Fishing Report: November 29, 2019

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 November 29, 2019.

Inshore

Snook are still around the passes but getting fewer and further between. Most have moved further up into the bays hiding around the mouth of the bayous, rivers, and under residential docks. 

They are trying to stay in the warmer areas and regulate their body temps as best they can while the local waters cool down. The snook bite has been really good around the flats and mangrove shore lines in the back bay waters -- especially in the mid to late afternoon once the morning sun has had a chance to warm things up a bit. 

Trout action is going very well around the area on the flats and edges of the flats -- once things warm up a bit from late morning to the early nighttime period. They can be found in good numbers at night around the residential dock lights or bridge lights of the area too. They get super frisky and in good numbers this time of year with the cooler local waters. 

Redfish, like the snook, are further up in the bays right now doing the same thing: just trying to stay warm. They are definitely biting best once the waters warm up in the mid to late afternoon. Work the mangrove shorelines and the flats and residential docks for the best redfish action this time of year. They seem to be biting a little slower this week compared to the snook and trout. 

Sheepshead and black drum are biting well around our local bridges, docks, piers and jetties hitting shrimp, cut crabs, fiddler crabs or cut oysters around the structures. It’s a great time of year to hit the structures of the area for these good eating and unique-looking fish. 

They are bonier fish and hard to fillet but worth the extra work. In my opinion, sheepshead are the much better eating fish but often people will eat the smaller black drum too. The larger drum – that are at least 10 pounds -- I wouldn’t recommend eating as they can often be pretty worm filled after they get larger.

Spanish mackerel and bluefish are pretty thick around the area right now. We are seeing them around the piers, passes and mouth of the bay hitting greenbacks, live shrimp or the fast-moving, flashy artificial baits. These guys both have very sharp teeth and are known for cutting leaders with ease. Heavier floro leader like 20 to 30lb or some light 30lb wire is a good idea when targeting these guys specifically. 

The Spanish mackerel are definitely more prolific in our area than the bluefish, but this past week we have seen lots of bluefish caught as well around the same areas you would find the mackerel.

Triple tail have been thick around the beaches, bays and intercostal hiding under the crab trap buoys or around the floating debris. Even off the beach a few miles, you can find these guys under almost any floating structure. 

However, they can be a little finicky from time to time. It’s a numbers game targeting triple tail. You want to keep moving from buoy to buoy, marker to marker, or debris to debris and you will eventually spot one or a few and find one ready to eat. You really have to work for them some days while other days they are fired up, ready to eat whatever you throw. 

They love the free-lined live shrimp the most it seems, but presenting that bait to them in a natural way accurately can be a challenge sometimes. If you need, you can add a popping cork to give you some more casting distance and weight for accuracy but you want overcast them as to ensure you don’t spook the fish. 

Near shore

The hogfish bite is going very well near shore right now. We are seeing lots of nice hogfish on our 10-hour all day and a few on our 5-hour half day. 

The bite seems best around 40 to 70 feet of water on the live shrimp. The Nekid ball jigz we have in our shop seem to get them fired up -- or the knocker rig style set up, or the jig head set up too. They love the smaller ledges, rock piles or flat hard bottom with the sea fans. 

However, they can be tricky because they are very leader-shy and unaggressive. Typically, they are the last fish to bite in the area. This makes them tougher because you have to weed through the other more aggressive species before the hogfish start to fire up. 

Plus, often once they do start to fire up, they will stop very soon after they start so you have to capitalize while you can.

The red grouper bite near shore right now is going very well, almost better than the gag grouper action to our west. Way up north, we are seeing more gags than red grouper, but that is quite a run for our 10-hour trips. Our private charters are getting up there but the party boat 10-hour is more hogfish-focused right now with some red grouper mixed in. 

We are seeing some nice mackerel near shore from the beach out to around 60 feet of water, especially around areas holding bait like artificial reefs. 

The kingfish are finally biting pretty good this week. We saw some good kingfish action mixed around the mackerel this past week as the water temperatures finally got right near shore to get them fired up. 

Offshore

The gag grouper bite offshore right now is going very well. Our last 39-hour had a pile of gags fishing right ahead of a front and we have another 39-hour trip leaving Friday with nearly the same variables at play. We’re hoping for similar results this weekend. 

They have really liked the larger and more frisky live baits this time of year as the water cools but it’s not too cold yet. Big tackle is key to landing one of these 15 to 25-pound monster gag grouper in the deeper waters. The big dead bait has worked, but this past week it seemed they wanted the live bait most. The 12-hour extreme trips have also been landing some big ol’ gag grouper too. The Flying HUB 2 has been racing out there offshore to grab some gags before heading back home. 

The red grouper bite has been going well too. This past week we had a Flying HUB 2 private fishing charter hitting some potholes around 140 to 180, and they had some great luck limiting the boat out with some fat red grouper. They had one that was over 20 pounds and was a true fire truck. 

The red grouper were cooperating better than the gags on the dead bait but the live bait was working well for them too. Red grouper won’t rock you up quite as badly as a gag would so you can back down your tackle if you know you’re only seeing the red grouper. However, I like to start heavier. If the fish are biting on the heavy tackle you might as well stick to it, right? 

The mangrove snapper are doing very well out there too we are seeing some very healthy-sized mangrove snapper biting well on the smaller live pinfish and the threadfin plugs. I personally use the double snell rig for mangrove snapper even when using live bait, which goes against what we normally would do. 

However, they really bite fast so that extra hook works to guarantee you don’t miss them. We have been seeing some great action on the mangrove snapper as of late!

The blackfin tuna have been thicker offshore right now too. We are starting to see them in pretty good numbers out there past 120 feet of water. Plus, there’s still plenty of kingfish out there too while trolling or flat line fishing. 

It’s a great time to get offshore for snapper or grouper fishing as long as you can time your trip around the weather -- and get out there when it’s not so bumpy!