Shark Week: Anna Maria Island Fishing Report

In honor of The Discovery Channel's "Shark Week", there was a lot of shark fishing done in the last week. As a client looking for a fishing charter, what can make your day more than getting pumped up watching shark week and then going out and catching an apex predator on your own!?

That was a the story of the week here on Anna Maria Island as most of our days consisted of hitting the water early in the AM in pursuit of lady

fish and mackerel which was an easy task drifting the flats while using hatch bait (baby shiners) under a popping cork on a size 6 hook (with 15 lb. leader), or by tossing silver spoons on the artificial side. Once our cooler was full of ladyfish and mackerel, we would venture from the flats out to the sandbars near deep passes in pursuit of shark.

Keep in mind, Tampa Bay is in the Top 3 Places in the world for shark infested waters, so even a slow day fishing near Anna Maria Island can provide a fair amount of action. **Remember: shark fishing is 0 to 100 fishing. There is a lot of patience and waiting involved, but it goes from 0 action to 100 in a split second and you can have multiple lines singing at once. Patience is always rewarded in shark fishing.**

While we tried our best and hooked two sharks on a fly rod, both managed to break free after making huge first runs, but on conventional tackle it was a different story as we hooked into double digit numbers while having a blast.

I prefer to use size 8/0 circle hooks for the smaller sharks (less than 7 feet) with about 7 feet of steel leader. Get the bait as far as you can from the boat as you can (within reason) and sit back and wait as it's only a matter of time before you get a hook up in the waters of Anna Maria Island.

Book your trip today and see what all of the excitement is really about!

**Note: we primarily practice catch and release with sharks and take handling them with care seriously as the health of our oceans depends on them.**