Sarasota Bay Still Dead

[freezerfiller]

What a shame.

[Juan]

It may take years for the grass to grow back if it comes back at all. I used to fish places in Panama City where the grass was thick and healthy and there's only mud now and that was caused by a red tide several years ago. Hopefully Sarasota will recover.

[Simple Man]

That red tide is bad stuff. I didn't realize it killed grass too.

[mayfer]

What part of the bay were you fishing? I am starting to see bait show up as well. I have not fished in this area in a year..only been on family boating trips. I have also been going North up to Tampa to fish. I fished Miguel Bay for the first time and had over 20 snook, a red and a few trout. Best part was it was all top-water. Lots of life back up there.

Mayfer

[mosquito13]

Mayfer I have been fishing Tampa for the last year, since the first wave of the tide showed up in 2017. Buddy runs a banana boat, paraglide , jetski out of Siesta Beach so I get daily reports on the bait and #'s on the tarpon. I will be on the skyway and Egmont, say hi yellow hull pair of talons on back. Hope it is a good run, or a lot of guides are going to have a bad summer. Tampa Bay is shut down for the inshore slam also...Torture and release only. Mayfer you fishing the Star tournamate?  I did a night on the docks two weeks ago on a incoming in Sarasota . Near the passes was OK for the snook using a 2"glass minnow fly. Also soaking shrimp on a jig under the docks got undersized reds. Guess if I hadn't fished Sarasota Bay two years ago I would be happy. Digging the challenge of learning bass fishing. Finally getting the hang of using bait casters. That and being able to be on the water during the daylight hours without 20 boats wanting to poach in on chum line or a flat I am drifting(SH*t drives me nutz). Big plus of sweet water fishing.  ccaflstar.com/

[Juan]

May 14, 2019 6:35:09 GMT -6 mosquito13 said:

being able to be on the water during the daylight hours without 20 boats wanting to poach in on chum line or a flat I am drifting(SH*t drives me nutz). Big plus of sweet water fishing.  ccaflstar.com/

Believe me. It happens in bass fishing too.

[mosquito13]

Went out last night just towards the end of tide. No pass crabs to be had and onshore winds made sighting tarpon undoable off the beach. So ran in and got some white bait (nice 4" stuff Marina Jacks flats) and back to the pass for sunset on the sandbar. The only thing making the bait nervous was the pelicans diving on them, aka no fish. Set up on the shadow line under the big bridge. Floated back two corks and had a rod set up for casting. Three hours and no tarpon with chumming every 15 min. with lightly squeezed bait. Granted some of that was slack tide, but boring . Glad I had some good company with for a change. For kicks we took turns flipping jigs at the base of the pillings. Even that was wicked slow.

[mosquito13]

Bay is still dead but near shore is good. Got out a couple hours before sunset. lots of bait and netted a couple pass crabs . Birds crashing on mac's and little tuna. Set up and floated a couple crabs but no tarpon. Did get to see a killer sunset and a lightning storm on the horizon before heading in.

[mosquito13]

Sarasota Bay 7/26/19 Couldn't sleep last night so went out a little after midnight on the water about 1am. Hit a bunch of docks near big pass and drifted livetargets 3"glow shrimps into them . Got a couple schoolie sized (20-24") snook off each dock before having to move to the next dock. They were puking up tiny shrimp on the boat. Ran up to long bar to catch the end of the tide. Got out and wadded the bar and caught again schoolie sized trout(15"-17" after I downsized to a 2.5" glow/chartreuse paddle tail. Consistent hit on each cast til the tide went slack. Back to ramp and then a hot breakfast( got rained on while wadding). Back home by 8 am. Real happy to find trout back in the bay. Hot shower and I am napping til the rains pass.

[gnrphil]

Nice, I might go and try this fishing thing again on Saturday.

[Juan]

Maybe I need to start fishing after midnight too. I went yesterday (Thursday) and caught 41. All but two were born with their tails too close to their heads. With water temps around 90 degrees, it's just way too hot to fish all day.

Good to see the trout are returning to that area after the red tide but because of it, the FWC is considering more regulations on sea trout.

I hope most people tell them to leave the regs alone!

Workshops will begin at 6 p.m. local time:

July 29: Destin, Destin Community Center, 101 Stahlman Ave.
July 31: Steinhatchee, Steinhatchee Community Center, 1013 Riverside Drive.
Aug. 6: Naples, Collier County Facilities Management, Training Room, 3335 Tamiami Trail E.
Aug 7: Melbourne, Brevard County Government Center, Florida Room, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way.
Potential changes on which staff will be gathering input include:

Splitting the northwest spotted seatrout management zone into two separate zones including the Western Panhandle (Escambia through Gulf counties) and the Big Bend (Franklin County through Fred Howard Park Causeway in Pinellas County near the Pasco County line).

