Snook, redfish and spotted seatrout provide fun

John Meuschke of Sarasota shows off an oversized redfish that he caught on a D.O.A. CAL Jig.

John Meuschke's flounder.

Despite very hot and humid conditions, fishing remained steady.

Fishing before daylight and early morning in Sarasota Bay, Bishop Harbor and Tampa Bay, clients managed snook to 32 inches, redfish to 25 and spotted seatrout to 26 ½ on a variety of lures and flies, including D.O.A. CAL Jigs, D.O.A. Deadly Combinations and Schminnows.

John Meuschke of Sarasota had a good day in and around Buttonwood Harbor, catching a plethora of different species. He caught spotted seatrout to 19 inches, flounder to 18 and redfish to 32 on CAL Jigs.

Redfish are schooling on the flats and can make for fast action – if you can find them. These fish are mainly oversized and will hit most anything tossed their way.

Snook, spotted seatrout, flounder, ladyfish and redfish have been cooperating in Mose’s Hole, a secluded spot off Tampa Bay only accessible via a mangrove tunnel. This is a fun spot that has been providing steady action on both the incoming and outgoing tide.

We traveled south to Charlotte Harbor and launched at Ponce de Leon Park. Our target was tarpon. We found them and jumped a 125-pound fish on a D.O.A. Baitbuster.

We returned to the harbor and fished with Capt. Rick Grassett of the Snook Fin-Addict. Tarpon were plentiful in the Peace River and adjacent canals, but not very cooperative. We jumped three fish on D.O.A. TerrorEyz. We anticipate tarpon fishing to improve this month.

Tarpon in the harbor, canals and river range in size from 10 to more than 100 pounds. You never know what size tarpon will hit your lure or fly.

Action has been steady in Sarasota Bay off Stephens Point. We’ve been getting snook and spotted seatrout before daylight on flies around lighted docks.

After daylight, we’ve been drifting the deep grass and getting spotted seatrout to 26 ½ inches, pompano to 3 pounds, bluefish to 3, ladyfish and flounder on CAL Jigs, D.O.A. Baitbusters and Gibby’s Big Eye Baitfish Fly.

The sand bars along southern Tampa Bay have been yielding redfish, spotted seatrout and a surprising amount of flounder. Top lure has been the D.O.A. Cal Jig with copper crush or gold paddle tail.

Sight-fishing can be very productive on the sand bars. The water is clear and shallow and the bottom is white sand.

In addition, there are bonnethead shark and blacktip shark available on the sand bars.

We’ve also seen a few tailing redfish at low tide.

Bishop Harbor off Tampa Bay has been producing decent numbers of snook, redfish, flounder and spotted seatrout.

Temperatures should start to drop later this month. And that should result in a flurry of action. We anticipate schools of large redfish on the flats, spotted seatrout over the deep grass, snook around dock lights and flounder in sand holes.



Steve Gibson

Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing


www.kayakfishingsarasota.com


(941) 284-3406