Sarasota bound!!

[Ky Grady]

Reaching out to our gulf coast folks that fish around Tampa, Sarasota area. I'm trailering down the 27th and will be in the area till July 7th. Could use any guidance, tips or places to fish around there. My wife is traveling with me and she gets motion sick at times so looking for something she can catch in relatively calm water. Want to go out and bottom fish but I doubt I'll make it with her on board and won't go solo, don't know the area well enough to find fish. Have no artificials at all, all I've used before was shrimp in close and either fed the fish or caught little saltwater cats, not what I was looking for.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Halfhitch]

I live just south of Sarasota in the town of Venice. My son and I just went out yesterday and actually had a bad day fishing but the weather, water and company was great. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches taste better 50 miles out. Fishing the bottom is the lifeblood of the recreational fishing down here. Pretty much any of the bait shops will have the staples that we always go armed with....whole squid, frozen....sardines or cigar minnows frozen.....live shrimp in the well. Usually we will stop just outside the inlet and use baited sabikis to put some pinfish in the well with the shrimp. My wife actually enjoys catching the pinfish more than the grouper. I think mainly because she can see shore nearby.
For baiting the sabikis we usually thaw the squid in a bucket of saltwater and cut tiny pieces of the tentacles off to tip the sabikis. Fishing the nearshore reefs you don't need pinfish really but if you're running out to 100-150 ft of water then they are popular with the bigger grouper and snapper. For snapper, night fishing is the ticket and different. That's when they are really active. I don't know how you are going to be set up or how long you are staying but where ever you launch and are leaving the boat in the water, if the marina is going to rob you for trailer storage, we have plenty of room to store your trailer at our place. We are about 15 miles South of Sarasota. I'm going to attach some links you might find helpful. Just realize that the gulf is like a vast desert of sand with a few oasis here and there. The oasis are either natural ledges or areas of what is called hard bottom which is limestone that has not been covered by sand. To augment these natural habitats Florida has developed a huge number of artificial reefs that are easy to find with our modern GPS machines. Where you have a limited time to spend here, fishing the artificials is probably your best bet since it takes awhile to search out the natural stuff. All reef fishing requires inline circle hooks, so no "setting the hook". Flourocarbon leader is your friend. The snapper are spooky. Hooks? Keep some 2/0...4/0...and 8/0 if you are running way out where you will be using live pinfish or whole squid or whole sardines or even one of each on the same hook.
https://www.floridagofishing.com/reefs/cw-reefs-sarasota-county.html
https://fishinglidokey.com/best-11-sarasota-fishing-reefs/
http://siestasand.net/documents/icoast_map.pdf
https://www.scgov.net/Home/ShowDocument?id=33661

 

[Parthery]

You should stop in Atlanta on your way through...

 

[Ky Grady]

Wow, Thanks HH!!

Check your PM's.

 

[Ky Grady]

You should stop in Atlanta on your way through...

Should be through there about 9 AM on Saturday. About the time to stop for breakfast.

 

[Parthery]

I know a place or two...let's plan when it gets closer....

 

[magicalbill]

I don't fish, so I'll leave the angling advice to Halfhitch.

The Passes:

Avoid New Pass; It shoals severely. This is the pass separating Lido Beach from Longboat Key.

Check with the Sarasota Yacht Club for the latest info on Big Sarasota Pass, which separates Lido from Siesta Key. They have floating ATON's that they move regularly when new soundings are taken. I believe, although I'm not sure, that their website has the latest navigational info. This pass is suspect as well. I followed the floating aids in once and went to 2 feet.

I have noticed you enjoy anchoring as well. As you head out toward Big Sarasota Pass, you'll find really cool tidal islands to your stbd before you reach open water. That channel thru there, until you get to the Gulf is 15-20 feet deep due to the strong tidal action. You'll be carrying the green's on your stbd side, obviously, and just inside Green "13" if memory serves, is some great anchoring. Bow & stern anchors are helpful there as the tide roars out that pass like the Colorado River.

Your Seafarer draws a little less than our Marlin..The first time or two, slow down and trim up 'till you get reliable tracks on your chartplotter thru Big Sarasota Pass..

Venice Inlet is always deep; you probably won't travel that far South, but Stump Pass near Englewood is suspect as well. They dredge it, it fills in. They dredge it....

Longboat Pass, at the North end of Longboat Key, is the same shoaling story. It may be navigable, but approach carefully. Big-time current in there as well.