Moving the southern-most boundary between management zones to create the newly-renamed South Florida (Fred Howard Park Causeway in Pinellas County near the Pasco County line through Broward County) and Central East Coast (Palm Beach through Volusia counties) zones.

Reducing bag limits.
Western Panhandle: 5 to 3 fish.
Big Bend: 5 to 4 fish.
South Florida: 4 to 3 fish.
Central East Coast: 4 to 2 fish.
Northeast: 6 to 5 fish.

Changing the current recreational and commercial slot limits to 15 to 19 inches.
Current recreational slot limit is 15 to 20 inches (with one over 20 inches allowed).
Current commercial slot limit is 15 to 24 inches.
Prohibiting all harvest of spotted seatrout 19 inches and larger.
Prohibiting captain and crew from keeping a personal bag limit on a for-hire trip.
Re-establishing the February closure in Western Panhandle.

If you can’t attend an in-person workshop, provide online comments at www.MyFWC.com/SaltwaterComments.

[freezerfiller]

I'm always amazed that recreational fishermen hurt the fishery when they catch a over 20" trout, but the commercial guys can load the boat and it's just fine. As far as the public meetings go, I've yet to see one that doesn't end up with the FWC or DNR here doing what they wanted to regardless of public input.

[mosquito13]

Got out last night. Same sized snook at every dock. Fun! Puking up white bait. I got a ladyfish early on so dead sticked a cunk. Ended up with three reds before my rig got picked up by something I could not turn losing about a 1/3 of my spool of powerpro 20lb. Bringing a 50lb spooled rig next time. Reds were the tiniest not much bigger than my hand . Good to see them in the bay again though. Gives me hope bay will come back quicker this time, if we just can get thru the summer without another bloom.

[mosquito13]

Just got in from a early morning dock run in big pass. Fished the falling tide starting around 4 am. Snook bite was on throwing glass minnow imitations producing the best. They were eating everything thrown at them though. Glow paddle tails and clear with sparkles in 3". Hard plastic shrimp yu-zuri's , DOA's new top water, even broke out the fly rod(lost my tippet to the docks on second fish...). 3-4 fish off every dock. Even caught a red off a dead stick with a piece of lady fish on knocker rig undersized and not tagged , but fun. Real encouraged and hopeful the the red tide stays away. Need to try some daytime flat fishing see if the trout are coming back.

[mosquito13]

Fished yesterday. One of the best in a long time . Reds to 28 snook abounded to 31 jacks up to 4lb . Dink trout and lots of little grouper.

[Juan]

Sept 18, 2019 5:48:21 GMT -6 mosquito13 said:

Fished yesterday. One of the best in a long time . Reds to 28 snook abounded to 31 jacks up to 4lb . Dink trout and lots of little grouper.

Good! I'm glad to see someone is fishing.. I've had to fever to go for a week but it was 102 degrees here yesterday and supposed to be the same today.. Never thought I'd say it but I'm looking forward to winter.

[Warpig]

Good to hear it picked up for you.

Opposite effect here up north. The fishing on Lake Erie was great early in the season, but has really died off recently. It's perch season and no one is catching a thing. From what I hear it's due to the fish gorging themselves on some sort of invasive spiny fleas which hatched in huge numbers due to the warm wet weather in the spring. I'm fishing a perch tournament this Saturday which should be interesting. Sat on top of some of the best marks I've had in a long time for 45 minutes on Saturday without so much as a nibble. Decided to head in and watch football.

[freezerfiller]

I think I'd look and see if there are any gulp spiny fleas!

[Warpig]

Sept 18, 2019 20:16:03 GMT -6 freezerfiller said:

I think I'd look and see if there are any gulp spiny fleas!

I'll bet there are guys looking for them already! And some tiny hooks to go with them.

Limit of yellow perch is 30/person. I've had 4 people on the boat and got 120 in less than two hours on occasion. Two of my partners are retired and have been out three times this week scouting for the tourny. They caught a combined 1, 5, and 9 each day. The ODNR claims the lake has a very healthy population of them. I've had great marks, just no takers. I guess on the upside is they are getting huge on these fleas so if next year the flea hatch isn't big, it will be game on....