Anna Maria Island Fishing – October, 2017

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide
Captain Aaron Lowman – October, 2017
Snook, Trout, Redfish, Grouper

—We have experienced a very warm, and windy, couple of weeks here on Anma Maria Island. Despite the conditions, i am finding a good inshore and nearshore bite in Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay.

—Inshore, snook fishing has been the highlight. There are groups of the large summer spawning fish pushing back in to the bays, and they have been hungry. Moving tides have been the key. The stronger the tide, the more aggressively these fish feed. Live whitebait has been best bait. I catch the whitebait on the beach this time of year just before sun-up. Having plenty in my custom live well on board, affords me the opportunity to use plenty of live chum to get the snook fired up, even during periods of slower tidal movement.
—Seatrout have really started making a show as the water temps cool ever so slightly.
This is one of the best times of the year to experience nonstop seatrout action.
Some of my groups are catching up to 50 trout a trip, some to 20″, the majority are still 14″ – 16″.
—Redfish are still around on the flats and around residential docks. They have spread out quite a bit, compared to the past couple months. With the dirty water, it’s been a little tougher to get on them visually, but chumming in likely areas has been helping me dial in on them.
—Nearshore, spanish mackeral and mangrove snapper have rounded out the week around structure such as rocks and wrecks. A few lucky clients have even managed to wrestle a few keeper gag grouper out of these areas. Look for this type of nearshore structure fishing to really turn on as temperatures continue to dip.