Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017 i Florida Sportsman

Two different animals, please. Like night and day. And finally, after decades during which some of us have moaned and groaned incessantly about fishery management failures, there is hope, springing eternal as it does. What is new is that more and more leaders are shaking free of the commercial influence that has for so long dominated saltwater fishing regulations for the excessive profits of a few. The landmark change is a long-overdue recognition that there is a world of difference between (1) taking and selling large quantities of fish or other wildlife and (2) strictly limiting non-commercial catches equally among everyone. Four bills in Congress are addressing needed reforms that spotlight the crucial difference between taking fish for profit and catching a few for family-level recreation. And much stronger lobbying…

Blue Wave 2800 Length: 27' 10" Beam: 9' 2" Max Power: 557 hp Deadrise: 18 Degrees Weight: 3,650 lbs. Hull Fuel Capacity: 94 gal. Base Price: See Dealer www.bluewaveboats.com Blue Wave has a loyal following of inshore anglers along the Gulf Coast who have patiently awaited this newest offering. The new 2800 Pure Hybrid was designed for the angler who wants to venture offshore to fish the deeper blue water but doesn’t want to give up inshore bay capabilities to do it. This boat is arguably the largest production bay/ hybrid on the market. We tested her for two days on the back water and the Gulf Stream and found her to be a formidable competitor in both arenas. At 27 feet, 10 inches in length and 9…

A Christmas Eve seafood sundae for all to enjoy. Christmas dinner at our house is usually a no-brainer. Sometimes there’s paella, made with any number of seafood and game species—or rare roast beef. The crisis usually occurs when we plan the meal for Christmas Eve when no one wants to eat too much—and there are likely to be all sorts of folks at the table with special dietary needs. Seafood is always a safe bet—no glutens, no sugar, and not too many calories. To me, shrimp cocktails are appetizers. But in a search for something more substantial, I’ve come to appreciate what I call the seafood sundae, a glorious mix of salsa, shrimp, crab and avocado. It’s filling and suitable for a light meal, and with the holiday spirit in…

Camping in South Florida is very popular especially during the cooler months of the year. Flamingo in Everglades National Park attracts most campers in this area but there are other localities closer to Miami and Broward Counties one might choose to try. In Dade County, the Oleta State Park offers the Primitive Group Camping Area and 14 rustic cabins that can be reserved by contacting the park at 1-800-326-3521 during business hours and there is also Biscayne National Park and Larry & Penny Thompson Campground also offer overnight camping. In Broward County C.B.Smith, Easterlin, Markham, Quiet Waters and T.Y. Parks offer overnight camping. Many of these camp sites have hot and cold showers and bathroom facilities. Offshore anglers from Deerfield Beach south to Ocean Reef will have plenty of shots…

Some beach snook don’t travel very far inland, which means that the docks along the ICW from Venice to Punta Rassa will produce fish this month. Other snook journey miles away from the Gulf and many of them are stacking up under the bridges at El Jobean and at Matlacha, while others are pouring into the canal systems in Cape Coral, Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Areas of rip rap along seawall bases near canal mouths are good snook spots, but for a classic snook hangout nothing beats finding an old boat, preferably a sailboat, which hasn’t moved for years and which is sporting a crop of serious oysters on the hull. Freeline a finger mullet or a big threadfin along the waterline of one of these neglected vessels and…

With the winter shrimping season kicking into high gear in East Central Florida, a choice location is the Veteran’s Memorial Fishing Pier on the Indian River at Titusville. Best known simply as the Titusville Pier, this first-class decked and fully railed 540-foot facility is a destination for old salt regulars and anyone looking for a relaxed and safe haven for some nighttime shrimping and fishing. While the pier is known for its sport shrimping, the likes of seatrout, redfish, whiting, flounder, sheepshead and drum always are possible. There are occasions when winter anglers luck into an extended run of river pompano. The original Titusville Pier had a long history as a wooden planked section of the original Walker Bridge that first linked Titusville with Merritt Island in 1922. In 1949…

Late fall and early winter (at least what we consider winter) is really a special time to be in the Panhandle. As many Northerners flock down, the Panhandle starts to shows its true beauty. Birds and ducks make their way to our shorelines and on good years the Panhandle may offer some of the best duck hunting there is. Deer season moves into full swing the second week of the month and early reports have some really nice bucks on public ground like Blackwater State Forrest, Eglin AFB and Point Washington. The redfish action is amazing with bulls moving down the beaches and into the bays and slot reds around the bridges and jetties. Flounder fishing is also top notch and if you spend the time to figure out these…

