Hubbards Marina Fishing Report for Tampa Bay October 2018

Near Shore
The five-hour half-day is doing very well on grey snapper, porgies and sea bass. There are still tons of mackerel around the area and we’re catching plenty while trolling and free-lining shrimp on short wire leaders with a treble hook. The occasional hogfish is being caught near shore. We caught a nice red grouper recently on the half-day as we are fishing a little deeper right now to avoid the dirty water and fish kill that is hugging the beach. Most of that stuff is pretty spotty along the coast and the first lump extends 2-3 miles from the beach depending on the tide. Then there are random blooms and dirty water patches with scattered fish kill throughout the near shore waters, but there’s plenty of areas where we find clean water and plentiful cooperative fish. Check out this video from this past week’s half-day, a guest catches a nice black sea bass and you can see all the hungry cooperative fish.
https://www.facebook.com/smokeyanddusty/videos/414028165790092/

Off Shore
Over a dozen big scamp were caught on a recent 12-hour extreme, plus some nice amberjack on vertical jigs, some nice keeper red grouper on big squid strips. We also got some big porgies, yellowtail and vermillion as well. The water was super clean offshore, and we were completely past all the dirty water and fish kills that are mainly 20-25 miles from shore or less. If you are looking to go deep, check out the 12 hour extreme trip aboard the Flying HUB 2.  Right now the boat has SUPER light loads due to a slower time of year and the misconception that red tide is out here killing all the fish while the reality is that it’s very mild in our area compared to past years red tide events and it’s mainly right on shore. 

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Always remember,  “If You’re too busy to go fishing, You’re just too busy!”

By Captain Mark & Dylan Hubbard  727.393.1947
John’s Pass Boardwalk, Madeira Beach  www.HubbardsMarina.com

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