Fishing report
Inshore-
Its been a wild week for sure weather wise with an intense midweek period with lots of rain and surge to say the least. This weather will cause a huge influx of fresh water to the estuaries and bay the next few days as everything tries to equalize. This brackish water push will spread out those redfish and get them feeding heavily around the flats, oyster bars, dock lines and really have the smaller fish feeding well. Bigger redfish are staging up and heading near shore with these big outbound tides behind the weather for some near shore spawns. Around the area it is a great time to target the redfish behind this weather.
This weekend looks like we have a great little weather window into the start of next week where we see a big high pressure settling in and bringing us more wind. Take advantage of the great weather today through Monday and get out to fish! The sheepshead are showing up in decent numbers and sizes but we still have a lot of the mangrove snapper around the structures too. Great time to see a Little of both around our local bridges, docks, piers and jetties.
Trout are really moving around the passes at night on the bridge lights and dock lights and in the bay around the points of mangrove shorelines and grass flats adjacent. Trout are starting to stage up on these areas for their winter-feeding time. We are seeing some truly monster trout starting to be caught and as the water cools, they should get more and more prolific and aggressive. Often where you get one there will be plenty more too!
Snook fishing was great before the weather with active fish around the docks, piers and some in the passes at night on the incoming tides. During the day we are seeing great numbers of 20-24 inch snook around the flats and mangrove shorelines. Live shrimp or green backs work well but I like the live pinfish around the docks and structures.
As the waters clear out a bit on the strong incoming tides the mackerel should still be biting well around our local fishing piers, passes and other areas that were holding these fish before the weather. Might be a little more spread out for a bit with murky stirred up water and high levels of fresh water making the bays appear more ‘brown’ but that will stabilize after a day or two.
Near Shore & Offshore-
We haven’t been able to get out there near shore or offshore since our last report essentially due to this wild weather. However, we couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead the next few days. The benefit of bad weather is definitely what it does to the fish near shore and offshore. These fish are just like us when bad weather moves through they go and take cover. They group up together at the bigger structures like big ledges, wrecks, peaks, rock piles and whatever else they can make work through the storms. When the storm clears and waters calm down and clear up they come out of their hunkered down spots and are ready to eat!
It will be a big race offshore as the weather calms today and tomorrow to those big ledges and structures where these fish hold up. Even common areas like public reefs and numbers will be holding much more quality fish than typical behind a storm like this. However, remember waters not only got to calm down, they also need to clear up. So inside 80-100ft of water it may take a day or two or even three of calm weather before those fish ‘turn’ back on. Deeper waters are less likely to get murky behind a storm since they are often too deep to let weather disturb the bottom layer of water and make the bottom area dirty. Beyond 100ft often as soon as the water calms down the bite will turn on much faster.
Gag grouper will push in closer behind this storm for sure and they should be ready to eat in a big way around those ledges, rock piles, wrecks and other areas. They love live pinfish, pigfish or squirrelfish on big tackle. These guys are all about busting your leader off in the bottom if you are soaking a live bait for gags you have to have your hand on the reel and be ready for war at a millisecond’s notice. As soon as that bite comes you got to start reeling that medium to low gear ratio conventional reel like it has a million dollars at the other end all while lifting up with all your might and not stopping until you got him ‘beat’. This means you get 10-20 cranks on that fish and he’s up off the bottom. Then you can slow your roll and relax and finesse him the rest of the way with slower but always steady pressure.
The kingfish action along with plentiful mackerel should show back up quickly with the bait as the waters calm and clear up. We are looking forward to a stellar weather weekend here with some incredible fishing action to boot. If you have ever considered getting out there to go fishing this is the weekend to do it!
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
NEW 39 hour trip ADDED to the schedule coming up Tuesday Nov 17th with TONS of room! Book this trip if your looking for a lighter load gag grouper hunt this November and hopefully this will be on the backside of that bad weather with an incredible bite going NUTS behind this storm!
39 hours resume with great gag grouper action, big mangroves & MORE! This time of year is a perfect time to get out there deep to hunt those big gag grouper and snapper and perhaps get a big pelagic or two as well. Don’t miss out on your chance to go deep and bring home some nice grouper and snapper!
Amberjack close Saturday and triggerfish just closed on the 26th but there’s still plenty of grouper and snapper to catch before the year is over!
The BEST time for gag grouper action is November and December so get out there on a 12 hour extreme or 39 hour for some grouper digging action. Just keep in mind, this time of year the weather can be treacherous with cold fronts barraging the area. However, these fronts are what excite the grouper so it’s a double edged sword.
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