What do mosquitoes, hispid cotton rats, and Burmese pythons have in common? They’re all part of an inadvertent experiment in south Florida that could lead to an increase in cases of the Everglades virus. The Everglades virus is a mosquito-borne disease carried by the hispid cotton rat, which lives in areas with tall grass such as grassy fields, weedy areas, and marshy areas… just the sort of habitats the Everglades provide. In the past, the virus was quite rare in mosquitoes; a 1979 study showed that only 15 percent of the female mosquitoes took their blood meal—necessary for them to reproduce—from the hispid cotton rat. Then the Burmese python arrived. This invasive predator is eating many larger mammals—raccoons, opossums, deer and others—which has caused an increase in contact between the…

During Hurricane Irma, much of Florida was awash in water. Lake Okeechobee was already high, in fact on its way to one of its recent historical highs. Yet sugar cane farmers south of the lake began pumping water from their fields, untreated water, back into Lake O. The discharges to the coasts resumed, as did questions about the integrity of the dike at Lake O, while the sugar industry was adding to the height of the lake. “Even then, as another major storm, Hurricane Maria, was strengthening and its path was uncertain, possibly coming to Florida,” said Chris Maroney, one of the founders of advocacy group Bullsugar, “they were backpumping. Those sugar growers pretend that they care about the people who live around the lake, but if they did they…

The dirty buoys, with more growth on them, will generally hold more tripletail than clean ones. Every mid-October in our region, commercial stone crab fishermen set their traps in anticipation of harvesting these tasty crustaceans and in as a result, the nomadic tripletail now has miles of crab trap buoys to relate to. It is certainly a nontraditional cover and structure type, but just as pelagic dolphin will relate to floating debris, so will tripletail. While there is some debate as to why these triple finned fish relate to the buoys, in its simplest form, it is a two-fold answer: safety from predators and food. The tripletail has a unique way of camouflaging itself, by nosing into the buoy or line of the buoy that leads to the actual trap,…

The past few winters here have been extremely mild and very atypical of Suncoast weather. Stretches of cold weather never really got here, and certainly there were no freezes. Snook that normally were moving up rivers and creeks remained on the flats—and why not? The bait-fish never left for Gulf waters. Gag grouper that typically would move in to depths as shallow as 20 feet on hard bottom and artificial reefs off the beaches stayed out beyond 60- to 80-foot depths where water temps stayed in the 70s. Typically, weather patterns create predictable migration patterns for our offshore species. For instance, while big numbers of the mackerel family may spend summers up in the Panhandle, when fall arrives with cooler temperatures, algae and plankton that baitfish feed on is reduced…

December is all about fish on the move for Northeast Florida anglers. Everything that swims is on its way somewhere. Long gone are the summer days of fish feeding for short windows early and late, and spending the rest of the day lying in the shade. The animals both in the water and in the woods have already gotten the notion that some kind of winter is on the way, and they are all looking for something to eat and somewhere to keep warm. Out in the deep blue, the high speed wahoo trollers are burning some serious gasoline. Wahoo have been on the bite since September, but each time the water temperature drops, both the bait and the pelagics push a little farther offshore. For the most part, wahoo…

Frogg Toggs PRYM1 Camo Aqua camo in various patterns is all the rage, showing up now on foul weather gear. Frogg Toggs won a Best in Lifestyle Apparel award this summer at ICAST with the new PRYM1 camo pattern Pilot II series jacket and bib. Shoreline Blue, Silvermist and Blackout colors are available. The pieces are microporous breathable, seam-sealed waterproof. Suggested retail price for the jacket is $189.99 and for the bib, $169.99. Hunting camo patterns are also available. Sizes from small to 3XL. See www.froggtoggs.com . T. Allen Rods T. Allen, longtime Florida builder of inshore and freshwater spin and casting rods, has debuted two entries into the fly fishing market. At the Florida Sportsman Expo in Tampa, T. Allen demoed 9-foot, 4-piece, moderate-fast action fly rods in 5-…

