Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor

Capt. Van Hubbard
July 30, 2006
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report

Tarpon are still here and hungry.

6-30-06web

Tarpon are still cooperating.

While our snook and reds have lost me I am on the silver kings. We have enjoyed a great week of tarpon hunting and catching. We found em on Tuesday and they just teased us. We saw hundreds but not one solid hook up. Wednesday we caught on the first cast with Peter Cull. It was his fifteenth birthday and Pete, his dad took him out fishing. We ended up with a few more bites and had a wonderful trip.

We took the outdoor writer Tom Johnson aka the Fumbling fisherman out Thursday. We tried to get on some schools of reds and snook as we had seen a big bunch of each on our way home Wednesday. Of course they had moved. We did get a nice redfish for his dinner and made a short trip of it. We have had some red tide nearby. There are a few dead fish around and we lost our bait a few times.

The good news is this is actually helping our tarpon bite. The mild red tide is killing some delicate baitfish and the dead minnows are chumming up the tarpon. We kicked but Friday and Saturday. A dozen poons hooked up each day. Jack Cartier and son John needed some time together before John heads back to FSU next week. So they spend the day down here fishing together. We hooked up first cast again. It was a great day some fast action and some time to visit in-between. We got run in by a thunderstorm at 1:30 PM.

Saturday is frequently to busy to get lucky. But Bill Van Law and son Chris could only make a weekend trip. They boated down from St. Pete Friday. I picked them up at Uncle Henry’s at 7AM. There were a few dead fish around the marina but it was there last time together before Chris left for college at Miami. That time of the year. First cast again; three trips this week, hooked up. We ended up jumping lots of fish and had two each up to the boat. I took some great father /son fishing photos for their scrape book, with big tarpon as stars. It is so much fun to see family enjoying time on the water together.

Sunday we took out Jim Griffiths of the Nautical Mile magazine out of Lee County. It started off slow we got bite on the third cast. The AM was great and we released three fish boat side and hooked several others. We went into the Lazy Flamingo for a great lunch and came home to get ready for Monday. This much fun is wearing this old man out. Merry Beth and I are taking a few days off later this week and will be back at it next week for the full moon. Fishing should be even better. Let’s Go Fishin’ soon. Captain Van Hubbard.

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