Fishing report
Inshore-
Snook action is going well around the bay area right now especially in the estuary areas as many of the fish start to move back in the bay as the water cools. You can find them active on the grass flats, mangrove shorelines and starting to see them at the mouths of the creeks and rivers. Closer to the mouth of the bay we are still seeing some very late season fish along the beaches during the day too, but numbers are much lower than the summertime peak. The passes are still holding some fish too, at night on the incoming tide seems to be the peak time lately. This week the white plastic paddle tail and flairhawk style jigs were the favorite around the passes at night. During the day on the beaches, flats and shorelines they are love the live white bait, live shrimp or swim baits along with the soft plastic paddle tails.
Redfish action is steady throughout the area as well. Cut bait has been king for these guys, but were seeing many bite on the slow moving soft plastics on the bottom from DOA shrimp to paddle tails. Live shrimp with minimal weight will also work for the redfish bite. They are moving into the canals lately and still plenty of fish out on the flats in the passes and along the mangroves. This time of year, you can still find the big schools of feeding reds from time to time on the flats.
Trout action has picked up nicely as of late and will continue to improve with cooling temps. We are seeing these guys around those grass flat areas where there’s a nice roll, drop off, pothole, or some sort of ambush spot they can hang to feed actively on all the passing bait. They are loving live shrimp or white bait but a variety of soft plastics work but I suggest the artificial shrimp like the DOA shrimp. We are seeing these guys at night around the docks and bridge lights too.
Sheepshead action is really heating up as the waters continue to cool. The best places to find them are around the bridges, docks, piers and other structures. However, you can find them on the oyster bars too and when you find an oyster bar, mangroves and a bridge or dock close by you have found your sheepshead honey hole! They will eat a variety of small crabs from mud crabs to fiddler crabs and even mangrove crabs. They love cut oysters or clams. You can use barnacles even or small pieces of shrimp. Small hooks and light tackle and minimal weight if any at all is preferrable to target these great eating and fun fighting fish.
Mackerel action is going well around the beaches, mouth of the bay and passes. We are seeing some of these fish even travel up in the bay around the deepest edges of the flats and hanging around the bridges busting bait schools. There are a few kingfish mixed in at the mouth of the bay too so you never know what you may hook up with out there. They are holding around the artificial reefs and rock piles at the mouth of bay as well. The best time to target the mackerel from shore would be in the earlier morning from around sunrise to mid-morning when water is at the clearest.
Flounder are starting to pick up still, nothing wild yet but they will get better and better as the waters continue to cool. Look for them on the bottom in the sandy areas adjacent to the flats, structures or dock lines. They hang right on the bottom and love live shrimp or small bait fish to venture too close to their sandy hideouts.
Tripletail are biting well around the crab buoys along the shoreline. Great time to get out there and do some sight fishing. You may even run across the occasional cobia while cruising the buoys so be ready for him too! The tripletail love the live shrimp or even artificial shrimp tossed close to their buoy hide out. You can also find them on floating debris, channel markers, and sometimes even dock lines. We found a big triple tail this past week hiding under a coconut just off the beaches.
Near Shore & Offshore-
The fishing is HOT out there near shore and offshore right now when the weather is good and the weather looks great this weekend until Sunday night. I cannot stress the importance of taking advantage of this weather window while it is here! We are going to have a few cold fronts this coming week it seems that will make the first half of the week and then the coming weekend not so fishable and conditions less than perfect to get out there to target these waters. Looks like we will have little weather windows to get out our mid week 39 hour next week and our 39 hour for the weekend but they both will be bumpy compared to the perfect weather our 44 hour full moon trip will have this weekend.
