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Steady action in Sarasota with Capt Jim Klopfer
Capt. Jim Klopfer
July 21, 2012
Sarasota - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing was good once again this week, although rains resulted in constantly changing water conditions. That dark "root beer" water is just not productive. Most of the fish were caught using Gulp! Shrimp under noisy floats. Rapalas, shrimp, and live baitfish also produced. The species caught this week included snook, redfish, speckled trout, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, jack crevelle, black sea bass, ladyfish, mangrove snapper, and sail cats.
The speckled trout bite was fantastic on Monday morning! Randy Youngblood, Doug Kerr, Doug's daughter Katlyn Kerr, and her friend Josh Gray absolutely wrecked them on the flats near the Radio Tower. They put a half dozen in the box then released another 15 or so nice slot trout, all of which were nice, fat 16"-18" fish. Add in another twenty or so short trout and some ladyfish and it was a great start. All of the fish hit Gulp! Shrimp under noisy corks. I had stopped and caught some small shiners on the way out, so we decided to try and chum up some Spanish mackerel. We did not really get them fired up, I think the bait was too small, but we landed three macks along with jacks, ladyfish, and trout. Katlyn really wanted to catch a redfish, so we spent the last half hour working a shoreline in Robert's Bay and got a 20" red on the same Gulp!/cork combo. Great trip!
Tuesday was a rain out, thunderstorms and rain in the morning. On Wednesday Link Miller from Mechanicsburg, PA took out his grand daughters Olivia (18) and Sam (16). Heavy rains had the water off-color and fishing was a bit spotty. We caught a nice bluefish, big sail cat, several trout, a jack, ladyfish, and mangrove snapper on a shallow bar that had a bunch of bait on it. I netted some bait and that helped get the action going a little better. We had to cut the trip short because one of the girls was not feeling well.
Thursday Jim Lawrence from Trinity, FL was in town for a couple of days and went out fishing. He started off with a snook on a Rapala X-Rap first thing in the Intracoastal Waterway just north of CB's. The tide slackened off and we motored up to the flats near Big Pass and caught trout, with a couple keepers, ladyfish, jacks, and a bluefish on Gulp! Shrimp on a 1/16 ounce jig head.
Friday Bob Traver from West Harrison, IN took out 3 friends. We caught a lot of trout, mostly small but a couple in the slot, ladyfish, sea bass, and jacks on Gulp! Shrimp near Big Pass.
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