Hubbard’s Marina Fishing Report 1/19/2018

Fishing report

Inshore– The weather this past week has been pretty brutal with only one or two days early in the week to allow for some comfortable weather. However, despite the cooler temps, wind and currents the sheepshead continue to be the headline news around Johns Pass inshore fishery. Along with the mullet pouring out of the pass of course. Red fish bite on the flats of the back bay is going well too, Dave Redman, from Seminole was fishing from a kayak he rented at Hubbard’s Marina and came back reporting multiple red fish were chewing around the back side of the northern island just inside Johns Pass. We suspect the oyster bar on the south east side of the island is where most were congregating.


Near shore
– We were only able to get out near shore fishing one time in the past 6 days! That was this past Tuesday when we had a brief window in between the two fronts to capitalize on the nice weather. Luckily the fish were ready to cooperate too! Didn’t get a ton of hogfish but got a handful on the all day and one on the half day. The grey snapper, lane snapper, porgies and seabass were chewing though. This time of year definitely seeing bigger and more frequent seabass which is a great bonus. These cold fronts don’t do much for the red grouper bite except for congregating them more on the potholes and hard bottom cracks. Hoping the coming spring is a mild one where the cold fronts break and the red grouper turn on like crazy!


Offshore
– Were leaving on an offshore adventure tomorrow at Hubbard’s Marina, finally! Besides the January 5th 44 hour and one extreme trip around that time we haven’t been offshore at all this year! The cold front weather pattern is killing us for sure as were wanting to get full advantage of the amberjack and trigger fish opening that occurred unexpectedly January first. Triggerfish are now closed, but amberjack remain open until January 27th at 12:01am. We’re looking forward to this weekend’s 39 hour deep sea fishing adventure with a light load. Hoping to capitalize on the amberjack opening, red grouper, scamp, kingfish, tuna, mangroves and yellowtail we had biting well on the 44 hour early January!
Want to read the past reports? Check out this link: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/hubbards-marina-fishing-reports/

 

Tampa Bay Ferry and Taxi news

 

Hubbard’s Marina Sea Adventures, Tampa bay ferry and taxi, and the Madeira beach water taxi are all now proudly power by Honda Marine! If you come visit us for a dolphin tour, sunset cruise, Egmont key island trip, snorkeling, shelling, water taxi ride or any type of ferry or pleasure cruise trip then you will be riding a boat powered by Honda Marine! These new motors look great, are super quiet and are great on fuel economy! It was tough to get four boats re-powered with new engines but it was well worth the change and were very happy! Hope you get a chance to see these brand new super cool engines at work on board one of our pleasure cruise and ferry boats! To learn more about Honda Marine engines for your boat, check out their website: https://marine.honda.com/ they have the best warranty in the industry right now, you get a full 5 years and you just can’t beat that!

 

We are also working to expand our water taxi further come spring 2018, we will be adding a route from Fort De Soto boat ramp to shell key and the sand bar in Bunces pass we have nicknamed Jeff’s island!

Great time to join the water taxi, and don’t forget you can bring you coolers and pets on the Madeira beach water taxi!

We have a brand new route for the Tampa bay Ferry! Check out the new route here: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/madeira-beach-water-taxi/

Madeira beach Water taxi is running Friday-Sunday 10am-10pm right now and now that the weather has cooled down it’s a great time to enjoy a relaxing boat ride around the bay!

There’s tons of stuff to do while catching a ride with the Madeira beach water taxi, check out all the things to do: http://www.tampabayferry.com/things-to-do/

 

 

 

Captain Jack’s dolphin corner

 

Special time of year for sunset cruise because were able to visit bird nesting island before sunset when the seabirds are showing back up to the island. It’s great to get a chance to see all the seabirds in a large group on the island.

The four local Baby dolphins are doing well and growing up fast. Even baby tig born June 3rd and bitten by a shark June 4th is all healed and happy growing up fast!

Right now were finding large groups of dolphins grouped up chasing big schools of mullet up to the local seawalls. The smart dolphins use the seawall to keep the mullet the tightly grouped up so they can pick off fat mullet easily. This is an awesome opportunity to see groups of dolphins actively feeding.

Lately our local dolphin population has been very active and playful with plenty acrobatic displays completely out of the water. It’s a great time to get out and enjoy a dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour or a ride on the Madeira Beach water taxi!

This time of year the mating plumage is starting to show up on the local seabirds. This makes the views around the bird nesting islands even more unique and enjoyable.

Hubbard’s Marina Sea Adventures, Tampa bay ferry and taxi, and the Madeira beach water taxi are all now proudly power by Honda Marine! If you come visit us for a dolphin tour, sunset cruise, Egmont key island trip, snorkeling, shelling, water taxi ride or any type of ferry or pleasure cruise trip then you will be riding a boat powered by Honda Marine! These new motors look great, are super quiet and are great on fuel economy! It was tough to get four boats re-powered with new engines but it was well worth the change and were very happy! Hope you get a chance to see these brand new super cool engines at work on board one of our pleasure cruise and ferry boats! To learn more about Honda Marine engines for your boat, check out their website: https://marine.honda.com/ They have the best warranty in the industry right now, you get a full 5 years and you just can’t beat that!

 

Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina

 

Want to win a FREE 10 hour all day or FREE 5 hour half day at Hubbard’s Marina? Join Captain Dylan Hubbard (https://www.facebook.com/CaptainDylanHubbard/) for a great seminar at Bass Pro Shops Tampa TODAY Saturday January 20th at 2pm! For more information, check out the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2033606443521616/

Amberjack are open January 1-January 27th at 12:01am meaning January 26th is the last day to get them. Amberjack should re-open May, August, September and October. If you want to get these guys while they are open in January, we have a few 12 hour extreme trips left before they close. These extreme trips run Sunday and Wednesdays.

2018 specialty trip schedule is now LIVE on the Hubbard’s Marina website! To see all the 12, 39, 44 and 63 hour trips for the next year check it out here: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/specialty-fishing-trip-schedule/

We have changed around a lot of stuff on our website, you should check out the added material on our FAQs page to further explain bait options, best spots on the boat, rod rental options and lots more helpful information to hopefully help first time anglers with us have a more quality experience. To see the changes, check out the FAQs: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/faqs/

Gag grouper also open up June first and remain open until the end of 2017 so get ready for some big grouper fishing action with us at Hubbard’s Marina.

 

Regular’s club

 

PLEASE sign up for the 2018 clubs or renew your 2017 membership ASAP, we are doing our end of year cleaning of the club and your membership will be changed to inactive if you don’t renew soon!

Don’t let your membership laps and loose seniority, call us today and get set up for the 2018 regular’s club membership!

Remember, this is a loyalty program not a discount program so you got to go fishing often to make it worth it for yourself.

Captains Mark and Dylan Hubbard

Vice president and Regular’s club manager Hubbard’s Marina
(727)393-1947 ext 306

CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com

 

Hubbard’s Marina Preferred Partner Showcase:

 

The Bilmar beach resort on Treasure Island has a brand new look for 2018! If you haven’t seen their new look they have done huge renovations to the outside and inside of their beautiful beachfront hotel. Their new rooms are gorgeous and very modern looking. Plus, they have a whole new look and feel for the brand new year. If you haven’t already, you have to look into staying at the beautiful Bilmar beach resort just down the street from Hubbard’s Marina and Johns Pass and only around the corner from the Madeira Beach Water Taxi’s Treasure Island stop behind the Middle grounds grill! If you stay at the Bilmar it’s only a short walk to the water taxi and a relaxing boat ride throughout Madeira beach and into Johns Pass!