Braided fishing lines offer excellent performance for many inshore fishing situations. The lines are strong, supple and small in diameter—but they also come with some special challenges. What Exactly Is It? In brief, braid is typically four or eight polyethylene strands, or carriers, woven into a bundle. On the shelf, 8-carrier line is always more expensive. Why? “It takes two times longer to braid,” said Chris Pitsilos, Associate Manager of Brand Development for Pure Fishing line companies, such as Spiderwire and Berkley. “Eight-carrier lines are smooth and promote long casts. Four-carrier lines can be rougher and are not as long casting. The strength is the same because you have the same amount of fibers, just different constructions.” Line manufacturers have patented blends. Daiwa’s J-Braid, for instance, is an 8-carrier line…

“The conquering hero walks into the kitchen with a large amount of fish. ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ his wife would say.” I’ve done a bunch of fishing in Florida. I remember the days when kingfish would bend rods like crazy on the drift boats. Regular guys with $12 would flock to the marina and pack the rails of boats with names like Big Ben, Sea Mist and Two Georges. Four-hour drift fishing excursions could provide a box full of big kingfish. Your Penn 4/0 would start screaming out and the 40-pound test would pin you to the rail. The mate would yell, “Turn the handle!” or, “Get the rod tip up!” The stout nature of the tackle and the power of the initial kingfish run…

Duck season spells fun and special times. After the early rise, the cool ride to the site, and the arrangement of the decoys in the predawn inkiness, there is time to sit in the blind and sip coffee hot from a thermos while both hunters and dogs wait in quiet anticipation. Then comes the beauty of flights of ducks, near and far, amidst the splendor of the new day. The reward for artful calling and careful decoy positioning comes when the birds brake close at hand with wings cupped. Add the splashing and enthusiastic retrieves by the dog and it is hard to top the excitement and enjoyment. Days like these provide a multitude of memories of special scenes and friends and dogs. That is a sketch of a classic…

On the Move “The animals both in the water and in the woods have already gotten the notion that some kind of winter is on the way, and they are all looking for something to eat and somewhere to keep warm.”—from the Northeast Spotter, p. 55. Drifting structure lines off the reef on a December day can bring incredible action. Island Time The season’s cooler water temperatures are great for the inshore fishing around the Florida Keys. These cool winds can rapidly drop the water temperature that plays such a big role in the inshore fishing. You can expect larger groupers and snappers to be moving inshore around the area of Hawks Channel on the Atlantic side of the Keys archipelago. In the backcountry, the cooler winds will begin to…

Artificial reefs have become very popular throughout the region in the past couple of decades, with St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties each having their own programs to deploy and monitor the habitats in our local waters. What exactly are these artificial reefs made of? “These reefs have been created using various donated heavy concrete and steel materials like culverts, concrete pilings, light poles and steel vessels,” says Jim Oppenborn, head of the St. Lucie County Artificial Reef Program (stlucieco.gov.) The most recent recent deployments have been Qualmann Barge with 1,000 tons of concrete in May, and the 195-foot Dixie Barge with up to 2,000 tons of concrete (yet to be placed). Both of these reefs were funded by FWC, with partial match by St. Lucie County. Not all…

It’s been many years since I last wrote about Horseshoe Cove. If you’re unfamiliar with the area, you’re not alone. It’s located south of the “forgotten” village of Horseshoe Beach and north to Shired Island, and for many boats and boaters it isn’t very hospitable. It is, however, the perfect place for lots of gamefish, especially redfish and spotted seatrout, to gather in late fall. At several locations along our Big Bend, Mother Nature has provided bays and coves that act as traps for tidal movement and catch basins for baitfish and predators. Waccasassa Bay, Suwannee Sound, Deadman Bay and Horseshoe Cove are good examples. But Horseshoe Cove, littered with shell bars and fringed with coastal creeks, is probably the least traveled and least fished of them all, despite the…

Flounder are not famous in the game-fish world for drag-smoking runs or aerial acrobatics. What they lack in athletic abilities they more than make up for on the table. This alone makes them worth targeting. Northwest Florida has gulf and southern flounders, as well as several less common species. The gulf flounder is far more numerous and November is a great time to fish for them. Although some flounder move offshore in the fall to spawn, they can be caught in both inshore and offshore waters. Flounder prefer soft bottoms with structures that attract small baitfish and shrimp. Offshore, this usually means wrecks, reefs and other objects in the water. Fortunately, Northwest Florida has an extensive reef system for targeting flounder. The reef choices extend from shallow to deep water…