and live shrimp fished around the bird key docks and flats fooled them.
Jim Mitchell and his son-in-law Patrick Regan from Minneapolis, MN caught bluefish in Big Pass on jigs, speckled trout, silver trout, and ladyfish on shrimp on the nearby flats, and sheepshead, flounder, and gag grouper under docks.
I had a great morning with fly angler Stephen Dow and his brother-in-law Parker Stitzer. We started off catching a dozen speckled trout to 17" and several ladyfish on green/white Clouser Minnows and gold D.O.A. Cal shad tail jigs on the Marina Jack flats, then moved out to the inshore Gulf of Mexico. Spanish mackerel action was excellent right out in front of New Pass! White D.T. Specials and jigs resulted in a bunch of macks and several bluefish landed and a bunch more that cut off the flies.
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