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.

Anna Maria Island Fishing Report – June, 2017

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide
Captain Aaron Lowman – June, 2017
Tarpon, Flounder, Grouper
 
—Summer time fishing around Anna Maria Island is in full effect, and migrating tarpon are being caught inside Tampa Bay, and adjacent Egmont Key. I’m seeing best results using live crabs and threadfin herring.

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

Anna Maria Island Tarpon Fishing – May 21, 2016

Anna Maria Island Tarpon Fishing
Captain Aaron Lowman – May 21, 2016
Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, Anna Maria Island Waters

 
—Tarpon fishing is in full swing now, and multi-fish days are not uncommon. Yesterday, my clients and I witnessed a huge hammerhead shark attack one of our tarpon in shallow water. See this amazing footage below.
 

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide – May 14, 2016

Anna Maria Island Fishing Guide
Captain Aaron Lowman – May 14, 2016
Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, Anna Maria Island Waters
Tarpon, Kingfish, Snapper, Grouper

 
—It’s that time of year again. Tarpon are beginning to make a good show here in the bay, and on the beaches. Sight fishing with live bait is definitely the most exciting way to fish for these giants, although chunking with dead bait can produce days with double digit hookups. The tarpon bite seems to fade during the high sun hours around mid day, allowing for some great snapper, grouper, mackeral, and kingfish action on some of the nearshore reefs.