The next three months of spring is some of the best fishing that Bradenton and Anna Maria Island has to offer. In between cold fronts guests aboard our charter fishing boat have had great fishing and weather conditions. Morning and afternoon have both been great times to book fishing charters lately as we get to the end of February and into March getting closer to the official first day of spring. Our main targets have been the spotted seatrout, redfish, and snook.

The inshore fishing on the grass flats and around docks in Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay has been about as good as it gets for early spring time. The fish are starting to come out of their winter haunts and they are hungry. On our fishing charters lately guests have been experiencing great action and it will only get better as the water gets warmer. The fish are willing to chase down a live pilchard with the warmer water as more and more bait shows up in bay and off the beaches. The spotted seatrout fishing has been great lately with a lot of quality sized seventeen-to-nineteen-inch fish around. They are on the shallow grassy areas throughout the bay in three-to-ten-feet of water. Do not spend too much time in an area if you do not get bites. Seatrout love the live pilchards and they are a very fun fish to target with an artificial lure that mimics a live pilchard or a live shrimp. Snook comes into season on March 1 and we are seeing more and more of these being landed as the water temperatures start to gradually warm to the high 60s and low 70s. there is a fair number of redfish around on the warmer days with higher tides that allow us to push up close to the mangroves to target them. We have been using live pilchards and live shrimp freelined to target the redfish. There has been snook and some larger over slot sized spotted seatrout mixed in with the redfish when we can get a high enough tide to get in close to the mangroves. In the Manatee River we have also been catching some nice sized jack crevalle on our fishing charters. These fish will give any angler a great fight on light tackle. Pound for pound they are one of the hardest fighting fish in the bay.

If you are looking for a fishing charter in the Bradenton or Anna Maria Island area, give me a call or text 813-220-8725. I am an owner/operator fishing charter service that is very family friendly. We fish with live bait that is caught fresh before we pick up our fishing charter for the day. Primarily fishing Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, and the Manatee River.