Winter weather brings winter species

With another cold front passing over our area, Anna Maria Island anglers are targeting a variety of wintertime species. 

On calmer days as many anglers are venturing into the Gulf of Mexico to bottom fish around the reefs, wrecks and ledges. In these areas of wide variety of species are available to be caught including mangrove snapper, sheepshead, Key West grunts, porgies, and hogfish. What is most appealing — all of these species are fantastic ingredients for a fish fry. Plus the use of live shrimp as bait is most effective, which makes bait easily attainable for all anglers as live shrimp can be purchased at any bait shop. 

There’s no need to get up early to go out and throw the cast net to catch shiners and pinfish, which opens the door of simplicity to all. 

Moving inshore live shrimp are working as bait. Species such as redfish, black, drum, sheepshead, and pompano are susceptible to live shrimp offerings, especially in the winter months. 

Fishing around inshore docks, wrecks, bridges and rock piles can be effective when targeting these inshore species as they tend to gather around structure. 

Jig fishing is also effective over open water, when deeper grass flats exist. In these areas, the pompano would be targeted catch, but anglers can expect to encounter spotted seatrout, ladyfish, bluefish, and jack crevalle in these areas — adding a nice variety to the bite. Be prepared to find more of these fish than the pomps as pompano can be quite elusive. Once they are found, the pompano are quite aggressive although locating them can require some long hours on the water.

Lastly, don’t forget that flounder are back on the roster after a brief closure. As of Dec. 1, anglers are able to keep these sought after fish, as long as they are a minimum length of 14 inches. The daily bag limit is five per person although limits are hard to find, as flounder have been scarce due to recent red tide blooms in the past few years. 

On my Just Reel charters, I’m finding a respectable number of redfish in the back country. Fishing rocks and docks is proving to be most effective. Mixed in are black drum and sheepshead. 

Moving into the Gulf of Mexico fishing ledges is working well for a variety of fish, including mangrove snapper, sheepshead, porgies, Key West grunts, and an occasional hogfish.