Weather is absolutely perfect here on Anna Maria Island right now, lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s. This has the fish firing pretty good since the water temperatures are hovering in the high 70s. Winds have been strong out of the east, this deadly combination has the nearshore fishing going absolutely bananas right now. We are catching every migrating fish that swims in the Gulf of Mexico at the moment. From Kingfish, Bonita, barracuda, Cobia, Triple Tail and a variety of sharks being caught along the beaches of Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key.
This week I had the pleasure of having Mary Jane and her 80 year old father Emilien out, First time fishing for both! The first thing Emilien said to me when he came aboard the boat was “I want a big fish” I was so excited when I heard this because the bite has been great and I just knew it was going to be an amazing trip. It couldn’t have played out any better, Our first fish over the gunnel was a 12-13 lb Bonita, and everyone was thrilled. We managed to boat 4 or 5 more Bonita, and some Spanish Mackerel to take home for dinner. But the most memorable moment was when Emilien had a big Bonita on and it was almost to the boat when about an 6 ft Bull Shark ate it on the surface of the water, Emilien was so excited, he looked at me and said ” did you see that shark! It ate that fish in half in one Bite!” We ended up reeling in the head of a pretty large Bonita, and put it back out on a bigger rod to see if the shark would come back to finish what he started. We did hook something with it but it broke us off about 45 seconds into the fight.
The Fall fishing has been some of the best I have seen in a while around Tampa And Sarasota Bay, as well as the nearshore reef fishing of the Gulf. If you are on Anna Maria Island in the next couple weeks and are thinking about doing a fishing charter, I would highly recommend it.
Tight lines, Capt. Wes Wildman
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