It’s a common metric for waterside cities — How’s the bar scene? Sarasota boasts one of the state’s most vibrant, but while there’s plenty of places to find a good mojito, margarita or caipirinha, we’re talking top-shelf sport fish species like redfish, speckled trout, and snook.
During a recent outing, Capt. Geoff Page bluntly stated: “Everything down here happens around bars.”
Clearly, the seasoned Sarasota guide’s not downplaying the area’s lush mangroves of popular spots such as Sister Keys, Buttonwood Harbor, or the stretch from Long Bar Point to Tidy Island; nor is he overlooking the vast acreage turtle grass and eel grass sprawling the bay. Oyster mounds? Bridges? Docks? Seawalls? Passes and beach points where snook spawn? Yes, to all.
Plenty to Offer
No doubt, Sarasota Bay has plenty to offer. If you want a habitat feature that attracts forage and predators, directs their movement and offers fishable potential throughout a tide cycle, sandbars are hard to beat. Fish where you’re comfortable, but if you’re new to the bay, find a bar. Between this high point structure and its deeper grass edges, you’ll lack not for opportunity…