Anna Maria Island Fishing Report
Reef, Bay and Backwater morning
Captain Aaron Lowman – Fishing Report – October 25, 2015
www.AnnaMariaFishingGuide.com
Cell: 941-465-8932
Island Discount Tackle Charter Desk: (941) 779-2838
www.KeyesMarina.com
One of the great things to report about October fishing around Anna Maria Island, Tampa Bay and Longboat Key is the diversity of species that we can catch on any given day.
—Reef Fishing. As an example, one day last week we started our day at one of the near shore reefs west of Anna Maria. After anchoring, I hung a chum bag in the water and started chumming with some live pilchards. Very quickly snapper rose to investigate to chum and behind the boat, spanish mackerel were ripping the chummed shiners. We caught mackerel after mackerel for the next half hour and then caught a big barracuda that had been lurking nearby.
—Tampa Bay rockpile fishing. Our next move was into Tampa Bay to see if some of the rock piles held any gag grouper. Fishing in only 20 feet of water is an exciting way to fish for grouper. It’s the battle of the first 3 feet. If you can get a gag out of the rocks, you will have a chance to land it. We were fishing with heavy spinning tackle and using 120 pound test leader to help with the abrasion resistance. We got slammed on our very first bait and landed a beautiful gag grouper.
—Backwater snook fishing. The tide was high and falling so I finished off the morning by heading south to fish for snook near Longboat Key. I poled our boat close to some deep potholes near a mangrove shoreline east of Sister Keys and starting chumming with live shiners. “Pop, Pop, Woosh”. Snook were everywhere and they were tearing-up the shiners. We had a ball catching and releasing a lot of snook before heading back to the dock.
Tampa Bay gag
Anna Maria Reefs
Backwater snook