More great fishing here in Boca Grande.

Capt. Van Hubbard
April 29, 2008
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report

4-29-08 web report.

Fishing can be challenging if it's windy; but great catching most of the time.

Chris Singleton has fished with for about twenty years and now brings his daughter and her friends. This time it back fired on him some of the fish were too big and he had to help out. We slipped out to some hard bottom about eight miles offshore on Tuesday the 22 to let the girls get in some boating and fishing. Winds were down enough for us to get out and try some variety. I carried several rods, about a dozen so we were rigged for anything. We located our bottom, anchored up and put out some of the new menhaden chum Stump Pass Marina is now carrying. The extra oily scents it sends out help attract many species of fish. The girls caught a few snapper and blue runners and then it got crazy as several cobia popped up in the chum. We hooked up two at the same time and it got interesting. Chris worked on the larger one and "EB" tangled with a smaller one. We lip gaffed the first one and it was large enough for dinner, so we put it in the cooler. Now I helped coach EB and she was great. We lip gaffed it with our gripper and took a couple of photos before releasing it to grow up and entertain us again next year. Then I looked back and saw our fly lined crab had been eaten and that rod was doubled over. Chris was called back into action and battled a nice permit to the boat making dinner a feast for a big crew. We took photos and decided it was time to get the girls back for lunch and some pool action. They will have some stories to share with their friends.

John and Krista Haynes were excited about spending a day on our crystal clear Gulf waters. They drove down from St. Pete to try their luck. John started off with a big 35 pound cobia right off the bat. We barely had the chum bag soaking before they came up. Krista landed a smaller one so we had dinner and fun before nine. John hooked and battled a bigger cobia that broke off at the surface as we watched. We managed a few snapper, one nice gag grouper and a barracuda before the bite shut down. We trolled around for kings and no takers. We then decided to cruise down to Boca Grande and see if we were missing anything. We saw a few tarpon but only in the hole with other boats. We looked around and tried for pompano but no go.

Saturday Dr. Rob Rehneki, wife Tammy and their twin girls Kate Lynn and Shelby came to share a day exploring our area. The Doc works too hard and I have to almost kidnap him to drag him down here. Everything was great we saw manatees that would not leave us alone. Dolphin were everywhere. The waters were blue and crystal clear. We tried some jumping mackerel and little tunny but they were not interested in our live minnows. We cruised out into deeper waters. We had a rougher ride out than I wanted but we took the chance it would calm off soon. We got lucky. We found a school of cobia right off the bat and hooked up two. Doc. Rob boated a nice keeper and Tammy released the other. We chummed up some snapper but they teased us after we caught a few. Then we headed back to the Stump Pass Grille for lunch and talked about our wonderful experiences. Merry Beth took some great photos which I'll try and upload on web site . I'm off for few days to recuperate, clean up and repair gear. Let's Go Fishin' soon. Captain Van Hubbard

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