Fishing Report: January 3, 2020

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 January 3, 2020.

Inshore

Right now, the inshore bite has been pretty steady and we have had a great week of action, but the coming weekend’s weather is going to mess that up a bit for a brief period. 

This past week we have seen lots of sheepshead, a decent number of snook and redfish and plentiful trout. Pompano are showing up in the area too and should only get better through the early springtime. Keep in mind with the incoming weather, I would suggest focusing on sheepshead through the later part of the weekend and the start of the coming week before shifting back to the redfish, snook and pompano after the start of the coming week behind the big blow this weekend. 

Snook fishing has been best around the mouth of the bayous, rivers and up in the bays, but we are seeing snook hanging tough in the passes even with the cooler temps. The past few days we have even had snook hanging around the dock lights and bridges like they do in the summer time, however, the numbers are just much less impressive. 

While back in the bay where water temps are more regulated and water gets warmer during the day in the shallows there are definitely higher concentrations of snook hanging out. They are taking the slower moving artificial baits, shrimp and live pinfish right now pretty well. 

Redfish action has been steady lately around the back bay and upper bay waters around the mangrove shorelines, oyster bars, residential docks and canals too. They love the smaller pinfish, shrimp and cut baits. However, they will take the slower-moving artificials like the gold spoons and soft plastics working slowly around the structures and shorelines -- especially up in the shallows when the water is moving we are finding the best redfish cooperation. 

Trout bite is doing very well this time of year. During the day, we find them biting best across many areas but especially around the edges of the flats, potholes up on the flats. At night, we are finding them best around the structures and lights of the passes at night but residential dock lights, where water is moving, hold plenty of trout too. Live shrimp or white bait are the best ideas for trout this time of year or slow-moving artificial lures that mimic what these guys are eating best. 

Sheepshead fishing has been very easy lately especially around the docks, bridges, jetties, piers and seawalls through the areas. They love the small pieces of shrimp, cut clams or oysters, fiddler crabs, and barnacles too. 

They are right on the structures so when you are targeting these fish, you have to make sure your bait is right on or very close to the structures as well. 

Often lighter tackle and minimal weights are best to target these great-eating, unique-looking fish that love cooler, murkier waters. However, we do catch them almost anytime this time of year when the waters are cooler. 

Near shore

The gag grouper season closed as of January 1, but the lane snapper have opened back up for harvest. Plus, right now, we are doing very well on some nice hogfish action around 40 to 70 feet of water. 

Also, a few mackerel are still around right now too. The biggest problem near shore this time of year is timing your trips around the weather. We get these large low pressures, strong high pressures and pre-frontal activity that can really affect our abilities to get out on the water to get after these hogfish. 

Lane snapper love the small pieces of squid or live shrimp on the lighter tackle like mangrove snapper. These guys are great-eating fish and they are typically fairly thick in an area and tend to cooperate well. I like to use around 20-40lb test leader with around 3-4ot hooks and lighter leads with a 4000 series-spinning reel. 

They are most commonly found a little deeper in our near shore waters from around 60 to 100 feet of water. 

Mangrove snapper action has been a little hit-and-miss mostly due to weather, but when they are biting well, we are seeing some larger fish being caught in the 2 to 3-pound range. The true big boys, 4 to 9 pounds, are out deeper but we can get some nice near shore mangrove snapper action closer to 60 to 100 feet of water but the deeper you go, the bigger and more prolific they seem to get this time of year. These guys need the double snell rig, cut threadfin and around 30lb floro leader with 4ot hooks. 

The hogfish action is on point right now near shore around 40 to 70 feet of water. It’s a great time to get out there between these weather ridges and fronts to enjoy some hogfish hunting on our 5 or 10-hour trips or a private fishing charter or you own boat. 

The best way to target them is by using live shrimp or very fresh dead shrimp on lighter tackle and lighter weights around ½ an ounce to 1 oz weights. The 4ot hook seems to be the best size to use when hog hunting, but the 1-2oz Nekid ball jigs are a great secondary option if you aren’t comfortable using the knocker rig style set up. 

Red grouper are biting decently too, but they are little difficult as of late as they can be spotty and tough to find in good numbers. They love squid strips, small octopus, live pinfish and also whole threadfins. I typically use 40 to 60-pound test and a 6-7ot hook when targeting these red grouper near shore. Closer to 80 to 100 feet of water is where I would suggest starting to look for red grouper this time of year on the flat hard bottom, potholes, rock piles or smaller ledges where the gags are not as thick. 

Offshore

The gag grouper season has ended offshore too, but we still have tons of fish to go target, like red grouper, scamp grouper, mangrove snapper, vermillions and more. 

This next month we will be fishing a little deeper to get the biggest mangrove snapper and fat red grouper -- with hopefully a side of the scamp grouper too. Closer to 160-to 200 feet of water is where we plan to target to find these fish. 

Red grouper love the squid strips, live pinfish and whole threadfins on those deeper water potholes or cracks in that flat hard bottom area. They are more ‘grazers’ across the hard bottom areas so finding a big concentration can be tough, especially this time of year but luckily the mangrove snapper are often mixed in with these guys too. 

Mangrove snapper are moving a bit deeper offshore but they are going to hopefully bite very well in a large average size as they did for us last January. The double snell rig with around 40lb test and double snelled 5-6ot hooks are a great way to target the larger mangrove snapper offshore. 

This time of year, we see cobia, tuna, occasional kingfish and wahoo offshore too for the pelagic species so make sure to have some rods rigged in case something happens to swim by your boat while you are offshore fishing!