Fishing report
Inshore- The fishing has been great lately for the sheepshead and black drum around the docks and bridges of the back bay waters. This murky water behind the rough weather always bring them out in force out of the bayou areas. Tim Raimens, from Clearwater, caught a monster nearly 20lb black drum under the Johns Pass bridge using a dead blue crab and heavy tackle. Before the blow, the trout bite at night is still going very well. Also, the pompano are still around the beaches during the day but in the early morning the bite has been the hottest.
Near shore- The hogfish bite has been a little slow this past week, but were still getting a few here and there. The weather has been a little spotty causing the bite to be a little hit and miss across the board near shore. However, the snapper bite has been steady thankfully picking up the slack that other species have left due to the weather. As the water warms we continue expecting more and more snapper action. This past week the big surprise was the high numbers of lane snapper being caught on the half day and all day fishing trips.
Offshore– The pelagic action offshore right now is super-hot, on our recent 39 hour private charter with mote marine we caught three huge wahoo in a matter of two hours. One was over 80lbs caught on a flat line, then once landed we started trolling home and quickly caught two more. When reeling the 3rd wahoo into the boat the 20-30lb wahoo was acting sporadic and once closer to the boat it was easy to see why, a 300-350lb blue marlin was chasing it to the bottom. We weren’t bottom fishing too much on this trip since mote was out there to do almaco jack collection we were mainly vertical jig fishing or using dead bait higher in the water column.
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 water taxi is a great way to get your pets around the area with you, we do allow friendly pets on board along with your coolers and even bicycles! We want to ensure you’re able to take what you want or need with you while exploring our beautiful local waters.
Unfortunately due to weather, the Water taxi will be closed Friday May 5th from 11:30am until end of day we hope to re-open Saturday may 6th if weather allows but we are watching it closely Sunday May 7th we should definitely be open. If you ever have questions about weather or if we are running the water taxi you can always call us at (727)393-1947 but if we close we will always put red closed signs on the sandwich boards at the ferry stops as well to ensure our guests know.
The Madeira beach water taxi is still running five days (weather permitting) a week Wednesday until Sunday 10am-10pm and we have updated our website, check out the new look: http://www.tampabayferry.com/madeira-beach-taxi-route/
There’s tons of stuff to do while catching a ride with the Madeira beach water taxi, check out all the things to do: http://www.tampabayferry.com/things-to-do/
Captain Jack’s dolphin corner
We had our first baby dolphin of the season born in our local waters! He can be spotted cruising with mom and still has the very subtle ‘fetal folds’ visible on his body. It’s a great time to join us to spot this newborn dolphin calf.
The bird nesting island is really a sight to see now that the baby seabirds are getting bigger and more active. Hope you can get a chance to join us sometime soon for a tour of the local rookery.
Manatees are back in the area by force, we have spotted many cruising through Johns Pass and Boca Ceiga bay the past weeks. Two large manatees even stopped by the dock for a quick visit!
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
Next seminar is coming up Saturday May 20th at Bass Pro Shops in tampa at 2pm. We will again be giving away a FREE 10hr all day fishing trip to one lucky attendee. Also, the Clenzoil team will be there with tons of information, free samples and possibly even a gift basket of Clenzoil products to give away too! Plus, now were on board with FishBrain so you could win a FREE 6 month premium membership as well. With so many exciting prizes, and a great seminar we hope to see you all there!
Some big news was announced this past week and Hubbard’s Marina has come under some fire about it, plus there’s tons of confusion around the issue so we wanted to clear up some things. First of all, at Hubbard’s Marina we have a 49 day red Next seminar is coming up Saturday May 20th at Bass Pro Shops in tampa at 2pm. We will again be giving away a FREE 10hr all day fishing trip to one lucky attendee. Also, the Clenzoil team will be there with tons of information, free samples and possibly even a gift basket of Clenzoil products to give away too! Plus, now were on board with FishBrain so you could win a FREE 6 month premium membership as well. With so many exciting prizes, and a great seminar we hope to see you all there!
