Fishing report
Inshore- The weather this week has the area waters pretty stirred up, however, that has really helped make some species very active. For example, this time of year when the waters get murky due to rougher weather the local shark population gets very active and many anglers are having tons of fun catching plenty of bonnet head sharks, blacktip sharks, and even some spinner sharks using live shrimp, greenbacks or smaller cut bait. Keep in mind, these are primarily small juvenile sharks but they are still tons of fun on lighter tackle with 20-30lb leaders and 10-20lb braid and 3000-4000 series spinning reels. Also, the murky waters also help to get the whiting action to heat up and this past week we have seen lots of these good eating fish caught around the jetties and beaches of our Johns Pass area. Especially on live shrimp weighted to the bottom those whiting love them. The mangrove snapper have still been biting well, unlike the sharks and whiting the mangroves don’t really flourish with the murkier waters however they did still cooperate this week for local anglers. The hot spot in our pass is the south side of the pass around Kingfish Park’s rocky shoreline or under the south side of Johns pass along the rocks where those mangrove snapper love to get into frenzies. The green backs or smaller live shrimp work well for those snapper with a 2ot hook and 15lb floro and lighter spinning tackle. The tarpon fishing around the pass has also been pretty good this week with some 40-80lb fish caught from the shore while targeting snook at night especially around the lights from the bridge on either the east or west side of the bridge in the light line while working the bomber style plugs or flairhawk jigs.
Near shore- We haven’t been near shore fishing much this week with the rough, rainy and breezy weather but the fishing before and after these low pressure weather events go very well. With low pressures all the way up to the storm coming through the fishing tends to be very good and then after the storm it takes a few days for the waters to clam down, clear up and the barometer to stabilize before the fishing gets hot once again since those fish haven’t been feeding well for a few days. These ‘after effects’ are most noticeable near shore in waters shallower than 100 foot of water. However, the pre frontal bite ahead of the low pressure effects hold true near shore and offshore no matter the depth of water. Right now near shore going deeper is better, the deepest near shore waters closer to 100 foot of water is where we are seeing lots of good action on the lane snapper, vermilions, a few mangrove snapper and yellowtails and the occasional red grouper too. The pelagic action near shore has been pretty slow with only the occasional mackerel pulled in, but we did see a decent kingfish caught while trolling out on a recent 39 hour private fishing charter where we had a very large trolling spread out on the ride offshore.
Offshore – The same trends have held true this past week with the best action being in the deeper offshore waters closer to 200 foot or more is where we are finding the most consistent and largest red snapper. In those similar depths we are also finding the occasional nice big gag grouper, nice scamp and the red grouper too. The cut bonita strips were a great bait yet again this week for not only the red snapper but also the grouper too. Squid strips in the 6-10 inch range about ¾ inch wide is a great secondary option if you don’t have the bonita to cut up yet. However, we have been seeing a decent amount of bonita caught while trolling on the way offshore while trolling a planer and king spoon behind the boat. We also sell the frozen bonita in our shop too if you’d like to purchase them before leaving as well. The pelagic action offshore has slowed down quite a bit we have been catching the occasional kingfish and sometimes the tuna too but the mahi mahi and wahoo haven’t been around much lately like they were in the month of June where we had lots of sargassum weed surrounding our offshore fishing areas.
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Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina
Red snapper season is in full swing and we still have spots left on our Tuesday and Sunday 39 hours in June with the occasional spot open on the Friday adventures too! The 12 hour extreme trips are more full since they only take up to 16 people but there’s still availability in late July for you and your group! If you want to hop on one of these trips BOOK NOW spots are filling fast! Call us at (727)393-1947 or book online at -> https://HubbardsMarina.com
Want to WIN FREE FISHING TRIPS? Come out to join Capt Dylan Hubbard tomorrow, Saturday July 13th at the Tampa Bass Pro Shops seminar happening at 2pm! He will be giving away nearly $300 in free trips after the hour long seminar concludes, but remember you have to attend the full seminar to be eligible to win! Check out our events page on our site to see more info on both these great events -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/events/
LIVE STREAM SHOW is Sunday night July 14th at 8:30pm we look forward to you joining Capt Dylan Hubbard again for another hour long fishing conversation and Q&A show! REMEMBER, you can win free trips for simply tuning into the Hubbard’s Marina facebook page and leaving one comment on the stream, but remember you have to stay tuned in and reach out immediately if you are one of the lucky winners! These events are weekly on Sunday nights from 8:30pm until 9:30pm, check out the event page and PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE the event if you have a Facebook page, and invite your friends as well! Here’s the Facebook event page please check it out and click ‘going’ or ‘Interested’ to get reminders and stay tuned for updates, plus it helps us spread the word! https://www.facebook.com/events/303974027187430/
Fox 13’s Good Day Tampa Bay show has picked up a fishing segment with Capt Dylan Hubbard Scheduled for every Friday morning starting around 8:15am! These segments will have tons of fishing tips, tricks, updates and more. Please tune into Fox 13 on Friday mornings to watch the show and if you are not local, you can watch it LIVE on their website -> http://www.fox13news.com/live
Enjoy learning more about fishing? Attended a seminar or watched our LIVE Q&A show Sunday nights but want to see the tips and tricks in action on the boat? We have filmed a mangrove snapper, grouper and red snapper mastery course with Salt Strong and they built me my own private page to give my fishing friends steep discounts on these crazy cool courses… PLUS, you also have the opportunity to become an insider member and join the community with great giveaways, raffles, the strike score tool, spot dissections, tons of free fishing videos and tips for inshore, near shore and offshore and MORE this is a super cool family of anglers and the positivity and openness of anglers is wild in this group… in the community people share what they caught, when the caught it, what tide they caught it, what bait or lure they caught it one and often WHERE they caught it too… you HAVE to check this out if you like fishing: https://SaltStrong.com/Hubbard
Captain Jack’s dolphin corner
Along with the big herds of manatees we have been spotting, the new baby dolphins and the occasional sea turtle we are noticing some new white egret nests around the bird nesting island hanging out in their nests!
