The recent cold fronts have really fired up the fish from the backbays to miles out into the gulf. I have mainly been focusing on fishing just off the beach. There have been massive schools of bait which has attracted lots of spanish mackeral, kingfish, and bonita. There have also been sharks in the areas that are holding the mackerals. We have been catching some nice tripletail on the crab buoys as we run from spot to spot chasing the schools of mackerals. We caught one weighing close to 15 pounds the other day! The gag groupers have moved into shallow water areas and keeper fish are being caught trolling and with live bait.
As for the bay, large schools of jacks and ladyfish have moved into the bays and rivers to feed heavily on just about anything and provide for fun fast action fishing. The trout bite has been pretty good on the grass flats 3-5 ft but we have been weeding through lots of other fish to get them. Snook have been moving around feeding on the shallow flats outide the Manatee River and there is still some redfish around in the same areas we are finding the snook.
If you are looking to book a fishing charter in the Anna Maria Island, Bradenton, Sarasota area give me a call 813-220-8725.