November 4th, 2010
Sarasota Florida Fishing Report
By Capt. Bob Smith
It has been excellent fishing along the coast for the past week. We found plenty of large Spanish mackerel and a few King mackerel along with some keeper size cobia and flounder on the bottom. Fishing the "I" reefs in 25 to 30 feet of water using live bait like shrimp, pilchards and pinfish, we found fish on the bottom and the top. Fishing was also good on the bay grass flats with sea trout leading the way. Although most of are bay and coastal fishing can be handled with 12 pound test line, it is a good idea to carry some heavier stuff in the 20 to 50 pound test line when fishing along the coast. During the spring and fall runs, you can often find big fish within 3 miles off the beach. I have caught bull reds to 50 pounds, cobia to 70 pounds, Kingfish, and cuda to 30 pounds, large jewfish, gags and black grouper, sharks and rays too large to hold, and most tarpon are over 100 pounds. Of course you're not going to find these big fish just sitting and waiting for you with open mouths. They are always possible, but you never know when.
Mark Zisser and family from Missouri were visiting last week. Mark likes to book a few or more trips with me, as he has done for the last 25 years. One of the days I took Mark offshore 6 miles to fish some nice natural hard bottom. The bottom is surrounded by a two foot break that the grouper like to fan out and hide under. It turned out to be a shark day! It was shark after shark, all kinds, all sizes on light tackle; the largest was a nurse shark over 8 feet. Mark was the only one fishing and was using 12, 20, and 50 pound test outfits with different baits. This kept him running from rod to rod all morning and me getting his other rods out of the way when he hooked up. The last fish of the day was the big shark and was around 300 pounds. Nurse sharks are the least acrobatic of any of the sharks that I know of, but they just keep on ticking. Mark caught the shark using a Penn 4/0 reel, 50 pound test mono line, 100 pound test mono leader and a 2oz lead. The bait was a one and half pound live blue runner with a broken tail. By breaking the tail I was able to use less lead to keep it down and in place for grouper. Mark was fishing without a harness and the reel's drag was set for grouper digging. So by the time he was bringing the shark back to the boat from its third run and I was snapping pictures, Mark hollered out "cut the #@!*% line! I will buy you a new hook". I knew then that he had a good fight and had caught his largest shark to date.
Enjoy & Protect
My Website: http//www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com
