February 2017
February 28, 2017 Sarasota 2 photos

Trip Summary

February 2017 Fishing Report I have a very good client who fly fishes with me in North Carolina in the summer, and he’ll be staying on Sanibel Island in March, when we’ll fish for several days. Even though I have fished that area many times, it’s a little further south than my normal fishing grounds of Gasparilla and N. Pine Island Sound. I wanted to get down there and familiarize myself with the area again, so my wife and I booked a small cottage on Little Captiva Island on the west side of Pine Island Sound. As soon as we crossed the Harbor and unloaded the boat, the wind started blowing hard - up to 25 knots – and it lasted for the next day and a half. As a mullet fisherman I ran into put it, “it’s really blowing your ears back out there.” I did manage to catch multiple small trout in the deep flats just off the cottage with the winds coming from the east. The beach side was dead calm for the first half mile or so, and I found large schools of lady fish with a few mackerel mixed in, which kept me busy using white clouser minnow flies. By the third day, things changed dramatically and we had clear skies and almost no wind. The mornings called for extreme low tides, and I found the redfish piled up in the cut between the shoal and York Island on the west side, and in the Tarpon hole on east side of Chino Island. I saw so many fish it should have been an epic day, but with the cold front that had just come through, they weren’t feeding well. I did manage a half dozen or so redfish and a few juvenile snook. The next day, I headed out in the afternoon with high tide. I fished up on the bar off York Island like the day before and it was loaded with redfish and large snook. With clear skies and no wind, it was so calm that the fish were skittish. I put flies in front of multiple fish that either ignored them or ran for the deep water. Frustrated, I anchored the boat, got out and waded, and managed to land one 20-inch snook on a DT special fly, and then I hooked a big boy but he came up shaking his head laughing at me as the fly came loose. I did manage to redeem myself, catching a number of nice snook and redfish on Cal Jigs that evening on the edge of the same bar when the tide went back out. I also caught a few Pompano jigging Captiva Pass. We have been blessed with a mild winter this year, and fishing in Sarasota Bay has been really good - especially when we have a little wind. Crystal clear waters and clear sunny skies make fish skittish. The nighttime snook fishing was excellent - especially around the new and full moon - using glow jerk baits, DOA shrimp, and any small white or silver fly. Anglers fishing with me enjoyed catching Pompano early in the month, along with very large speckled trout up to 22 inches. Blue fish, lady fish, and Spanish mackerel were abundant all month long, fishing mainly the deep grass flats on the North and west sides of the bay using olive clouser minnow, DT special flies, DOA Cal tails and Zoom super flukes. Anglers willing to put in the work caught a few snook and red fish on the shallow grass flats and bars.
Marc Laurin
Sarasota, Florida, United States
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Fish On Fire Charters invites you on a fishing adventure of a lifetime on the beautiful waters of Sarasota, Florida. Sarasota is a very large bay that is fed by 3 passes. There are mangrove shorelines with acres of healthy grass flats and a mile-long bar ...

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