Fishing report
Inshore– The sheepshead have been biting well around Johns Pass especially around the docks, rocks, and jetties! Braeden Durbin and his friend Steven Metz, both from Seminole, were catching nice sheepshead Tuesday of this past week on the incoming tide using pieces of oysters for bait. Plus, they were fishing Monday together and got three nice sized redfish and a limit of sheepshead on the outgoing tide using shrimp for bait fishing the North West corner of the Johns Pass Bridge. They reported that the outgoing tide seemed to have a much better bite and more action. The trout action is still steady in the back bays, our local inshore fishing guides report the shallow waters are holding big trout trying to stay warm. We have a strong front pushing through right now, that should make the sheepies and black drum feed well on the back side of that blow and the trout will be easy to find in the backwaters.
Near shore– The hogfish are home and are biting better, that trend should continue into march/April when we see the bite peak. We’re catching some big dogs and good numbers of them on the ten hour all day using live shrimp and light tackle like a 30lb floro leader and a light knocker, Nekid ball jig or jig head tipped with shrimp. The red grouper bite has been okay but nothing crazy yet, they should also continue to improve as the spring approaches. Right now the fishing nearshore and offshore is totally depending on the timing of fronts. Fishing is awesome right before a front, then gets bad with the weather, then behind a front as the waters calm and clear up and the barometer stabilizes the fishing gets really good again! Really important to watch the weather and time you near shore or offshore adventure around these continual fronts.
Offshore– The 44 hour full moon trip this past weekend absolutely smashed the fish, the boxes were slap full and we only had eighteen lucky anglers on board! It was a super light load but super heavy bite. The first mate, Will McClure stated it was the ‘best fishing ever’ when he called in the report from the Sat phone on the way inshore. They had huge jacks that were tricky to find at first. Then tons of fat red grouper, scamp grouper, mangroves, lanes, vermillion, porgies, and more bottom species. Big tuna and plenty of them plus some nice smoker kings. Finally, to top it off they got an entire boat limit of grey triggerfish! That was a great view to see all those triggers and boy do they taste great too! Amberjack stay open until January 27th at 12:01am and Triggerfish open until January 16th at 12:01am meaning the 26th is the last day for jacks and the 15th for triggerfish. We would recommend a 12 hour extreme trip or the January 19th 39 hour for your best chances at jacks and the extreme trips before the 15th for the best chances at monster triggerfish.
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 city of Madeira beach’s rec department is hosting an event with PARC and Tampa bay ferry and taxi. We are going to be taking a group of kids out from the rec center on the Madeira beach water taxi for a fun filled cruise of the bay! We’re looking forward to being able to give them a great day on the water and want to thank PARC and the City of Madeira Beach to allow us to be involved with such an awesome opportunity to give back to our local community!
Hubbard’s Marina Sea Adventures, Tampa bay ferry and taxi, and the Madeira beach water taxi are all now proudly power by Honda Marine! If you come visit us for a dolphin tour, sunset cruise, Egmont key island trip, snorkeling, shelling, water taxi ride or any type of ferry or pleasure cruise trip then you will be riding a boat powered by Honda Marine! These new motors look great, are super quiet and are great on fuel economy! It was tough to get four boats re-powered with new engines but it was well worth the change and were very happy! Hope you get a chance to see these brand new super cool engines at work on board one of our pleasure cruise and ferry boats! To learn more about Honda Marine engines for your boat, check out their website: https://marine.honda.com/ they have the best warranty in the industry right now, you get a full 5 years and you just can’t beat that!
We are also working to expand our water taxi further come spring 2018, we will be adding a route from Fort De Soto boat ramp to shell key and the sand bar in Bunces pass we have nicknamed Jeff’s island!
Great time to join the water taxi, and don’t forget you can bring you coolers and pets on the Madeira beach water taxi!
We have a brand new route for the Tampa bay Ferry! Check out the new route here: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/madeira-beach-water-taxi/
Madeira beach Water taxi is running Friday-Sunday 10am-10pm right now and now that the weather has cooled down it’s a great time to enjoy a relaxing boat ride around the bay!
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
The four local Baby dolphins are doing well and growing up fast. Even baby tig born June 3rd and bitten by a shark June 4th is all healed and happy growing up fast!
Special time of year for sunset cruise because were able to visit bird nesting island before sunset when the seabirds are showing back up to the island. It’s great to get a chance to see all the seabirds in a large group on the island.