Some big news was announced this past week and Hubbard’s Marina has come under some fire about it, plus there’s tons of confusion around the issue so we wanted to clear up some things. First of all, at Hubbard’s Marina we have a 49 day red snapper season. This means Red snapper opens June first and we can keep them until July 20th at 12:01am. This could be seen as good news, but the terrible part is the recreational season is only going to be three days long. Due to this severely shortened season for recreational anglers (doesn’t include Hubbard’s Marina due to sector separation), there has been some serious hate coming our way and we want to clear up the issues and some history on these issues. If you care about our federal waters fishery please read fully the following:
Hubbard’s Marina DOES NOT SUPPORT SECTOR SEPARATION so before you think that we are happy with 3 day season for recreational anglers and our 49 day season for red snapper first realize that we have vehemently opposed this idea since it was first ever discussed and begged the recreational anglers to get involved in fighting against Sector separation (amendment 40) when that didn’t work we waiting till the sunset provision when it came up for a reinstatement and again we vehemently opposed it and urged recreational anglers to join us. Despite our opposition and actually a majority of fed permitted for hire sectors opposition the amendment was pushed through. (More than 3/4 of for hire sector opposed this still don’t know how it was passed) However, Sector separation is now law, there’s nothing more we can do about it but we still have to unite.
We now have THREE SEASONS for federal water red snapper fishery in the gulf, 3 days for rec anglers, 49 days for fed permitted for hire anglers, 365 days for commercial anglers
**THIS IS NOT ANY ANGLERS FAULT, and is totally unacceptable
THE GOAL OF THIS IS TO DIVIDE AND CONQUER ANGLERS, BY GETTING YOU TO BLAME us and the commercial sector if the recreational anglers feel annoyed and hate towards for hire and commercial because they have more days the people who actually make the laws (NOAAs NMFS) are not to blame
Why do you think they include commercial landing numbers in recreational announcements? This is purely a propaganda technique in our minds to get the sectors fighting against one another
3 day red snapper season for rec sector is caused by states being out of compliance. Texas has totally succeeded and has a year round red snapper fishery and has done this for years. Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have all increased state seasons well out of compliance with fed season. Due to all of this, the feds have penalized the rec sector season and seems to be softening up rec sector to accept the future plan of special interest groups to make fish tags or IFQs mandatory in fed waters for rec sector.
Special interest groups like Ocean conservancy and EDF have hijacked the gulf council and NOAAs and NMFS and is using them to twist the country’s regulatory group from managing the fishery for the citizens to saving the fish from the citizens who actually pay the salaries for the gulf council and NOAAs NMFS.
You MUST start to stand up for your rights, YOU must get education on the issues at hand, and you MUST get involved… if your sitting there reading this thinking ‘I don’t fish for red snapper why should I care’ well they are coming for your species next you think your safe inshore… time to wake up once they are done in fed waters you can bet your inshore fishery is next. They started in the North east and have moved down Atlantic coast into the gulf look at the stripper and fluke regulations and issues over past decade in the north east this is what we have to look forward to.
The only way to fix these issues is by the majority of anglers waking up and saying that’s enough.
We must unify, stop blaming your fellow angler… it’s not the commercial anglers or for-hire angler’s faults, its NOAAs NMFS who makes the regulations based on self-admitted flawed data not your fellow anglers.
All this to say, before you complain about the three day rec season why don’t you get involved and do something about it like the for hire and commercial sectors have done for decades!
Also, another example of us at Hubbard’s Marina putting recreational angler’s rights first… Remember the gulf head boat collaborative that so many supported that allowed local fed permitted boats keep gags out of season with special tags that Hubbard’s Marina opposed and didn’t get involved in costing us as a company business because we were standing up for recreational anglers rights that was the infancy of IFQs and that’s coming next!
———————————————
Personal note: I, Capt Dylan Hubbard pledge to continue the fight for angler’s rights as my grandfather and father have done before me. As a fourth generation local offshore angler I feel that these issues facing our industry are very appalling and only getting worse. The only way to stop it is through educating the mass recreational angling sector and getting everyone inshore and freshwater anglers alike to unite and fight before they start moving inshore… This is not just a Gulf of Mexico federal waters issue, look at what has happened along Atlantic coast and in Alaska now happening in the gulf. Don’t think it will be long till they move into the back bays and your local lakes.
