Big fish are bitting now at Boca Grande.
Capt. Van Hubbard
March 29, 2008
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report
3-29-08 web
Our weather and fishing are awesome!
My intuition is on track; I figured this week would "kick it up a notch" and it kicked it up a few. The big kingfish are here and we had fish every day we tried em from 30 – 40 pounds. We are using 12-14 inch baits. We are seeing a few tarpon but no bites yet. Pompano are not thick but we have managed dinner on our trips this past week; and they are great. We even found a bunch of cobia today and stayed away from the weekend crowds. Life is great and the fish are into the spring time feed. Baitfish are back and it should just get better for the next few months.
The waters finally warmed back up on Thursday and we started out for big kings and a pompano dinner. Conditions looked good but we had to troll for almost an hour to get our first bite BUT it was a 39.5 pound snooker kingfish. Ward Curtis from Sable Trust was entertaining his neighbor and we were off to a hot start. Those big kings are so fast it blows folks away. This one screamed off several hundred yards of line on the first run and we just smiled. We decided we had enough kingfish steaks so try the pompano. After a few photos and a short ride we started jigging for pompano. It was sporadic action but we ended up with 5 fat pompano, several bluefish and assorted other action. One special surprise was to catch a live scallop on a jig. I even took a photo it has been a long time since I saw one here.
Friday I had some old friends bring their friends down to share a day on our waters? This group was from up north in St. Pete. We started out and went for the big ones. Ron got us started with a whopper on a big blue runner. We took photos in the water and released it. We then went a got a few pompano for dinner and had lunch at cabbage key. It was a nice time enjoyed by all. We trolled some more on the way home and got several bite before Danny caught a nice 30+ pounder to wrap up our day. Kathy had grown up visiting Little Gasparilla and we looked at her granddad's old place and stumbled into some big drum. Unfortunately they had lock jaw and would not eat a free lined live shrimp? Go figure. Some of the other Captains have been catching black drum up to 48 pounds this past week. Fishing is just great.
Saturday I looked around for pompano but since the passes were crowded we dropped offshore and found some barracuda and cobia to work on. David Cohen and son Doug were visiting Little Gasparilla Island for the week from Cleveland and this was only time we could match up. We hooked a couple of smart cudas that eat around our hooks so cruised out farther. We stopped on some hard bottom and found a big school of yellowtail jacks. As we observed them we saw several cobia. It was a long shot with all the thousands of jacks but we had to try. To our amazement when we cast a minnow at the cobia she beat the jacks to it and the fight was on. As this one approached the boat several others popped up so I threw a handful of minnows to hold em close as I baited a second rod and we had a double header on. The second was just big enough to solve our's fish for dinner problem. We saw several other fish while we fought these but they disappeared when we got ready to chase em again. It did not take long for some more to pop up and we cast a BaitBuster to the biggest one which ended up weighing 25 pounds. Doug then caught a big Cuda, as big as he is, on a tube lure to wrap up out trip. They are already planning a return voyage.
Life is great and it's time to go fishing. I do have two openings mid week. Let's Go fishin', Captain Van Hubbard.
More Fishing Reports:
