Sarasota Bay Reef Report 4/16/12

[Jirvin70]

A quick report from my latest outing. A stiff southeast breeze on Sarasota Bay saturday and sunday. No chance of getting out of the passes on my boat. Had some chum left over from last weekend and decided to drop a line on the bay reefs.

Headed to the Walker reef, had trouble marking anything, need to re-check the numbers I put into my GPS. It was windy as hell and I was starting to piss off my "better half" after making repeated circles into choppy conditions. Eventually I left ,equally pissed off.

Harts #2 - caught a 12" black seabass on my first drop, followed by an assortment of other species, spanish macks, trout, catfish, jacks, ladyfish, and of course, grunt...

Jantzen- found decent mangrove snapper biting close to the marker. Kept a few good ones to 12" or so.

Tried Big Pass, from marker #13 drifting into channel towards bird key and through the yacht club channel. Casted pink Silly Willy jigs 1/2 oz ( w/ teaser) hoping to find a pompano. No luck, only big ladyfish, more grunts, and a small lane snapper.

[Angler Systems]

Hey at least you got out! This wind has got to slow soon........maybe!

[bigfinn35]

Forecast is 2' on thursday, then down to 2' or less this weekend. Gonna try and make a combo tarpon/grouper trip. Great report by the way, glad you figured out the reef game.

[nuclearfishn]

let's all pray for 2 feet or less on sat.

[nuclearfishn]

A quick report from my latest outing. A stiff southeast breeze on Sarasota Bay saturday and sunday. No chance of getting out of the passes on my boat. Had some chum left over from last weekend and decided to drop a line on the bay reefs.

Headed to the Walker reef, had trouble marking anything, need to re-check the numbers I put into my GPS. It was windy as hell and I was starting to piss off my "better half" after making repeated circles into choppy conditions. Eventually I left ,equally pissed off.

Harts #2 - caught a 12" black seabass on my first drop, followed by an assortment of other species, spanish macks, trout, catfish, jacks, ladyfish, and of course, grunt...

Jantzen- found decent mangrove snapper biting close to the marker. Kept a few good ones to 12" or so.

Tried Big Pass, from marker #13 drifting into channel towards bird key and through the yacht club channel. Casted pink Silly Willy jigs 1/2 oz ( w/ teaser) hoping to find a pompano. No luck, only big ladyfish, more grunts, and a small lane snapper.

Once you learn to stay away from the man made reefs you will start to catch more and bigger fish. that's not to say the reefs are useless , they just see to much pressure.

[swaptrex]

Once you learn to stay away from the man made reefs you will start to catch more and bigger fish. that's not to say the reefs are useless , they just see to much pressure.

What are these other areas you're referring to?

[nuclearfishn]

What are these other areas you're referring to?

You need to put a few days in trolling with bomber cd 30's. use 50 pound braid with 5 feet of 80# mono for a leader. let out about 200 feet of line in 55 feet and 300 feet of line in 70 feet. you need to hit the bottom everyonce in a while. start out in about 60 feet of water and troll till you hit 70 at around3-5 knots alsways watch your bottom finder. mark a spot when it pops up. you may go for hours without a bite or a blip in your screen, but you will find them if you keep trolling from shallow to deep and back again. You may come up snake eyes the first few times, but it will pay off, and it will pay off big time. Rember 50 pound braid max. you need to hit the bottome about every 10-25 feet. Once you do that is YOUR spot. I have limited out on grouper every trip now for the last few years.