I personally am a life member of CCA, Board member of FGA, and been an active FRA member since I was able to comprehend the issues (attended the first meeting well before I had a driver’s license) and I feel that if you get involved with groups like these despite what you may here from a few jaded anglers or people who are looking for a reason not to get active they allow you to stay informed by their newsletter announcements, great informative meetings, their websites and great members… through networking at these different organizations I have been able to form my own educated opinions over the past 14 years (I am only 26) and it has been a blessing to be able to learn from some of the industry’s best!
I personally feel the following goals will really help our cause and what I personally work towards
-Getting rec sector involved and plugged in by getting educated, involved (by joining FGA, FRA, CCA or any angler advocacy group and telling their friends to as well), and then showing up to meetings or calling their congressman or writing them or both
-Getting the 3 sectors to get together and communicate (rec sector, for hire, commercial) we got to each fight for what we each need, but also we cannot fight each other we got to unite together against the people using self-admitted flawed data to make these regulations and make mid-season closures costing our state billions of dollars in tourism revenues
-Must call for accountability for NOAA’s NMFS and Gulf council shouldn’t be able to close billion dollar fisheries with little to no notice and no oversight
-Must address outdated data collection and the fact the NMFS is using self-admitted flawed data to regulate our fisheries in fed waters
-Address issues with MSA (Magnuson Stevens Act) allowing ‘best available science’ to be a convoluted moving target and how it’s very narrowly focused. The resulting management system is based on commercial fisheries management concepts like “maximum sustainable yield” and poundage-based “annual catch limits” that are monitored in real time. Given the nature of recreational fishing, which is based more on the experience than maximizing harvest, this type of management is generally not feasible or appropriate. Due to the inability to manage it in real time due to inability to collect real data the old phone surveys should be made illegal it should be criminal to still be using this type of data collection to limit our federal seasons.
This commercial based focus through IFQs will not work for the for hire or recreational sectors, because these two sectors must be managed under traditional management measures, seasons, bag limits and size limits NOT IFQs or fish tags. The opportunity to fish needs to be sustained, the fish tag or IFQ philosophy will not work for these sectors because out of the 100% of the rec efforts only 20-30% will catch fish and the remaining effort is all about the opportunity to catch fish and this effort supports bait shops, tourism and more. This opportunity needs to persist and the only way it can is through ensure this IFQ commercial system is not pushed onto for hire or rec sectors
We personally still identify as recreational anglers, and if your reading this at home thinking to yourself, “yea you might identify as a recreational anglers but you have 46 days more of red snapper” again this is NOT OUR FAULT and we vehemently opposed it from the start.
disappointed these issues have allowed NOAAs NMFS to divide and conquer our fishery I hope to one day help pave the way for the sectors to unite and stand up against these heinous management practices and the poor data being used to reduce our federal recreational seasons to nearly NOTHING
Remember my grandpa’s saying? “If you’re too busy to go fishing, you’re just too busy!”
Hoping my future generations will be able to fish offshore… we need your help!
JOIN THE FIGHT TODAY!
For more updates and info join my new FREE Facebook group I plan to use to disseminate helpful info and dates for upcoming meetings and such: https://www.facebook.com/groups/271053860022072/
Want to join Florida Guides Association, The Fishing Rights Alliance or the Coastal Conservation Association Florida? Check out this page and click their respective logos to join TODAY: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/fishing-regulations-gulf-of-mexico/
REGULATIONS MAY NOT UPDATED YET FOR ARS**
FOR HIRE FED PERMITTED SEASON opens 6/1/17 and closes 7/20/17 12:01am (49 days)
Recreational angling season is sadly only 6/1/17 until 6/4/17 at 12:01am (3 days)
NEXT MEETING THAT YOU CAN JOIN AND SPEAK YOUR MIND:
June 12-16, 2017
Sawgrass Marriott
1000 PGA Tour Boulevard
Ponte Vedra Beach FL 32082
Phone: 1-800-457-4653 or 904-285-7777
Fax: 904-285-0906
and we can keep them until July 20th at 12:01am. This could be seen as good news, but the terrible part is the recreational season is only going to be three days long. Due to this severely shortened season for recreational anglers (doesn’t include Hubbard’s Marina due to sector separation), there has been some serious hate coming our way and we want to clear up the issues and some history on these issues. If you care about our federal waters fishery please read fully the following:
Hubbard’s Marina DOES NOT SUPPORT SECTOR SEPARATION so before you think that we are happy with 3 day season for recreational anglers and our 49 day season for red snapper first realize that we have vehemently opposed this idea since it was first ever discussed and begged the recreational anglers to get involved in fighting against Sector separation (amendment 40) when that didn’t work we waiting till the sunset provision when it came up for a reinstatement and again we vehemently opposed it and urged recreational anglers to join us. Despite our opposition and actually a majority of fed permitted for hire sectors opposition the amendment was pushed through. (More than 3/4 of for hire sector opposed this still don’t know how it was passed) However, Sector separation is now law, there’s nothing more we can do about it but we still have to unite.
