10-24-2010 Captain Van Hubbard’s  fishing report.

 I enjoyed a great trip to the North Carolina, Mts.  The Lewis’ are part of my Mother’s family and have an annual reunion on Mt Mitchell every October.  I was able to get away and share the fun again this year.  We drove up and visited Merry Beth’s sisters in Cumming Ga. Friday night then went up to the mountains early Saturday.  It was a long but beautiful drive. We joined the reunion at lunch time and feasted with them.  It was cool so we even had a fire. The colors were not “peak” but still a blessing to us.  We spend a few nights camping then found a neat log cabin near Cherokee NC. for a couple more nights. I even caught some colorful rainbow trout right in front of the cabin!  We came back to Georgia visited with MB’s sisters and their great kids then even saw some high school football before heading home on Sunday the seventeenth.   

 Got home about midnight and went fishing Monday morning.  The weather was good and fish were biting so we got back on the water.  While the bite was not hot for us we caught some kings, cobia and Spanish.  We are so blessed to be able to enjoy varied opportunities available in America today. Please do your research and vote to protect our freedoms.

 Wednesday was beautiful. Minnows were plentiful and large. The morning was calm and waters clear. Robert Echols and his friend Eddie had traveled from Texas to try our Englewood fishing.  Their cottage was right on the gulf at Englewood Beach. Conditions looked perfect as we departed the marina. I had seen several snook recently so we tried them first. We had plenty of bites and saw the fish chasing our minnows, except the Full Moon bite was on.  By this I mean the fish were full from feeding all night yet still could not resist tasting our fine minnows. They just would grab the bait and then spit em back out instantaneously.   So we headed off shore.  We saw miles of threadfins on our way out but found no hungry big fish. We stopped at an artificial reef and slow trolled looking for big king mackerel. They caught their limits and a couple of fat Spanish Mackerel too.  We saw some barracuda and big hound minnows but no cobia today.  Both of my new friends were tired of pulling in fish so we went back to the marina and had some fresh mackerel at the Stump Pass Grille.  It was great to sit back eat fresh fish and get better acquainted with these gentlemen. 

 Thursday the McAllister family joined me. They vacationed on Englewood Beach for a week from Pendleton, In. Larry and Melissa managed to catch their daughter Natalie and son Eliott open together for a getaway family trip visiting relatives in our Venice area.  I caught bait and picked them up at Stump Pass Marina at eight-thirty AM. It was a beautiful morning so we went out to one of the fishing reefs near shore.  Our first line went in at nine AM and we got into action immediately.  I had large minnows and the kings were eating them.  Larry got the first one, then Eliott got a bigger one.  Next Natalie caught its twin.  Not to be out done Mom took over and landed our largest of the day, almost thirty pounds.  I looked at my Lowrance Electronic unit and it was only nine-forty-nine; not bad for less than and hour!  Larry got another nice one and Eliott pulled one more out before the fish shut down.  We looked around a found a fifteen pounder on Englewood Beach to close the trip out.  We went in and enjoyed some fresh kingfish at the Stump Pass Grille everyone cleaned their plates!  What a great trip shared with a wonderful family. 

 Friday and Saturday old friends came down from St Pete and we went off shore in their boat. We enjoyed the time together plus some gag grouper and mango snapper.  We had fresh stone crab and snapper for dinner on Friday night; live is great!

 Fishing is very good right now! It will last as long as minnows and the weather stay right.  The hard north winds are not far off so don’t put your special time on our waters off for too long; Winter is not far away!  Let’s Go Fishin’ soon! Captain Van Hubbard.   www.captvan.com