Fishing Report: December 27, 2019

Every Friday morning, Captain Dylan Hubbard of Hubbard's Marina joins Good Day to fill viewers in on his fishing forecast as we head into the weekend.

Here is his fishing report for December 27, 2019.

Inshore

Due to weather, the inshore waters have been very stirred up and dirty around the beaches and around the passes. Luckily, the back bay waters haven’t gotten too bad further up in the bay. 

However, we do have a little warming trend this weekend and things have started heating up a bit. It should be a pretty good bite over the next few days in this little weather window before the next front blows in around the start of the coming week. 

Snook right now can be found around the structures, bridges, and jetties near the start of the bay, but most are up in the bay especially around the residential docks and entrances to the bayous and rivers. The redfish and trout are a little more prevalent around the residential docks and canals, but you can find some snook mixed in as well. 

Snook are moving a bit more slowly due to the chilly water temperatures so remember if you’re working an artificial to slow down the retrieve this time of year. Typically, soft plastics are a go-to option, moving slowly near the bottom, but many love those flairhawk jigs for snook. You just got to remember to slow ‘em down as the water cools. 

With the dirtier waters this week around the beaches, passes and channels the silver trout, small sharks and sheepshead are biting well on the live shrimp. Sheepshead seem to be very plentiful around the structures like docks, bridges, piers and jetties, while the small sharks and silver trout are cruising more open waters and sandy bottom areas. 

Redfish bite seemed very good this past week around Fort De Soto and up and down the sides of Tampa Bay, all the way to the very north end of the bay to Safety Harbor. This time of year, the cut bait works well for redfish, small pinfish or even slow-moving gold spoons and soft plastics. They are cold, just like the snook, so, you got to slow down the retrieve of any artificial lure option. 

There’s nice trout action right now around the area from the flats to the edges of the flats to the passes and residential docks. Pretty much anywhere you go, you can find some trout ready to cooperate and most of the time they are fairly large this time of year. They love the live shrimp or white bait, but will also take a myriad of soft plastic artificial baits or slow-moving smaller jerk baits like the Mirror Lures. 

Near shore

Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do much near shore or offshore fishing this past week due to weather. 

Yesterday, was our first day fishing hard again near shore since the end of last week. This weather has really messed up our ability to keep those fish coming into the boats. However, luckily, once the weather cleared the fish were hungry and we’re hoping that great bite continues through the weekend. 

We have a very narrow weather window for the next few days that you must capitalize on if you want a chance for a last-minute gag grouper before their season ends at the end of this year. 

Gags are little tough near shore of our area as of late because they can be spotty, but once you find ‘em chewing there’s typically a few in that depth range and area -- especially around the mouth of Tampa Bay and smaller ledges in 20 to 40 feet of water. You can find some large bruisers if you know where to look with some frisky live bait and lots of aggression, you may get lucky enough to pull one out. 

We are also doing well on these guys out deeper around 60 to 100 feet of water on those live pinfish and smaller ledges. The biggest trick to gag grouper is a natural presentation, meaning that you are holding bottom naturally, making sure your bait is hooked so it appears natural, and ensuring your leader is nice and stretched out on the bottom. 

Then, hold on tight and be ready for the hit because once they bite you have to be on the trigger ready to start slamming that reel into action and lifting up hard and fast as you crank as hard and fast as humanly possible because those gags are heading to break you off as soon as they bite that bait and it’s your job to stop them. 

Gag fishing is tons of fun but typically, in most settings, for each one you successfully catch you will lose 2 to 3 times that many to the rocks and that’s if you know what you are doing.

Hogfish bite is still going well and will only get better through this weekend as the waters clear up a bit behind this barrage of fronts this past week before the next little front at the start of the coming week. Hogfish will remain open through 2020. So, after gag grouper closes, these guys will become the focus of many near shore anglers. 

It’s a great time to go get them on the live shrimp using one of three methods. The first and most common is the knocker rig with 30lb leader, 1oz lead and a 3-4ot hook. The second is just a simple jig head and the third is using some type of ball jig but our favorite is the Nekid Ball Jig. Any of these three methods you will still need some live shrimp to use for bait. 

Fresh dead shrimp do work well as well, but the frozen shrimp is a no-go and any shrimp that’s been dead awhile and is turning color doesn’t work either. Fresh live shrimp or fresh dead shrimp are best as they appear more natural and they stay on the hook well when targeting hogfish. 

One thing we have found to enhance our hogfish bites and catches has been adding a few small red beads to our knocker rigs. This really goes against conventional hogfish wisdom but Captain Frank and Smokey from our 10-hour all-day truly believe in this hogfish sorcery. I have to say, after trying it, that it works well around 3-5 8mm red plastic beads between your egg sinker and hook on your knocker rig paired with some live shrimp will often see a better result than a knocker rig without the beads. We are calling this the “Smokey Special” around Hubbard’s Marina, but you can’t knock it until you try it. 

Keep in mind lane snapper remain closed until after January 1, but then they will re-open just in time for us to be catching plenty through the spring.

Offshore

We miss the offshore waters and we haven’t had a chance to get back out there since last week due to weather. 

We look to have a chance only Saturday and Sunday this weekend and we’re going after it with all our boats and options. Looking forward to a Sunday 39-hour trip too for the last chance at gag grouper. 

We have a little front coming through what looks to be Monday afternoon or night that will make the second half of this upcoming 39-hour trip a little nautical, but we’re hoping the first half of the trip we can load down with plenty of mangroves and gag grouper before the weather gets a little sporty. 

Our last 39-hour did very well on the gags, mangroves, and even hooked a few big wahoo catching one over 40 pounds and some nice tuna, too. Plus, there’s plenty of heads and tails like vermillion, porgies, smaller jacks and some red grouper mixed in as well. 

Make sure to watch the weather closely, and, if you have a large boat, the best chance at last-minute gags looks to be over the weekend. However, this time of year and especially this weekend with all the frontal boundaries coming through, make sure to double and triple check the forecasts and play it smart offshore. 

That water is cold and it’s not a good idea to risk it. Always make sure to log a float plan, have a ditch bag, back up marine radio, sat phone and epirb when heading out behind 20 to 30 miles in your own boat or a buddy’s boat. If you book a charter, make sure they have the required safety gear and properly licensed captain before embarking.