We now have THREE SEASONS for federal water red snapper fishery in the gulf, 3 days for rec anglers, 49 days for fed permitted for hire anglers, 365 days for commercial anglers
**THIS IS NOT ANY ANGLERS FAULT, and is totally unacceptable
THE GOAL OF THIS IS TO DIVIDE AND CONQUER ANGLERS, BY GETTING YOU TO BLAME us and the commercial sector if the recreational anglers feel annoyed and hate towards for hire and commercial because they have more days the people who actually make the laws (NOAAs NMFS) are not to blame
Why do you think they include commercial landing numbers in recreational announcements? This is purely a propaganda technique in our minds to get the sectors fighting against one another
3 day red snapper season for rec sector is caused by states being out of compliance. Texas has totally succeeded and has a year round red snapper fishery and has done this for years. Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have all increased state seasons well out of compliance with fed season. Due to all of this, the feds have penalized the rec sector season and seems to be softening up rec sector to accept the future plan of special interest groups to make fish tags or IFQs mandatory in fed waters for rec sector.
Special interest groups like Ocean conservancy and EDF have hijacked the gulf council and NOAAs and NMFS and is using them to twist the country’s regulatory group from managing the fishery for the citizens to saving the fish from the citizens who actually pay the salaries for the gulf council and NOAAs NMFS.
You MUST start to stand up for your rights, YOU must get education on the issues at hand, and you MUST get involved… if your sitting there reading this thinking ‘I don’t fish for red snapper why should I care’ well they are coming for your species next you think your safe inshore… time to wake up once they are done in fed waters you can bet your inshore fishery is next. They started in the North east and have moved down Atlantic coast into the gulf look at the stripper and fluke regulations and issues over past decade in the north east this is what we have to look forward to.
The only way to fix these issues is by the majority of anglers waking up and saying that’s enough.
We must unify, stop blaming your fellow angler… it’s not the commercial anglers or for-hire angler’s faults, its NOAAs NMFS who makes the regulations based on self-admitted flawed data not your fellow anglers.
All this to say, before you complain about the three day rec season why don’t you get involved and do something about it like the for hire and commercial sectors have done for decades!
Also, another example of us at Hubbard’s Marina putting recreational angler’s rights first… Remember the gulf head boat collaborative that so many supported that allowed local fed permitted boats keep gags out of season with special tags that Hubbard’s Marina opposed and didn’t get involved in costing us as a company business because we were standing up for recreational anglers rights that was the infancy of IFQs and that’s coming next!
———————————————
Personal note: I, Capt Dylan Hubbard pledge to continue the fight for angler’s rights as my grandfather and father have done before me. As a fourth generation local offshore angler I feel that these issues facing our industry are very appalling and only getting worse. The only way to stop it is through educating the mass recreational angling sector and getting everyone inshore and freshwater anglers alike to unite and fight before they start moving inshore… This is not just a Gulf of Mexico federal waters issue, look at what has happened along Atlantic coast and in Alaska now happening in the gulf. Don’t think it will be long till they move into the back bays and your local lakes.
