Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Florida Sportsman

Normally a department for environmental advocacy and investigative journalism, this month’s “On the Conservation Front” and “Openers” take a look at the lighter side of fish and wildlife law enforcement. Featured are some of the zany and ironic cases of 2016, with a special emphasis on circumstances that would seem improbable if not outright fictional had they not taken place in our gloriously weird Sunshine State. Hence, “Only in Florida.” Editor Jeff Weakley provides the back story, which is that Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) administers a Division of Law Enforcement whose 853 sworn personnel and support staff are vital to the protection of our state’s natural resources—of which citizens and visitors are also numbered. Officers daily (and nightly) hazard all kinds of conditions on our state’s lands…

➊ Always keep a dolphin in the water on a rod off the bow to draw the school toward your boat. The drag should be tight but not completely locked down and you can rotate that fish out with a fresh, lively one after 10 minutes. ➋ For big dolphin, use a big bait, such as a big horse ballyhoo, naked or on a lure. Big dolphin will hang below the school and have been known to take smaller dolphin on the hook. See tip No. 1. ➌ Check down deep for dolphin, too, especially around productive surface rips and structure, as many fish won’t rise to the surface. Use leads or planers to troll deeper. ➍ Use a sea surface temperature chart service to know where the productive temperature…

The following tales are taken from actual news releases issued in 2016 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Division of Law Enforcement. Some have been edited for brevity. Headlines are our own. Enjoy. — Jeff Weakley, Editor CAUGHT BY DRAGNET Hillsborough County, January 2016 Just before midnight, FWC officers observed a commercial net boat operating without navigational lights just north of Simmons Park. The officers observed the boat make a large circle and could hear what appeared to be a net being deployed from the vessel. After several minutes the two subjects on the vessel were observed retrieving, what the officer believed, a large illegal net. The officers then attempted to stop the vessel with blue lights at which time the vessel fled and attempted to elude…

Lake Okeechobee can produce some big bags of bass right now, depending on any late season fronts pushing through. The fish are typically found in one of three places, moving up to bed, on the bed, or pushing off bed to feed on shad schools. Target the fish making their way up shallow by working the outside grass lines and points with spinner-baits and swimjigs. Once up in the shallows, switch over to a weedless swimbait or speed worm. It’s never a bad idea to pitch a weightless Senko into the cattails or holes either. Once the bass have spawned, they push off and it’s time to eat. Find the schools of shad and you will find the bass. Lipless crankbaits in shad colorations are killer. A lot of the…

Convict fish is what sheepshead used to be called, back in the “olden days” when bad guys were outfitted with a striped jumpsuit on their first day at the state penitentiary. And in the “not so olden days,” maybe 20 years ago, winters in north Florida were colder and weather was more predictable than now. Back then, bitter cold fronts howled in from the northwest well into March and were usually followed by two or three days of cold water and air. With that cold weather, big sheepshead gathered for their spawning ritual often into April. Now, we’re experiencing warmer winters, and it’s a crapshoot to predict how long winter will last, or how cold it will get. But I’d bet you a green beer the sheepshead will remain prime…

March is a great month to be outdoors whether on the water or in a turkey blind. In fact, some ambitious sportsmen do both, hunting in the morning and fishing in the afternoon. Even if the gobblers don’t cooperate there are almost always some fish that are biting in either salt or fresh water. Spanish mackerel are one of the first migratory gamefish to return to this part of the state. The warming water temperature and the schools of small bait fish both work together to lure the mackerel farther north. Anglers looking for the early arrivers typically key in on the pods of bait as a starting point. The seabirds are masters at finding the bait so anglers need to look for seagulls, terns and pelicans. Any birds diving…

Billfish tournaments, for all intents and purposes, fall into one of two categories: charity events and “money gigs.” Few of either is cheap to enter anymore, so if you are planning a charity deal, you’d better at least have some history under your belt. The West Palm Beach Fishing Club probably wasn’t planning 80 years ahead when they started the Silver Sailfish Derby in the 1930s, but having eight decades of the highest level of sailfish competition certainly puts them in a class of their own. For this reason, every fishing team with aspirations of being the best would love to win it. This past January, the competition was typically strong as 40 boats fished the event. After two days fishing, 173 sails were released, and 21 boats were within…

