I had a couple of evening snook trips on Sunday and Tuesday evenings. Fly anglers, Bernie Feinberg from Sarasota, FL, and David Schofield, from Elmira, NY, fished "snook alley" in Venice with me on Sunday evening. They caught and released 10 snook on Grassett's Grass Minnow and other glass minnow fly patterns. Tuesday evening's trip was slower, with only 6 snook caught on flies and live shrimp in the same area.

Capt. Jim Klopfer and I joined Capt. Jack Ryan for a gulf trip on Wednesday. Since the weather has been beautiful and the water smooth, the plan was to hunt for false albacore in the coastal gulf waters. We located several pods of false albacore in 50 feet of water off Sarasota. However, they were fast moving and not staying up for very long. We did catch one on a gray over white Clouser fly and one on a Cotee jig.

A trip in north Sarasota Bay on Thursday was slow. We only saw a few redfish and caught one small snook on a Clouser fly near Long Bar. The best trip of the week was on Friday. Dick Reece, from Dayton, OH, and Ross Singmaster, from Sarasota, FL, fished Little Sarasota Bay with me and had a great day! They caught 8 snook to 5-pounds, a pair of reds to 6-pounds, several trout to 2 ½ pounds and jack crevalle to 4-pounds. Ross caught and released several snook, including the largest one, and jacks on an olive over white Clouser fly. Dick had a double slam, which included a nice redfish, snook and trout, caught on a Cotee jig with rootbeer/gold flashtail. The largest red was caught on an Exude slug plastic jerk worm.

Our summer-like weather pattern continues with air temperatures in the mid 80's and water temperatures in the mid 70's. Flats fishing should continue to be strong under these conditions. However, a couple of good cold fronts could really stimulate the evening snook fishing.

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