Tarpon fishing along our beaches will kick off early in the month and come on strong by the middle of the month. You might also find them in bays early in the month as resident tarpon and early arriving migratory fish gather in bays and backcountry areas. Look for them rolling or “laid up”, sitting just below the surface, when it is calm. Migratory fish will be traveling in a lane just off our beaches. In the Sarasota area, many tarpon schools are heading south towards Boca Grande Pass, but some will be northbound towards Tampa Bay. Look for tarpon schools at first light along areas of rocky bottom. The area from Point of Rocks on Siesta Key south to Grassy Point on Casey Key is one of my favorite areas.

Most tarpon will follow the same route, so once you’ve spotted a school, set up in that area and another school may be traveling the same route. To be successful at tarpon fishing you have to be patient. Use trolling motors sparingly and don’t run your outboard within a couple hundred yards of tarpon schools. Set up in front of schools of tarpon and take a shot at them as they pass you. After they have passed you, let them get past you for a couple of hundred yards and then you can leapfrog around them and get another shot further down the beach. I prefer to run offshore of tarpon schools when setting up for a second shot at them. Top baits will be live crabs, a variety of baitfish, plastic baits and flies.

Keep your eyes open for tripletail and cobia while fishing the coastal gulf for tarpon. Cobia may be cruising on the surface, following rays or hanging around crab trap floats and buoys. Tripletail may be hanging around crab trap floats, buoys or floating debris. Tarpon tackle is perfect for cobia, but you might want to carry a lighter spinning rod or an 8 or 9-weight fly rod for tripletail. A live or plastic shrimp on spinning tackle and a floating line with a crab pattern, shrimp pattern or a bendback, like my Flats Minnow, will work well for tripletail.

Snook season closes this month so any snook caught must be quickly released. The closure from May through August protects snook when they are congregated in passes to spawn. You’ll find snook in passes, in the surf and around docks and bridges close to passes this month. Snook spawn during the strong tides surrounding the full and new moons when their fertilized eggs are carried by the tide. Drifting live baits or bouncing plastic baits along the bottom, like you would vertical jig for pompano, are effective techniques for snook in passes. Flies and jigs work well in the surf and around docks and bridges. You can also drift bridge channels the same way you would in passes with live or plastic baits.

Reds and big trout will be found in skinny water feeding along mangrove shorelines and around sand and oyster bars. Due to more water on flats and more plentiful baitfish, reds will spend more time feeding on the flats. With more water on flats, reds may be harder to find. In the winter when tides are very low, you may only need to fish 30% or 40% of the water to find fish but when there is a lot of water on the flats you’ll need to fish 100% of the water to locate fish. I like to use a jig with a shad tail to cover water to find fish.

You can do the same thing when fly fishing with a Clouser fly, which fishes like a small jig. A spoon fly is another good fly to cover water to find reds. When fly fishing, start with shorter casts and lengthen your casts to cover water rather than making long casts first. Although you may be blind casting to locate fish, you should always have a target when you cast. Focus on nervous baitfish, mullet schools, seams where grass and sand meet and shadow lines along mangrove shorelines.

You’ll find trout, ladyfish, bluefish, pompano and Spanish mackerel on deep grass flats close to passes. Cast jigs or flies on intermediate or intermediate sink tip fly lines ahead of your drift to locate fish. Once you’ve located them, you can shorten your drift to the area where fish are concentrated. You may also find bluefish, pompano or Spanish mackerel in passes. Cast with jigs or drift with the tide and vertical jig with pompano jigs in deeper portions of passes to find fish. Bluefish and mackerel will also strike top water plugs and fly poppers.
Whatever you choose to do, do it early and remember to limit your kill, don’t kill your limit!

Tight Lines,

 Capt. Rick Grassett
 Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
 (941) 923-7799
 E mail snookfin@aol.com
 Web address www.snookfin-addict.com