Fishing Report: Oct. 9, 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 Oct. 9, 2020.

Inshore

Redfish bite is heating up more and more as the water cools! They are all over from the passes to the flats to the mangroves and on the oyster bars and docks too.

The big boys are eating cut baits on the bottom around the deeper waters and shade of the mangroves. The majority are being caught on slow-moving soft plastic paddle tails and the jerk baits. The live baits from shrimp to greenbacks to live pinfish are great options to target the redfish too.

Light tackle around 15-20lb test work well to target the redfish. It's awesome to see big schools of redfish around the flats right now working the flats. They will follow around the schools of mullet up around the flats too. 

Mangrove snapper are still pretty thick around the structures, but the sheepshead are starting to show up. As the water starts to cool, the mangrove snapper will disappear more and more and the sheepshead will get thicker and thicker. I like small pieces of shrimp for either, but mangroves will take small pieces of white bait and the sheepies love the fiddler crabs. Lighter tackle again is the king.

Trout bite has gone well this week around the flats and we're seeing some good action at night around the bridge lights. There is lots of bait around the area and that has the trout highly-active and feeding well. They love those soft plastics moving slowly around the edges of the flats or edges of the light lines at night. 

Snook action has slowed down quite a bit this past week around the nights in the passes. However, during the day, they have been active around the docks and flats. They are loving the jerk baits and soft plastic paddle tails. 

Flounder action is picking up nicely around the structures, especially on the sandy bottom areas. They are also hiding out in the potholes in the flats, or around the edges of the flats. They love live shrimp or mud minnows on or near the bottom. They love the artificial shrimp moving slow right along the bottom. 

Pompano are biting decently around the Skyway approaches and other bridges of the area. They are starting to pick up along the beaches and jetties of local passes. Pass-A-Grille or Blinds Pass are my favorite areas to target those pompano with goofy jigs or nekid ball jigs. 

Gag grouper action is picking up in Tampa Bay along the shipping channel and around the rock piles of the bay too. They love live pinfish on lighter tackle especially on just a simple jig head. Those little rock piles definitely have a high chance of some keeper gags. As the water continues to cool more and more gags will be showing up. 

Triple tail will get better and better as the stone crab traps show up more and more. On Oct. 15, stone crab season officially opens, and more traps will be out there. Those crab buoys will attract tons of triple tail to the surface. Sight casting those great eating fish is a great way to spend fishing the bay or along the beach. 

Near shore & Offshore

The mackerel action is picking up very nicely throughout the near shore waters. There are big bait schools around with plentiful mackerel feeding heavily on them. Plus, most hard-bottom areas are having big numbers of mackerel working them chasing what bait is present or on or near the bottom. 

Kingfish will not be far behind the mackerel and we're expecting them to show up on this next big moon phase. The new moon is Oct. 16 and I’d bet we would start to see them then, but by the full moon at the end of the month on the 31st they will be in full swing for sure.

We just got those nomad DTX minnows and the Nomad Madmacs that will be great additions to our Rapla Xrap magnum trolling lures. These lures are great options for trolling the beaches out to deep water for the kingfish and possibly others. Out deep, past around 120 feet of water, you may see some blackfin tuna and perhaps wahoo especially as you get past 150 feet of water. 

Hogfish action is picking up nicely too. It's a great time of year to start targeting them, especially on the backside of this weather at the end of the weekend and start of next week they should be biting well. They love around 20-30lb floro and around 3-4ot hooks and live shrimp around 40-80 feet of water. We are doing pretty good catching a few on our 10-hour all days and even a few on the 5-hour half day trips too. 

Gag grouper action is starting to pick up around 60-140 feet of water and they will continue to get more and more prolific in a bit shallower as the water continues to cool off. They love those ledges, rock piles and wrecks and big live baits. In shallower water, we use around 60-80lb and out deeper around 80-100lb leaders for those gag grouper. 

Red grouper action is going very well right now around 90-120 feet of water, but we are catching them as shallow as around 60 feet and up to around 160 feet.

They love those big dead baits or live baits for those red groupers. Flat hard bottom and potholes are great areas to target the red grouper. 

Mangrove snapper are biting pretty good right now from about 80-140 feet of water especially on ledges, rock piles and wrecks. In shallower areas, we are seeing a few here and there, but they get much more prolific once you reach about 80-100 feet. They love those threadfin or sardine plugs on the double snell rig. 

For more information from Hubbard’s Marina, head over to their website.