Anglers fishing with me on the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB's Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, had action with a variety of fish during the past week. Fly anglers caught and released little tunny (false albacore) and Spanish mackerel off Siesta Key. Anglers using spinning tackle caught and released little tunny, bluefish, trout, snook, jacks, ladyfish and a cobia in Sarasota and Charlotte Harbor on a variety of lures. There are still Spanish and king mackerel and little tunny in the coastal gulf off Sarasota, although that action has slowed from a couple of weeks ago. Even though it's still warm, snook are making their move from the surf and passes to backcountry flats of Sarasota Bay and Charlotte Harbor. Shorter days and slightly cooler water prompts them to move at this time of the year.
Orvis Regional Business Manager, Robert Bryant from Greensboro, NC, fished the coastal gulf off Sarasota with me on Monday. There were numerous schools of little tunny and Spanish mackerel breaking on the surface off Siesta Key. We connected with several little tunny and large Spanish mackerel with olive/white and chartreuse/white Ultra Hair Clouser flies. The new Orvis Helios rod performed fantastic! It's like fishing with a rod 2 or 3 sizes smaller.
Keith McClintock and Barry Slee, both from Lake Forest, IL, fished with me the next 3 days. We fished canals in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte for juvenile tarpon on Tuesday and found very few fish. We worked a concentration of tarpon in a spot for more than an hour without a hook up and moved on in search of better action. With a low tide at mid day and not much water moving, we worked the sand bar on the east side of Charlotte Harbor south of Alligator Creek. We caught and released a small cobia and a couple of trout with weedless-rigged CAL shad tails and jerk worms.
The next day we fished Sarasota and started in the coastal gulf off Siesta Key. We found a large bait ball being blitzed by little tunny just outside of Big Pass. We hooked up several times with a large white Clouser fly and a MirrOlure Top Dog, Jr. and they disappeared as quickly as they popped up. Later we fished the east side of Sarasota Bay where we caught and released snook, trout, bluefish and jacks on DOA Deadly Combos and CAL jigs with a variety of plastic tails.
Barry had to leave on Wednesday evening, but Keith and I fished Charlotte Harbor again on Thursday, but this time in Gasparilla Sound. We started off by locating a nice school of reds and hooking up a couple of times with a MirrOlure Top Dog, Jr. We found the rest of the day tough, catching and releasing a few trout and a 26' snook with CAL jigs and plastic tails and DOA Deadly Combos.
Next week's tides are favorable for fishing the flats of Sarasota Bay or the coastal gulf as we head towards a full moon on Friday. There is still time to enter the 3rd annual Mangrove Coast Fly Fishers/Coastal Conservation Association 'Fall Fly Fishing Challenge' to be held out of Ken Thompson Park next Saturday, Oct. 27th. Applications and more details can be found at www.mangrovecoastflyfishers.com on the tournament page or by contacting me.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
(941) 923-7799
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
www.flyfishingflorida.net and www.snookfin-addict.com
