Recent rain not putting a damper on fishing

Fishing around Anna Maria Island remains consistent as long as you don’t mind fishing in the rain.

Numerous “rain days” have enveloped our little island but that doesn’t seem to bother the fish. At least most of them.

Inshore fishing is proving to be good for spotted seatrout and catch-and-release snook. Also present in the back country are jack crevalle, ladyfish, Spanish mackerel and a few redfish.

Nearshore and offshore fishing remains good, at least on the calm, less days when the Gulf of Mexico is fishable. Spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper and cobia are being found on nearshore structure. Moving out deeper is yielding kingfish, permit and amberjack.

On my own trips with Southernaire, I’m concentrating on the backcountry. Catching spotted seatrout is providing good action for my clients and yields a few fish to put in the cooler for later if so desired.

A lot of the larger trout exceeding 20 inches have left the flats to spawn leaving many 12-to 18-inch fish to be caught. “Weeding” through the smaller ones is becoming more common, but I’m managing to put a couple limits in the box.

Mixed in with the trout bite are Spanish mackerel, ladyfish and jack crevalle which adds a little variety to the action. After trout fishing, I’m finding myself targeting catch-and-release snook. Numerous male fish, 20-26 inches, are present on the shallow flats of Tampa Bay south to Sarasota. Casting live, free-lined shiners in these areas is resulting in many hook ups. Some snook sessions are exceeding 30 fish to the boat. In some areas, the snook are swimming over the white sandy bottom, along the shoreline which is an excellent scenario to sight cast to them. Being able to see the fish is yielding larger catches up to 30 inches.