Fishing Report for February 7, 2006

Bay Fishing -

My last trip in Sarasota Bay was a nice outing. A sunny day, calm winds and a rising tide encouraged redfish, sheephead and a few snook to bite for us. Using cotee jig heads tipped with live shrimp and cast from 8 lb. class spinning rods made for 12 battles with tackle-busting sheepshead up to 4 lbs., 6 redfish up to 20 inches, and a couple of 20-22 inch snook.

Fishing the back waters of Siesta Key can be such a fun trip, provided the fish are biting. Most of the time you catch an assortment of bay fish including flounder, mangrove snappers, and jack crevalles.
Most of the fish we caught this past week were caught on grass flats with oyster bars or seawalls with long open areas to cast at. You're surrounded by beautiful, lush landscape and multi-million dollar homes, but more importantly, you're very sheltered from wind that might hinder your efforts in other open spots of the bay. I like to fish my clients around the high tides of the day, or night if I can. The trips planned for the end of this week should be productive too as we approach the full moon on the 12th and also early evening high tides.

Looking to share a trip? No problem - split trips for the bay will cost you 5 for 4 hours. You will share the boat with no more than 2 other people! Offshore Fishing -

This past week the wind, cold weather, and a lack of interested patrons has kept us at the dock. Yes, this does happen every time the weather gets chilly. Not to worry! The fishing out here is terrific!! It's catching the customer that is hard work sometimes. :) That's ok though. Every business has its ups and downs; however, the sun will shine again and we'll be out there catching fish and making customers happy.

If you were to venture out there tomorrow with me (let's just say on an 8 or 10 hour trip) you would have a great time catching big tackle-busting amberjacks (20-40 lbs. on average), red or gag groupers (5-15 lbs.), and really nice sized mangrove snappers (2-7 lbs). I'm running my trips out in the 30-40 mile zone and the fishing out there has been outstanding! It takes us 2 hours to get out there, but once you're there you're catching fish immediately. When we have to move to other spots, it's only 1-3 mile moves. This gives us more fishing time in an area that doesn't get overfished. I have also been observing little tunnys (5-10 lb. tunas) on the ride out crashing the surface. They're eating these 2-4 inch Spanish sardines. These tunnys offer a drag-screaming run of the reel, and if you like sushi they are excellent! These are the fish you will run into out there on our long trips. If you want big fish, and lots of them, there's no question you must fish an 8 hour trip.

Four hour trips are seeing catches of sheepshead, Key West grunts, mangrove snappers, and short gag groupers. The 4 hour trip (at the moment) would be great for the person that wants a lot of action catching smaller fish. The sheepshead is going to be the biggest fish on this trip, ranging 2-5lbs. The snappers and above mentioned fish on the 4 hour trip are caught on light tackle (10 lb. test spinning outfits). It's an enjoyable and fun trip. This trip, for the longest time, has been sending people home with 30-40 snappers for dinner. I fillet them to perfection for you and offer suggestions on how to cook them as well.

Thanks for stopping by my site and I hope to hear from you!

Peace, and be good to each other,
Captain Tommy Tinacci

PS: We will be sight fishing for cobia next month. March is kingfish and cobia time!!!! Really, don't miss out. You can then catch big cobia on a 4 hour trip along our beautiful beaches guaranteed!! :)