June 26, 2008

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

May 12, 2008

The big action is King mackerel on the “M” artificial reefs when it’s not too windy.  Everyone is finding plenty of live bait and pulling hardware will get you fish.

Not much happening on the big Tarpon migration along the beach plus the strong on-shore winds makes it hard to see them.  They are at Boca, so we can expect them any day now.  We need an east wind to keep the surf calm.

We did jump a nice twenty pound tarpon while fishing the docks for reds and snook.  I call the small tarpon resident tarpon and you may find them any time and any place.  I have reports that some fifty pounders are being jumped at night under the New Pass Bridge.

It has been mostly spotted sea trout up to 23 inches on the bay, but a lot are under size.  Spanish mackerel, bluefish, flounder, black seabass, redfish, gray snapper and plenty of ladyfish are the bulk of what we are catching.  The top bait for me has been the DOA 3” shrimp, natural or with gold specs.  The bay is covered with pinfish and you need to use a lot of live bait to hook one good fish.  The DOA lures work well most of the time, but especially well when the pinfish are thick.  The pins attack them but they stand up well and give the bigger fish a chance to find them.  Blowfish are another story, but I have not seen any lately.

Work your DOA slowly with an occasional pop or you can use it with a popping float.  Most fish will eat a DOA lure and will not spit it out.  If you do miss the fish, let it sit and the fish might come back for it, or another fish may grab it.  When using DOA lures, a missed fish does not signal “Game Over”.

Enjoy & Protect

April 19, 2008

The King mackerel had been hot for a week or so but then dropped off, but will return soon! We had nice kings from the beaches out to the “M” artificial reefs.  Point of Rocks was one of the beach hot spots.  Catching live bait like herring and blue runners was the hard part.

Fishing on the bay has been fast and slow, but at the end of the day, some nice fish were in the box.  Sea trout, mackerel, bluefish, and redfish have made up most of the keeper fish.  Pompano, flounder, sheepshead, snapper, and black seabass are also being caught.  Ladyfish, Jacks and under size grouper have kept the action going.  Live shrimp and whitebait have been the top baits.

We have had to move around to find the fish.  Sometimes they are on the grassflats and sometimes in the deeper channels.  Redfish like the docks and deep water close to the docks, same with the snook.  The Sheepshead like anything that will grow barnacles, Sheepshead only eats crustaceans and mollusks.

Most of my fishing on the bay is done on 12 pound test line and 30 pound test mono leader.  Sometimes a small splitshot and sometimes a popping cork.  I use a 202 4/0 gold hook or a stout 3/0 Lazer hook and no swivels, snaps, or wire.  For artificial baits I like the DOA shrimp or pompano jigs.

Enjoy & Protect!

February 24, 2008

The bay fishing has been very interesting over the past month.  Some times the weather fronts would knock us down for a short time, but most of the time the fishing has been good to hot.  Most of the action has been with Spanish mackerel, keeper sea trout, bluefish, redfish, pompano, and some flounder.  The list goes on and keeps the fishing interesting.  The hot fish of the day keeps changing along with the location.  We haven’t had to go far to find fish but they may chew in one place today and another tomorrow.  They could be in the deeper water of Zwicks canal or the Middle Ground grass flats just east of it.  It could be any part of New Pass or Big Pass or any of the flats and holes between them.  That is about as far as we needed to go.

The best bait has been live shrimp on a free line or a small shot when needed to get down in the passes.  Jigs are also working and will cut some of your cost.  Just tip the jigs with a very small piece of shrimp.  All you want is a smell when tipping a jig for pompano. The jig will fall faster and hit the bottom harder, sending up a puff of sand, simulating a crab digging in.  Mackerel and other fish are jigged with a much faster retrieve.  Mackerel love the jigs or spoons tipped with a thin piece of mackerel belly.  On the other hand, bluefish will attack anything you’re using for bait.

DOA artificial shrimp are a favorite of mine and this is a good time to use them, it will help slow down the pinfish and add to the time you have good bait in the water.

Enjoy & Protect

January 19th, 2008

We had a good run along the beach that lasted a few months but it all came to an end a couple of weeks ago!  The cold front had a lot to do with it.  Now it is a few fish here and few fish there with a whole lot of running to find them.  Sea trout, redfish, bluefish, mackerel, pompano, and black seabass are some of the species being caught.

Black seabass is one of the smallest fish we have that is good to eat and it is a favorite of mine.  They are a small but a thick fish.  At the same size as a snapper, black sea bass have much thicker fillets.  You can fry them whole (head and tail attached) or fillet and skin them.  They are just the right size for quick cooking and a good fit for plate or sandwich.  The flavor is very mild so only salt and pepper is needed for seasoning.

Black seabass love rocks or any structure but unless they are running very strong, they are hard to pick out from all the short snapper, grouper and droves of pinfish and grunts.  They love shrimp but will eat small baitfish.  In other words you don’t want to use $30 worth of live shrimp to catch $7 worth of fish, I think J.

Enjoy and Protect!