Anna Maria Island Fishing Report – July, 2017

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide
Captain Aaron Lowman – July, 2017
Tarpon, Flounder, Grouper

—July fishing around Anna Maria Island has been almost as hot as the thermometer!
The huge influx of small “hatch bait” into Tampa and Sarasota Bay has the gamefish all fired up.

—My clients are consistently catching snook and redfish inshore, around the mangroves and residential docks on moving tides.
Flounder are a bonus “by-catch” here.
—Seatrout have been a steady bite – although, the vast majority this time of year are under the 15″ keeper size.
We are seeing real good numbers of juvenile trout on deep grassflats, channel edges and oyster beds this month.
The largest of the group seem to be up shallow.
—Fishing structure inside of Tampa Bay is producing catches of large spanish mackeral, mangrove snapper and a few legal gag grouper.
—I ran a few successful late afternoon – dark, tarpon trips early in the month.
Big outgoing tides, caused by either a full or new moon, flush tons of small pass crabs out of our local passes. The tarpon know what’s coming, and lie in ambush. This can be some of the most feverish tarpon action of the year! Its different every year, but I will expect that the vast majority of the migrating tarpon will leave our area on the last moon of July.