Right now were finding large groups of dolphins grouped up chasing big schools of mullet up to the local seawalls. The smart dolphins use the seawall to keep the mullet the tightly grouped up so they can pick off fat mullet easily. This is an awesome opportunity to see groups of dolphins actively feeding.
Lately our local dolphin population has been very active and playful with plenty acrobatic displays completely out of the water. It’s a great time to get out and enjoy a dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour or a ride on the Madeira Beach water taxi!
This time of year the mating plumage is starting to show up on the local seabirds. This makes the views around the bird nesting islands even more unique and enjoyable.
Hubbard’s Marina Sea Adventures, Tampa bay ferry and taxi, and the Madeira beach water taxi are all now proudly power by Honda Marine! If you come visit us for a dolphin tour, sunset cruise, Egmont key island trip, snorkeling, shelling, water taxi ride or any type of ferry or pleasure cruise trip then you will be riding a boat powered by Honda Marine! These new motors look great, are super quiet and are great on fuel economy! It was tough to get four boats re-powered with new engines but it was well worth the change and were very happy! Hope you get a chance to see these brand new super cool engines at work on board one of our pleasure cruise and ferry boats! To learn more about Honda Marine engines for your boat, check out their website: https://marine.honda.com/ They have the best warranty in the industry right now, you get a full 5 years and you just can’t beat that!
Upcoming up at Hubbard’s Marina
Want to win a FREE 10 hour all day or FREE 5 hour half day at Hubbard’s Marina? Join Captain Dylan Hubbard (https://www.facebook.com/CaptainDylanHubbard/) for a great seminar at Bass Pro Shops Tampa on Saturday January 20th at 2pm! For more information, check out the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2033606443521616/
Triggerfish and Amberjack are BOTH open for harvest right now for a brief season. Amberjack are open January 1-January 27th at 12:01am meaning January 26th is the last day to get them. Triggerfish are open January 1-January 16th at 12:01am meaning January 15th is the last day to get some triggers before they close. Triggerfish should re-open March, April and May and Amberjack should re-open May, August, September and October. If you want to get these guys while they are open, we have TONS of light loads ready to harvest these species. For amberjack, we would recommend a 12 hour extreme, 39 hour long range overnight, or 44 hour full moon trip. For trigger fish we catch them on nearly every trip but 10 hour all days, 12 hour Extremes, 39 hours or 44 hours are best.
January 19th we have a 39 hour long range overnight trips with a light loads as well! This trip is a great shot at big jacks, fat red grouper, scamp grouper, vermillion snapper, porgies, tuna, and tons more! Plus, Keep in mind you get a two day bag limit on this trip allowing you to keep twice what you normally could on a day trip!
We also have 12 hour extreme trips running every Wednesday and Sunday that are all running light for the month of January!
2018 specialty trip schedule is now LIVE on the Hubbard’s Marina website! To see all the 12, 39, 44 and 63 hour trips for the next year check it out here: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/specialty-fishing-trip-schedule/
We have changed around a lot of stuff on our website, you should check out the added material on our FAQs page to further explain bait options, best spots on the boat, rod rental options and lots more helpful information to hopefully help first time anglers with us have a more quality experience. To see the changes, check out the FAQs: https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/faqs/
Gag grouper also open up June first and remain open until the end of 2017 so get ready for some big grouper fishing action with us at Hubbard’s Marina.
Regular’s club
PLEASE sign up for the 2018 clubs or renew your 2017 membership ASAP, we are doing our end of year cleaning of the club and your membership will be changed to inactive if you don’t renew soon! Don’t let your membership laps and loose seniority, call us today and get set up for the 2018 regular’s club membership!
Remember, this is a loyalty program not a discount program so you got to go fishing often to make it worth it for yourself.
Captains Mark and Dylan Hubbard
Vice president and Regular’s club manager Hubbard’s Marina
(727)393-1947 ext 306
CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com
Hubbard’s Marina Preferred Partner Showcase:
The Bilmar beach resort on Treasure Island has a brand new look for 2018! If you haven’t seen their new look they have done huge renovations to the outside and inside of their beautiful beachfront hotel. Their new rooms are gorgeous and very modern looking. Plus, they have a whole new look and feel for the brand new year. If you haven’t already, you have to look into staying at the beautiful Bilmar beach resort just down the street from Hubbard’s Marina and Johns Pass and only around the corner from the Madeira Beach Water Taxi’s Treasure Island stop behind the Middle grounds grill! If you stay at the Bilmar it’s only a short walk to the water taxi and a relaxing boat ride throughout Madeira beach and into Johns Pass!
