It’s almost the season for my favorite time of the year to book an Anna Maria Island fishing charter! The countdown is on, and I’m getting my boat cleaned up and ready to battle with the fish. As I sit here, about to head out for my last fishing charter of January, there’s only one thing on my mind: that warm weather, gorgeous blue water, and the amazing fishing that I know will be here sooner than I think!
It looks like we’ve had our last cold front of the winter, and every day the weather will get warmer. The water temperature will rise, making the fish more eager to feed. It’s been a super cold winter here in Central West Florida, with water temperatures dropping as low as 48 degrees. That’s extremely cold for our area, and tropical fish like snook don’t like that cold water one bit! When it gets super cold, snook and many other species head far up the rivers and canals, sitting tight while waiting for the water to warm up. Sometimes, they won’t even eat or move for months!
What Makes Springtime So Good for Fishing on Anna Maria Island?
As I mentioned above, when the water gets super cold, the fish become very lethargic and won’t eat or move for months. They’re basically just trying to survive and wait out the cold until they regain enough energy to start feasting on baitfish. When the water warms up during February, March, April, and May, our inshore fish—like snook, redfish, and trout—flood onto the grass flats due to the influx of baitfish. They feed like mad, trying to make up for the last few months of scarce eating.
This makes it a fantastic time to book a fishing charter on Anna Maria Island because the fishing is incredibly productive. You can expect some 100-fish days during these months, absolutely crushing snook, redfish, and big trout!
Some Tactics for Inshore Fishing in the Springtime
The best thing you can do to ensure a great day of fishing in the spring is to load up on baitfish. That’s the absolute key to fishing our grass flats in the spring and is 100% necessary if you want to catch a ton of fish. If you’ve ever been on my boat, you know I like to have way more than enough bait and that I’m not afraid to chum heavily.
One thing I haven’t talked about yet is chumming, which is very important and an excellent way to locate fish. Chumming the grass flats means throwing a lot of bait around wherever you’re fishing to excite the fish and reveal where they’re holding.
Now, let’s talk about the type of tackle I use on my Anna Maria Island fishing charters. I like to use a medium-action 8-foot rod with a 5000-size reel. This rod-and-reel combo might be considered overkill by some, but I prefer it because it allows me to catch anything. These setups are perfect for pulling big snook and redfish out of the bushes while also handling Spanish mackerel, bonito, kingfish, permit, cobia, and all the other awesome species we love targeting in the spring. I’ll dive deeper into these amazing springtime fisheries in my next blog, so be sure to look out for that article!
The last key to ensuring my fishing charters are successful when fishing the grass flats is using a light fluorocarbon leader paired with a quality 1/0 or 2/0 circle hook. I prefer a 20-pound leader and always use a circle hook to catch fish in the corner of the mouth, reducing the risk of losing big fish.
Thank you all for reading my blog—I can’t wait to fish with you soon!
