Calm winds, warmers temps leads to fishing opportunities in Gulf with Just Reel Fishing Charters

With a break in cold weather and windy days, Anna Maria Island anglers are seizing the moment by venturing into the Gulf of Mexico to try some bottom fishing around the nearshore reefs and ledges that exist within 10 miles of shore. 

Live shrimp are working best as bait as they are easily purchased at local bait shops and all species currently targeted are readily responding to them. 

Sheepshead — a species that only feeds on crustaceans — are one such fish that are regularly being caught now and should become more abundant in the next couple of weeks as they are trying to fatten up before their spawn. And since the sheepies tend to congregate around structure, locating them isn’t that hard as long as you have some coordinates for the local artificial reefs and wrecks. You can also find them around ledges and hardbottom areas along with a variety of other species such as Key West grunts, hogfish, snappers and groupers which by the way, will all take an offering of shrimp as bait if its put in front of them. 

For rigging, a variety of methods will work and they all have a common factor, using weight.

All of the mentioned species tend to hand around the bottom near the structure so some sort of weight is required.

Whether it’s a knocker rig —s imply consisting of an egg sinker and a hook — or a fish finder rig which includes the use of a swivel with the egg sinker to rest on  followed by a leader and a hook or the most basic rig a jig head – some form of weight must be used to get the bait down on the bottom where the fish are dwelling. 

I personally like to use a knocker rig, which consists of a 1/2-ounce egg sinker that rests directly on the eye of the circle hook. The weight of the sinker can vary, depending on depth and current, and in some instances the size of the hook, depending on what I’m targeting. Generally, a 2/0 circle hook works just fine, but in instances where either the shrimp are small or the fish are finicky, I will lower the size of the hook until I find what works best. A knocker rig is probably the cheapest way to rig, but that doesn’t take away from its effectiveness. 

Jig heads work well also although some are quite expensive nowadays and when bottom fishing around structure, you can expect to go through some terminal tackle due to the many snags that are present down there. And when you start losing a bunch of jig heads that cost more than a dollar apiece, it becomes frustrating hence why the knocker rig is my choice.

On my Just Reel charters, I’m finding good action throughout our local waters while targeting spotted seatrout.

Free-lining live shrimp or employing the use of a 1/8-ounce jig head and shrimp is leading to trout measuring 12-24 inches. Fishing along the beaches is proving to be good for species such as black drum, whiting and sheepshead as well as a few pompano. Lastly, fishing around structure in the Gulf of Mexico is yielding sheepshead and a few snapper.