A wide variety of tasty fish can also be caught this way. Sarasota is blessed with miles of shallow, pristine grass flats. In the very shallow water, you can sight cast to tailing redfish and snook cruising the mangrove shorelines. This is a game for the patient angler, silently stalking your quarry. On the deeper flats, from 2 to 6 feet deep, action and variety is the rule.
Speckled trout are the mainstay.
They are abundant and usually cooperative. But you will encounter many other species including ladyfish, jack crevalle, pompano, spanish mackerel, bluefish, cobia, flounder, snapper, and even an occasional tarpon. Fishing near structures such as bridges, docks, and passes will produce sheephead and grouper in addition to other species. So much variety makes fishing the flats a unique and enjoyable angling experience. Schools of bonito, mackerel, jacks and ladyfish can be seen ravaging enormous schools of bait fish.