I vacationed on Longboat half my life. I literally grew up boating in that area. I don't know whether this is your kind of fishing, but a friend of my parents had a boat in Whittaker Bayou, just North of Van Wezel on the East shore of Sarasota Bay. We would motor out of that bayou, head North for 1/4 mile or so and drift over the weed beds, several hundred yards off the shore. We used live shrimp and would catch speckled trout, jacks, the occasional flounder and sometimes a "Sailcat." (A catfish with a dorsal straight up out of his head, like the mast of a sail.) Again, I don't know much about fishing, but I thought I'd throw this out.

Have Parth show you around Lake Lanier while you two are partying...

 

[Sparkdog118]

I live in ft Myers. I have some good numbers offshore off Boca grand and south. Pm me if you get down that far south and I will share. I fish 70 to 180 ft of water.

 

[Ky Grady]

Thank you for the info on the passes magicalbill!! I made contact with halfhitch by phone and going to try and meet up with him for some fishing while I'm down.

Thanks for the offer spark,,,, not sure I'll get that far south, but if I do, I'll get up with you.

 

[magicalbill]

Your welcome: One other thought; I don't think the public ramp just North of the Ringling Bridge on the East Shore of the Bay has a fresh water hose to rinse your trailer after immersion. I know how you keep your stuff; you may have to find a coin operated spray wash to get the salt off it. I just can't recall any ramps in that area where you can rinse your trailer.

You'll have a blast; you will likely have to dodge a storm cell or two, but you know that. If you go offshore on a calm day, which there are many down here in summer, you should have a following sea back in every afternoon when the localized seabreeze makes up.

 

[Halfhitch]

John, Here is a good list of boat ramps around Sarasota. You can zoom out on the map and see where they are in respect to your house.
https://www.floridabywater.com/central-west-florida/sarasota/boat-ramps?start=5

 

[Ky Grady]

John, Here is a good list of boat ramps around Sarasota. You can zoom out on the map and see where they are in respect to your house.
https://www.floridabywater.com/central-west-florida/sarasota/boat-ramps?start=5

Thanks John!!

I'll check it out tonight on laptop, bigger screen than phone. Ken Thompson ramp I think was the closest when I looked before. I'll check Turtle too, seems to have a good rating.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Frankly,
Don't go at all. The gulf of Mexico is dangerous. All Grady White boats should come with a warning label, not for use in the 2 foot chop of the Gulf of Mexico. Besides your boat has wood in it and it will literally rot beneath you as you go along. The whole idea should be explored in a Freeman , Yellowfin, Contender or Sea Hunt Ultra. You sir are doomed.

 

[mmiela]

Frankly,
Don't go at all. The gulf of Mexico is dangerous. All Grady White boats should come with a warning label, not for use in the 2 foot chop of the Gulf of Mexico. Besides your boat has wood in it and it will literally rot beneath you as you go along. The whole idea should be explored in a Freeman , Yellowfin, Contender or Sea Hunt Ultra. You sir are doomed.

I have heard this as well. I don’t take my Grady out in Long Island Sound unless it is flat calm, to scared. Can’t remember where I heard it but it was on the inter webs so it has to be true. Lol.

 

[magicalbill]

Well, if Ky Grady is doomed, then I'm going to stop looking for boat ramps for him. I f I found him one, I would feel responsible and never forgive myself.

 

[Legend]

Ky has a new EPIRB so he will be safe!

 

[magicalbill]

Legend:

This is good news; if the floor rots out from under him while offshore, he can trigger the E-Purb & hang on.

 

[Ky Grady]

Wow!!!! Maybe I should cancel my trip. I remember seeing the warnings on the highly reputable web site THT, I'm sure everyone on there has a wealth of experience with a Grady-White that a friend of a friend's second cousin once removed used to own but sold it before it disintegrated right under their feet or sunk in the GOM 4'-6' THT calculated chop/waves.

As Legend said, I'm sporting a brand new EPIRB so I will take my chances with my trusty Grady-White 228 and brave the GOM with her.

 

[Sparkdog118]

You will be fine in the GOM. I run my 24 offshore 70 miles off ft Myers on a nice day. Sometimes a storm rolls in and it gets a little sporty. I never get worried since I know my Grady will weather the storm.

 

[Paul_A]

Good timing. American red snapper are open during your stay. All my spots West of Anclote are loaded with them right now. Look for live bottom and ledges in 60' or deeper.

Lots of tactics, probably as many as there are fisherman. I like a lively 4" pinfish on a 7/0 circle tied to a 5' 60lb leader tied to a swivel with a 4-8 oz sliding egg sinker above the swivel. Weight is determined by current and depth.

Only 2 per person and I've found a live pin seems to catch bigger ones. Plus gags live on the same spots and they love pins too.