Variety, action in Sarasota and Gasparilla Sound

Posted Feb 2, 2012 by Tribune Sports

Updated Feb 2, 2012 at 01:51 PM

BY RICK GRASSETT

Due to the great, warm water that we’ve had recently, fishing has been good. Anglers fishing deep grass flats with me caught and released trout, pompano, blues and Spanish mackerel on jigs and flies recently.

Clients fished Gasparilla Sound with me on a couple of trips and caught and released numerous trout, snook, pompano and bluefish on jigs with shad tails, tandem rigged jigs and clacker float/plastic shrimp combos. With shallow water temperatures reaching close to 70 degrees in back-country areas, we saw snook moving onto the flats to feed in the afternoon.

On another trip we found several schools of little tunny feeding off Siesta Key and got a few shots at them with a fly. We went back into Sarasota Bay and caught and released about a dozen trout and a 4-pound Spanish mackerel on a fly at Stephens Point and Bishop Point. Anglers fishing potholes in shallow water in Sarasota Bay with me caught and released several trout in the 3- to 4-pound class on flies recently.

Look for little tunny, Spanish mackerel and tripletail in the coastal gulf when sea conditions are good. Fishing shallow grass flats of Sarasota Bay for trout and reds and deep grass flats for trout, Spanish mackerel, blues and pompano should also be good options this week.

Rich Grassett operates the Action Craft flats skiff the Snook Fin-Addict out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key. For more details, contact him at (941) 923-7799 or visit his websites: http://www.flyfishingflorida.net or http://www.snookfin-addict.com