Fishing Report
Inshore-
Snook bite is going very well this past week around the area. We are seeing some decent snook action at night in the passes still. Seems once the weather cleared there’s still some decent numbers of fish around at night in the passes, but they wait till the perfect tide to bite and lately around Johns Pass that’s the start of the incoming tide. Lots of bait around the passes making them a little picky and more frugal and opportunistic. During the day, the snook bite in the bay area has been really good around the flats, mangroves, and even dock lines. The soft plastic paddle tails have been great lures to target snook as of late with cut mullet or threadfins for dead bait and live pinfish or grunts for live bait.
Redfish action really going great throughout the area. During the day you can find them around the mangrove shorelines, flats, oyster bars and even along the bottom in the passes and dock lines. At night, we are still seeing good numbers of them around the passes closer to the bottom mixed around with the snook feeding on the big numbers of shrimp and white bait flushing through our passes. Cut bait works well for them day or night in the passes and around the docks or along the shaded areas in the daytime. Live pinfish, green backs, or shrimp work well for live baits. Soft plastic paddle tails, jerk baits and gold spoons are great options for them lure wise as well.
Flounder action has really heated up as the water started to cool. Look for these guys in the sandy holes of the grass flats or sandy areas adjacent to the flats, docks, bridges, or jetties. They love live shrimp or creek chubs for live bait or slow-moving soft plastics like DOA shrimp or paddle tails just on or near the bottom. I like an incredibly slow retrieved DOA shrimp, stopping every three turns letting it hit bottom and then popping it slightly and repeat. It should take you a very long time to retrieve these lures, imagine how long it would take a shrimp to swim the distance of your cast. That is the length of time it should take you to retrieve that imitation shrimp.
Mackerel are starting to come back in big numbers along the shipping channel in Tampa bay, around local bridges, fishing piers, flats, and the beaches. They are chasing the large numbers of local live bait. We have these big schools of green backs, glass minnows and others. You want to use fast moving flashy lures to attract their attention or cast net up some big numbers of green bait or other white bait to use for them. The love to eat quickly and a long shank hook helps to ensure they don’t bite through your leader. I like a 1ot long shank and a bigger green back with 20lb floro leader for the mackerel live bait set up.
Mangrove snapper are still thick around local docks, piers, bridges, jetties, and other structures of the area. However, their numbers are starting to thin out a bit as that cooler weather sets in. Go get them while you can around the shipping channel rock piles or other local large structures.
Black drum bite has picked up around the local bridges, docks and piers. They love that dirtier water behind the front and cut dead bait like big shrimp or crabs on the bottom around those areas.
Trout action has been great around local grass flats, especially around the edges or potholes. They have slowed a bit around the passes at night, but during the day the trout bite has been fired up.
Tarpon Fishing is going well at night around the passes and early morning in the same areas. Some reports of tarpon action around the bridges in Tampa bay at night too. They are chasing those lady fish, smaller mullet, and passing crabs in the lights of the local bridges. It’s super late in the year to still have these guys around and as the water cools they will disappear more and more.
Triple tail action is starting to heat back up around the markers in Tampa Bay and as stone crab season starts to pick up we will see more and more of these guys around the local stone crab trap buoys in the bay and along our beaches.
Near Shore & Offshore-
It is a very exciting time of year near shore & Offshore right now with changing weather comes a whole new push of fishing changes. For example, we are just now starting to see the mackerel show up around the beaches out to near shore reefs and the Kingfish won’t be far behind them. They love that 72-78 degree water temp and we are just now seeing that temperature get right for more and more mackerel to show up near shore and they are always followed by the kingfish typically on the next big moon phase.
Along with the kingfish and mackerel starting their fall fun we are also seeing the hogfish pick up too around 40-80ft of water these hogfish will only get better and better and more and more aggressive. They love the light tackle and live shrimp on those knocker rigs, nekid ball jigs or jig heads. Around 30lb floro and 4ot hooks is a great way to start hunting to find them on those smaller ledges, flat hard bottom with sea fans, or that shell bottom adjacent to rock piles or ledges.
Gag grouper action will also get better and better as the water cools in shallow. We are doing well on the gags out deep beyond 140ft of water right now, but they are getting better already near shore up to the far north of our area in shallower. We are starting to see them bite well around the shipping channel in the bay and were catching a few near shore on our HUB 10hr all days and private charters. The Flying HUB 2 is also seeing some on its private charters as shallow as 100-130ft of water. This near shore and inshore gag grouper bite will only improve more and more as those gags move shallower out of the deep water as the water temps drop.
Besides the changes near shore and offshore we are still seeing a good red grouper bite around 80-140ft of water. They are mixed in with some nice lane snapper, vermillions and the occasional nice mangrove snapper. Great way to target them is bigger piece of cut dead threadfin and around 6-7ot hooks or even squid strips.
For more fishing reports, photos, videos and more check out Hubbard’s Marina on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Snap Chat just simply search @HubbardsMarina and don’t forget our family motto, “If You’re too busy to go fishing, You’re just too busy!” Thanks for reading and checking out our report – Capt Dylan Hubbard, Hubbard’s Marina – Call or Txt me anytime at (727)393-1947 | https://HubbardsMarina.com
Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina
Florida fisherman made it to tarpon springs! Now that the Florida is at dry dock it will be pulled out of the water and inspected, painted, and some other fine details touched up before she slides back in the water and heads home around the third week of October for our next 39 hour scheduled October 23rd!
Here’s the video of the Florida being pulled out of the water: https://www.facebook.com/147347365309728/videos/380558329617833
Flying HUB 2 is up and running with BRAND NEW Yamaha systems and new white 425’s. We are excited to get this boat back offshore its ran a few trips but due to weather we are pretty much tied up dreaming of heading back offshore but this coming Sunday’s 12 hour extreme looks like we finally have some great weather to capitalize on!
READY FOR 2021 BOOKINGS? Some people have been asking about next years schedule. Keep in mind our 12,39 and 44 hour trips will not be available for booking in 2021 until around the start of December. Most likely Tuesday Dec 1st around 11am is when that specialty trip schedule for 2021 will be opened for bookings. We are building our 2021 schedule now for our other trips like the 5 hours, 10 hours, dolphin tours, island trips and others and those trips will be all built and open for bookings by around Mid-October!
During the week a great time to visit! If your one of those who can escape during the work week this is the time of year to visit us. We have had super light loads during the week on our 5,10 and 12 hour trips! Plus, the 39 hours are averaging only 50-60% full lately too especially during the week.
Weekends are still much less busy then they were in the summer, so either way it’s a good time of year to get out on the water!
Don’t forget about our brand-new system that allows you to now TEXT OUR OFFICE if you’d rather not call us! Now you can call or text us at (727)393-1947 so for quick questions or updates or anything you can reach out even easier.
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
Regular’s club
We are getting prepped for our regular’s club renewals starting around the start of November and then our NEW regular’s club sign ups that will begin around end of Nov early Dec for our 2021 clubs.
Since the regular’s club, which is our loyalty program, expires at the end of each calendar year no matter when you are signed up it would make sense to wait until we are ready for 2021 signs ups to join us if you would like!
If you want some information on the clubs, shoot me an email or text with your email and we can send you out the club info and add you to our 2021 sign up list so when sign ups do start we will reach out to you!
Remember, you can now call or TEXT our main office line – (727)393-1947
Captain Dylan Hubbard
Vice president and Co-Owner
(727)393-1947 ext. 306
