May 19, 2002<br><br>Sarasota Fla. Fishing Report<br><br>By Capt. Bob Smith<br><br>Although tarpon fishing had been fairly good, the wind direction and weather conditions since Friday has made it difficult at best. The wind direction is expected to swing back to the NE on Monday and that should get us back on track.<br><br>Permits are starting to show up offshore on the (M) reefs. You will need to take some small crabs or large live shrimp along if you want to fish for them. Gray snapper are also being caught bottom fishing in the 40' to 60' depths. Snapper will eat most any thing, but they prefer live shrimp or pilchards (whitebait) and also small tipped jigs bounced on the bottom. Remember to fish as light as you can for snapper. This is the key for more and larger snapper.<br><br>Seatrout have been plentiful but mostly small on the grass flats (Stevens Point). Larger trout are being caught in better numbers both North and South of the bay. Spanish mackerel, bluefish, jacks and ladyfish are filling in the action on most of the bay. Redfish and snook are being caught around the docks but are spotty and mostly singles.<br><br>Enjoy and Protect<br><br>http://www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com<br><br><br>

Hello Folks,<br><br>My name is Brad Goodyear, East Coast Rep for LuckyLures Ltd. we manufacture lures on Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada. Our lures have been around these parts for over 25 years and have helped fishermen enjoy trophy salmon for many years. Our most popular lure is the Needlefish/minnow 2.5 oz or 4oz versions. My offer today is to ask for a few folks interested in trying our lures in your own local environment and all i ask is for a report email on your luck. I will personally ship you a few luckylures to try at no cost at all to you for shipping or purchase. just email me at ib4s@shaw.ca and include mailing details and include a small description of how you would use our lures. I appreciate everybody's assistance and as a note only approx first 100 folks will receive this offer so please email soon. <br><br>

As many planters as you can reel in. <br>Trolled spinners, cast spoons. <br>Insane amount of people. <br><br>UNICORN CATCHER F.L.P.

I am currently getting a bait tank putt on my boat, I just bought two trolling rods & reels (penn 113HLW), a casting rod with a Shirmano Baitrunner and an assortment of light and dark feather and some jigs. I want to fish for yellow tail off the Coronado Islands (San Diego).<br><br>That having been said I have no Idea how far out to set feathers, how fast to troll, what condition to change from feathers to jigs, how deep to troll, how to find the general coordinates where the fish have been hitting, and much much more.<br><br>I have always been out on charters where the crew takes care of those detail and you just basically bring in the fish.<br><br>It time to learn how to really fish!!!! Any tips to minimize the learning curve?<br><br><br><br>

I am currently getting a bait tank putt on my boat, I just bought two trolling rods & reels (penn 113HLW), a casting rod with a Shirmano Baitrunner and an assortment of light and dark feather and some jigs. I want to fish for yellow tail off the Coronado Islands (San Diego).<br><br>That having been said I have no Idea how far out to set feathers, how fast to troll, what condition to change from feathers to jigs, how deep to troll, how to find the general coordinates where the fish have been hitting, and much much more.<br><br>I have always been out on charters where the crew takes care of those detail and you just basically bring in the fish.<br><br>It time to learn how to really fish!!!! Any tips to minimize the learning curve?<br><br>

AGAIN! Well, same old story, bass and trout. Took dad with me this time, he really enjoyed it. I am done with mantua for the weekend. I will probably hit lost creek saturday and willard sunday. If you are looking for some good fun, go on up to mantua and fish the flat for trout, and when you get tired of that go catch some largemouth. My dad actually caught a largemouth off the flat today. First time I ever saw or even heard of that but oh well. <br><br>UNICORN CATCHER F.L.P.

