Sarasota Fishing Report and Forecast- Feb 2011

Feb Report and Forecast
Capt Jack Hartman
http://www.sarasotafishingcharters.com/
The weather has finally stabilized and last week was as good for fishing as it can get in February. Typically the weather in February is 4 or 5 days days of beautiful weather with highs in the 70's and lows in the the upper 50's, then a couple of days with a nasty cold front, rain and wind. 5 nice  days out 7 ain't bad for winter !  Thursday, in the afternoon, Roger Lindsey and Rodney Brase were guests aboard the Lucky Dawg. Being novices, they were attentive and diligent and their effort paid off in a grand way. They were able to catch and release around 60-80  Sea Trout to 22”. For the trout the Exude Dart rigged with a ¼ oz jig head did the trick, bouncing the jigs down channel edges.  Friday, Andy Madison of Columbus Ohio joined me for a 3/4 day adventure. Fishing was a little slow until around 10 am then got really hot, really fast. Andy threw the same DART combo along channel edges in Golden Bream color and was able to land loads of Sea Trout to 20”, Flounder and  other species. I really don’t know how many he caught in the 3+ hours we fished channel edges, probably well over 50 fish. When I did not think it could get much better, we headed into the north bay hoping to find Snook and Reds sunning themselves in the potholes. The Reds were spooky, but a few smaller Snook were hungry. Andy caught 4 to 20” (and lost another 10 ) and again the RT slug was a killer bait. All Andy had to do was find a pothole and throw the Slug past it and work it SLOWLY into the hole, when the Snook came over to investigate, he just twitched it and they exploded on it.

Sunday, Bill Johns and his brother inlaw Darby joined me for the same action in the same places using the same rigs. After many Trout, the wind came up so they got a chance at Sheepshead and redfish around the docks. Action was steady,but not spectacular as the winds got up into the 20's making fishing difficult . Monday, in a heavy fog, I went out on a exploring trip. Near White Key area, I found a bar high and dry with a 2  ft drop just outside . The big trout were stacked up. For about an hour I threw Slugs and Chug Bugs and caught Trout to 28” with the smallest ones around 20” Needless to say, I’ll mark this new area on my map. After awhile, I found small reds to 18” sitting in 3’ of water and used a slow retrieve and bounced a jig in front of them to catch a few.

Looking forward to next week and temperatures in the 70’s every day.

 February forecast :

You can have great fishing in February if you fish wisely. Fish the nice conditions beyween fronts for a successful day. When it is blowing or cool fish the docks and channels anchored up . Following fronts, sunny afternoons are GREAT  fishing.  Trout, Reds and maybe Snook may sneak out onto grass flats and around bars to feed on sunny afternoons. Sheepshead should be plentiful around docks and oyster bars and they are a good cool weather option.
Trout will be found in channels, potholes or on drop-offs along the edges of bars and flats in February. They will drop into drop-offs along the edges of flats or bars when the tide is low. You may find them in skinny water over shallow grass when the tide is high on a sunny afternoon. On grass flats, I like to drift and cast with CAL jigs to the bottom to get a bite.Darker colors like New penny, Brown and gold seem to work best.  For live bait anglers, Shrimp free lined works best.
Reds will be found in some of the same areas as trout this month. On low tides fish the same channel edges that you would for Trout. In the afternoon  however, things change. If you a have a warm and sunny day, the Reds will move up into very shallow flats to feed. Use spoons, weedless plastics and topwaters and remember that these reds are spooky so make Long , long casts to get them. Bluefish, Spainsh Mackerel, and Pompano can also be found on the deeper grass patches in the same areas that you would find the trout,
once the temperature reaches 65-70 ( currently 63)> Use the same techiques that you would for Sea trout.
Hope to see you all on the water soon
Capt Jack