Beach Fishing Report - June 26, 2010

[beachsnooker]

Went out with a buddy of mine and decided to fish one of my favorite local beaches on Manasota Key yesterday. I've been doing well on catch and release snook, large spotted seatrout, and nice flounder the last couple of months. Bait was everywhere along the beach but the storm from the previous night had really dirtied up the water which made sight fishing impossible so we had to blind cast to some areas I know hold good fish. We hit the beach before sunrise as we wanted to try and catch an over the slot sized snook which is always a possiblity along this particular beach. The strong incoming tide from the full moon definetly brought in some cooler water and I figured we'd have a shot for maybe a couple of hours of good fishing and then the bite would die off. The higher than normal waves made fishing very difficult especially when coupled with the dirty water but we still did pretty well catching and releasing, 8 snook and a nice spotted seatrout. I also hooked and lost a decent flounder and had a couple snook shake off my hook since I didn't have as sharp a hook on my lure as I normally do but hey, that's fishing. Our hot lure of the day was the DOA Near Clear Gold Glitter shrimp in the standard 1/4 oz or 3" size. I think the flash this color creates imitates the baitfish that are present in the water and also does very well if the surf is a little on the dirty side. When I got home, I made sure to change out the hooks in the shrimp to wider gap 3/0 Gamakatsu worm hooks as I don't lose fish with the larger hook gap and the sharper higher quality hooks. Here are a couple pics:

Me with an over the slot spotted seatrout


Me with a snook


My buddy, Bobby Harless with a snook


Try fishing your local beaches the next couple months and you may be surprised at what you might catch. I also had a buddy of mine call me after we were finished fishing and said that he and a couple other guys caught and released 10 snook and two bluefish (bluefish went about 4 lbs each) right from the beach in Venice. 4 lbs for a bluefish is pretty good for down here and especially for summer considering how hot the water is now.

Here are a couple other photos from previous beach fishing trips that show some quality fish that can be caught:









All fish in the photos were caught and released using artificial lures!

Tight Lines and Good Fishing,

Ken Taylor
West Marine Pro-Staff Angler

[Boatacious]

Very nice catch!

[stringle]

Great report and pics! Thanks for sharing that!