First big king mackerel of the year.
Capt. Van Hubbard
February 28, 2008
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report
2-25-08web
Rod had meet a child hood friend of mine named Charlie while vacationing on Pine Island last week. Then he meets Captain David Dean at dinner the night before our trip and they talked about fishing. I knew someone was looking over my shoulder helping things along. Rod never gave his last name but he was from the cold North Country and worked to educate inner city kids in troubled downtown Detroit. Someone was watching out for him and he made to long drive around to meet me at Stump Pass Marina bright and early Monday morning. I had found a few nice sized white bait minnows as he wanted to try and fit in as many different styles of fishing as we could in one day. A tall order but we had divine intervention/help. .
We started out in the Gulf because it was slick calm and I knew we would have a sea breeze in the afternoon. We had to relocate the target reef because my electronics had been erased by a problem with my machine. Thanks to Captain Travis we had a start area to explore. It took a few minutes of trolling to locate the structure we were hunting. We trolled and threw a few minnows for chum for about 15 minutes only seeing a few big cuda. I was actually hoping one would bite we were prepared with wire leaders. When I was about to give up and move on we saw cobia everywhere. They were not big ones but a welcome site. Rod caught several as we feed em some goodies and held the school close to the Dorado. We landed the last few on my 14 pound Quantum 40s and he was smiling. Then a big king mackerel sky rocketed, eating a minnow. I baited a big minnow on the wire rig and set it up in the rod holder, while Rod battled a keeper cobia. The rod holder pole bent hard and I suggested Rod the angler switch poles, which he promptly did. After several speedy runs a big 25 pound king started circling our boat. I grabbed the gaff and we went looking for the camera. It was only 10 AM and we were well on our way. Two fine fish in the box and one very happy angler.
Next we looked for pompano but the ladyfish were so fast the pomps could not catch our jigs. We did observe a 75 pound silver king/tarpon slip past to lite up my already excited angler. No chance to cast to this one before it disappeared.
Then we tried a snook as he had never caught one before. They were not excited but he caught three medium linesiders before we moved on. We searched for some pompano but settled for a few nice trout to finish out the day. Rod is trying to see about moving down here after he does a tour in Iraq teaching our solders kids. It's a dangerous job but would help him get some savings together to move to Florida's beautiful Gulf coast. Life is good even if we did get a cold front to slow down fishing as snook season opens Saturday the First of March. I'll be up at the frank Sargeant Expo in Tampa doing seminars and would like to see you if you get the chance stop by and say HI. Let's Go Fishin' soon. Captain Van Hubbard. www.captvan.com
Boca Grande Fishing Forecast:
as our weather straightens out and warms up we will enjoy good action with king and Spanish Mackerel. cobia and sharks will cruise in also. tarpon are not far off. snook will improve as waters warm up into the mid seventies. pompano should drop back in any time.
Target Species:
snook, mackerel, cobia and pompano.
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