Once again it is time to get caught up with the fishing reports over the past few days. In general, the conditions offshore have been less than ideal. The blue water has been out as far as 800 feet on some days. Dolphin fishing has been generally on the slow side. The bright spot about offshore is that in the late afternoon there have been some good fishing moving through the area. Inshore, the tarpon fishing has been excellent in the evenings. The fish have been feeding on crabs and the bite has been starting about the last hour before sunset till on after dark. There have been some real bruisers readily feeding. Here are the day by day report.<br><br>May 14<br>Tarpon fishing was hot. That is for all the other boats that were down there at Government Cut this evening except for me. We have a saying that everyone takes their turn in the barrel. Tonight was my night. It wasn't until 10:30 pm that we finally got our first strike. The fish made two jumps and not one of the rods I had out responded. We finally figured out which one it was and we were off to the races. The fish raced straight to the Cut and that is where the majority of the battle took place. We were happy to catch the one fish and when it was released, we headed home to Spinnaker Marina.<br><br>May 15<br>My first day fishing offshore in about a week. After last night's session with the lack of tarpon bites, I was hoping that today would not be a continuation. We ran offshore and trolled around looking for signs of dolphin. We passed by a couple of Styrofoam balls with rope attached to them and picked up an 8 pound bull. And that was it till the last hour of the day. Back inshore to 110' south of the Sea Buoy, a frigate bird was working the surface. With high hopes of some action, the outrigger line popped and we caught a 10# barracuda. Well!! It was a start. A blue runner was fired back out and immediately we were hooked to a sailfish. It made three grey hounding leaps and was streaking away from us when the line went slack. A broken leader wire was the culprit. A quick run back to when the hawks were and once again the blue runner got hit almost immediately. This time it was a large dolphin. As we got the fish about half way to the boat, the dolphin spit the bait out. What in the world is going on?? Chasing the hawks again and trolling dolphin seniors got us hooked up in no time. Other fish followed the hooked one in and we hooked up another large fish. The rod from the first fish was put in a rod holder and we were concentrating on the large fish. The rod holder fish made a jump and threw the hook. ANOTHER MISSED FISH!!! OK let's get the big on. Everything was going fine until it bit through the 50# leader and released itself. Must be that I'm still in the barrel!! As quick as the action started, it came to an end and that's the way we finished our day.<br><br>May 16<br>Our first bait was put in the water at noon. The highlight of the next 4 hours was a remora. Running offshore again, we watched as a free jumping dolphin was getting out of Dodge. That fish made a dozen leaps and did the 300 yard dash in about 10 seconds. Something big must be in the area. Another 30 minutes of trolling produced nothing. Working our way back north, we found a large group of birds working over busting tuna. We hooked three skipjack tuna and the barrel time was over. We turned to the west to start in and before we went a 1/4 mile, I watched a good sized fish grab the dolphin senior on the center flatline. It showed its self in a matter of seconds. A white marlin of about 70 pounds. We were almost spooled twice, and survived a possible cut off from a freighter that passed within 100 feet of us as the fish was moving offshore. We released the fish and were late getting back in, however, Bill didn't mind being late to his dinner engagement.<br><br>May 17<br>Catching bait today was very easy. Sometimes that's an indication that the fishing offshore might be slow. One our first drift, we missed a kingfish on the downrigger. Next it was a double header bonito. Then a king cut off the hook on a straight mono leader. Then the action went dead. Several moves with no action, so it was time for a trip offshore. Once again we found the tuna action. Today we hooked one and lost it when it shot its head. After chasing the fish to Hallandale, we called it quits and came back inshore. The downrigger produced a spanish mackerel and moving back to the Haulover Inlet area, we caught a 12# kingfish to finish our day.<br><br>Captain Dave Kostyo<br>Knot Nancy Fishing Charters<br>305 620-5896 Charter<br>305 732-2628 Beeper<br>www.rnfl.com/knotnancy<br>nkostyo@bellsouth.net<br><br>

LOUISIANA FISHING EXPEDITIONS: Hopedale Report<br><br>Mule Trout alert!<br><br>The time is now as I just made one stop today and the big bite was on. It was either a bull red on their light tackle line or a big fat mule trout. <br><br>Rusty, Rob and Taylor had their hands full and arms cramping all morning long catching big reds and mule trout. The biggest trout went 5.5 pounds and the biggest bull was 36 pounds. After the one stop shopping spree we headed in early to beat the heat. I never got a count on the fish but it was a good box of fish. <br><br>Taylor had the hot hand with the redfish as he was hooking one after another and not missing one fish. He is only 12 years old and has made numerous trips with me and he sure is turning into one heck of a good fisherman. <br><br>I have openings still in June so book your trip early so you do not get left at the dock.<br><br>(Local) 985-893-0180<br>(Toll Free) 1-877-271-2059<br>(Pager) 985-871-3124<br><br><br>

The striper fishing to say the least has been tough this last week. Constant wind shifts and storm fronts make it difficult to stay on the fish. We have however been still catching a few 4 to 7 lbs. stripers with an 18 lber. as the largest so far this week. I have been fishing the Lucas park and Minooka area with live shad, fished between 5 and 30 feet. Good Luck <br><br>

Fished mantua today. Caught a few largemouth and a bunch of trout, to my surprise I caught a cutthroat. I usually only get rainbows. I am learning after five years of fishing mantua they have qiute a few species in there. Largemouth, smallmouth, bluegill, rainbow, cutthroat, and chub.<br><br>UNICORN CATCHER F.L.P.