Venice FL Fishing Charters

Our Venice weather and fishing have been great. 1-8-12

We are currently enjoying some of the best “Winter” weather I can remember. Welcome to Southwest Florida. Yes we did have a couple of cold mornings last week, but this is January! Cold fronts come and go, but it eighty degrees right now. If you are around for a few days we can usually choose some good weather. Also an additional benefit of inshore and inside fishing is that we can find a protected shoreline to enjoy our outing. No rough water fishing! It’s always best to select a day early in your vacation so we can adjust our trip date with the weather conditions if possible. Now back to that fishing part.

Pompano have been cooperating on most trips recently. These can be challenging to get going but are great when they bite. Pompano pull hard, taste great, and are healthy for us. We and use light spinning gear and custom pompano jigs sweetened with a small piece of shrimp. I usually start out around our local Gulf Passes; Stump Pass, by Englewood Beach, is my home port and always first. Some days we go north to Venice Inlet or south as far as Boca Grande Pass.  Fishing has been better south recently.  We also catch a large variety while targeting the golden nuggets; ladyfish, trout, flounder, jacks, whiting, and many more. This variety keeps poles bent and clients smiling.

Trout are open now plus we always have redfish. Sheepshead and flounder are starting to show up and add to our table fare. Some days we can mix it up and catch multiple species while other times it’s best to concentrate our efforts if you want specific fish. We usually fish live shrimp now under rattle corks on spinning gear. We fish some lures if you wish, even fly fishing if that’s your desire. Just watch out for each other when casting, please.

Some snook are around now but cooler waters mean more effort per fish. Snook are a sub-tropical species and thrive in hot water. April thru October is prime times for snook. We enjoy awesome catch and release snook action in the heat of Summer, if want hot action with both numbers and big fish.  We can sometimes mix up our tarpon fishing adventures with some snook action also. Remember, it’s time to make your plans for our awesome Spring and Summer tarpon and snook fishing soon. The Spring mackerel migration could be early if the weather stays mild!

The weather is great and fish hungry so Let’s Go Fishin’ soon. Captain Van Hubbard.  <wwwcaptvan.com>

Weather and fishing are great down here in Venice and Boca Grande, Florida.

 I can not remember this good of weather from the Christmas Holidays and I’ve been guiding along this Gulf Coast for more than thirty-five years now.  Our fishing is good too. On trips just before and since Christmas we caught snook, redfish, trout, pompano, mackerel, sheepshead, flounder and a variety of fun fish. While the winds have backed off several days fishing inside is so good we haven’t even traveled outside into the Gulf recently. I did hear about a few tripletails but some ridding to locate them. It’s time to begin to think about setting up our Summer snook and tarpon trips if you want to get in on the action for May and June? I’m sure we’ll get some cooler weather soon but we things to cool down some because eighties everyday was hot! I am excited about the New Year and all the opportunities it brings. I am thankful for all the blessings and good catching I enjoyed with many of you last year. It’s great to live here and be able to share this amazing area with visitors.

 Don DeCessna and sons Brad and Jack plus grandson John joined me for their annual Christmas fishing trip. The ladies always send tasty cookies so we try to get a mess of fish to treat them. This year it was easy, they had redfish, pompano, and sheepshead to enjoy. Jack caught a nice trout we released but remember that trout opens on New Years and will not be closed in the future! I’m not seeing the larger reds now but several from about eighteen to twenty-two inches.

 Reds and trout have been cooperating most of the time.  These low tides help concentrate fish because the flats are bare most mornings this week. Warmer waters are providing more snook than we usually catch now. We are catching few mackerel and most days several pompano if we target them.

 Spring and Summer fishing will be here before we know it so think about your catch and release snook and tarpon fishing because it’s time to set up your dates and reserve em. Who knows how soon they could come if it stays mild?

 I am looking forward to New Years and keeping speckled trout next week! I hope you can find time to get down here and enjoy some of our weather and fishing soon. Captain Van Hubbard <www.captvan.com>

2011-11-30      Fishing report by Captain Van Hubbard

 We enjoyed some good food, weather and fishing for the Thanksgiving Holidays.

