Fishing Report
Inshore Fishing Report – Jake Seib and John Stephany both from largo were catching sheepshead on barnacles off the docks at Hubbard’s Marina this past week. Also, Sebastian Leonard one of our first mates at the marina caught a nearly 45 inch huge redfish under the docks using a live pinfish while fishing from the beach. The big drum are still hanging out around the pass too, love the crabs along the bottom for bait or big live shrimp. Snook still biting well on moving water, especially around the western set of poles of the end of the dock on outgoing tide while fishing from the beach.
Near Shore Fishing Report – The hogfish bite has continued going very well and we expect it to be stellar early in the weekend ahead of Sunday’s approaching front. They really are loving the long fluorocarbon top shots with the lightest possible weights allowing the live shrimp to flutter to the bottom looking natural and enticing. The red grouper bite has finally improved a bit last Sunday’s ten hour all day with captain Bobby had a huge pile of nice fat red grouper in the 90-110 foot range and hopefully today’s all day will be similar as the front approaches all the fish should be more excited and aggressive.
Offshore Fishing Report – Well this past weekend’s 44 hour full moon trip was the best fishing we have seen in months maybe even years. We caught one of every species in the gulf it seemed and tons of the grouper, snapper, amberjack, tuna and kingfish. We even had 80-90lb jacks, 10-11lb mangrove snapper and big kingfish tipping the 30-40lb range. Plus, there were more than just a few big fish too! Big mutton snapper were caught, rainbow runners, almaco jacks, vermillion, yellowtail, and many more. We caught so many fish during that trip we filled every fish box on the boat and started stuffing fish into any box or cooler that would hold ice. You should really see the 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 Tampa Bay ferry and water taxi is a great way to get around Treasure Island, Madeira Beach and Western St. Petersburg and if you live close by catch an Uber, taxi or Lyft to the ferry stops to join us for a boat ride to your favorite eatery, bar or shopping district!
Don’t drink and drive, drink and let us take you on the boat! The water taxi by Hubbard’s Marina is the coolest way to get home after some time at the beach bars.
Keep in mind that the ferry does allow alcohol, pets, and anything you need for the beach so pack a cooler and come catch a cruise.
Going to be a gorgeous start to the weekend, and shouldn’t be getting nasty until Sunday night. Should be a picture perfect Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday to get out on the protected back bays aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry and Water taxi. 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/
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
These large groups of dolphins are really prolific and were spotting them at the mouth of our local bays and passes. This past week we saw an even bigger pod of dolphins nearly 80-100 dolphins strong hunting a humongous school of mullet flushing out of Tampa bay into the Gulf of Mexico.
Juvenile dolphins are very active and playful right now, these were last year’s babies in the local area. They are now beginning to be more adventurous and playing around often with their neighboring juvenile dolphins. Especially our local three, they are spotted often playing together in the back bay waters of upper Boca Ceiga bay.
Believe it our not we are seeing our first baby seabirds starting to hatch at Dog leg key island! The Great Blue herons are always the first to have their babies of the year and were seeing a few pairs of them sitting on eggs and a few eggs have already hatched into baby herons.
The truly amazing thing is were seeing baby brown pelicans this early in the year! Some people may not believe us, but were seeing it with our own eyes truly amazing to have them hatching their babies this early, but were happy to have them maybe the warmer than normal weather is sparking this early hatchlings and we hope the cooler than normal weather coming this weekend won’t negatively affect them.
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
Ready to learn more about offshore fishing? We have lots of seminars coming up! Saturday January 21st at 1pm we have an offshore fishing seminar at the Tampa Bass Pro Shops in the fly fishing section of their shop. Also, February 11th and 12th we have noon seminars at the Florida Sportsman show at the lee county civic seminar on Hogfish. Plus, March 5th 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.
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 February 3rd and February 17th 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.
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: info@HubbardsMarina.com
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
UPDATED Coupon Information
HALF OFF the dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour inside Johns Pass (Daily)
HALF OFF the kayak or paddle board rentals inside Johns Pass (Daily)
HALF OFF 5 hour half day fishing (Monday-Thursdays only)
-MUST HAVE COUPON PRINTED and must have reservation at least 24hrs in advance and give notice of coupon
-cannot combine discounts
-Good for entire reservation if you pay together
-While supplies last
Expires 2/10/17
