Snook and Redfish Keep the Sarasota Bite Alive Into Fall

What's biting

What's next

Grassett's October outlook for the same waters calls for snook to keep sliding off the passes and along the beach toward inside wintering areas over the next few weeks, staging around docks, bridges, and shallow flats as the shift continues. That makes bridge and dock structure the higher-percentage target through early October.

Tide is falling toward evening lows this week, with low water at 7:04 PM at St. Petersburg and 4:23 PM at Clearwater Beach; the last two hours of that outgoing push should concentrate bait and predators around passes and bridge pilings, a pattern Sport Fishing Mag notes typically holds on a dropping tide. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase heading toward full, so expect wider tidal swings building into the weekend, a good window to work the last of the falling water for snook and redfish.

Tarpon action should keep tapering as more fish push out of the coastal Gulf, though stragglers should still show around bridges and deep grass flats per Grassett's report.

Context

This tracks a typical late-September transition for Tampa Bay and Sarasota: the summer tarpon push is winding down while snook and redfish carry the inshore bite into fall, right on the seasonal schedule described in CB's Saltwater Outfitters' monthly forecasts. Snook harvest regulations vary seasonally on the Gulf coast, so check current FWC rules before keeping fish. Water in the upper 80s is still a warm-season number for this point in the year, consistent with the extended South Florida wet season rather than any early cool-down.