Spring is in the air

from Anna Maria Island Sun March 15, 2023

Sato Real Estate turns it around for championship

heard my first whippoorwill almost three weeks ago. It’s one of my favorite times of the year and one of the most productive for anglers who fish with fly, artificial lures or live bait. I like to think of this time of the year as spring training. March and early April can be challenging months, but they can also be very productive. It’s a time when the changing seasons can bring clear skies and balmy breezes one day and high winds and late season cold fronts the next. It’s a good time to keep an eye on the weather and water temperature. Water temperatures that hover in the 70s bring fish out of their winter haunts. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter one day and spring the next. Even if the weather is unpredictable, anglers know to start watching for the signs of spring. They’ll keep an eye on the Gulf, looking for flocks of diving seabirds as they feast on schools of baitfish that gather off the beaches in their seasonal migration. They know from experience that schools of little tunny, Spanish mackerel, cobia and kingfish will be attracted by and feeding around the schools of bait.

In the bay, trout, redfish and snook will be roaming the flats in search of pilchards, shrimp and glass minnows. Spring is the time when local anglers have a host of piscatorial choices and some of the best conditions, mostly. The weather, while always unpredictable during the changing seasons, seems to be warmer every year. Of course, it’s always possible that a late season cold front can rile Gulf and bay waters. It’s a swing time and the kind of weather that can play with the emo - tions of the die-hard angler. But hope springs eternal and we know from experience that it won’t be long before spring is here. That’s why it’s time to be prepared, flies tied and tackle ready for that day when it’s no longer a question of when it will happen, but what species we’ll fish for!