Fishing Report for Week Ending 9/22/96
by Capt. Butch Rickey
Early in the week I did a research trip to north Sarasota Bay looking for low tide redfish, and mullet. Bait was plentiful, and it wasn't long until I was fishing. I caught 5 beautiful redfish to 27", as well as a nice snook, 3 speckled trout to 18", and a bluefish. Although I saw lots of mullet on the flats, I couldn't get close enough to them in the boat to catch one with a castnet. I've got to find some places I can hide the boat.
A couple of days later I did a trip with my good friend Capt. Mark Bess in his 18 ft. Skinnywater. We went out searching for new trout holes and some redfish. We caught 3 snook before going to find the trout, but when we hit a hole in the middle of the Sound just north of a mangrove key, we had a bonanza of over 40 trout to 20". They were actually hitting on flies faster than they were on live shiners. Most unusual!
The last trip of the week was with my old friend Terry Bair. He said he was tired of going out and slinging artificials all day and catching nothing, and asked me to take him out in his boat and show him how to live bait fish. I was happy to oblige.
The bait part of the lesson was easy, as bait is still thick on the flats and beaches. When we got to the fishing grounds we trolled along slowly on the Minn-Kota throwing live shiners as close to the high tide mangrove roots as we could. It paid off! We caught 10 to 12 nice redfish, 3 snook, and a trout. We also lost some very big fish in the mangroves. I think Terry is convinced that live bait is the way to go!
I have a feeling that next week will offer some great fishing if we don't have any problems with weather.
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