We have two new baby dolphins in our area making it a great time to come join Capt Jack and Capt Dave for a relaxing dolphin watching nature cruise and Eco tour through the back protected bay waters behind Johns Pass from Madeira Beach! The big Blue boat has been spotting these two newborn dolphins with their mothers in a large playful group of local dolphins and they have been coming right up to the boat to play along side and show off their newly learn skills to our guests! Our 175 local dolphins are growing in number and this summer looks like that number will continue to swell. We have named the two new dolphins Daniel and Rudy after passengers aboard the boat when we spotted them the first time, come for a ride for a chance to have a newborn named after you!
The warmer waters have the local manatees out in good numbers cruising the back bay grass flats chomping down on their favorite food, our local turtle grass. This makes it easy to spot these unique creatures. Typically they are hard to spot only sticking their snout out of the water for a few seconds and then diving down deep for up to 8-10 minutes before poking their small nose out again. Right now, along the shallow grass flats its easy to spot them and they seem to chill out giving our passengers great opportunities for plenty of photos from the big blue boat, our dolphin cruise boat at Hubbard’s Marina inside Johns Pass!
It maybe very late in the season but our local bird nesting island or rookery named Dog Leg Key has plenty of baby birds left in their nests and the juvenile birds born further back are starting to hop around the branches and learning to fly making it a great time to Join us at Hubbard’s Marina for one of these relaxing, fun for the whole family, dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour aboard our big blue boat departing Johns Pass daily at 1,3 and 5pm!
Call us today to book your dolphin tour at (727)393-1947 and get more information on this trip at our website here -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/dolphin-watching-cruises/
Tampa bay ferry News
The warm summertime weather is here making it a great time to escape to the islands with us aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry by Hubbard’s Marina. Walking the beaches in the morning looking for the sharks teeth and shells and then spend the day time swimming or snorkeling is a great family fun escape from the tourist filled beaches on the mainland. Also, we are seeing tons of local marine life traveling to and from Egmont Key and Shell Key islands! For more info on our cruises check out all the options on our website -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/sunset-dolphin-cruises-gulf-beaches-florida/
The warmer weather has the local tortoises out to play at Egmont key island, great time to visit the island to see plenty of these slow moving tortoise sunning themselves and enjoying some rays during the day!
We have been spotting lots of manatees around the Egmont Key and Shell Key Islands lately, come join us for a day of fun in the in the sun at the island aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry by Hubbard’s Marina.
We also have tons of sea turtle nests at both Egmont Key and Shell Key islands and it’s the peak of sea turtle nesting season! Great opportunity to see some nests and maybe spot some sea turtles cruising the water ways. However, its important to remember and remind your friends, family and children to fill in any holes you dig while enjoying the beaches as the sea turtles that come ashore to lay eggs and make nests can become trapped or disorientated by holes left by beach goers.
Right now they are doing beach re-nourishment on the west side of Egmont Key Island right now which inhibits exploring the full north end of the island like normal. However, that does make it a killer time for sharks teeth finds as the sand they bring up to the beaches and set down on the existing sand is ripe with great fresh shells, fossils and huge sharks teeth even the big pristine megladon teeth that people find as trophies during their visits to Egmont Key island!
If you enjoy snorkeling NOW is the time to get out to Egmont Key Island for some snorkeling fun. The waters are super clear right now especially on the incoming tides, but once the water continues to warm and the summer time afternoon rain storms become normal occurrences daily then the local waters lose their super clear appearance. Come join us asap for a day of island fun with a side of snorkeling adventure aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry from the Bay pier at Fort De Soto park to Egmont Key Island.
Our Shell Key ferry ride aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry from Fort De Soto’s boat ramp to Shell Key Island is spotting tons of manatees right now along their route to their island. It’s a great time to visit that island too for great shells, crystal clear waters on the west side of the island and great exploring on the west side of the island.
The Egmont key ferry from Fort De Soto offers 10am and 11am ferry rides to the island daily this time of year, plus on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we offer a 2pm ferry ride from Fort De Soto out to Egmont Key Island! You get three hours on the island after around a 20-30 minute ride out and back to the island. Plus, we often see dolphins, seabirds and sometimes even sea turtles on the ride out and back thus the ride time can fluctuate a bit depending on what we spot during the cruise out to your island oasis! For more info on the Egmont key ferry, visit this page of the Hubbard’s Marina website – https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/egmont-key-ferry-cruise/
Our Shell key ferry trips are a great way to spend the day and offer more flexible schedules compared to the rigid Egmont key schedule! We offer these trips DAILY from the boat ramp at Fort De Soto County Park and they run at 10am, noon and 2pm and the final return time is 4pm! You have much more flexibility during the shell key trips compared to our Egmont key ferry because you get to choose the time you return to fort de Soto from Shell key! If you’re looking for plenty of time on the island and great shelling opportunities then the shell key ferry trip is your best bet! Check out all the information on this special ferry ride at this link – https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/shell-key-ferry/
Regular’s club
Hey guys, we have our 2020 clubs starting up around the end of November or Early December. If you are interested in signing up or learning more about our loyalty program that will make it more affordable for you to go fishing even more often then make sure to reach out to Capt Dylan at his email below!
If you are an existing regular’s club member make sure to start paying close attention to those special regular’s club email newsletters as the announcements start to come about the renewals for the 2020 clubs!
Captain Dylan Hubbard
Vice president and Co-Owner
(727)393-1947 ext. 306
