Fishing Report: Nov. 13, 2020
MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. - 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 Nov. 13, 2020.
Inshore
Its been a wild week for sure weather wise with an intense midweek period with lots of rain and surge to say the least. This weather will cause a huge influx of fresh water to the estuaries and bay the next few days as everything tries to equalize. This brackish water push will spread out those redfish and get them feeding heavily around the flats, oyster bars, dock lines and really have the smaller fish feeding well. Bigger redfish are staging up and heading near shore with these big outbound tides behind the weather for some near shore spawns. Around the area it is a great time to target the redfish behind this weather.
This weekend looks like we have a great little weather window into the start of next week where we see a big high pressure settling in and bringing us more wind. Take advantage of the great weather today through Monday and get out to fish! The sheepshead are showing up in decent numbers and sizes but we still have a lot of the mangrove snapper around the structures too. Great time to see a Little of both around our local bridges, docks, piers and jetties.
Trout are really moving around the passes at night on the bridge lights and dock lights and in the bay around the points of mangrove shorelines and grass flats adjacent. Trout are starting to stage up on these areas for their winter-feeding time. We are seeing some truly monster trout starting to be caught and as the water cools, they should get more and more prolific and aggressive. Often where you get one there will be plenty more too!
Snook fishing was great before the weather with active fish around the docks, piers and some in the passes at night on the incoming tides. During the day we are seeing great numbers of 20-24 inch snook around the flats and mangrove shorelines. Live shrimp or green backs work well but I like the live pinfish around the docks and structures.
As the waters clear out a bit on the strong incoming tides the mackerel should still be biting well around our local fishing piers, passes and other areas that were holding these fish before the weather. Might be a little more spread out for a bit with murky stirred up water and high levels of fresh water making the bays appear more ‘brown’ but that will stabilize after a day or two.
Near Shore & Offshore
We haven’t been able to get out there near shore or offshore since our last report essentially due to this wild weather. However, we couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead the next few days. The benefit of bad weather is definitely what it does to the fish near shore and offshore. These fish are just like us when bad weather moves through they go and take cover. They group up together at the bigger structures like big ledges, wrecks, peaks, rock piles and whatever else they can make work through the storms. When the storm clears and waters calm down and clear up they come out of their hunkered down spots and are ready to eat!
It will be a big race offshore as the weather calms today and tomorrow to those big ledges and structures where these fish hold up. Even common areas like public reefs and numbers will be holding much more quality fish than typical behind a storm like this. However, remember waters not only got to calm down, they also need to clear up. So inside 80-100ft of water it may take a day or two or even three of calm weather before those fish ‘turn’ back on. Deeper waters are less likely to get murky behind a storm since they are often too deep to let weather disturb the bottom layer of water and make the bottom area dirty. Beyond 100ft often as soon as the water calms down the bite will turn on much faster.
Gag grouper will push in closer behind this storm for sure and they should be ready to eat in a big way around those ledges, rock piles, wrecks and other areas. They love live pinfish, pigfish or squirrelfish on big tackle. These guys are all about busting your leader off in the bottom if you are soaking a live bait for gags you have to have your hand on the reel and be ready for war at a millisecond’s notice. As soon as that bite comes you got to start reeling that medium to low gear ratio conventional reel like it has a million dollars at the other end all while lifting up with all your might and not stopping until you got him ‘beat’. This means you get 10-20 cranks on that fish and he’s up off the bottom. Then you can slow your roll and relax and finesse him the rest of the way with slower but always steady pressure.
The kingfish action along with plentiful mackerel should show back up quickly with the bait as the waters calm and clear up.
We are looking forward to a stellar weather weekend here with some incredible fishing action to boot. If you have ever considered getting out there to go fishing this is the weekend to do it!