Sarasota Fishing Report 8/28/13

Capt. Rick Grassett’s Charlotte Harbor, FL Fishing Report for 8/25/2013

            Anglers fishing with me on my Action Craft flats skiff the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, had good action catching and releasing snook and had numerous shots at tarpon in Charlotte Harbor canals on a couple of trips during the past week. A juvenile Goliath grouper was also caught and released.
            After being gone on a family vacation and then hosting a group of fly anglers in Montana the following week, I had a few chores to catch up on when I returned. I left my 1720 Flyfisher with Action Craft while I was gone to fix a couple of things and give it a good going over. They replaced hardware, striping and decals as needed and did a great job detailing and waxing the boat. I picked the boat up Monday afternoon and it looks great! Action Craft is alive and well (under new ownership) and building quality flats and bay boats.
            Capt. Andy Cotton, also out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters, fished Charlotte Harbor canals with me on Thursday. We covered water to find rolling tarpon and cast DOA Shrimp and TerrorEyz  to them. We found quite a few tarpon in the 10 to 30-pound class in a couple of areas and had several eats on our DOA baits. We also skipped DOA baits under docks while we hunted tarpon and were rewarded with several snook. Andy also caught and released a juvenile Goliath grouper from under a deep mangrove shoreline on a DOA shrimp. Saturday’s trip in the same area had similar tarpon action.
            Tarpon are a good option around bridges at night and juvenile tarpon are a good option in creeks, canals and basins at this time. Tarpon are also still an option in the coastal gulf . There are fewer fish now, since many may have already moved into inside waters, but they are aggressive. Beat the heat by catch and release snook fishing before daylight in the ICW and then look for trout, blues, Spanish mackerel, tripletail and more in Sarasota Bay.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Orvis- Endorsed Outfitter Guide
CB’s Saltwater Outfitters-2011 Orvis Outfitter of the Year
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
(941) 923-7799
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
www.flyfishingflorida.net and www.snookfin-addict.com



Capt. Rick Grassett's Action Craft 1720 Flyfisher, renewed and ready to go!














Capt. Rick Grassett with a Charlotte Harbor canal snook caught and released on a DOA TerrorEyz.

Capt Chris Robinson Named Top 50 Captain

Congratulations Capt. Chris Robinson for being chosen as one of Saltwater Sportsmans Top 50 Charter Captains. Here's the link to the article. http://www.saltwatersportsman.com/gallery/photo-galleries/2013/07/top-50-charter-captains . We always knew he was special!

It's been a heck of a summer so far. Some good fishing, some wet weather but in all it's been good. Guides are reporting catching shrimp in their bait nets already, most likely from the abundance of fresh water last month, and they are predicting good fall fishing. The water is cleared up and Tripletail are biting well right now if you can make the cast - it's not an easy fish to hook and land. As the season matures the fish grow bigger - Very Tasty!

Speckled Trout are making a good showing - I heard tell of a 7 pounder boated the other day but I haven't gotten that photo yet. Capt. Tommy Holland Loves his Specs! Here's Bill Mudd with a sweet one caught on his Fly Rod while fishing with Capt. Tommy Robinson.



Many of you have asked me over the last few months "Is Capt. Jr. Holland still fishing?". The answer is "Of Course he is!" Here's photo proof - non retouched! He's the one on the left, by the way. Would someone please show him how to hold a redfish for a photo op?

Now that the kids are headed back to school it's time to start thinking about Fall Redfishing on the Forgotten Coast. Pay attention now because you're about to read the first pricing special we've ever offered. Book your fall trip now, pay for it before September 1st and save $25 to $50 per trip. Prices go up September 1st for the first time in many years, but if you get your paid reservation in beforehand you won't pay the higher price. Why not make a weekend of it? Stay in one of our beautiful Vacation Rental Condos (http://robinsonrealestatecompany.com/index.cfm/m/34/fuseaction/rlist.ListingsSummary/parentPageId/48 ) Fish with one or more of the best guides on the planet for a day or two, enjoy our extraordinary fresh seafood at fine local restaurants, schedule a massage http://www.riverfronttherapy.com, relax & recharge! Is it working yet? I'm really trying! We even have a toll free number - 877-6-REDFISH.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Kathy

Robinson Brothers Guide Service
44 Avenue E
Apalachicola, FL 32320
www.floridaredfish.com

850-653-8896 / 877-6-REDFISH

Amelia Island Fishing Report 8/ 2013

One more month of Summer to go! Bookings are slowing down so now's your chance to get out on the water. Every fishing trip gets posted at the Amelia Island Fishing Report so check it out to see what's biting! Get away from it all and...Let's Go Fishing on The Angler's Mark!
July Report/August Forecast: Beginning July 1st and running through about the 18th we had outstanding Redfish-ing and catching! The Pleasant boys started it off catching huge oversized Reds, continued with the Goldens hooking up with double bigs Reds, and included a banner day of Big Red fishing with Alan Reeves fishing on his own. The oversized Redfish bonanza didn't let up to around the 18th when even the young anglers got in on the action. We also had the 2nd biggest Flounder of the year caught in July. On almost every trip we used Mud Minnows.

Capt. Lawrence Piper
The Anglers Mark
Amelia Island, Florida
904-557-1027
lwpiper@comcast.net
theanglersmark.com   

Central Florida Sight Fishing 8/3/13

August 3, 2013 by Capt. Chris Myers

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report
The summer fishing during the past couple weeks has been mostly spectacular with a couple busts mixed in. On the good days it has been about as good as it can get. Inshore, the redfish and trout have been very good in Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River. The water level is a bit higher than usual for this time of year. In some places it is crystal clear, in others it is stained but still fishable on clear days. The two biggest enemies lately have been clouds and the tremendous amount of loose grass. Weedless lures are almost a must in some places.

