Last Updated on October 3, 2025 by Capt. Jason
January Fishing Report 2024: Tampa Bay’s High-Volume Winter Action
January has continued to be a phenomenal month for **fishing across Tampa Bay**, extending south to **Anna Maria Island, Bradenton, and St. Pete**. While the area has seen seasonally cooler temperatures, they have remained mild overall. This has created ideal fishing conditions, often leading to **glass-calm days** and giving us the unprecedented opportunity to explore and fish much larger areas than is typically possible during the heart of winter.
Perfect Conditions Bring Unprecedented Variety
The success this month has been exceptional, resulting in charters where we have landed **hundreds of fish** in a single trip. The fish are feeding aggressively, anticipating the colder weather that is surely heading our way. We are seeing a healthy mix of inshore species:
- **Trout** (Spotted Seatrout)
- **Snook**
- **Redfish**
- **Sheepshead**
- Bluefish
- Pompano
- Snapper
The winter action has been phenomenal, producing beautiful catches like this Jack Crevalle.
Live Bait Success: The “Every Cast” Bite
This past week, the fishing has truly escalated. During a recent **fishing charter**, we experienced a fish bite or strike literally **every single cast**. With just two clients aboard, we went through over **twenty dozen shrimp in just under four hours**—that level of aggressive feeding is truly incredible and reflects how actively the fish are congregating and feeding on **live bait**.
We have too many pictures to post, but here are a few highlights from recent trips demonstrating the intense action.
Double hookups are common when the bite is this hot!