Hubbard's Fishing Report 1/13/2017 | Deep Sea Fishing Tampa FL Area

Fishing Report

Inshore- Pam Tondi, from Illinois, was fishing the end of the Hubbard’s Marina main dock this past week catching sheepshead often on pieces of shrimp and cut oysters. Plus, besides sheepshead small gag grouper and mangrove snapper were caught as well by Pam and her friends. Christian Piccion, from Reddington Beach, was fishing the beach behind Hubbard’s Marina this past week at night with a few buddies and they were nailing some big snook in the 30-35inch range using some Glad Snooker Jigs which are buck tail jigs that are popped along the bottom. The night bite seems the best time for snook especially when the water is moving that is when the big snook will ambushing bait being flushed out or sucked into the pass. The big black drum are still around, down at Don’s Dock they report huge drum being spotted under their docks and around the rocks at the east end of Johns Pass Boardwalk.

Near shore- The hogfish are and seem to continue to be the big news near shore. Since the gags are now closed hogs seem to be the focus of near shore anglers. The half day and all day are seeing more guys brining their spinning rods and light tackle to go after those great eating hogfish. The best thing this past week for the hogs was the half ounce pink Nekid ball jigz! We had the founder of Nekid ball jigz out fishing the half days this week at Hubbard’s Marina and he caught the largest and most hogs on the trip with that lure tipped with shrimp and once he handed a few out the boat caught more and more nice hogs! You can also catch them on a super light ½ ounce or ¾ ounce knocker rig set up with a 3-4ot hook and a super long 20-30lb floro leader. Grey snapper bite is steady as long as the weather is nice, behind that strong front this past Friday fishing was tough but by Tuesday fishing was picking up and by Wednesday it was hot again with tons of hogs, grey snapper, and big seabass being caught. The seabass seem to be more aggressive as water cools and bigger seabass can be caught more frequently you often see them caught on live shrimp as people target those yummy hogfish!

Offshore- This past weekend’s 39 hour trip was not for the faint of heart, we knew it was going to be bumpy on the way out and get downright nautical on the way home. However, we had 25 excited anglers that wanted to go fishing no matter what. Thankfully we have a super stable and safe platform and such experienced captains and crew they are ready for anything. Well we made it happen got out there before the weather turned to hurricane force and we tore up the big mangroves, red grouper, jacks, vermillion, porgies and more before the waves climbed over 12 foot. Once we saw the 12 foot waves and felt the gale force 35knt gusts we decided to head in a little early. However, the fishing was hot as the weather rolled in and we had a bunch of happy anglers that had full coolers. They knew they had a rough ride ahead and we warned we may have to leave early and we still caught fish but because guest service is our number one concern we still gave these brave souls a discount on their next trip since we cut the trip a little short due to weather. Check out our latest videos on Facebook as we have been doing video updates after each long range trip returns: https://www.facebook.com/hubbardsmarina/videos

Want to read the past reports? Check out this link: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/hubbards-marina-fishing-reports/

Tampa Bay Ferry and Taxi News

The weather is looking gorgeous this weekend, this will make the beaches more crowded and parking harder to find so skip the struggle and catch a ride on the Tampa Bay Ferry and Water taxi by Hubbard’s Marina. To see the schedule, map, and the stops with addresses check out this info on our website: http://www.tampabayferry.com/madeira-beach-taxi-route/

This weekend should be perfect for a relaxing water taxi ride with cool breezes and beautiful clearer waters and no humidity it’s a great time to relax and let us worry about your local transportation to Johns Pass, gators on the pass, middle grounds grill, the beautiful Madeira beach or Treasure Island!

If you’re more into night light, the tax is a great way to get to the local bars inside the pass or city centers of Treasure Island or Madeira beach!

Did you know that Tampa Bay Ferry and Taxi offers a private taxi service, if you’re having a dinner party and want our boat to come pick you and your guests off to take you to your favorite waterfront bar or restaurant simply contact us and we can set you up this private taxi service!

You can catch the ferry to many local restaurants, city centers, shopping areas, local beaches, and much more! It’s a great way to see the area and get to where you’re going without worrying about beach traffic or parking. To see all the special stops and the things to do at each stop visit this page on our new Tampa Bay Ferry and taxi website: http://www.tampabayferry.com/things-to-do/

Captain Jack’s Dolphin Corner

We are seeing huge groups of dolphin around Egmont key right now hunting large schools of mullet leaving Tampa Bay. Were even spotting some local Johns Pass dolphins visiting Egmont key area to join the monster dolphin pod! Lani our first mate has been doing dolphin tours in the area for nearly a quarter century and she said this was the largest group of dolphin she had ever seen!

