Sarasota Fishing Report Capt Jim Klopfer out of CB's Saltwater Outfitters 6/20/2010
Fishing remains outstanding in our area, especially for speckled trout. There are schools of aggressive, large trout from the grass flats on the north end of Siesta Key down south to the bars from CB's to Blackburn Point. The middlegrounds and flats near both passes have also been productive for trout, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, ladyfish, and small sharks. Baitfish is abundant, I have been tossing the net and filling the well in short order with large pilchards.
On Monday, Tim Cruley of Westlawn, PA caught a bunch of nice trout to 22" on the bars just south of CB's Saltwater outfitter on live pilchards.
Mike O'Brien from Belle Center, Ohio, his son Sean, and cousin Ethan fished with me on Wednesday and caught trout to 24", mackerel to 3 pounds, bluefish and ladyfish at the middlegrounds and Bird Key flats on live pilchards. The highlight of the morning was a 60 lb tarpon that Mike jumped on a 10 lb spinning outfit at Bird Key.
After dodging a few storms on Friday morning, the Johnson family from Palatine, Il Larry, Cheryl, and Christine caught a bunch of ladyfish and a nice Spanish mackerel in Big Pass along with trout, blues, and macks at Bird Key.
Fishing remains outstanding in our area, especially for speckled trout. There are schools of aggressive, large trout from the grass flats on the north end of Siesta Key down south to the bars from CB's to Blackburn Point. The middlegrounds and flats near both passes have also been productive for trout, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, ladyfish, and small sharks. Baitfish is abundant, I have been tossing the net and filling the well in short order with large pilchards.
On Monday, Tim Cruley of Westlawn, PA caught a bunch of nice trout to 22" on the bars just south of CB's Saltwater outfitter on live pilchards.
Mike O'Brien from Belle Center, Ohio, his son Sean, and cousin Ethan fished with me on Wednesday and caught trout to 24", mackerel to 3 pounds, bluefish and ladyfish at the middlegrounds and Bird Key flats on live pilchards. The highlight of the morning was a 60 lb tarpon that Mike jumped on a 10 lb spinning outfit at Bird Key.
After dodging a few storms on Friday morning, the Johnson family from Palatine, Il Larry, Cheryl, and Christine caught a bunch of ladyfish and a nice Spanish mackerel in Big Pass along with trout, blues, and macks at Bird Key.
Sarasota fishing report Capt Jim Klopfer out of CB's Saltwater Outfitters 6/13/2010
The speckled trout fishing this spring has been nothing short of incredible. This morning I fished with Karen and Bob Foust, local Sarasota residents. We caught a few ladyfish in Big Pass, some decent speckled trout, ladyfish, and a small mackerel at the Bird Key flats, then hit a school of big trout at the middlegrounds. We were using large live pilchards, tossing out a few as chum every so often, and caught 18"-22" specks until Karen was worn out. The last fish was a 3 lb Spanish mackerel, what a great morning of fishing in Sarasota!
I carried some pilchards that I caught in Big Pass down south at the end of a morning charter on Wednesday. Jim McElroy from Woodbine, Md took his dad and son out. Again we cornered a school of big trout, this time on a bar near Point Crisp, just south of CB's Saltwater Outfitters. For the last hour on the high tide it was non-stop action on trout to 24".
I have been releasing the larger trout, they are much more valuable in the water. Be gentle, as they stress easily in the quite warm waters of the bay. I think the nice, fat 16"-18" trout are better eating, anyway.
Sarasota fishing report Capt Jim Klopfer Adventure Charters out of CB's Saltwater Outfitters 6/6/2010
Fishing in Big pass and the nearby grass flats continued to be very good this week. I had a great morning fishing in Sarasota with local resident Kreg Hickman, his son, and 2 friends visiting from Atlanta. We drifted live pilchards in Big Pass just off the north end of Siesta Key near Shell Rd, and for 3 hours had non-stop action on Spanish mackerel to 4 pounds, bluefish to 3 pounds, large ladyfish, jack crevelle, and even had a tarpon blow up on a bait.
The grass flats near Bird Key, Markers #5, and Marina Jack have produced some good fishing too. On Saturday the McBrien family from Miami, Oklahoma caught speckled trout to 18", bluefish to 3 pounds, Spanish mackerel to 2 pounds, 3 small skarks, jacks, ladyfish, and catfish on Gulp Shrimp, live shrimp, and pilchards at Marker 5 and the Bird Key flats.
On Sunday morning we got out there very early and fish were busting baits on the surface at Marker #5. For an hour and a half we had steady action on bluefish, trout, and ladyfish using olive and rootbeer/gold Cotee jigs.
Sarasota fishing report Capt Jim Klopfer Adventure Charters out of CB's Saltwater Outfitters 5/16/2010
This week the best action was off the north end of Siesta Key and the nearby grass flats. I had a great day of fishing on Saturday morning with Sarasota resident Jim Marsh and his nephew Joe Easton of Camp Hill, Pa. Speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, jack crevelle, and ladyfish hit shrimp on a jig head in Big Pass and free lined shrimp around the drop offs on the deeper grass flats near Bird Key. On other fishing charters, we also caught pompano, flounder, and small blacktip and bonnethead sharks on the flats and in the pass.
Fishing the mangrove points and inlets on the north east side of Siesta Key resulted in mangrove snapper to 12", flounder to 15", and sheepshead to 3 lbs on live shrimp.