Amazing Day of “Exploration Fishing”: Anclote Key Fishing Report [VIDEO]

It’s exploration time! (Just wait until you see the two crazy things that happened on this trip)

Inshore fishing has been a passion of mine for many years.

And who in the heck doesn’t like exploring new places!

Living in Florida makes those two passions something that can be enjoyed in a multitude of different regions and environments.

Because not only do the two coasts of Florida offer very different types of fisheries, but the north vs. south expansion offers many differences as well.

But although the various fisheries can be completely different in so many ways, the core strategies and tactics we teach in our Inshore Slammer course for finding and catching redfish, trout, and snook work great regardless of region.

This allows for some incredibly fun days on the water exploring new territory because it is so incredibly rewarding to catch quality fish while in the process of exploring new territory.

An example of this fact can be seen from this exploration trip to Anclote Key that we went on when Joe and I had the pleasure of meeting and fishing with Chris Clark, who we got to know once he became an active Salt Strong member.

As you will see below, not only did we catch a bunch of inshore fish (redfish, trout, and snook), but we also got into some funny shenanigans…

Because this exploration trip was just a half day out on the water in an area that none of us had ever been to before, yet we were able to find and catch a lot of solid fish (redfish, trout, and snook).

Here is a look at where we were.

Anclote Key Fishing Report

Anclote Key has been on my radar of fisheries to explore for many years because I’ve seen it from the sky so many times while examining the inshore waterways from window seats commercial flights out of Tampa.

While going just north of Tarpon Springs, one cannot help but to see a pristine looking island in the Gulf with green seagrass surrounding its east bank and beautify white sandy beach on its west side along the Gulf.

And when Chris Clark won a GoPro from our Strong Angler Challenge tournament, we had the pleasure were able to hand-deliver the big prize to him while even getting some fishing in together.

Highlights From The Anclote Fishing Trip

Our day of Fishing Anclote Key began with having the pleasure of meeting Chris at the Anclote River Park ramp at 7:30 in the morning on April 30th.

Side note: When we pulled up, we quickly realized that all three of us were wearing Salt Strong hoodies… the three amigos!

Trip Highlights

• Weather: ended up being very nice with low winds and in the 70s
• Tides: the tide for the Anclote River showed a good outgoing current from the time we started until noon, which is was our planned time to be back at the ramp.
• Species Caught: the catching started off fast… Chris caught a nice seatrout in the first 10 minutes of fishing which then kicked off many more trout, some redfish, and a snook (along with many great shots at sight fishing nice redfish and snook up in clear shallow water)
• Unique Experience #1: while I was fighting a redfish, Joe set his rod down to film leaving his lure just a short way off in the water… and while I was releasing the redfish, his entire rod/reel got yanked out of the boat flying into the water. Fortunately, it was recovered and the culprit was caught (all on film in the video below)
  
• Unique Experience #2: at one point we got out of the boat for a quick hike on Anclote Key to see if any snook were in the surf along the beach, and on the way back I tried a shortcut which resulted in my getting stuck in knee+ deep muck which almost claimed my beloved flip-flops (literally had to dig them out… see video below)
  

Video Report From Our Trip

The video below shows an overview of our trip including:

• Our top catches (redfish, trout, and snook)
• Heartbreaking sight-fishing fails
• Rod/reel recovered from the water (with a fish on it)
• Hiking adventure gone bad
• Aerial overview of the area we fished

Click on the video image below to watch the report from our Anclote Key fishing trip:

Note: The fish tactics used to find and catch these redfish, snook, and trout (including the most effective rods/reels/knots/rigging methods are all explained in our Inshore Slammer online course.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the ultimate day of fishing is going to a brand new area to find and catch the targeted fish I’m going after.

So this exploration trip certainly was a thrill for me.

Best of all, this trip was even more special given that we experienced the fun with our new friend Chris, who turned out to be a great guy and a heck of an angler.

And it was also great because the trip started off by simply looking out the window of a Delta airline and wondering what sort of fish were around that beautiful island (which happened to be Anclote Key).

But most of all, this day on the water was another great reminder of how fortunate I am to live in Florida which has so much amazing coastline to explore.

So if you’re fortunate enough to live here too (or to be able to visit on vacation), then be sure to get out and explore a new coastline too because there’s plenty of fun to be had out there.

P.S. – Please share this with any of your fishing friends who also love inshore fishing in Florida.

Note: If you ever find yourself worried about not being able to catch redfish, snook, and/or trout in new areas, then I highly recommend taking our online course called the Inshore Slammer because it shows the exact tactics and strategies I used to put us on the fish during the Anclote Key fishing trip.

And we’re so confident that you’ll be consistently catching inshore slams after completing the course that we offer a guarantee which simply states that you’ll be 100% thrilled about your investment.

Click here to learn more about our online course (be sure to check out the Customer Reviews).