Redfish have been happily tailing and finning throughout the day when it is calm and some big trout can be spotted on the flats as well. They have been occupying most of our time as the tarpon have yet to make a consistent showing inshore.

Surface baits have been working well with the DOA Baitbuster and Airhead topping the list. These single hook baits can stay out of the floating grass while a treble hooked plug will not. Other things that have been catching fish are the 3 inch shad tail CAL, the 5.5 inch CAL and the 1/4 ounce shrimp. Sight fishing conditions have been excellent and we have been seeing hundreds of redfish each day.

On the east central coast beaches, there is some steady action when seas are calm. Tarpon, various sharks, jack crevalle, false albacore, and kingfish can all be found close to shore. The good thing about this fishing is you never know what you are going to catch and almost all the fish are big.

Cynthia and Jeff fished with me again this year hoping to top the redfish they caught on their first trip. It took us a while to find the big fish but when we did, the bite was steady and they both broke their personal record.





Mack and his young son Charlie had a spectacular day catching redfish in Mosquito Lagoon. The boy had never caught a fish over two pounds but did an excellent job reeling in the reds. He had no desire to hold them, though so Dad helped him with this pose.


The beach tarpon were eating the sinking DOA baitbuster in 10 feet of water.


David prepares to release his first ever king mackerel on a recent nearshore trip.
He also landed tarpon and false albacore on the same trip.



Several days ago, I fished mosquito Lagoon with Mark Nichols, the owner of DOA lures. We caught a bunch of redfish and some trout on a variety of DOA plastics. This fish ate the new Airhead bait in silver rush color.



Capt. Drew Cavanaugh and I had fun catching reds and trout on a beautiful summer morning.



Watch as Drew casts the shallow running Baitbuster to a nice redfish and gets a surface bite.





Captain Chris Myers
321-229-2848
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com/
cmyers@floridafishinglessons.com    













Yesterday's trip started out with a beautiful sunrise.


My client wanted to fly fish but could not quite reach the hundreds of tailing fish around the boat. He abandoned the flyrod after several hours but by that time the tails had gone down and the bite shut off. We tried everything I could think of but nary of fish was landed. Unfortunately, every day cannot be the greatest catching but the fishing was fun and the wildlife and scenery were excellent.

This summer pattern will continue for at least the next two months. The crowds can be lighter until the part time residents return in the fall but one must be prepared for some heat. Sunscreen and water can be your best friends this time of year. Polarized glasses will help you see the fish. Being stealthy and quiet will help you get near them, and quick accurate casts will catch them.

Sarasota Fishing Report 7/24/2013

Capt. Rick Grassett’s Sarasota & Pine Island Sound, FL Fishing Report for 7/21/2013

Anglers fishing with me on my Action Craft flats skiff the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, had good action fly fishing for tarpon in the coastal gulf. Fly anglers jumped 2 tarpon, had several other eats and numerous shots at tarpon with a fly in the coastal gulf during the past week. We also fished Pine Island Sound one afternoon and caught and released a big red on a fly.
Jerry Poslusny and Jay Peck, both from the Rochester, NY area fished Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with me. Conditions were tough a good portion of the week with a lot of clouds and some rain. However there were enough windows of good visibility to get them numerous shots at tarpon each day. They jumped 2 fish and had 3 other eats on Deceiver and Grassett Tarpon Bunny flies.
My brother Kirk Grassett, from Middletown, DE, came down to fish a few days later in the week. Rusty Chinnis, from Longboat Key, FL joined us on Thursday and we came across an osprey struggling and flopping on the surface as we ran in the coastal gulf. As we got closer to investigate, we could see that the bird was near collapse from exhaustion. It showed no fear and allowed Kirk to cover its head with a towel and lift it onto the deck of my boat. We took the bird to the beach and it was too exhausted to either fly or jump off the deck, so Kirk lifted him off the bow and sat him on the beach. The bird appeared to have an injured wing and was very waterlogged, so Rusty contacted Save Our Seabirds who came out to the scene to rescue the bird. A follow up call reported that the bird was recovering at the bird hospital. We only had a few shots at tarpon that day due to heavy clouds and fish deep in the water column but we had a dozen or more good shots on Friday.
Kirk and I were the guests of our friend Capt. Rick DePaiva, from Ft. Myers, FL, to fish Pine Island Sound on Saturday. Capt. Rick knows his fishery well and since conditions were good for reds to tail on shallow grass flats late in the day, we planned to be there at that time. We had some shots at tailing reds and Kirk caught and released a very nice, upper slot red on my Grassett Flats Minnow fly. Due to the dark, tannic water that is prevalent in that area this time of year, colors on the fish were vivid!
Tarpon fishing in the coastal gulf should be good next week depending on conditions. Beat the heat by catch and release snook fishing before daylight in the ICW and then look for reds and big trout in shallow water early in the day. Fishing deep grass flats of Sarasota Bay for trout, blues, Spanish mackerel and more should also be a good option.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Orvis- Endorsed Outfitter Guide
CB’s Saltwater Outfitters-2011 Orvis Outfitter of the Year
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
(941) 923-7799
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
www.flyfishingflorida.net and www.snookfin-addict.com