Fishing report
Inshore– The sheepshead bite continues to be hot inshore around the bridges, jetties and docks inside Johns Pass. The trout bite is doing well inside the pass as well, it’s a great time of year to target speckled trout on the flats. Snook fishing at night has been stellar around the pass and the hot bait lately is the flair hawk style jig or free lined live pigfish or grunts. Silver sea trout and whiting are on the beaches thick right now with tons being caught along the jetties of Johns Pass. Pompano are still out on the beaches too, but been slowing down a little this past week.
Near shore– The gags are still biting well along the beach anywhere from 20-80 foot has been the best bites lately. Lane snapper really picking up this time of year and were seeing some nice large ones caught too. Hogfish bite has been consistent but not super on fire quite yet. Water has warmed a little this past week and that brought us a nice push of kingfish again late in the year. The Tuesday 10 hour all day caught a total of ten nice kingfish and could’ve had much more if everyone was targeting them. They were taking free lined pinfish on stinger rigs with number four wire. Cobia are still around the near shore waters but we haven’t caught any large numbers this past week, but spotting quite a few near shore. Triple tail still around too, and if you can target them you can do very well along the crab trap buoys up and down the 1-10 mile areas.
Offshore- The extreme trips are slaying the grouper with an average keeper grouper number close to thirty nice grouper. We’re targeting gag grouper since they close at the end of the month but plenty of fat red grouper and scamp are being caught as well with some big mangrove snapper mixed in and plenty of tuna are around on the surface of the water. The 39 hours we added into the schedule before the end of gag season did very well on plenty of big gags with the same red and scamp grouper mixed in. The tuna and kingfish showed up on the longer 39 hour swimming up the chum lines created by the party boat too. The big yellowtail snapper have been actively feeding offshore as well making it a great time to go deep!
Want to read the past reports? Check out this link: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/hubbards-marina-fishing-reports/
Tampa Bay Ferry and Taxi news
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/
We also have a special schedule for Christmas week, were going to run December 26th until December 31st DAILY to accommodate the special week of increased traffic around Johns pass!
Besides Christmas week, 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
We saw some manatees this week which is odd for this cooler time of year. However, it was awesome to see them cruising the back bay waters around Johns pass.
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.
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.
Want to learn more about dolphins this winter? Check out the new great Johns Pass 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
Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina
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/
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 on Saturday January 20th at 2pm! For more information, check out the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2033606443521616/
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
2018 club signups are in full swing, by the time you are reading this Capt. Dylan Hubbard has emailed every 2017 club member for a chance to sign up for 2018 clubs early! Starting next week we will move onto signing up the new members for our 2018 clubs. Then finally starting Monday December 2018 the specialty schedule will go live on our site for bookings at 9am!
Captains Mark and Dylan Hubbard
Vice president and Regular’s club manager Hubbard’s Marina
(727)393-1947 ext 306
CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com
