Let's Go Fishin' Captain Van Hubbard's fishin' report. I’m back on the water again and the fish are ready for us. 2-20-08 Sorry to be gone awhile but I had some boat and motor maintenance to catch up on. All is well the folks at Ingman Marine in Placida took good care of my trusty Yamaha. After a few trips I wanted to let everyone know we do have some nice trout and pompano around to enjoy. It has been sporadic but some good days and some times we have to put in more effort. Sheapshead are a back up when pomps are lock jawed. The trout are coming back, many are small but we have seen some bigger ones for dinner. It’s fun to pick thru the smaller ones to get a mess. We are very careful to release the babies with a de-hooker so they grow up for next year. The dolphin have been too friendly and made us move many times to prevent Flipper from eating all out future fish. The manatees are all over with the warm weather and fun to observe as we fish the pompano near the grassy flats. Eagles and osprey are constantly fighting over fish and adding excitement to our trips. We even saw several spoonbills yesterday. Fish and nature combine to make a fine trip even more interesting. Reds are available but they have a FLW tournament in Charlotte Harbor this weekend and they will scare everything out of the usually quiet back country. They will straighten out next week. Snook opens next month and look good for March fishing. They seem to have enjoyed the mild winter and I am expecting early action this season. Water temps are close to 70 degrees now and it’s warming up for the weekend. Minnows have hung around so far this year and should be available when the season opens a week fro Saturday. Gulf water temps are close to time for the Spanish and king mackerel to migrate back into our Boca Grande area. I also predict a very early tarpon season. I’m betting we have silver kings before tax time. So don’t wait to set up your dates for our great snook or tarpon fishing. it is tough to guess how long the big mack attack will last so get in on the hot action in March they could be off Tampa Bay by the end of March. What are you waiting for? The fish are waiting for us to feed em. My home port is still the beautiful Stump Pass Marina near Englewood and the Stump Pass grille is ready to fix us lunch after our trip. Let’s Go Fishin’ soon. Captain Van Hubbard [email protected] or the web address is PS. I’ll be at the Frank Sargeant Show in Tampa on Saturday the First of March stop in and visit. www.captvan.com.