Fishing action slowed down near the end of the week

Action earlier in the week was pretty good, but the bloom was off the rose at week's end due to a lackluster tidal flow.

I went out in the Gulf one calm day and did well with mangrove snapper, numerous grouper, and some ballbat spanish macks. A couple of bonito crashed the party as well and a lone straggler king was hooked and lost on too light tackle.

In North Sarasota Bay there was some decent trout coming in up to 23 inches and a few reds of the same size.

At week's end, the Gulf kicked up quite a bit and kept us inside for the entire trip. While we managed a backwater slam of snook, trout and redfish, the action was really sporadic and extremely hard to get a sustained bite going anywhere. At one spot we had snook and reds, big ones too, blasting our chummed baits but with the exception of a couple of snook the fish were reluctant to take our hooked baits.

The early onset of the rainy season has moderated the water temperatures some. It was right around 78 to 80 degrees in most areas on Friday and the water quality appeared pretty good in spite of some heavy runoff in many areas of the county.

Good luck and good fishing. Be careful out there!

Capt. "Zach" Zacharias

(941) 795-5026

E-mail: zachap@aol.com

Docked on Palma Sola Bay at Parrot Cove Marina/Sunny Shores

115th Street West and 36th Avenue, Cortez, FL 34215