Spanish mackerel showing up along with speckled trout in Sarasot
Capt. Jim Klopfer
August 4, 2012
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Catch of the week goes to Russell archer who landed a 32" redfish on his last cast Wednesday morning. It was a great battle on a light spinning rod! Other species caught this week were snook, speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, jack crevelle, mangrove snapper, shark, sea bass, ladyfish and more. I started most trips casting Gulp! Shrimp, jigs, and flies and if the action wasn't fast enough I made the switch to live bait. A well full of threadfins and pilchards practically guarantees success. Action varies from steady to non-stop. The average is around 30 fish per person. The deep grass flats near both passes are all producing plenty of fish.
Bill Sawyer and his 13 year old grandson Drew Kobus, both from Midlothian, VA along with Phil Steward had a very good morning on Sunday. We started on the shallow bars near Big Pass where bait was plentiful and caught speckled trout on Gulp! Shrimp under corks. Phil was fly fishing and scored on a charteuse/white Clouser. We switched to live bait early as the action slowed around 8:00 a.m. Chumming the flats resulted in 6 Spanish mackerel, a bunch of trout, ladyfish, jack crevelle, snapper, and a couple of nice sea bass.
I had two father/son duos on Monday. Mike and Mason Haggerty and Don and Parker Runyon, all from Overland Park, Kansas absolutely wrecked them. I went straight to the bait and loaded the well. I am not sure how many fish we caught, but it was certainly over 100! They wanted dinner and we put 8 Spanish mackerel in the box and released a few more, along with 4 speckled trout (we released another 4 or 5 nice ones). Ladyfish, jacks, small trout, snapper, and a nice 3' blacktip shark provided constant catch-and-release action. The Radio Tower and Marker #5 were the top spots.
Fishing was excellent on Wednesday morning. Russell archer and his grandson Cameron Rhodes (14) from Cartersville, GA caught speckled trout to 22", a half dozen Spanish mackerel to 2 pounds, a bunch of ladyfish, jack crevelle, snapper on the flats near Marina Jacks chumming with baitfish. The action was steady, they caught an estimated 60 fish. We stopped at a mangrove shoreline in Robert's Bay where Cam caught a snook and several mangs to 11" and Russell lost a big jack right at the boat and landed a big redfish on the last cast!
Christine Rasmussen, her son Gabe, and a pair of Gabe's buddies Eli Kowalkowsk and Ian Sedacek, all from Green Bay, WI had a very productive trip at the end of the week. We started off catching a few trout on Gulp! Shrimp on the edge of a bar. The bait was thick, kinda teasing me as it peppered up on the surface. I could not take it anymore and idled in shallow to load up on bait. We were pleasantly surprised to find several manatees lying in there and we enjoyed watching them for a few minutes. There is so much more to a day on the water in Sarasota than just the fishing! Several tosses filled the well and after that it was virtually non-stop. With 4 people fishing it was all I could do to keep up, every bait got crushed as soon as it hit the water. They wanted a few for the grill, so we kept a half dozen Spanish mackerel, released a dozen more, caught a bunch of trout and ladyfish, jack crevelle, and snapper.
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