Spring fishing in Sarasota, FL is in full swing. We have been doing well on the flats fishing for redfish, snook and seatrout. Dock light trips after dark have been highly successful with plenty of snook, seatrout, and a few redfish caught on both fly rods and traditional light tackle.
Redfish have been super active all over the shallow water flats in Sarasota Bay this spring. We have found some really nice ones consistently and caught some real Sarasota trophy redfish. We’ve used artificial baits and flies with equal success. Sight fishing for our redfish in and extremely shallow water is probably one of the most challenging things an angler can do in our area. We have found good success doing this with flies and with artificial baits, but it does require a certain level of skill and determination.
Snook fishing has been excellent this spring with snook being fired up all over the flats in the Sarasota area. Paddletails and lipless plugs have worked well in shallow water while throwing a surface fly along the mangroves has elicited some explosive surface takes from very aggressive snook. The biggest challenge this time of year is to find places where other anglers aren’t fishing. The water is chalked full of bait guides, weekenders, and cruisers so it can be busy. But you can still find some hidden gems in our area where others are not fishing.
Seatrout fishing has been excellent with lots of larger seatrout being caught in fairly shallow water. Night fishing on dock lights has been highly productive over the past two months. Snook have been feeding aggressively after the sun goes down. For the most part, we have enjoyed some excellent tides in the evening which always helps to encourage the snook to get a little more aggressive. With larger bait available throughout Sarasota Bay, we have been able to upsize our flies and artificial lures. We’re using flies tied on hooks up to size 1 right now and artificial lures as long as 3 inches. Shrimp and baitfish patterns continue to produce.
Tarpon season is nearly here and it should be an exciting season filled with big fish. Until we get a consistent flow of big fish, we will continue to focus much of our efforts on the shallow flats of Sarasota, Longboat Key, Anna Maria Island, and Bradenton. It’s been a great spring so far!
Thanks for Reading,
Captain Brian Boehm
Sarasota, FL
941-400-6218
