2011-11-1 fishing report by Captain Van Hubbard

 Redfish, snook, and trout are active now around Venice and Englewood.

 I fished several days last week and we enjoyed some good action. While out side is still slow right now mostly because of strong winds, inside action was fine. Absolutely no signs of red tide anywhere last week!

 The weather let us get outside to look for kings Wednesday the 26th. Waters were fine, but baitfish were scarce.  We looked around North towards Venice saw no birds of baitfish. Then all the way South to Boca Grande Pass dark water because of recent rains next we cruised off shore to three different artificial reefs and found only a few minnows anywhere. We did finally catch one nice king mackerel on a live whitebait and a 40 Cabo spinning rig. We also saw numerous schools of smaller Spanish Mackerel working very tiny minnows. We have had a lot of wind and waters have cooled down into the mid seventies. I know we have plenty of minnows north of us but they were scarce here last week. I do expect to see minnows soon as weather pushes more our way. I also expect some good action with Spanish and kings if the winds allow us to chase them.

Friday Mel Weaver and his daughter April of Greenwood, SC. joined me for a brief trip. We dodged the light rain and found plenty of hungry fish. Lots of Speckled trout but most were smaller; we did get one big one. We got into some good redfish action and landed a dozen mostly slot fish. It was fun to get into some double headers and steady action.

Saturday we got rained out so we rescheduled for Sunday. Linda, her cousin Rodney and his son Caleb meet me at Stump Pass Marina to sample our Lemon Bay fishing. It was windy so we stayed close and worked some protected shorelines to pick at the redfish and trout. We had two snook, several trout one very nice three pounder, several sheepshead, and about twenty redfish.  We would catch a few and pole down a hundred yards and get a few more. We fished several different spots; rigged with rattle corks, and Bleeding Bait red circle hooks with live shrimp.  The tide was extremely low so fish were on the drop offs waiting for the tide to turn in. it worked out well we released most but did save a few for lunch at the Stump Pass grille. The skis cleared as we ate so they headed for Venice Beach.

The only way to catch fish is to go fishin”. Let’s go fishin’ son. Captain Van Hubbard.  www.captvan.com email at <charternow@captvan.com>