Snook fishing is going well throughout the area, but we are nearing the end of our typical summertime pattern as days shorten and fall looms. This means fish are already starting to leave the beaches and passes and move to their staging areas prior to their wintertime departures to the creeks, rivers, and bayous. However, we are still seeing plentiful snook being caught on the beaches and in the passes. It’s that time when fish start to move so it’s your opportunity to get them while the getting is good before they really thin out in the passes and on the beaches. We are seeing still plenty of the schoolie sized smaller snook just under and into slot sized around the flats, mangroves and inshore areas too. Great time to target them as they start to move and look for them in those staging areas where they can ambush passing baits in the current.

Redfish action is going well throughout the area, and we are seeing more and more often the big schools of redfish moving around the grass flats and oyster bars. The water is still warm so soaking the big chunks of dead baits around the mangrove shorelines are a good idea, but if you find the schooling fish throwing white bait, live shrimp or the soft plastics are good ideas. We are seeing the schools more and more commonly and we will see them more often as we move into mid to late September.

Trout action is going steady around the area as well, nothing crazy but some nice fish being caught along the jetties, out on the beaches and around the edges of the flats. Also, while fishing deeper flats around 4-8ft of water we have found better numbers of trout on the flats. The night time trout fishing around dock lights and bridge lights have been going well too. Especially with less moon light around the past week they were really concentrating around those artificial light sources at night. Now that we are building to a full moon the dock light fishing will be less productive as fish will not be as concentrated on the artificial lights.

Mangrove snapper still extremely prolific around our local area structures but we are already starting to see them spread out as days shorten and we get more to that fall time of year. We are seeing the clouds of mangroves lessen as the summer comes to an end. However, we still have plenty of time in deeper water where structure is more substantial of plentiful mangroves. Most local bridges will hold mangrove snapper all year, but we see the numbers lessen as we move into later September. Light tackle, minimal weight and slower moving tides are all things you want to use to target the mangroves with better success.

Black drum are still super prolific around local bridges especially around tampa bay. However, some other bridges like tierre verde bridge, sand key bridge and blinds pass will hold them too just in less concentrations. Soaking crustaceans like crabs or big shrimp at the bottom is the best way to target them but looking around the bridge with a bottom machine to find the school is a good idea before setting up to drop baits. If you don’t have a good bottom machine fish just outside of the main spans on either side.

Mackerel are thick again around the mouth of the bay and around the bay area bridges. We are seeing some good schools of bait flushing out of the bay and that’s attracting high numbers of the mackerel. We are seeing them on deeper flats, around the passes and bridges where ever you find high concentrations of bait.

**REMEMBER, please help spread the word and knowledge on what to do if you hook or entangle a bird. NEVER CUT THE LINE, stay calm and reel in the bird and get all your line back and dehook them and release. Never leave any line in the water, if you accidentally hook a dock make sure to break the line off at the hook never cut your line. Seabirds in the area are more and more often showing up with line hanging off them and we are in danger of loosing access to fishing areas due to this. While anytime a bird is in danger or having issues is concerning too, but a wave of support of closing areas to fishing due to negative bird interactions is extremely concerning to an already dwindling number of areas you can fish around Tampa Bay from a shoreline, dock, bridge or pier! Check out the NEW podcast we did with salt strong on this issue – https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/shutting-down-fishing-at-busy-pier/ **

Red grouper fishing is steady near shore, but the deeper you go the more luck you will have. We are still seeing endless numbers of the smaller red grouper which makes catching a keeper sized fish a bit trickier, but it’s a great sign for the future of our fishery. That is, if people are taking care to get them up quick, dehooked quickly, and back in the water quickly either with a venting tool or descending device if needed. If they are floating away dead then they will never get big enough for anyone to keep so make sure you are prepared with a good quality dehooking tool, like our hook extractor here: https://shop.hubbardsmarina.com/shop/Tackle/Tools/Hook-Extractors–Dehookers/p/Hook-Extractor-Barracuda-135-x56386467.htm
Lane snapper continue to be prolific for us while near shore fishing around 50-70ft up to the deepest near shore water. We are seeing them in good numbers on our 10 hour all day and also a few on our 5 hour half day too. These guys love live shrimp, small chunks of squid, or the smaller pieces of the threadfin too! Great time to get out there and fire down some smaller baits for endless lane snapper.

Vermillion snapper are around when fishing the deepest near shore waters around 70-100ft of water. We are finding them on the squid chunks or small pieces of threadfin. These guys are great eating and we find them most often on those deeper water ten hour all days or the private fishing charters in the 6-10hr range aboard the HUB.

Hogfish action picked up a bit for us this past week with some decent numbers picked up while private fishing charter fishing aboard the HUB. We also saw an increase in them on our 10hr all day. While it wasn’t huge numbers like we will see in a few more weeks as waters cool, it was a good sign to see them already starting to bite better.

Red grouper have unfortunately closed due to the quota being filled or at least projected to be filled. We may see that re open before the end of the year if they discover there is quota leftover around mid to late October. So when the data comes in and is reviewed we may here around that time that red grouper will re open for a short period, or it will not again until January first upon the start of 2023.

Amberjack have opened up as red grouper closed so now we have another big fish to target while offshore fishing out in deeper water. We are seeing these guys pretty well the last few weeks while targeting gags, scamp and fat red grouper out deep. Now that they are open, we are going to target them harder and we hope to find them in good concentrations this weekend on our first 39 hour to target them.

Gag grouper fishing still going pretty good for us offshore too. We are finding them on our long range private fishing charters aboard the HUB or Flying HUB 2 but also on the 12hr extreme, 39 hour or 44 hour too! Big dead baits have been king, but we are starting to see a move to bigger live baits lately too.

Scamp groupers are biting well while out deep. They love the threadfins, smaller to medium pinfish, and the slow pitch jigs. We are seeing them most commonly during the day on the deep water trips, but once your past around 120-140ft of water you have a better chance at catching them.

Yellowtail snapper have been more common lately and we are seeing them best on the threadfin chunks and some small strips of squid. They seemingly mixed in around our mangrove snapper fishing areas on those long range trips.

Mangrove snapper fishing has been going really well for us offshore and we have been seeing a pretty large average size. Great time to get out there and enjoy a chance for some big mangroves

We do have a super light 39 hour coming up Tuesday September 6^th if you want to join Capt Garett Hubbard and around two dozen anglers to target jacks, gags, scamp, mangroves, yellowtail, and others… BOOK NOW – https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/39hr-overnight-fishing-trip/

REMEMBER, when fishing deeper near shore of especially offshore the Descend Act is in effect so when in federal waters you must have a descending device or venting tool ‘rigged and ready’ so be prepared with that venting tool if you know exactly where to vent the fish, but if you don’t here’s some helpful tips – https://bit.ly/3L5HTnv Plus, keep in mind using a descending device is super easy and doesn’t take much practice or as much precision as venting does, and right now you can get over $100 in FREE DESCENDING DEVICE GEAR by visiting this link and taking a short course on barotrauma mitigation techniques that will help more fish survive! The course is only about 10-15 minutes, and it will really help you preserve, protect, and proliferate our offshore fishery so spread the word -> https://returnemright.org/

TERMS OF REFERENCE-

INSHORE – from the back bays out to the bridges and including right on the beaches

NEAR SHORE – From the beaches out to twenty miles, or up to 100ft of water

OFFSHORE – from twenty miles or 100ft and beyond

For more fishing reports, photos, videos and more check out Hubbard’s Marina on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, Twitter, Pinterest or Snap Chat just simply search @HubbardsMarina and do not 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