Fishing report
Inshore-
Redfish bite is heating up more and more as the water cools! They are all over from the passes to the flats to the mangroves and on the oyster bars and docks too. The big boys are eating cut baits on the bottom around the deeper waters and shade of the mangroves. The majority are being caught on slow moving soft plastic paddle tails and the jerk baits. The live baits from shrimp to greenbacks to live pinfish are great options to target the redfish too. Light tackle around 15-20lb test work well to target the redfish. Awesome to see big schools of redfish around the flats right now working the flats. They will follow around the schools of mullet up around the flats too.
Mangrove snapper are still pretty thick around the structures, but the sheepshead are starting to show up. As the water starts to cool the mangrove snapper will disappear more and more and the sheepshead will get thicker and thicker. I like small pieces of shrimp for either, but mangroves will take small pieces of white bait and the sheepies love the fiddler crabs. Lighter tackle again is the king with around number 1 to 1ot hooks.
Trout bite has gone well this week around the flats and were seeing some good action at night around the bridge lights. There is lots of bait around the area and that has the trout highly active and feeding well. They love those soft plastics moving slowly around the edges of the flats or edges of the light lines at night.
Snook action has slowed down quite a bit this past week around the nights in the passes. However, during the day they have been active around the docks and flats. They are loving the jerk baits and soft plastic paddle tails.
Flounder action is picking up nicely around the structures, especially on the sandy bottom areas. They are also hiding out in the potholes in the flats, or around the edges of the flats. They love live shrimp or mud minnows on or near the bottom. They love the artificial shrimp moving slow right along the bottom.
Pompano are biting decently around the skyway approaches and other bridges of the area. They are starting to pick up along the beaches and jetties of local passes. Pass a grill or blinds pass are my favorite areas to target those pompano with goofy jigs or nekid ball jigs.
Gag grouper action is picking up in Tampa bay along the shipping channel and around the rock piles of the bay too. They love live pinfish on lighter tackle especially on just a simple jig head. Those little rock piles definitely have a high chance of some keeper gags. As the water continues to cool more and more gags will be showing up.
Triple tail will get better and better as the stone crab traps show up more and more. October 15th stone crab season officially opens, and more traps will be out there. Those crab buoys will attract tons of triple tail to the surface. Sight casting those great eating fish is a great way to spend fishing the bay or along the beach.
Near Shore & Offshore-
The Mackerel action is picking up very nicely throughout the near shore waters. There are big bait schools around with plentiful mackerel feeding heavily on them. Plus, most hard bottom areas are having big numbers of mackerel working them chasing what bait is present or on or near the bottom.
Kingfish will not be far behind the mackerel and were expecting them to show up on this next big moon phase. The new moon is October 16th and I’d bet we would start to see them then, but by the full moon at the end of the month on the 31st they will be in full swing for sure. We just got those nomad DTX minnows and the Nomad Madmacs that will be great additions to our Rapla Xrap magnum trolling lures. These lures are great options for trolling the beaches out to deep water for the kingfish and possibly others. Out deep past around 120ft of water you may see some blackfin tuna and perhaps wahoo especially as you get past 150ft of water.
Hogfish action is picking up nicely too, great time of year to start targeting them especially on the backside of this weather at the end of the weekend and start of next week they should be biting well. They love around 20-30lb floro and around 3-4ot hooks and live shrimp around 40-80ft of water. We are doing pretty good catching a few on our 10 hour all days and even a few on the 5-hour half day trips too.
Gag grouper action is starting to pick up around 60-140ft of water and they will continue to get more and more prolific in a bit shallower as the water continues to cool off. They love those ledges, rock piles and wrecks and big live baits. In shallower we use around 60-80lb and out deeper around 80-100lb leaders for those gag grouper.
Red grouper action is going very well right now around 90-120ft of water, but we are catching them as shallow as around 60ft and up to around 160ft. They love those big dead baits or live baits for those red groupers. Flat hard bottom and potholes are great areas to target the red grouper.
Mangrove snapper are biting pretty good right now from about 80-140ft of water especially on ledges, rock piles and wrecks. In shallower we are seeing a few here and there but they get much more prolific once you reach about 80-100ft. They love those threadfin or sardine plugs on the double snell rig.
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