On some of my earliest Tampa Bay explorations, I'd wade the Courtney Campbell Causeway flats at night with a cheap plastic flashlight hung across my neck and shoulder with a sling fashioned from an old electrical cord. Did it work? Yep. But was it convenient, efficient, comfortable? Not so much. Today’s illumination options offer a broad array of functionality; also a broad array of features and terms to get straight. Lumens — Measurement of the intensity of the light throughout the entire beam, on the highest brightness setting and powered by new batteries (more accurate measurement than “candlepower”). Beam Distance — How far the light will shine before brightness diminishes to the equivalent of a full moon. Light Emitting Diode (LED) — More efficient, brighter and longer lasting than incandescent…

Perhaps you think reef fishing is merely an exercise in rod-watching. You’ll stick to casting lures on the flats or lakes. You’ll take the fury of the top-water strike, the satisfaction of duping a fish on an artificial lure. A useful first step outside your comfort zone might be hauling a box of plugs and your favorite casting tackle to the nearest artificial reef. I thought about this as I watched Rhett Nelson wrestle a 20-pound amberjack on spinning gear. The jack had blasted a topwater chugger right next to our boat. Rhett had made figure-eights with his big plug, trying to entice the jack away from a bonito. The bonito itself had been reeled to the boat harnessed by treble hooks on my own plug. For a good hour,…

The wrecks and reefs from 40 to 300 feet will all have some fish on them. Surf, jetty and pier fishermen will target pompano, snook, tarpon and bluefish with shrimp, sand fleas, cut baits and live baitfish from the trough inside the sand bar to just outside the sand bar. In just a few feet of depth farther offshore, Spanish and king mackerel; jacks, snapper and cobia become the targets. This is easy fishing that doesn’t cost an arm or a leg to participate. To fish from the surf is free as long as you can find a piece of beach that allows surf fishing. The best surf fishing beaches are in Broward County or farther north. Jetties are free to fish from but not as easy due to the…

The flats are coming alive as spring approaches. Seagrass which thinned out during the winter is sprouting anew. Crabs and small shrimp are moving in, and the first hatch of baby pinfish won’t be far off. Trout which had moved off the shallowest flats into deeper water for the winter are returning to those flats and they’re sharing digs with pompano, bonnethead sharks and a few newly-arrived cobia. There are dozens and dozens of productive flats in Charlotte Harbor where you might find all this activity. For starters you can check out the flats around Jug Creek Shoal near Bokeelia, near the mouth of Turtle Bay, around Captiva Rocks east of Captiva Pass, and those surrounding Devilfish Key near ICW Marker 7 behind Gasparilla Island. Eager anglers have been waiting…

More than once we’ve spotlighted the Honest John’s Canals, four miles of man-made cuts off the east shore of the Indian River north of Sebastian Inlet known for seatrout, snook, redfish, sheepshead and black drum. It bears repeating that these same canals offer East Central Florida anglers as good a sanctuary as they’ll find from the March winds that can blow out many a trip this time of the year. The Indian River can be a whitewash but rest assured it’ll be calm and sheltered for those plying the canals that are protected by natural windbreaks of tall mangrove and thick Australian and New Zealand pines. What’s more, reaching the canal system doesn’t require a rough ride across open water. You can launch at Honest John’s Fishing Camp on the…

The changing weather and multiple fronts will make it tricky to match your time off with the good days. The payoff is that the fishing can be phenomenal if you know what to look for and where. The decent offshore days are seriously limited this time of year making inshore/nearshore fishing a better bet. With species like redfish, sheepshead, pompano and cobia there are plenty of options. Cobia will be making their yearly migration up the coasts and across the Panhandle towards the Mississippi River. Cobia can be caught a variety of ways, with the favorite being sight fishing them from a pier or the tower of a boat. The ideal rod and reel combo will be a little heavier than the usual inshore gear. My setup is a heavier…

