FISHING by Capt. Dylan Hubbard
www.HubbardsMarina.com
170 John’s Pass Boardwalk, Madeira Beach • 727.393.1947
INSHORE
Sheepshead get excited when the weather cools and the water gets murky. We have seen some great action on these guys around the bridges, docks, seawalls, piers and more. Shrimp, fiddlers, or cut oysters or clams are all great bait options.
The trout species are also biting well. This time of year, we see a big surge of the silver trout in the passes, on the beaches and around the mouth of the bay. These guys love the tandem rigs like the Love’s Lures bounced along the sandy bottom areas. However, most any slow-moving soft plastic will work. The speckled trout bite turned on a bit in the upper bay. Some nice redfish are being caught along the residential canals and mangrove shorelines, when the water is warming up in the early to late afternoon.
NEAR SHORE
It is sometimes tough to get out offshore or even near shore due to the cold fronts. Once we got back to that 40–70-foot range we have been catching some nice hogfish. Our five-hour half day, 10-hour all day and private charter fishing boats all caught some nice numbers of big keeper hogfish on live shrimp. We are also seeing some good action on the lane snapper and mangrove snapper from 60ft and deeper, ready to eat shrimp, cut threadfin and the lanes will even take some squid. Red grouper bite has been a little hit and miss, but we are still seeing a few.
OFFSHORE
Mangrove snapper are biting well and an occasional vermillion snapper appears at 150-200ft of water. The average size is much larger than usual. The occasional big scamp grouper is also being caught around 180-250ft, in deep-water potholes.
For more fishing reports, photos, videos and more check out Hubbard’s Marina on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or SnapChat. 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 text me anytime at (727) 393-1947 or visit www.HubbardsMarina.com.