Inside Johns Pass and Boca Ceiga bay were spotting large pods of dolphin doing the same hunting those mullet heading offshore, but the pods locally being spotted from the dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour boat seem more playful and not so focused on hunting the mullet like they are the training pod teaching the juvenile dolphins how to hunt and the big groups around Egmont are the seasoned hunters working in tandem to get tons of mullet.

Dog leg key, our local bird rookery, is chalk full of roosting seabird right now. It’s a great opportunity to spot lots of the local birds while cruising on the dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour inside Johns Pass with us at Hubbard’s Marina.

Not only are many local seabirds roosting at Dog Leg key we also see many of them starting to dawn their mating plumage around the island! This is a very unique and beautiful sight to see and again adds a great bonus to the dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour at Hubbard’s Marina inside Johns Pass this winter.

Oddly enough, we spotted some manatees this past week they were hanging in the shallower waters soaking up some sun rays. Normally this time of year we don’t see them as they head north for the springs for the winter season, but it’s great to spot some local manatees hanging in the area for the cooler months.

The weather has plenty of great shells washing up on our local beaches, join us for a ferry ride from Fort De Soto out to Egmont key for nice weather and great shelling opportunities.

The white pelicans are back in the area! The cold weather up north has brought down our winter time residents and we always enjoy spotting the large flocks of these beautiful white pelicans.

Want to learn more about dolphins this winter? Check out the new great dolphin facts series on our Hubbard’s Marina YouTube channel to check out to see them all watch our dolphin playlist here: https://goo.gl/2mYjX2

Did you know that Hubbard’s Marina now offers a Paddleboard fitness class? We are working with Sea Strength to put together these unique classes. They are Saturday and Sunday mornings for now at the Johns Pass sandbar. You can meet your trainer at the Hubbard’s Marina beach behind our shop before paddling to the sandbar for a unique fitness class with your knowledgeable instructor, plus it’s only $20 to join! Check out Sea Strength on Instagram or Facebook to learn more about these unique classes! Here’s the link to their page: https://www.facebook.com/SeaStrength

Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina

Well were already hearing rumors that Amberjack may be a short season this year, it could be as short as 4-5 months for 2017! If this is true jacks could close April or May, so if you want to go catch some jacks let’s get you offshore on a 39,44 hour 12 hour extreme here asap since jacks opened January first and we may not have very long to continue keeping them before NOAA’s National Marine fisheries gulf council decides to close them early. Remember, we don’t get much advanced notice of this so stay tuned to our email newsletters and social media for more updates.

We have 39 hour fishing trips coming up on January 20^th and February 3^rd both of these are Friday 39 hour overnight fishing trips. February third’s trip is definitely the lighter of the two trips. These 39 hours are tons of fun even with a decent load of people they are super enjoyable offering around 20 hours of fishing time and a two day bag limit! The boat is licensed for 120 people and we only allow up to 50 on our 39 hour trips.

Ready to learn more about offshore fishing? We have lots of seminars coming up! Saturday January 21^st at 1pm we have an offshore fishing seminar at the Tampa Bass Pro Shops in the fly fishing section of their shop. Also, February 11^th and 12^th we have noon seminars at the Florida Sportsman show at the lee county civic seminar on Hogfish. Plus, March 5^th Sunday we have a Tampa Bay fishing club meet and greet at Honeymoon island park where we will have a table set up doing demos on knot tying and talking fishing.

Ready for a specialty long range trip in 2017? Book your trip today as the schedule is filling fast! Check out the schedule at this link: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/specialty-fishing-trip-schedule/ this has all our 12, 39, 44, and 63 hour public trips from January first until December 31^st of 2017 and check out the descriptions to see what we hope the seasons will be. As the seasons are announced and finalized we will make schedule adjustments accordingly.

To book trips on our site, check out this link: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/reservations/

Want to stay up to date with the latest catches, reports and more from Hubbard’s Marina? Follow the new live video segments that Hubbard’s Marina is posting daily to Facebook! Also, more Instagram photos and videos are popping up too! Plus, were on the FishBrain app now too and they were nice enough to add Hubbard’s Marina as a fishing location so now on your future trips you can upload your catch to our location. If you have questions or want more info about all this message Dylan Hubbard on the Hubbard’s Marina Facebook page or shoot him an email: [email protected]

Regular’s Club

Thank you all for renewing for 2017, we appreciate your continued interest and patronage of Hubbard’s Marina. It was great seeing you all for the Regular’s club Christmas party, and we hope to see you plenty during the coming year.
If you have not renewed yet for 2017, please do so before booking your 2017 trips and you definitely want to get it done before January first. If you do not, we will be changing you to the FREE Johns Pass club which does not give you benefits you’re used to. Once in this club, you can always upgrade again to a paid club but if you book using your number while it’s a FREE Johns Pass membership you will not have your discount tied properly to your trips so get renewed before you book!
Captains Mark and Dylan Hubbard

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

[email protected]