Fishing by Captain Mark & Dylan Hubbard
“If you’re too busy to go fishing, you’re just too darn busy!” – Capt Wilson Hubbard
Inshore- Warmer weather is encouraging the Snook to swim back into the passes. The white bait showed up to get chased by Mackerel and the Pompano as Sheepshead slows a bit.
Some Mackerel were caught at the Skyway Bridge in mid-February, they should be in the pass soon if the early warming trend continues. Pompano action has picked up, using live shrimp. Sheepshead are still biting well for now around the pass. Use fiddler crabs for bait.
Near Shore – Sheepshead and Hogfish are biting well and the grey snapper bite is picking up and filling the gaps. All areas improved on the backside of that recent full moon. Typically, the full moon can make the daytime fishing a bit slow near shore during the peak days of the moonlight allowing the fish to feed 24 hours a day instead of limiting their feeding to the daytime. We are looking forward to the return of Mackerel and Kingfish to the near shore waters.
Offshore – We had a great 44-hour full moon trip mid-February. Red Grouper Mangrove, Yellowtail and Vermillion Snapper, Porgies and a few Cobia and even a Kingfish were all brought back to the dock! The tuna were absent but we saw a great push of cobia twice during the trip, which made up for the lack of tuna. The weather was perfect during this trip with warm temps and nearly flat, calm conditions. The Vermillion Snapper up huge (in the 2 – 3lb range) with some 5 – 7lb Mangrove Snapper coming up too. The big mangrove snapper love to eat the live pinfish, but anglers have to wait for the hard pull when the Mangrove Snapper swallows the pinfish. Plus, after March 1st all these longer trips will keep some big triggerfish!
Book your trip today at our website – https://HubbardsMarina.com or call us at (727)393-1947
Want to watch Capt. Dylan Hubbard’s daily video reports? Check out the Hubbard’s Marina YouTube channel and SUBSCRIBE!
Dolphin Corner
The dolphin are in very large pods right now hunting plentiful sheepshead, black drum and mullet so it’s a great time to catch a relaxing cruise and enjoy the playful groups of dolphins and super clear back bay waters around Johns Pass at Hubbard’s Marina. Here’s all the information on our dolphin watching nature cruise and eco tour – Visit https://hubbardsmarina.com/dolphin-watching-cruises/
Tampa Bay Ferry News
You have to get out to Egmont Key Island sometime soon! It’s a great time to explore the island and see the plentiful gopher tortoises sunning themselves each morning. The shelling is great this time of year as well thanks to the cooler conditions keeping island traffic low and the occasional cold front bringing new shells onto our local islands! The Tampa Bay Ferry offers 11am ferry rides to the island Wednesday through Sunday this time of year. You get two 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. – https://hubbardsmarina.com/egmont-key-ferry-cruise
The Shell Key ferry trip will resume this month with multiple daily rides out to Shell Key.