9-9-12 Captain Van’s fishing report.
Fishing is fine and not too busy.
I joined up with friends to take their five year old son to Boca Grande for the kids fishing tournament yesterday. It was great to see so many families enjoying our great fishing. Several other local guides were there to share the fun and help out. Our protégé was lucky and caught a nice drum that won him the trophy and we all enjoyed the experience. Thank you to all the folks that worked hard to make it happen. Mom even had a winners celebration complete with Publix cake and balloons to make it complete. Congratulations Mason.
I am not getting out as much right now but able to enjoy enough time on the water to see what’s happening. Baitfish are abundant and getting bigger finally. Nice mix of sizes for snook, trout, reds and even larger ones for tarpon and big fish. Redfish are happening now and should stay good for at least a month or two. Snook are catch and release but fun when they interrupt our other fishin’. Trout are abundant and while many are smaller some nice ones are making our days. Spanish mackerel and other fish are available if we have the conditions to pursue them. We even had some tarpon to play with before this front stirred up area waters.
The mackerel, sharks, cobia and all will be cruising into our Venice area soon. The minnow schools are already appearing now. Fronts will continue to push fish migrations south every time they move thru. It’s still hot many days thru October but much more comfortable than last months heat. That T-Top sure is nice this time of year on sunny days! Fishing will just continue to improve until cold weather sinks south and blows it out.
I get to go to the East Coast for a couple of days this week for my Florida Outdoor Writers annual convention. I’m looking forward to exploring, visiting and learning with long time friends and new ones. It’s a great group and many have helped me grow. Then I’m going to slip out early to attend the Guy Harvey seminars on St. Pete Beach so I stay up on current events and stay in contact with fishery management folks. If you stay out of sight too long they forget you. With all the fishery issues and especially tarpon challenges it’s best to stay in touch because you never know what contact will help us protect OUR awesome fisheries. Without getting into it all; many of the newer fishermen sharing our area during tarpon season are not respecting the fish or anyone else. Ready up on the Save the Tarpon web site please for more info. We have some new T-shirts coming soon order yours now it’s a limited run of classy new designs. We have already achieved a major success because the only weigh inn tarpon tournaments have stated its changes to stop the gaff and drag weighing fish! An up hill struggle but real progress to regain respect for Boca Grande’s famous silver kings and fisheries!
Thank you for your support and encouragement. Let’s Go Fishin’ soon the season is upon us already. I saw the local eagle again this week for the first time in months, fall is coming already. Captain Van Hubbard <www.captvan.com>