Fishing report
Inshore- Inshore fishing around the pass has been good lately especially at night the snook, tarpon and trout were all biting this past week at night. John Sasser and his buddies were straight slaying the snook this past week with dozens caught in the 35-40 inch range using the rattle hawk jigs worked slowly right above the bottom of Johns Pass along the jetties and near the bridge. Before sunrise the past three days John or his buddies have been hooking into massive tarpon giving them a great show and run for their money but they haven’t been able to land one quite yet due to being shore based fisherman using lighter tackle than what would be required to land one of these beautiful fish from shore. On a boat being able to chase a tarpon you can land em with a 6000-8000 series reel but from shore a bit 9ot conventional or shark fishing style set up is typically what it takes to land those fish from shore using big chunks of dead bait. Besides the snook and tarpon, also at night around the lights of the pass some nice speckled trout are hitting the plentiful flushing live shrimp in the lights and working a DOA shrimp naturally through the light lines with some light tackle is a great way to target these fun fighting fish. If you’re looking for something to eat, the mangrove snapper are biting well during the day and at night as well just around the tides. Right at the start of the outgoing tide seems to be the best with some lighter tackle and cut pieces of white bait or shrimp. You can even cheat a bit and chum the area first on slack tide to get the fish primed ready to go off when the tide starts to move.
Near shore- Mackerel fishing has been a little slow but this week we saw a resurgence of mackerel off the beaches around the artificial wrecks chasing the bait schools that occasionally drift too far from shore. Also, the red grouper bite is still going well in the deepest near shore waters around the 90ft plus depths with the longer squid strips or the baby octopus. Mangrove snapper are spawning this time of year so they are in big aggregations above larger structures and this causes some difficulty finding them but when you do stumble across the biomass they are pretty fiercely feeding well. Lane snapper, vermilions and most all the other snapper species are spawning this time of year as well so once you get on top of the species you are looking for the area seems to produce well on that species. Most of the fishing we are doing is further from shore right now due to the red snapper season being so short and open right now. We are doing our best to capitalize on this short season and catch them all while we can!
Offshore – Deeper is best this time of year, with the hot water temps and the red snapper and gags being the targeted species of choice you cannot go deep enough to get on top of these fish. Definitely beyond 150-160 is where you want to start and even up to 200ft or more is where you want to be to find the massive and consistent and plentiful red snapper, fat gag grouper, and nice scamp too! We are seeing even the mangrove snapper are out in deeper waters too. Trips fishing around 120-160 seem to flounder a bit lately while trips focusing closer to 160-200 or more are doing MUCH better on nearly all the species from red snapper to mangroves to scamp to gags to porgies and even the pelagics. Were seeing some monster mahi mahi, occasional tuna, and spotty kingfish with the unicorn of a wahoo in the mix of pelagics out there closer to 200ft of water! Join us for a 12 hour extreme trip or 39 hour long range trip before the red snapper close august 2nd at 12:01am to go get a chance at fishing deep for these great eating fish. Remember, Deeper is better!
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Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina
Red snapper season is in full swing and we still have spots left on our Tuesday and Sunday 39 hours in June with the occasional spot open on the Friday adventures too! The 12 hour extreme trips are more full since they only take up to 16 people but there’s still trips in June with availability and July has lots of trips with room for you and your group! If you want to hop on one of these trips BOOK NOW spots are filling fast and June is nearly full, still some room in July but it will not last long! Call us at (727)393-1947 or book online at -> https://HubbardsMarina.com
LIVE SHOW THIS SUNDAY! Just two days until the June 30th Sunday night live show at 8:30pm! Join us if you want to learn more about fishing locally and WIN FREE FISHING TRIPS without leaving your house! Don’t forget we have the Weekly fishing conversation or seminar by Capt Dylan Hubbard LIVE on the Hubbard’s Marina Facebook & YouTube page if you don’t want to leave your house to catch a seminar! This is weekly on Sunday nights from 8:30pm until 9:30pm, check out the event page and PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE the event if you have a Facebook page, and invite your friends as well! Here’s the Facebook event page please check it out and click ‘going’ or ‘Interested’ to get reminders and stay tuned for updates, plus it helps us spread the word! https://www.facebook.com/events/303974027187430/
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
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
PRIVATE CHARTERS CATCHING TONS OF RED SNAPPER! The Flying HUB 2 is booked up every day in June for private fishing charters but there’s some room left in July. The Flying HUB 1 which is just as fast just a little smaller of a boat that can only do up to six passengers is open most of June just the weekends are booked up while July is still fairly wide open including some weekend bookings too! Keep in mind you can get red snapper even on a 8-10 hour private fishing charter on these fast boats, but the best route is looking at booking a 12 hour trip to fish the same areas as our 12 hour extreme and 39 hour trips!
Captain Jack’s Dolphin Corner
Along with the big herds of manatees we have been spotting, the new baby dolphins and the occasional sea turtle we are noticing some new white egret nests around the bird nesting island hanging out in their nests!
We have two new baby dolphins in our area making it a great time to come join Capt Jack and Capt Dave for a relaxing dolphin watching nature cruise and Eco tour through the back protected bay waters behind Johns Pass from Madeira Beach! The big Blue boat has been spotting these two newborn dolphins with their mothers in a large playful group of local dolphins and they have been coming right up to the boat to play along side and show off their newly learn skills to our guests! Our 175 local dolphins are growing in number and this summer looks like that number will continue to swell. We have named the two new dolphins Daniel and Rudy after passengers aboard the boat when we spotted them the first time, come for a ride for a chance to have a newborn named after you!
