Hey everyone, this is Captain Nate Costello, a local charter fishing guide servicing Anna Maria Island and surrounding areas. Today, I want to talk to you about one of my favorite fish to catch and also let you know how great the fishing has been for these beautiful fish known as red drum, also called redfish! Redfish are hard-fighting fish that are very plentiful on both the west and east coasts of Florida. They can also be caught in Louisiana, Texas, and the Carolinas. They are beautiful fish with a distinctive blue tail, which comes from consuming lots of shrimp and crabs. These fish can be caught year-round, and I’m going to discuss the different strategies that I use to catch them in the different seasons.
Summertime Redfishing:
On my Anna Maria Island fishing charters, summertime is one of my favorite times to fish for redfish. It’s usually the best time to catch really big “bull redfish” in the crystal-clear beach water. In recent years, I’ve tended to find the large schools of breeder-sized redfish closer to the passes, beaches, piers near the beach, and any kind of structure around the beaches. On the big outgoing high tides, we tend to catch giant bull redfish in the same areas where we would catch tarpon, and sometimes we catch the giant redfish while we are targeting tarpon. I don’t tend to look for the large schools of redfish on the grass flats as I do in the spring and fall. We still run into them and catch a bunch in the normal areas, but once the weather is beautiful, there are many boats on the water. I like to fish around areas that are less pressured, and we tend to do very well.
Fall Redfish Madness Around Anna Maria:
Fall is such a peaceful time to come down and book a charter fishing trip on Anna Maria Island! I often tell people that the fall months are the perfect time to come down and enjoy a vacation. The water is the perfect temperature for swimming, the beaches are empty and peaceful, and the redfish bite is absolutely insane! The redfish gather in huge schools in the spring and fall, and they will sometimes be in schools of 50, 100, 200-plus redfish swimming around looking to feed any chance they get. Fall has always been known as the best time to fish for redfish, as they can be found on almost every grass flat this time of year! Due to fewer people visiting our amazing island, the pressure on these fish is way down, and they tend to be less stressed out and easier to get going in a feeding frenzy!
Wintertime Redfishing:
Wintertime can be the hardest time of the year to catch big-sized redfish, and it can be extremely difficult to catch large numbers of redfish during the colder months. In the winter, we tend to fish docks, rocky reefs, shipwrecks, and any type of hard, rocky bottom areas where fish congregate. In the winter, we tend to use shrimp and fiddler crabs on a jig head or with a split shot to get the bait down to where the fish are. We tend to catch much smaller redfish during the colder months, but usually, they are in the bottom half of the slot and make for great table fare!
Springtime Redfish Galore:
We are now in the heart of the springtime busy season, and the fishing has been all that I thought it would be and more! There have been big schools of redfish on every shoreline, and we have been catching 10-50 redfish on all of my trips, with a big range of sizes from 17 inches to 35 inches. The redfishery looks to be in incredible shape, with tons of smaller fish around, which is always a good sign for the future of our fishery. The redfishing will continue to be outstanding for the next couple of months, and I would love to get you and your family out there! I have been using live greenbacks for bait and have been chumming extremely heavily to keep these fish fired up. Paying attention to the tides and the direction of the wind has been another key factor in determining where these redfish will be. This can be difficult to master, and that’s where a seasoned local fishing guide leading the way helps make your fishing adventure successful.
Thank you all for reading my blog, and I can’t wait to get you and your family out on an Anna Maria Island fishing charter that I promise you will never forget!