The hogfish bite is going extremely well now and seems to only want to improve. We are seeing quite a few on our half day trips and some all days are seeing more than two dozen! They are biting best around 40-80ft of water right now on the lighter tackle and live shrimp. The hogfish love small ledges, hard rock bottom areas with seafans and low relief and will even venture out on that shell bottom adjacent to the hardbottom areas. We target them by anchor fishing areas we know are holding the hogfish. Once you catch one in an area you know there are more around. They are super leadershy and slow to bite so you have to fish a spot for a little while to see if there’s one ready to chew. Once you catch that one there’s often a handful or two more to catch before the bite dies off. Then you got to move onto the next one and start the process over. These guys can fight too, and fishing for them with lighter tackle makes it a ton of fun. We do catch them deeper than 80ft of water, but typically we target them in this range because the deeper you go the more competition they have for those shrimp at the bottom and the more difficult it becomes to target them specifically.
Gag grouper action is picking up near shore and offshore we are starting to see them more and more. From around 30-40ft to around 80-100ft the gags are becoming more prolific and aggressive. We are seeing them on the big live baits and heavier tackle around the ledges. However, they are tricky to get up off the bottom once your lucky enough to entice them to eat.
Red grouper action is going very well near shore and offshore from around 70-110ft we are seeing a great bite and offshore up to around 160ft we are seeing some steady action too. Red grouper love big dead baits or even those live baits in the medium size range. We are seeing these guys on that hardbottom area mixed in with plentiful lane snapper, few mangroves and some vermillion. They love potholes of flat hardbottom that’s holding a nice bait show.
Mangrove snapper action is going well right now offshore and were seeing some steady action near shore too. Around 80-140ft is a great area to target the mangrove snapper right now with some threadfin chunks on your double snell rigs. We have a full moon coming up Monday so this weekend should have an incredible mangrove snapper bite especially at night as these guys will feed heavily before the moon. Then after the moon around 1-3 days we will see the same active feeding from the mangrove snapper near shore and offshore. Great time to get out there and target these fun to catch and tricky fish.
Kingfish action is steady near shore and offshore we are seeing them from the beaches to the deepest offshore waters on the trollers, flat lines and even sometimes the vertical jigs or knocker rigs. They are spread out but we are seeing some big fish from time to time.
Blackfin tuna are picking up out deep past around 120ft of water and we should see more and more of these guys as the water continues to cool. Their less desirable cousins that are a ton of fun to catch, bonita, are incredibly thick right now and pervasive through the near shore waters from the mouth of the bay out to around 15-20 miles we are seeing huge numbers of bonita tearing up bait schools mixed in with the mackerel and the occasional kingfish.
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
BLACK FRIDAY IS COMING!!! HUGE DEALS START TODAY AND RUN FOR ONLY 7 DAYS. You must be in the shop to take advantage of the tackle, gear, souvenir, and other deals. However, the 20% off gift certificates are available to anyone online even if you cannot make it in the shop!
Special fishing seminar coming up Sat November 28th at 2pm! Want to win some FREE FISHING TRIPS? Join Capt Dylan Hubbard for a special fishing seminar in our waiting area at Hubbard’s Marina! Bass pro seminars will hopefully resume soon, but until then we will hold some in our waiting area! This first one will coincide with our crazy black Friday deals too! Here’s the event link PLEASE CLICK ‘GOING’ or ‘INTERESTED’ and share with your friends -> https://www.facebook.com/events/393396165313384/
READY FOR 2021 BOOKINGS? The schedule for 2021 will be released for ALL TRIPS starting Tuesday Dec 1st at 11am! Get ready to book your 2021 long range adventure at that time. However, the 5 hour half day and 10 hour all days are already in the schedule and ready for bookings NOW when your ready!
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
Regular’s club
We are nearly done calling all active regular’s club members and we will start taking NEW members after Dec 1st! If you are an active member and have not renewed we recommend doing so ASAP. However, you can wait if you’d like but please renew before end of the year if possible!
New member sign up will begin Dec 1st 2020 and once you sign up you will be a member until year end 2021!
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
CaptHubbard@HubbardsMarina.com
