I'm thinking about taking my son down to the St Petersburg area of FL for some fishing over his spring break in mid March. I don't know a thing about fishing in Florida so any info on that area that time of year would be helpful
You are in for a treat. I went to college there, and the fishing is pretty spectacular. All grass flats inshore - the tierra verde area is fantastic, all around Fort DeSoto is good. Plenty of piers to fish from if you are into that, including the old skyway bridge section where the old bridge was knocked down (sad story). Find any access and wade out (shuffle your feet - there are stingrays around). Popping cork, shrimp, or even just artificials. It's a great fishery. If you can afford a guide the first day you get down there, it will open up a lot of opportunity the rest of the trip. The dock lights after dark are RIDICULOUS.
We went there last year and hired a guide. It was the best fishing of my life. In fact it’s kind of spoiled regular fishing around the house for my kids now.
It was my wife, son, daughter, and I and our guide put us on a spot where we were reeling them in faster than he could take them off and re bait the hook. We ended up landing 57 trout. I’m not sure how many salt water catfish we reeled in but we were throwing all of them back.
i fished on an open party boat out of Destin in May 2023; got lots of vermillion snapper (beeliners); as it was in May the red snapper i caught (legal size) got tossed back
took wife (whoz fished much on these types of boats) and 2 boys (first time); great fun was had by all, plus a big bag of fillets
Clearwater also has some nice party boats; best thing about these trips is they're very affordable and the longer duration trips (8-12 hrs) go to different areas where you have a better chance of bigger fish.
i've also fished in Key West; really want to go back & spend a few days fishing from the old bridges between Marathon & KW.
check the sportfishing calendar; red snapper season is one of the best times to go; i use the solnuar calendar to pick days (when it works with the schedule)
i fished for years out of Pt Loma in LowCal and last few years here on the Tx Gulf coast; Florida is a different fishing style than both those (although not alot different from Tx) so research & posting on forums like this is definetly a good way to plan ur trip- tight lines
ETA: if u win the lottery or get some $$$$ to do bucket list stuff, tuna fishing from San Diego in the fall is wild