Spring fishing in Sarasota has been filled with good fishing action and memorable catches. We have been doing well fly fishing in Sarasota Bay as well as spin fishing using artificial lures. Anglers fishing on recent Quiet Waters fishing trips with Captain Brian Boehm have enjoyed good shallow water fishing for snook and reds. Anglers have also done very well on speckled seatrout in both shallow water and mid water depths. At night, the snook and reds have been active. We’ve had some super fun nights sight fishing hungry fish in the dock lights around Sarasota Bay on both artificial lures and flies.
The weather is finally warming up and the snook are really starting to notice. Snook have been much more active in the shallow water over the last few weeks. Sight fishing for snook in shallow water has been a fun challenge for many anglers throwing flies at fish in and around the Sarasota area. Anglers using artificial lures have done the best with snook using 3-4 inch paddletails, smaller fluke style baits, and suspended lipless jerk baits. Fly anglers have been seeing the most success with bendback flies in very shallow water and with surface flies like gurglers and floating minnows.
Redfish have been active scrounging around the shallow water and against the mangroves looking for morsels of food. Earlier in spring on lower tides, we had good mornings fishing for tailing redfish on the northern flats of Sarasota Bay and other flats along lower Tampa Bay. By this time of year the redfish have been picked on pretty hard by area anglers and can be more leery. We go slow in the shallow water and limit our movements to minimize the chances of spooking redfish. For fly anglers, an EP baitfish pattern has been tough to beat. They land very softly and if tied correctly, they really mimic a small baitfish. Bendback flies have been a close second for nervous redfish in shallow water. They barely dimple the water when entering and are not very offensive to most fish.
The deep grass in Sarasota Bay has been a good place to get the rods bent early in the morning. When the shallow water gets tough, sometimes it’s nice to get easy action over turtle grass submerged in deeper water. Speckled seatrout seem to be the main species in these areas, but other species like pompano, jacks, and bluefish have provided fun surprises. This is an easy way to fish and get regular action. There are thick lush grass flats throughout Sarasota Bay that are teeming with life. Fly anglers do best using at least a sinking tip line and a weighted clouser. The seatrout and bluefish seem to like longer pauses, while jacks and other open water fish prefer the fly to be moving quickly and erratically. Anglers who are using traditional spinning gear tend to do best with paddletails on weighted jig heads. A straight retrieve works fine most of the time, but sometimes the fish prefer a jigging retrieve or a mix of both (swim jigging).
Earlier in the season, the open water provided some fun memorable days of tripletail fishing. There were tripletail off the beaches of Sarasota and Bradenton as well as some fish within Sarasota Bay. Tripletail provide some of the best sight fishing around these parts, especially for anglers that use artificial lures and flies. We found tripletail on calm days and we found them on windy days. We almost always found a way to catch a few. It was a fun time while it lasted!
Night fishing on dock lights has provided some fun entertainment over the last few weeks. Sight fishing at night seems like an odd concept, but we really are sight fishing at night around lighted docks throughout Sarasota Bay. Snook have been very active at night. This was especially true during our colder days when they waited until the water had warmed up and fed aggressively on outgoing tides. Occasionally, the dock lights provide bonus fish like redfish, tripletail, and tarpon. We haven’t seen any tarpon yet, but we had some fun nights catching really nice size redfish for the Sarasota area as well as a few tripletail. Anglers fly fishing did best using very small flies on size 6 hooks. Anglers using traditional tackle did well using very small shrimp imitations as well as lipped plugs.
Tarpon season is right around the corner. If you’re interested in tarpon fishing in Sarasota, feel free to contact me as I still have a few openings. May through June are the prime months for tarpon fishing in our area. We will still have some excellent flats fishing in the area until tarpon season with snook fishing continuing to heat up!
Thanks for reading,
Capt. Brian Boehm
Quiet Waters Fishing
941-400-6218
Sarasota, FL
