Fishing report
Inshore- We are coming up on a full moon at the end of the upcoming week! This means we should have a great week of fishing opportunities especially at the end of the upcoming week before the approaching front and as the full moon reaches its apex. Full or new moons create bigger and stronger tidal flows which moves bait around more and creates more opportunities for the big predatory fish to feed more actively.
Snook fishing around the passes has been incredible for the time of the year. We have seen an astonishing number of fish resurge back into the pass like they typically do in the summertime. This is an oddity for the time of year, but we have had a very mild start to our ‘fall’ season. The snook fishing around the bay has also continued to stay steady around the flats, mangrove shorelines and dock lines.
Redfish action is awesome right now around the area which is fairly typical for the time of year. We are seeing them along the beaches and passes to the upper bay area. Plus, there’s the occasional large school of fish actively feeding together around the flats and moving out of the bays through the passes and along our beaches before they push offshore to spawn. Great time of year to get out there and target these great fighting and fun to catch and release redfish.
Mackerel action is awesome around the local fishing piers and passes and even around some flats especially in the deeper waters adjacent to flats. These guys are very fun to target and catch and since the snook, redfish and trout are not able to be kept right now in the area they make an easy addition to your fishing excursion to find some fish to throw in your cooler. Fast moving flashy lures are best, but you can get them on live white bait too. Using a long shank J hook is a great idea to target the mackerel with around 20lb floro leader.
Sheepshead are starting to get more and more prolific and congregated around our local bridges, seawalls, and docks. These guys will only get more and more concentrated and aggressive as the water continues to cool off. These guys are one of the few species that will feed better right behind the fronts when the waters get stirred up and muddy. Small pieces of cut shrimp or fiddler crabs or even barnacles are all great options to target the sheepshead with a small 1ot hook and light 15lb leader.
Mangrove snapper action is starting to slow down inshore right now as the water cools they will be more and more replaced with the sheepshead around the structures they have been congregating on all summer. The small mangrove snapper retreat to the shallow mangrove shorelines for the cooler months and the bigger ones 8-10 inches or more will start to move near shore to get away from their juvenile home inshore.
Black drum action is also pretty steady right now around our local docks and bridges. They love big live shrimp or even crabs for bait. You can sometimes get them on artificials like soft plastic imitation shrimp or soft plastic paddle tails but most of the time if you are fishing for them its with live shrimp or crabs for bait.
Near Shore & Offshore- The kingfish are finally showing up now! We are excited to report some decent sized kings are starting to show up in our area. We have caught a few trolling and one on the flat lines too. They will only get more and more prolific as the water temperature gets right. For the kingfish flat line, a stinger rig is key. There’s a video on how to tide a stinger rig on our fishing tips and tricks page under the rigging section here -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/fishing-tips/
The flat lines are a great option while anchor fishing or drift fishing on the bottom for grouper, snapper or hogfish. This time of year having one of them out on a big spinner with plenty of 20-30lb braid or a 4ot conventional with plenty of braid is a good options to make sure you don’t miss an opportunity on a passing kingfish while targeting bottom species. If you drift fish, you really don’t need anything you can just let out plenty of line to get the bait away from the boat. If you anchor fish, sometimes a balloon is needed to keep that bait out and away from the boat so it does not interfere with your bottom fishing depend on the wind and currents.
Mackerel are thick right now along the beaches out to around 70-80ft of water. Nearly every big structure holding bait has plenty of actively feeding mackerel chasing baits around and feeding actively. These guys are easily targeted while trolling around 4-6inch spoons behind #1 or #2 planners.
We are seeing a resurgence of the hogfish lately as the water continues to cool near shore we are witnessing the hogfish bite pick up more and more. These fish will only bite better and better as time progresses from around 30ft up to around 80ft of water. These guys love lighter tackle around 20-30lb test and about 3-4ot hooks. We use either a knocker rig style method with around 1/2oz to 1oz lea and those hook sizes or a nekid ball jig around 1-2oz or that just plain jig head around ½-1oz with a larger hook. All of those tipped with a live shrimp or fresh dead shrimp is best. If your shrimp starts to turn pink its no good, they got to be alive or just fresh dead. You can even keep them on ice if they are alive when you get em without water to stop them from turning pink so quickly if you don’t have a functioning live well.
Gag grouper bite is picking up around the mouth of tampa bay along the shipping channel between Egmont key and the skyway and artificial reefs and rock piles in between. We are also seeing these grouper start to fill in our near shore waters out deeper around 50-100ft but the best bite of big fish continues to be well offshore beyond 100ft of water. However, these gals are on the move near shore and inshore for sure in larger numbers as waters continue to cool and they want to engorge themselves for their long migrations to their own spawning areas. Females will move inshore this time of year in large numbers to eat well before moving out to deepwater spawning sites in the early to late spring time. These gags are open for harvest June first until end of the year dec 31st so get them while you can in the shallow near shore and shallower offshore waters from the bay up to around 140ft before they move deep for the late spring and summer.
Mangrove snapper action is going well from around 60-80ft up to around 120-160ft right now. They love those live shrimp and double snelled threadfin or sardine chunks. We are seeing lots of lane snapper around the 60-120ft range and plenty of vermillion around the 100-160ft range. Great time to get out and find some hungry snapper as they move around this time of year.
We are seeing big and plentiful kingfish right now offshore with the occasional blackfin tuna. Still some wahoo around too. Great time to get offshore and troll around some fast moving plugs and never forget your flatline while out bottom fishing.
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 passed inspection and is on track to be home soon! Now that the Florida has passed inspection our team is breaking their backs to get all the rest of the work done that was not mechanical or AC related. We are finishing up painting from the roof down since we did the roof and upstairs during our Covid closure in the spring. She will be 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
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