Notwithstanding possible temperature fluctuations, we can always count on windy conditions in March. As Bass-master Elite pro Bernie Schultz notes, breezy to downright blustery conditions typically plaguing the month compel him to plan his day with spots in various sections of the lake. “Wind will affect water clarity, so anglers should be conscious of what the wind direction might be going into a multi-day event,” Schultz said. “I always try to find fish on different shorelines, just in case. This time of year, the most active fish are generally in clear water, if they have that option.” Throughout this month, Schultz said he’s not surprised to find fish in prespawn or postspawn stages. That’s why he relies on a selection of baits that’ll tempt bass whether they’re coming or going.…

“Travel corridors hold the chance for a bird to show up at any time.” The yelps, cackles, and gobbles of the wild turkey are music to the hunter’s ears, especially in the early morning as they shatter the background chorus of insects and frogs. Most hunters know the plan; roosted turkeys are located the evening before or in the predawn darkness by their gobbles. The well-camouflaged hunter sets up in a bit of cover or against a tree trunk after arranging some decoys near where he or she suspects the birds will fly down. Then, as day breaks and other birds are issuing their chirps and songs, the hunter yelps, clucks and cackles in hopes of enticing either the gobbler directly or luring a group of hens that have gobblers…

Spring Ventures “Offshore anglers are targeting sailfish, dolphin, Spanish and king mackerel, bonito, skipjack tuna, blackfin tuna, cobia and more. Great depths to target this time of year are 40 to 160 feet of water. Down deep near the bottom large grouper, snapper and an assortment of large jacks will test your strength.”—South Spotter Send us your photos We welcome your fishing and hunting photos for publication in the Action Spotter and in our online community galleries at www.floridasportsman.com. We prefer digital pictures, 600 KB to 1 MB in jpeg format. For smartphone photos, email the Actual Size—highest resolution shot. Images must not have appeared or been submitted elsewhere. Send photos to: photos@floridasportsman.com. Include names of people pictured, hometowns, location of catch and any key details, such as weight of…

March in the 10,000 Islands region has anglers dreaming of the first day of the month, as this marks the re-opening of snook season in the region. Anglers get a short window each spring to harvest a keeper snook as the spring “season” is from Mar. 1 through Apr. 30, before closing again May through August. The keeper slot is always a tight one, as snook must not be less than 28 inches in total length or more than 33 in total length. When tackling linesiders in March, look to current-rich areas with some deeper cuts, such as Sandfly or Dismal Key Pass. Some of these areas are similar to rivers, where the current has eroded away one side of the pass and the banks are generally deeper on one…

The fishing action approaching spring can be hit-or-miss based on temperature. One of those lingering dingy, dark, windy days that cold fronts are noted for can shut things down. But give it a few days of solid sunshine on the Suncoast and we’re golden. Winters here in the West Central Region for the past two years have had anglers feeling like it was fall or late spring. Water temperatures that normally sit in the low 60s were hovering near the 70-degree mark. A decade or so ago I recall fishing in similar conditions. I was fishing out near the mouth of the Manatee River on some hard bottom patches in about 10 feet of water when a small pod of dark amber tarpon sauntered around the area, feeding on a…

If I was a dedicated freshwater fisherman, most of my sick days from work would happen in March. Bass are solidly in spawn mode, and you will get shots at fish that you would swear had moved out of the lake the rest of the year. KP Clements from FWC’s extremely successful “Trophy Catch” program revealed that there are more 8-pound-plus Trophy Bass caught and released in March than any other month of the year. To target bass in cooler water, your best bet is to fish shallow lakes where the water is likely to have warmed. Deep-water lakes like Kingsley warm more slowly, but will certainly have their day. March is also my favorite month to drift through the lily pads in lakes like Orange and Lochloosa. The fat,…