Sarasota

July 1st, 2008 Sarasota Florida Fishing Report By Capt. Bob Smith

Sarasota Florida Fishing Report By Capt. Bob Smith

This past week was good on the bay! Whale Key shoal and Helicopter shoal just outside of Buttonwood Harbor has produced plenty of nice size spotted sea trout to 24" and bluefish to up three pounds. Bluefish, jacks and ladyfish blew up on the large schools of very small baitfish, causing the water to boil and the numerous birds to attack from above.

The larger trout, eighteen to twenty plus inches are schooling together and hanging at the edges of the boil or deep underneath. They also seem to move in as soon as the boil subsides. We found plenty of regular size trout up on the grassy shoal but found bigger trout when it dropped off to six or eight feet deep. In with the mix of fish being caught were black seabass, snapper, small gag grouper, flounder, pompano and we caught one six pound goliath grouper under a school of bait in ten feet of water. We also found plenty of regular size trout on the east side of the bay at Stephens Point grass flats.

There were a few days of good pompano fishing in Big-pass over the past few weeks, but they won't stick around. Keeper size snapper has been best found on the artificial reefs, bridges, numerous rock piles around the bay and just offshore.

All of my fishing lately has been done with the DOA 3" shrimp, 313 Clear-Gold Glitter. All the fish have been gobbling it up except the pinfish. Live shrimp will also work, but you can't keep live bait on long enough to catch keeper size fish. The DOA stands up very well to the onslaught of pinfish that are now on the bay. Pinfish are very good for the bay and make good grouper bait. You could eat the pinfish, but they taste like bluefish to me.

DOA lures are very user-friendly and only a few basics are needed to learn to improve your success. But for now, you don't need much talent to catch fish on a DOA shrimp in Sarasota Bay. Yesterday, as I was instructing a lady on how to fish, she looked up and asked me "Which is the rod and which is the reel" that was a first for me. Within two minutes she had an 18" trout in the boat and the hook so far down, I had a hard time getting it out. One thing to remember is that fish don't strike this lure, they eat it and will swallow it if you wait too long to set the hook.

Enjoy & Protect

My Website: http://www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com

Thank you!