Sarasota Fishing Report Capt Jim Klopfer 3/2/2013

The deep grass flats throughout the area continue to provide good action on a variety of species. Speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, pompano, bluefish, ladyfish, and silver trout are hitting jigs and live shrimp in five to eight feet of water. Sheepshead fishing has been very good around structure in both passes. Live shrimp produced well for me. A cold front late in the week shut down fishing over the weekend. Action should resume as it warms up. Bill Thiel from Naperville, IL took out a couple of friends early in the week. Bill had promised his wife enough fillets for a fish fry, so we targeted docks along Bird Key. The boys put eight sheepies in the box, making dinner a done deal. They also caught ladyfish in Big Pass and speckled trout near Marina Jacks. They finished up with several silver trout to add to the fish fry. Later in the week Ray Moreland from Bannockburn, IL and his father-in-law Deke Brinkman, a Sarasota resident, went out on a charter. Ray likes the challenge of targeting larger fish, so we left early and worked the Intracoastal Waterway near Phillippi Creek with Rapalas. Other than a 16" speckled trout, nothing was hapenning. We ran up to the Middlegrounds and caught a Spanish mackerel on a free lined shrimp and several ladyfish on gold Cotee jigs. The Radio Tower flat produced more ladyfish. We finished up in the Gran Canal on Siesta Key, trolling Rapala X-Raps and catching several jack crevelle to 6 pounds. {%image_id=31697%}