Hubbard's Marina Fishing Report 02/10/2017 | Fishing Report For Tampa Bay FL Area

Inshore Fishing Report – The Sheepshead right now are the best thing going inshore. They are biting very well on small pieces of shrimp or cut oysters. Snook are still being caught during the day just this week Will McClure our first mate caught nearly a dozen one day after cleaning the boats after a trip. The snook action seems best at the tail end of an outgoing tide during the day and anytime the water is moving at night. The pompano bite is going well along the beaches. The typically like a piece of shrimp or sand flea weighted to bottom. If you’re an artificial lure guy the best ones are a doc’s jig or light Nekid ball jig I like the white jigs the best for the pompano. For these fish just retrieve the lure slowly along the bottom, crank 2-3 times slowly let it fall to bottom, twitch then let it fall, crank two more times and let it fall to bottom again and then double twitch and let it return to bottom and repeat until it’s back. This approach mimics a live sand flea being spooked along the bottom and they typically hit on the drop.

Near Shore Fishing Report – The fishing this past week near shore has been great! The water was clear and beautiful and seas calm allowing us to catch plenty of big hogfish on live shrimp. We also caught plenty of big black sea bass, porgies and grey snapper. The nearshore pelagics don’t seem to be around now, but tuna are pushing shallower with cooling waters and spring is around the corner when the Kings will return to our near shore waters. The Red grouper bite in the deeper nearshore waters hasn’t been stellar but were finding them along the edge the near shore waters.

Offshore Fishing Report – The recent 39 hour at Hubbard’s Marina smacked some monster 60-80 amberjack and plenty of them! The recent 12 hour extreme aboard the Flying HUB 2 limited out on amberjack so they are biting well to the say the least. The red grouper are still biting well but they have a deep water closure right now so you can’t keep red grouper beyond 120 foot or 20 fathoms but inside of that depth you can keep them. We are still catching and keeping plenty but we have to play the game where we go deep for jacks then come inshore and get the red grouper. The 39 hour caught tons of tuna as well the cooler waters have them thick in the offshore waters. We had over two dozen keepers on this recent trip and if we were targeting them we would have had 100 or more said Captain Garett Hubbard. The mangrove snapper bite was a little soft during the trip but the huge vermillion and yellowtail snapper replaced the hole left by the mangrove snapper. 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

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!

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.

As a reminder, parking is free at our Madeira Beach Marina and Jungle Prada stops. We look forward to seeing you! 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/

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.

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

One of our local dolphins named stick has had three calves in recent years, her first two had severe issues and did not make it. Her third calf named stem was born last august and it had issues of its own almost like mild seizures that would cause abnormal listing and lethargic behavior. We were put on alert about this and have been monitoring stems maturity but great news this week came and we can’t help but want to share! Stem has been cleared medically and has been spotted often playing and hunting within the pass and around Boca Ceiga bay.

We have a local bald eagle roosting atop a cell tower along our dolphin watching nature cruise route. It’s a great opportunity to see this gorgeous creature up close and personally!

Believe it or 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 Roseate spoonbills are dawning their very pink colors today thanks to the brine shrimp they eat and their mating plumage is coming in which turns the pinkish color better than their normal feathers. They are really unique looking and can be spotted around

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 At Hubbard’s Marina

There’s a great Florida Sportsman Magazine outdoor expo this weekend in Fort Myers at the Lee County Civic Center. Hubbard’s Marina will have seminars at this expo at noon both Saturday and Sunday we would love for you to join us for these special seminars on the offshore stage we will be discussing hogfish techniques. There’s tons more to do and see at the expo besides our seminars too there’s tons of tackle suppliers there and other industry leaders doing great and informative seminars.
We also have a Bass Pro Shops Tampa seminar coming up February 18th at 3pm if you would like to join us in their beautiful shop for some great seminar fun. Plus, during our Bass Pro seminars we always raffle off a FREE ten hour all day fishing trip to one lucky seminar attendee.

The 12 hour extreme trips right now are limiting out on big jacks and catching monster red grouper and the Wednesday trips are consistently super light! Join us for some ‘reel’ offshore fishing fun at Hubbard’s Marina aboard the New and one of a kind Flying HUB 2.

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.

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]