The warmer waters have the local manatees out in good numbers cruising the back bay grass flats chomping down on their favorite food, our local turtle grass. This makes it easy to spot these unique creatures. Typically they are hard to spot only sticking their snout out of the water for a few seconds and then diving down deep for up to 8-10 minutes before poking their small nose out again. Right now, along the shallow grass flats its easy to spot them and they seem to chill out giving our passengers great opportunities for plenty of photos from the big blue boat, our dolphin cruise boat at Hubbard’s Marina inside Johns Pass!
It maybe very late in the season but our local bird nesting island or rookery named Dog Leg Key has plenty of baby birds left in their nests and the juvenile birds born further back are starting to hop around the branches and learning to fly making it a great time to Join us at Hubbard’s Marina for one of these relaxing, fun for the whole family, dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour aboard our big blue boat departing Johns Pass daily at 1,3 and 5pm!
Call us today to book your dolphin tour at (727)393-1947 and get more information on this trip at our website here -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/dolphin-watching-cruises/
Tampa bay ferry News
The warm summertime weather is here making it a great time to escape to the islands with us aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry by Hubbard’s Marina. Walking the beaches in the morning looking for the sharks teeth and shells and then spend the day time swimming or snorkeling is a great family fun escape from the tourist filled beaches on the mainland. Also, we are seeing tons of local marine life traveling to and from Egmont Key and Shell Key islands! For more info on our cruises check out all the options on our website -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/sunset-dolphin-cruises-gulf-beaches-florida/
The warmer weather has the local tortoises out to play at Egmont key island, great time to visit the island to see plenty of these slow moving tortoise sunning themselves and enjoying some rays during the day!
We have been spotting lots of manatees around the Egmont Key and Shell Key Islands lately, come join us for a day of fun in the in the sun at the island aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry by Hubbard’s Marina.
We also have tons of sea turtle nests at both Egmont Key and Shell Key islands and it’s the peak of sea turtle nesting season! Great opportunity to see some nests and maybe spot some sea turtles cruising the water ways. However, its important to remember and remind your friends, family and children to fill in any holes you dig while enjoying the beaches as the sea turtles that come ashore to lay eggs and make nests can become trapped or disorientated by holes left by beach goers.
Right now they are doing beach re-nourishment on the west side of Egmont Key Island right now which inhibits exploring the full north end of the island like normal. However, that does make it a killer time for sharks teeth finds as the sand they bring up to the beaches and set down on the existing sand is ripe with great fresh shells, fossils and huge sharks teeth even the big pristine megladon teeth that people find as trophies during their visits to Egmont Key island!
If you enjoy snorkeling NOW is the time to get out to Egmont Key Island for some snorkeling fun. The waters are super clear right now especially on the incoming tides, but once the water continues to warm and the summer time afternoon rain storms become normal occurrences daily then the local waters lose their super clear appearance. Come join us asap for a day of island fun with a side of snorkeling adventure aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry from the Bay pier at Fort De Soto park to Egmont Key Island.
Our Shell Key ferry ride aboard the Tampa Bay Ferry from Fort De Soto’s boat ramp to Shell Key Island is spotting tons of manatees right now along their route to their island. It’s a great time to visit that island too for great shells, crystal clear waters on the west side of the island and great exploring on the west side of the island.
The Egmont key ferry from Fort De Soto offers 10am and 11am ferry rides to the island daily this time of year, plus on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we offer a 2pm ferry ride from Fort De Soto out to Egmont Key Island! You get three hours on the island after around a 20-30 minute ride out and back to the island. Plus, we often see dolphins, seabirds and sometimes even sea turtles on the ride out and back thus the ride time can fluctuate a bit depending on what we spot during the cruise out to your island oasis! For more info on the Egmont key ferry, visit this page of the Hubbard’s Marina website – https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/egmont-key-ferry-cruise/
Our Shell key ferry trips are a great way to spend the day and offer more flexible schedules compared to the rigid Egmont key schedule! We offer these trips DAILY from the boat ramp at Fort De Soto County Park and they run at 10am, noon and 2pm and the final return time is 4pm! You have much more flexibility during the shell key trips compared to our Egmont key ferry because you get to choose the time you return to fort de Soto from Shell key! If you’re looking for plenty of time on the island and great shelling opportunities then the shell key ferry trip is your best bet! Check out all the information on this special ferry ride at this link – https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/shell-key-ferry/
Regular’s club
We have finished 2019 regular’s club renewals and we are starting on signing up NEW MEMBERS, if you are interested in becoming a 2019 regular’s club loyalty program member please reach out to Capt. Dylan Hubbard by sending him your name and cell number via email to CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com. He will be in touch in the coming few weeks about the loyalty program that offers discounted trips if you fish more than 10,15 or 20 times a year with us at Hubbard’s Marina. It also comes with some free gifts and other benefits too besides discounted trips, but it’s NOT simply a discount program. It’s a loyalty program and it requires fishing often and being a model Hubbard’s Marina guest and showing the passion shared by all of us at Hubbard’s Marina for fishing and our fellow anglers.
PAST AND PRESENT MEMBERS: be sure to renew your membership before 2018 ends!
Captain Dylan Hubbard
Vice president and Co-Owner
(727)393-1947 ext. 306
CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com
UPDATED Coupon information
Hubbard’s Marina sweatshirts only $20 while supplies last!
We have a variety of sizes and colors and styles, get em’ while they last!
Expiration – when they are gone!
Preferred partner spotlight
Try one of our new menu items at the Friendly Fisherman like the super amazing Fresh Grouper Tacos!
Two tortillas with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo,
cheddar cheese, chipotle mayonnaise and sour cream.
For only $17.45
