Fishing report
Inshore– Snook are loaded around the pass lately nearly every morning from around 2-3am until the sunrise the lights of Johns pass can be found loaded down with schoolie sized snook. Also, around the jetties and bridge many anglers are nailing some good sized fish into the upper 30’s using the flairhawk style jigs. Our friend John Sasser and his friends prefer the rattlehawk jig which is like any flairhawk style jig but it added a little rattler to the lure too for added sound while working the lure slowly just above the bottom on the retrieve with the current. John swears this helps get their attention and entice a solid strike. The start and end of the incoming tide produced the best this past week at night for John and his buddies around the pass on the snook. They even jumped some big tarpon from the jetties as well while working their flairhawks in the current. During the day the snook are still being caught, but mostly from the beaches and mostly smaller sized fish in the 20’s and low 30’s around the troughs of the beaches as they hunt for any prey along the bottom like the free lined live shrimp on a 2-3ot hook and 15-20 floro leader. Occasionally you can find some big girls during the day but they are much more common in the passes at night. The Mangrove snapper are definitely getting more prolific in the pass as well, especially on the start of the outgoing tide you can find clouds of hungry piranha like mangrove snapper ready to devour some whitebait or small shrimp using a free lined 1ot hook and 15lb floro. The pompano bite slowed down dramatically as the water got super warm, they are more of a cooler water fish. However, the speckled trout have been biting well around the pass especially at night around the south side of the pass in the lights of the gator’s docks you can work the docks by boat and do very well on some rather large gator sized trout while free lining live shrimp or greenbacks. Also the DOA shrimp has always been one of my favorite go-to lures for working the dock lights of Johns pass.
Near shore– We had our first near shore party boat trip since the start of red snapper season this past week since a corporate client booked the boat for a 10 hour all day and we hit around 80-110ft of water and fishing was hot. They caught some nice red grouper and good numbers of them on the 60lb leader, 6oz leads and the 7ot hooks with long strips of squid. You can even double snell around a 4ot circle above the 7ot hook to allow two hooks in that strip of squid to enable you to also hook the smaller snapper that go to nibble at your red grouper bait. We also saw large numbers of big lane snapper in that depth and they love the squid pieces or the live shrimp. Mixed in the plentiful big lane snapper were some nice vermillion, occasional yellowtail and the rarely caught this time of year hogfish. It was a great trip with good numbers and solid fishing. We have also seen similar catches aboard our private charter boats around the deepest near shore waters. The action seems to be good out deep near shore if you don’t want to make the run to the red snapper depths past 140-150ft of water. The pelagic action near shore is pretty slow, but we are seeing the occasional mackerel while trolling out and back from our 5 hour and 39 hour fishing trips.
Offshore – Deeper offshore waters continue to produce the best numbers of bigger fish. Our 12 hour extreme hit some depths of 220+ this past week and brought in some of the biggest gag grouper and red snapper we have seen so far this season with a few monster scamp grouper mixed in. We are seeing similar action on our 39 hour when we are out there past 170-180ft of water. If you want big red snapper, big gags and a good shot at scamp grouper you definitely want to get as deep as possible. However, you can start to find red snapper around 110-130ft but you will struggle to find big fish around those depths and the red snapper are fewer and further between in shallower right now. Our 12 hour day trip on the party boats have struggled to keep up the numbers like our 12 hour extreme and 39 hour trips are producing 2x further in 2x deeper water. The 12 hour party boat trip is fishing around that 110-140ft of water area and some of those trips are catching 30,40 or a few more red snapper but many have come back with 10,20 or 30 red snapper with some nice red grouper, big lanes, porgies, vermillions and other smaller snapper mixed in. The 20lb red snapper and the 30-40lb gags are definitely around 200-250 foot of water in the highest concentrations so shoot for that depth or book a 39 hour or 12 hour extreme with us before red snapper season ends August 2nd at 12:01am. The pelagic action has slowed a bit, we had lots of sargassum weed around the areas out deep during June which I believe helped bring those plentiful mahi mahi and tuna around the area. Now that the weeds have cleared out a bit we are seeing less mahi mahi but we are still catching occasional tuna and kingfish out there in the deeper offshore waters 150-200ft of water.
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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 availability in late July for you and your group! If you want to hop on one of these trips BOOK NOW spots are filling fast! Call us at (727)393-1947 or book online at -> https://HubbardsMarina.com
We have TWO GREAT EVENTS coming up the second week of July! We have the South shore anglers fishing club meeting which is open to the public happening Thursday night July 11th at Ta Mahoney’s in Tampa then Saturday July 13th we have our Bass Pro Shops seminar happening at 2pm! Check out our events page on our site to see more info on both these great events -> https://www.hubbardsmarina.com/events/
LIVE SHOW Cancelled this Sunday, but we will resume again July 14th! 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/
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
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
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
