Three fish come to mind: Redfish, spotted seatrout and snook. Those fish have dominated our catches for the past month. We’ve been getting snook to 27 inches on fly along the beaches. Anglers are averaging 4 to 6 snook per outing. Top fly has been the ever-reliable Gibby’s D.T. Variation. Anglers have been getting a shot at least 200 snook per morning. We haven’t hooked any monsters to date, but we’ve seen snook to better than 30 pounds. We’ve also been getting spotted seatrout to 25 inches, ladyfish, jack crevalle, blue runner and Spanish mackerel. When the wind is up or conditions cloudy, we’ve been doing very well on redfish in Sarasota Bay. Fishing along the west side of the bay, we’ve been getting reds to 33 inches on flies, jerk worms, spoons, D.O.A. Shrimp, CAL Jigs and topwater plugs. In addition, we’ve been picking up spotted seatrout to 25 inches on the same lures. When we get out before daylight, we’ve been targeting snook around light docks. We’ve lost a couple of monsters that we just couldn’t stop!

Mike Marston of St. Petersburg joined me for a beach snook outing and did fairly well. He caught and released several snook and trout.

S.R. Evans, his wife, Amy, of North Carolina, and their brother-in-law, Fleurent, of Boston, fly fished their way to seven snook on a recent outing in bad conditions. The tide was terrible and visibility even worse. They also managed Spanish mackerel and ladyfish. The trio lost several snook that they hooked!

Beach snook action will continue and peak in July and August. I expect redfish activity to continue early morning on the incoming tide. The secret has been to fish around schools of mullet and make very long casts. Fly anglers have been scoring on Gurglers, GIP Flies, Puglisi Minnows and attractor patterns. Spin anglers have been doing well on Bomber Badonkadonks, Rapala Skitterwalks, Zara Spooks, gold snoons, D.O.A. Shrimp and jerk worms. Next week sees a return to good tides – and better fishing.

Steve Gibson

Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing

www.kayakfishingsarasota.com

Native Watercraft-endorsed guide

TFO Pro Staff

(941) 284-3406