 Mackerel were scattered from Venice Beaches to Boca Grande Pass and into Charlotte Harbor last month. Many were smaller but some were larger two and three pounds. We also found a few tasty pompano they were not thick but we could catch a mess for dinner if we gave em a chance. Lots of ladyfish to keep poles bent between pompano and macks. We used Doc’s Goofy jigs tipped with fresh shrimp for best results. Eddies near the passes are usually hot spots. Changing weather and Christmas shopping will slow trips down, but if you can get out waters are not crowded plus fishing is fine.

If you’re shopping on those windy days consider some fishy toys for your big boys and girls. We all love new toys. Take some time to consider our specific likes in fishing so you can match your gifts to our angling needs.  Most of us have more time than money these days; so spend more time thinking and less rushing to get it over with. Make your dollars count and gain deeper appreciation. Of course I think charters are a great gift if you can swing it, I’m a guide. This is a great way to see how it can be as well as supposed to be done, gain experience and expand knowledge. While we are not cheap, we are a good value and much less than ownership. Our significant fishing experience can shorten your learning curve dramatically.

Other ideas are fishing poles, lures, or even gift certificates. If you have the time, do your research learn more about each other and make the extra effort; the joy you revive is worth every minute or even hour. If you can make the time, enjoy it with others; now is the time to share with family and friends.  The smiles you can inspire are more rewarding than anything else you can share or buy. If you want to be happy just show some kids a good time around our waters and you’ll experience the joy of the holidays. Their smiles are pure joy!

Make Christmas to New Years fishing reservations now because dates are booking up.  We can expect some good action with redfish, sheepshead, trout and pompano.  Next year trout will be open year round. We could even have some mackerel if it stays as warm as it was around Thanksgiving. Enjoy this time with the special folks in your life. Let’s go fishin’ soon. Merry Christmas      Captain Van Hubbard <www.captvan.com>

2011-11-17 fishing report by Captain Van Hubbard.

Venice to Boca Grande fishing is productive now.

Time flies by and its Thanksgiving already with Christmas right around the corner. Don’t procrastinate colder weather is coming soon. Fishing has picked up outside with better weather, some kings and plenty of Spanish mackerel. Flounder are around the near shore artificial reefs. We finally found a few pompano yesterday around the pass. Inside red fish keep me guessing; we do great for several trips and then fish move around. Snook and trout are here but fun only for now. Ladyfish have reappeared for fun action. We have fish and maybe some good weather for the Holiday?

If the weather doesn’t stir up near shore waters with today’s front, we have mackerel to play with from Venice Beaches south to Boca Grande. Spanish are thick right off Stump Pass and Venice Beach. We are using Gator spoons since minnows are hard to find right now; live shrimp are also working. The larger kings are scattered but cruising thru with some nice cobia. Tripletail have blessed some trips recently too. Our near shore fishing will turn on if we get a migration of baitfish to help us locate the action. Sharks will follow the food too.

The flounder have been abundant so far we even had almost a dozen on Monday’s trip. Some were smaller but we had six from 2-3+ pounds. That’s a nice mess of fresh fish for dinner! The trick for us is to use cut bait and jig heads bounced around the reefs structures. Nice to have tasty flatfish with grouper closed.

We found a few pompano at Stump Pass yesterday. The ladyfish kept us busy; we had fun with Spanish and pompano for lunch, that’s a good morning. We usually bounce Doc’s Goofy Jigs along the bottom for pompano. Add a tip it of fresh shrimp to enhance the bite.

Redfish are here and abundant but some days we catch them other trips they elude us. That’s the thing about fishing even with thirty-five years of guiding experience the fish keep educating me! Maybe the bright Full Moon last weekend just had them eating at night? The trout and some snook help keep poles bent but we have to release them for now.

Bottom line is we have fish and a lot to be thankful for so enjoy Thanksgiving with your family and then Let’s Go fishin’. Captain Van Hubbard  <www.captvan.com>

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>