Anglers on the Snook Fin-Addict had decent action with reds and trout in Sarasota Bay. The best action was with snook at night on an incoming tide in the ICW near Venice. The water quality in Sarasota Bay is not bad considering all the rain and wind that we've had. It is dark in color but fairly clear, which is often the case this time of the year anyway. Sarasota Bay had lots of baitfish and mullet with a water temperature around 80 degrees.
       Dan Kennedy, from Punta Gorda, FL, fished Sarasota Bay with me on Wednesday. Dan went through Hurricane Charley in Punta Gorda and had to delay his vacation in Sarasota to let Jeanne pass by. Enough already! We had good action with trout and redfish on DOA Deadly Combos and MirrOlure She Dogs. Dan caught several trout including a couple in the slot at the Middleground flat and near Buttonwood Harbor. He also caught a nice pair of reds and a jack on a MirrOlure She Dog also near Buttonwood Harbor.
J.C. Leverage, from Curry Beach, NC and Doug McMillin, from Emory, TX, fished Sarasota Bay near Buttonwood Harbor with me on Saturday morning. J.C. and Doug are State Farm Insurance employees that respond to catastrophes. They are currently stationed in southwest Florida helping victims of Hurricane Charley in Charlotte County. You can only do so much of that and then you've got to go fish! The action was slow but J.C. managed to catch a slam, which included reds and snook of about 23" and trout to 18" on DOA Deadly Combos and CAL jigs with a variety of plastic tails.
Fly anglers, Bernie Feinberg, from Sarasota, FL, and David Schofield, from Elmira, NY, snook fished with me in the ICW near Venice that evening. The bite was slow to start due a slow outgoing tide. However, when the tide started to pour in the fish began to eat. They caught and released 18 snook to 23" on a variety of small white flies. Shrimp patterns were the most productive, followed by Grassett's Grass Minnow and Enrico Puglisi's Bay Anchovy.
We are in a good weather pattern, so I expect fishing to improve next week. Tides are not great, but the water should continue to clear and flats fishing should get better.

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

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