Health And Fishing Reports:
As an old-time Florida native I have been enjoying the Sunshine State's great outdoors ever since the late forties. During the early sixties I decided to start sharing my fishing and hunting adventures with other sportsmen/women. I wrote many articles for the Tampa Tribune & Tampa Times. Sharing quickly became a passion; payback for living in Paradise:
My long time dream was to fish the Florida Middle Grounds. I will never forget my first trip to the Grounds. It was on Hubbard's Florida Fisherman l. The Captain was the man himself, Captain Wilson Hubbard:
The fishing was better than anything I could have ever imagined. Decades later I am still fishing the Florida Middle Grounds on the Florida Fisherman ll.
Often, while preparing to leave for the up-coming 39 hour trip to the Grounds, I, in amazement, watched the 1/2 day boats unloading. So many smiling faces; so many fish. I had to see for myself why 10,000 people a year fish on Hubbard's 1/2 day trips. It did not take long to find out why:
The fishing was great and the eats were fantastic:
Shortly after returning home from the 1/2 day trip I encountered swelling and pain between my (R) shoulder and waist area. By Monday morning the pain was very bad and increasing. My daughter, Dee, raced me to the hospital. I was immediately operated on for a base-ball size hernia. After a week in the hospital, three weeks in rehab, I returned, under heavy restrictions, home.
While I was recuperating at home Captain Dylan Hubbard kept me well informed as to what was being caught and where.
Talk about exciting, that 12 hour night snapper trip looks like something to be added to my bucket-list:
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Captain Dylan Hubbard is a strong fighter for our 'Right To Fish'.
He is now attending the April Gulf Council meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi. His report directly from the meeting:
Dylan Hubbard "Heated debate for sure, bottom line is the new FES survey shows Rec landings were at least 2x higher than originally thought so dr Crabtree says the total quota should have been higher and allocation should have been pushed a little more Rec had they had the new fes survey back originally".
As of the first of April I have no more restrictions and am anxious to return to...
Last year the fishing in April was fantastic:
Will be giving full reports, or, better yet, join me on the deck of the Florida Fisherman ll.
Bob Harbison
Florida Outdoor Writers Association
