Beat the crowds on the water — fish morning or evening for results

Despite the exaggerated volume of boats on the water for the holiday week, fishing around Anna Maria Island remains consistently good.

The key to fishing these crowded weekends or around the holiday is to fish early morning or late evening. Those fishing morning tides are reporting good action on Spanish mackerel and snapper around the artificial reefs and wrecks. There are also a few cobia being caught in these areas so it’s always good to have a heavy-action rod handy — just in case.

On the flats, spotted seatrout and catch-and-release snook action is proving to be worthwhile. Remember, fish early —especially if you’re going to target snook. As the morning wears on and boat traffic gets hectic, these fish will turn off and wait for a more tranquil atmosphere. As for the trout, deep grass flats where boat traffic is light are yielding good numbers of fish.

On my fishing charters, I’m targeting mangrove snapper. Fishing around the artificial reefs is providing decent action, although the large numbers of fish have not yet arrived. This being said, I’m having to chum heavily to get a bite going. Once the chumming starts I’m having numerous Spanish mackerel show up behind the boat. These are a welcome sight as they add a little variety to the snapper bite. Plus, they are great fish to catch on light tackle due to their drag-screaming runs and hard strikes.

After catching snapper and mackerel, I’m moving inshore to some of the deep grass areas in Tampa Bay to target spotted seatrout. Some of these spots are loaded with trout, although many are running short of keeper-size. It might take ten trout before you catch a keeper. But hey, when they bite on every cast it goes by quickly. Mixed in with the trout bite are mackerel, bluefish, jack crevalle and ladyfish.