Fishing Report: Sept. 11, 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 September 11, 2020.

Inshore

Mangrove snapper are still thick throughout the area on the structures, especially inside the bay around the shipping channel, we are seeing plenty of mangrove snapper feeding well. They love docks, bridges, rock piles, and anywhere that holds bait and gives them a place to hide and ambush that bait.

Small pieces of live shrimp or white bait and light tackle are king for the mangrove snapper. 

Redfish are picking up throughout the area right now and will only get better as fall approaches. They are really showing up around the dock lines, mangrove shorelines and grass flats with big schools showing up on some flats in the bay.

We see them on the bottom in deeper waters eating cut bait or slow-moving soft plastics. During the day, the cut bait works well too on the flats or around the mangroves along with those soft plastic paddle tails. 

Snook action is thinning out a bit in the passes, but there is still plenty of fish around at night, stalking the bridge lights and dock lights of the passes.

However, it seems the average size overall is starting to get smaller and the numbers are thinning. Many of these snook are starting to move back into the bays and getting ready for their fall and wintertime. However, right now, many of them around the flats, mangroves, oyster bars and dock lines are feeding well still. 

Trout action going well on the deeper flats during the day, edges of the shallower flats and at night were seeing good trout action around the bridge lights and dock lights. These guys are loving slow-moving jerk baits, soft plastics, or the DOA shrimp for artificials. Also, the live shrimp and white bait work well for plenty of trout too. 

Flounder action steady in the area, mostly around the dock lines and seawalls where sandy areas can be found adjacent to the structure. We are seeing some nice flounder caught when working the bottom for them. As the water cools this action should only get hotter. 

Mackerel are pretty thick around the bay from the Howard Frankland Bridge to the mouth of Tampa Bay. We are seeing them along the beaches too. Local fishing piers in the mornings are a great place to target the mackerel. 

Triple tail bite has picked up around the bay on the markers and buoys. We will see more and more soon. These guys love free lined live shrimp but will also take green backs and artificial lures that mimic either that come within striking distance of their structure they are hiding next too. 

Near shore

We had a killer near shore bite towards the end of this past week around 70-100 feet of water. The start of the week too produced some awesome catches. We have had a few tough days as the pressures fluctuated between Tuesday and Wednesday. However, this coming weekend's distressed weather should bring some good action behind it. 

The red grouper bite still is heating up around 70-100 feet of water. You can start to find them around 70-80 feet but they are good all the way through the near shore waters. We are doing our best drifting over large areas of hard rock bottom and catching decent numbers.

However, we are getting a few at anchor. The squid strips, live pinfish, or whole threadfins are great options for the red grouper. We are seeing them loving the butterflied dead baits too like squirrel fish or the white grunts. 

Lane snapper and vermillion snapper are pretty thick around this depth too. We are seeing some good, steady snapper action mixed in with the red grouper. The mangrove snapper are few and far between but some decent size around with the lanes and vermillion. 

We are seeing some mackerel around the beach to the near shore artificial reefs, but not much else pelagic wise near shore. As the water cools a bit we should see a huge resurgence in mackerel follow by the kingfish. However, water temperatures are still far from that range to spark the fall run. Around 78 degrees is the temperature we will start to see them showing back up, typically close to the full moon phase too. 

Offshore

There's still a crazy amberjack bite going offshore.

We are seeing them mostly out fairly deep from 150-200 feet of water on the big structures like springs, wrecks or big peaks. They love the big live baits we catch while out there, like the big knobbed porgies or big squirrel fish. The big blue runners also work well too.

Anything big and lively that’s legal to be used for bait with the big tackle is a great option for the amberjack. The vertical jigs work well too. We had a group slow pitch jig fishing on the last 39-hour who all tore through some big jacks. 

Big gag grouper are out there in the deep too. We are seeing a handful of them inshore, scattered near shore, but the big biomass and concentration of the gags are still out deep. Like amberjack, they like the big live baits and you need the big tackle to land these guys. Typically, we are seeing them around 120-140 feet and beyond. The deeper we go, the bigger the gags it seems lately. 

Red grouper are biting well offshore too, but we are seeing them biting best a bit shallower around 100-160 feet of water. Like near shore, the squid strips, live bait or whole threadfins are great options for red grouper action. 

We are seeing the mangroves around that same depth of the red grouper. They are leader shy right now though and around 40-50lb floro with double snelled hooks and a threadfin or sardine plug are great options to catch you the mangrove snapper. 

Pelagic action is fairly sparse right now, but we are seeing tuna and kingfish occasionally on the flat lines and trollers. Plus, there should be a wahoo bite turning up any day now. September is typically a great time for the pelagics so were expecting that to turn on for us more and more.