I personally am a life member of CCA, Board member of FGA, and been an active FRA member since I was able to comprehend the issues (attended the first meeting well before I had a driver’s license) and I feel that if you get involved with groups like these despite what you may here from a few jaded anglers or people who are looking for a reason not to get active they allow you to stay informed by their newsletter announcements, great informative meetings, their websites and great members… through networking at these different organizations I have been able to form my own educated opinions over the past 14 years (I am only 26) and it has been a blessing to be able to learn from some of the industry’s best!
I personally feel the following goals will really help our cause and what I personally work towards
-Getting rec sector involved and plugged in by getting educated, involved (by joining FGA, FRA, CCA or any angler advocacy group and telling their friends to as well), and then showing up to meetings or calling their congressman or writing them or both
-Getting the 3 sectors to get together and communicate (rec sector, for hire, commercial) we got to each fight for what we each need, but also we cannot fight each other we got to unite together against the people using self-admitted flawed data to make these regulations and make mid-season closures costing our state billions of dollars in tourism revenues
-Must call for accountability for NOAA’s NMFS and Gulf council shouldn’t be able to close billion dollar fisheries with little to no notice and no oversight
-Must address outdated data collection and the fact the NMFS is using self-admitted flawed data to regulate our fisheries in fed waters
-Address issues with MSA (Magnuson Stevens Act) allowing ‘best available science’ to be a convoluted moving target and how it’s very narrowly focused. The resulting management system is based on commercial fisheries management concepts like “maximum sustainable yield” and poundage-based “annual catch limits” that are monitored in real time. Given the nature of recreational fishing, which is based more on the experience than maximizing harvest, this type of management is generally not feasible or appropriate. Due to the inability to manage it in real time due to inability to collect real data the old phone surveys should be made illegal it should be criminal to still be using this type of data collection to limit our federal seasons.
This commercial based focus through IFQs will not work for the for hire or recreational sectors, because these two sectors must be managed under traditional management measures, seasons, bag limits and size limits NOT IFQs or fish tags. The opportunity to fish needs to be sustained, the fish tag or IFQ philosophy will not work for these sectors because out of the 100% of the rec efforts only 20-30% will catch fish and the remaining effort is all about the opportunity to catch fish and this effort supports bait shops, tourism and more. This opportunity needs to persist and the only way it can is through ensure this IFQ commercial system is not pushed onto for hire or rec sectors
We personally still identify as recreational anglers, and if your reading this at home thinking to yourself, “yea you might identify as a recreational anglers but you have 46 days more of red snapper” again this is NOT OUR FAULT and we vehemently opposed it from the start.
disappointed these issues have allowed NOAAs NMFS to divide and conquer our fishery I hope to one day help pave the way for the sectors to unite and stand up against these heinous management practices and the poor data being used to reduce our federal recreational seasons to nearly NOTHING
Remember my grandpa’s saying? “If you’re too busy to go fishing, you’re just too busy!”
Hoping my future generations will be able to fish offshore… we need your help!
JOIN THE FIGHT TODAY!
For more updates and info join my new FREE Facebook group I plan to use to disseminate helpful info and dates for upcoming meetings and such: https://www.facebook.com/groups/271053860022072/
Want to join Florida Guides Association, The Fishing Rights Alliance or the Coastal Conservation Association Florida? Check out this page and click their respective logos to join TODAY: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/fishing-regulations-gulf-of-mexico/
REGULATIONS MAY NOT UPDATED YET FOR ARS**
FOR HIRE FED PERMITTED SEASON opens 6/1/17 and closes 7/20/17 12:01am (49 days)
Recreational angling season is sadly only 6/1/17 until 6/4/17 at 12:01am (3 days)
NEXT MEETING THAT YOU CAN JOIN AND SPEAK YOUR MIND:
June 12-16, 2017
Sawgrass Marriott
1000 PGA Tour Boulevard
Ponte Vedra Beach FL 32082
Phone: 1-800-457-4653 or 904-285-7777
Fax: 904-285-0906
Regular’s club
Next seminar is May 20th at 2pm at the Tampa Bass Pro Shops, hope you can make it out to join us! Also, please read above about 2017 red snapper season and issues facing our fishery.
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
