Sarasota fishing report Capt Jim klopfer 7/18/2015

Weather was the story this week! A westerly wind pattern, except for Monday, resulted in a lot of unsettled weather moving through each morning, making for tough fishing conditions. Clients got a little wet and we spent some time dodging storms. Action was steady, with bluefish, Spanish mackerel, speckled trout, sea bass, mangrove snapper, jack crevelle, sharks, ladyfish, and more being landed by clients. Live pilchards caught the fish this week and Marina Jacks and the Middlegrounds were the best spots. On Sunday morning I was greeted with thunderstorms and rain, no fishing that day. Monday was the polar opposite, very sunny, hot, with almost no breeze. The Harrison family from Columbus, OH, Nate and Lisa and their kids Gabe (11) and Abigail (9) did well, catching around 50 fish before we called it a morning around 10:00; it was just too hot! Speckled trout were the most numerous, but snapper, grouper, sea bass, and ladyfish were also landed. {%image_id=44362%} Dan Teske and Chuck Lapke from Kansas went out on Tuesday. Again, the weather was a bit unsettled and we dodged a couple of storms, but no lightning and we stayed dry. Mangrove snapper bit well, with the boys catching 18 or so. Speckled trout, ladyfish, gag grouper, and Spanish mackerel rounded out the morning's catch. All of the fish were caught on live pilchards. Marker #5 was to top producing spot. Conditions were a bit tough on Wednesday for Sarasota residents Brian and Martha Heard and their daughter Selena. It was breezy and overcast with scattered rain cells. It was difficult catching bait and properly anchoring. Numbers were down, but they caught speckled trout to 19", mangrove snapper, sea bass, jacks, grouper, and ladyfish free lining pilchards near Bird Key. {%image_id=44363%} The weather was worse but the fishing was better for the Custer family from Kansas on Thursday. Michelle and Lance and daughter Hannah (18) and Chandler (21) persevered through a couple of pretty good rain showers without complaint and were rewarded with good fishing. We started off near Big Pass, but there was a lot of rain. My buddy and fellow CB's guide Capt Roy String called and said it was clear at the Middlegrounds and that the fish were biting, so I ran over there. Action was quite good with Spanish mackerel to 3 pounds, bluefish to 2 1/2 pounds, trout to 17", snapper, grouper, sea bass, jacks, and ladyfish keeping the rods bent. The clouds started looking a bit more ominous, so we called it a morning a little early, which turned out to be a good choice as it unloaded on us at the ramp just as we finished up. Once again, weather was an issue on Friday. I met newlyweds Julia and Ken Lapp at Ken Thompson Park, and on the way to catch bait we had to hide under the bridge. I went to New Pass and caught some bait and went out to the Middlegrounds. Action was steady but then a big cell chased us off. We ran to Marker # 5, nothing happening. I hit several little patches near Marina Jacks, and on the third stop we got them going pretty good. We had to work at it, but they finished up with a nice morning, catching a lot of trout, snappers, gag grouper. sea bass, ladyfish, and a shark. {%image_id=44364%} I finished up the week with Mike Kirby and his grandson. We started off in Big Pass on the outgoing tide, pretty slow. We moved to the Radio Tower and had steady action using Gulp! Shrimp on a jig head. The tide turned to come in and I caught bait and we finisged up with good action on trout and Spanish mackerel at the Middlegrounds.