Sarasota Fishing Report March 2019

 | By Marc Laurin on 3/8/2019 12:00:00 AM | Views (675) In Sarasota I have been out the pass to reef fish more times this season probably than I have in the last
two. The red tide is gone, and the waters are gin clear. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with the
residuals in our bay waters. I don’t want to get into the politics or science behind it and there is plenty of
information to be found online. When the red tide first cleared up in early December the bay fishing was
red hot catching big redfish, black drum, and snook in and around docks and up the creeks and canals.
The red tide killed a lot of sea grass along with the bait that lives within it and with nothing to eat most
of these fish have moved on in search of a food source. The good news is the nearshore reefs have been
fishing excellent. Clients have been enjoying red hot action catching close to 100 fish on some days
including huge sheepshead, mangrove snapper, key west grunts, black drum, Spanish mackerel, small
grouper, a few redfish and even a few early season snook on the reef. We even caught my boats largest
flounder at 24 inches, it was a door mat. I also ran a night snook trip in infamous snook alley, which lived
up to its name. close to 20 snook on silver minnow flies and MR17 Mirror lures up to 24 inches. The
snook caught at night are generally juveniles but the action and their willingness to devour flies and
other artificial lures more than makes up for it. All fishing including the bay is only going to get better
from here, Spring is in the air with water temps close to 75 degrees and SW winds blowing the bait
schools inshore, we will soon be pulling on numerous gamefishes. A few Cobia are already on the reefs,
the kingfish should be right behind the mackerel. With schools of bait moving into the bay the snook,
redfish, pompano, bluefish, and more will be right behind them. Read More

Catch Information

Species:
Black Drum


Bluefish


Cobia


Florida Pompano


Flounder


Gray Snapper


Red Drum


Sheepshead


Snook


Spanish Mackerel

This Fishing Report was submitted on 3/8/2019 12:00:00 AM by Marc Laurin and last updated on 3/8/2019 11:58:58 AM.