Fishing in Boca Grande this week has consisted of morning fishing and fighting the wind in the afternoon. Strong winds have caused some areas to become muddy. Finding clean water was the key to our success this week.
Ray Schwable, of Sarasota and I fished Monday seeking tarpon on the fly with little success. The few fish we did find were in the back country and very spooky. Ray did take several nice seatrout on a Clouser minnow.
Jess Jones, of Longboat Key caught pompano, trout and ladyfish in Sarasota Bay on Tuesday. Jess, an ardent fly fisher, used an Estaz marabou and Clouser minnows. Terry Russell and his best friend Norman, while taking an advanced fly casting class on Wednesday and Thursday, managed over 100 fish including jacks, seatrout and ladyfish. Terry missed the best fish of the trip when he lost a large redfish in Whidden's Creek. Dan Baily of Boca Grande cast to finicky tarpon on Friday morning having to settle for lots of large seatrout to 23 inches. Bill Walsh, of Marion, Ma., brought his son and daughter out Sunday morning in Boca Grande. His daughter Kate managed the largest fish of the trip, of course.
The tarpon are here, the weather is not. But that is certain to change by week's end. As soon as the weather breaks, the tarpon will be abundant. Ron Whitely and I took redfish on Puglisi flies and snook on the Estaz marabou today, plus a scattering of seatrout. The wind was already up by the time we quit, but we saw a lot of bait in the bay. This will make fishing much more active in the next week. So... it is time to go fishing.
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