Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor

Capt. Van Hubbard
November 30, 2003
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report

We are thankful for our good fishing and health.

12-01-03

Thanksgiving has passed and we were blessed with great fishing.

We only had one poor catching day last week and it was not bad just slow compared to our other catches. The good news is Tuesday morning’s folks, Bob and Clair Johnson, enjoyed the hot red fishing on Monday.

Bill Roberts and his nephew Tom drove down from St. Pete. For the Wednesday trip. Baitfish were abundant and we waited patiently for the reds to work down the grassy edge to us. We picked a few trout and passed the time. It took almost an hour to get the first bull red on. Then the games began. We enjoyed some hot redfish catching for almost two hours. The guys had almost none stop action with one, two, and even three reds on at a time. We sat rods into the rod holders to take photos of some of the bigger ones. These aggressive fish averaged right at 28 inches. We had a few to eat but most were 27- 31 inches. Bill explained after the trip that he had fished all over the world and this was by far his best trip ever. Sometimes we get lucky, we always start out prepared, if the fish give us a chance we take advantage. We also landed a nice 28 inch snook, several other smaller ones and a fat 2o+ inch trout for a nice slam.

Thursday we took off for turkey. Thank your God and mine for our health and good fortune. Some do have it better but many are not so well off. Thank you to for your support and companionship.

Friday we took Merry Beth’s, Nephew out to try our luck. He got a tiny grouper and was about to lose his patience after an hour; he’s only 5. I had to put his rod in the holder while he played in the baitwell. If all else fails the baitfish seem to festinate and hold interest until the action heats up. Then the good luck of kids and ladies bailed us out as the drag started to scream for attention. Chance grabbed a hold and hollered for help. Merry coached him along while I tossed a few incentives, Chum minnows, to hold the schools attention. Before we got done he caught over a dozen nice reds, from 25 – 30 inches; plus a nice snook and trout. See photos on the web page. This was one happy young man. We went in to show his parents his big fish, they had been doing some early Christmas shopping. This is one very lucky boy.

We slipped off to the woods to try our luck on deer. We enjoyed seeing some but nothing we wanted offered us a shot. The chance to go into the woods on a cool Thanksgiving weekend day is special and we want to thank our friend Bill for sharing his well-managed woods with us. We saw wild deer and turkeys, plus eagles and hawks. Live is great and we are thankful. Please try and find the time to share with your family. We stopped by to kidnap my Mom on our way home. Let’s see how lucky she is this week. As our old friend Ernie Lee, used to say, “ go fishin’ cuz it’s good fer ya”.

Let’s Go Fishin’ soon, Captain Van Hubbard.

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