Anna Maria Island Fishing Report-July 2018

—The bite was hot the entire month of July in the waters around Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. Fishing action was the typical “heat of the summer” fishing frenzy, both inshore and near shore.

Tampa Bay Grouper Fishing In November

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide
Captain Aaron Lowman – November, 2017
Grouper, Gag Grouper, Troll For Grouper

—As the first few real cold snaps start to push through Tampa Bay during November and December, one of my favorite fish, gag grouper, begin to move into shallow waters. Gag grouper season is now, inside Tampa Bay and in the channels surrounding Anna Maria Island.  These delicious, and heavy-hitting brawlers stay relatively deep most of the year. As the water temps start to drop below 70°, the large, legal-sized gags move into Tampa Bay, as shallow as 6′.

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.

Anna Maria Island Spring Fishing

Anna Maria Island Charter Fishing
Captain Aaron Lowman – March 25, 2017
Redfish, Snook, Trout

-We have experienced some heavy weather extremes here in Cortez, Florida this week. A late season cold front brought brutal wind and dropped water temps about 10° overnight!
-Despite all that, my clients pounded out a steady bag of seatrout, snook and redfish inshore in and around Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay.

Tarpon Fishing Anna Maria Island- June 30, 2016

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide
Captain Aaron Lowman – June 30, 2016
Anna Maria Island tarpon and snapper

— There are still plenty of tarpon around Anna Maria Island and Tampa Bay.  Over the last few weeks, we have had a lot of fun boating and releasing some really big fish that were caught from the pods that are moving along the beaches of Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. Early morning and late day trips have been producing the most action on these beach fish. They are easier to see when the sun is not directly overhead. ( And it’s not so darned hot!} Crabs have been the best bait for these fish. Fishing in the passes from Egmont Key south through Longboat is also still productive. I’ve been using mainly threadfins as bait for pass fishing.

— Near shore and inshore reefs and wrecks are producing some really big mangrove snapper right now. This reef fishing is also steadily producing gag grouper, BIG flounder, spanish mackerel, blacktip sharks, and cobia. I use live shiners or threadfins on a knocker rig for snapper and grouper and a free-lined shiner rigged with a small piece of light wire leader for the macks and sharks.

— I expect the bite to be even better with the upcoming new moon this week.

Big Tarpon

Snapper on the reefs