Action heating up

Just as predicted, fishing action heated up with the weather. All it took was a couple of days of golden sunshine to spark the fish into a feeding frenzy. We've been taking good numbers of spotted seatrout, pompano, Spanish mackerel, bluefish and ladyfish on both sides of Sarasota Bay. Fishing just south of Whale Key over deep grass in 3 to 4 feet of water, we managed 30 spotted seatrout to 19 inches, several Spanish mackerel and a few ladyfish on D.O.A. CAL Jigs and gold shad tails. The spot is excellent whenever the wind is out of the west. When the wind shifted out of the east, we headed for the west side of the bay. Ian Hill of Ontario joined me and had a very good day. He caught a load of spotted seatrout, pompano, Spanish mackerel and ladyfish from Stephens Point to just north of the Ringling Mansion. It was the first time since December that we've seen blues , pompano or Spanish mackerel. All it took for them to return was for the water to warm up 2 or 3 degrees. Mark Fleischauer of Vernon Hills, Ill., and his son, Matt, 14, joined me the following day and did very well. They caught spotted seatrout to 2 pounds, bluefish to 3, Spanish mackerel to 4, pompano to 2, ladyfish and flounder. All fish were taken on CAL Jigs with gold tails. Unfortunately, their six-hour trip was shortened for four hours when the wind came up strong out of the south.