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Sarasota Fla. Report 09/11/99

From: Capt. Bob Smith
Date: 12 Sep 1999
Remote Name: 163.125.200.148

Comments

September 11, 1999

Sarasota Fla. Fishing Report

By Capt. Bob Smith

Except for the unstable weather, we had a good week of fishing. Offshore it was grouper, snapper, tunny, barracuda and cobia. Inshore it was trout, redfish, mackerel and cobia.

The offshore artificial (M) reefs are still holding plenty of little tunny and barracuda. We found some nice gag grouper on the natural reefs in 40 to 50 feet of water. For the grouper, we used large live baitfish (herring, sardines, pinfish and grunts) and fished on the bottom. Mangrove and yellowtail snapper are on all the reefs but you need to use smaller bait. Large live shrimp and pilchards will work well for the snapper.

Most of the cobia action has been on the inshore (I) reefs and rock piles from 18 to 30 feet of water. All sizes of live bait will work for the cobia and they will take it on the bottom as well as the top. I fish both ways until they set a pattern. Cobia also like large brightly colored plugs (Chugs) fished on the surface. I have seen cobia up to 30 pounds in the bay this past week but you will find more along the beaches.

Seatrout are over all the grass-flats on the bay and we found ours on the grass-flats just north of Country Club Shores. Using large live shrimp, we caught trout up to 20 plus inches and some Spanish mackerel. You can use a popping cork but we free-lined ours. Redfish have been on the bite! Some of the hot spots have been around Zwicks channel flats and north of Sarasota bay. Snook have been best at night around some of the bridges and docks. Tarpon are still rolling around the New Pass bridge but will not bite during the day. At night, I would fish them the same way you fish for large snook. When I was growing up on the southeast coast of Florida, it was always a problem keeping the tarpon off your line when fishing for snook at night. Especially when fishing for snook around channel 2 and 5 in the upper Keys. That was a long time ago :-).

Enjoy & Protect!

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

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