Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i Florida Sportsman

Anglers want the best science. We also want rules we can understand, seasons that make sense... and no special status for fish-sellers. “… Stocks Hit All-Time Low,” a playful choice of words. You don’t often see irony or humor in missives from NOAA Fisheries, but it’s right there atop the press release for the 2017 Status of the Stocks report. Where you expect dire news about the collapse of fisheries, instead you read that things are actually doing quite well in U.S. waters. “All-time low,” according to NOAA, describes the number of managed fish stocks considered overfished or undergoing overfishing. Three fish have been added to the “Rebuilt” list; six removed from “Overfished;” six from “Undergoing Overfishing.” Today, basically 9 out of 10 fish stocks managed by NOAA are said…

The 2018 spiny lobster sport season will be July 25 and 26 (last consecutive Weds and Thurs of July, each year). Regular season opens August 6. LICENSE: Unless exempt, a recreational saltwater fishing license and lobster permit are required to harvest lobsters. BAG LIMIT: Sport “mini” season: 6 per person per day in Monroe County and Biscayne National Park; 12 per person per day elsewhere in Florida. (Bag limit during the regular season, starting August 6, is 6 per person statewide) MINIMUM SIZE: Carapace must measure greater than 3 inches, and a measuring gauge must be in your possession when diving (the lobster must be measured while in the water). Egg-bearing (“berried”) females must be released. HOURS: Night-diving prohibited in Monroe County during sport season. CLOSED AREAS: Pennekamp State Park,…

Fishing or hunting on military property requires extra preparation and more caution than normal. I once found an empty casing for a 105-millimeter shell at Avon Park and figured it would be a cool home decoration. Wrong. I took it to a checkout station for permission to remove it, and it was immediately confiscated with pointed instructions not to touch any munitions whether in part or whole. Such discoveries occur more than occasionally, particularly at Avon Park, Camp Blanding and Eglin, so definitely don’t touch anything unusual and leave metal detectors at home. Other suggestions: ➊ Make sure you have the required ID before arriving at any military installation. It varies from one base to another. If you don’t bring what’s necessary, you’ll be turned away until you get it…

STEP 1: How many dorsal spines does it have? What is a dorsal spine? Dorsal spines are hard and rigid which is different than the dorsal rays which are soft and flexible. Florida’s Seriola jacks have two dorsal fins: one short dorsal fin (forwardmost) with only spines and then a long dorsal fin with only soft rays. When counting dorsal spines only look at the first dorsal fin. Also, be careful because they are sharp and could spike you. 7 dorsal spines — You either have an Almaco Jack or Greater Amberjack — Move on to Step 2 8 dorsal spines — You either have a Banded Rudderfish or Lesser Amberjack — Move to Step 3 STEP 2: Are the dorsal and anal fins elongated? Yes — Almaco Jack, also…

The reefs are still teeming with snapper action throughout the Florida Keys. July is the mangrove snappers’ month to spawn, and they prefer the outside edge of the reef or outside edge of the bar. There are spots up and down the Keys for these fish, and on some you’ll see a congregation of boats. When fishing in some of these populated spots, a bit of etiquette goes a long way. This means carefully judging the area, conditions and currents to make sure you have space available for you to anchor and not disturb the boats around you. Whoever arrives first and anchors has priority. It doesn’t matter that you have five motors and a large bank account. When I arrive at one of these areas, I talk to the…

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission announced a 40-day recreational red snapper season for both Gulf state and federal waters which opened June 11 but remains open through July 20. This recreational season will include those fishing for red snapper from private recreational vessels. For-hire operations that do not have a federal reef fish permit are also included but are limited to targeting reef fish in Gulf state waters only and must have State Gulf Reef Fish Charter on their license (this can be done at your local tax collector’s office).…

July is an awesome month to jump across the Gulf Stream and take advantage of what the Bahamas has to offer. The calm seas make for a quick ride over to Bimini or West End from this part of Florida. Once across and you have cleared customs, deep dropping on the western edge off of Bimini or Grand Bahama can yield queen snapper, tilefish and various other species. Go hit the patch reefs with chum and enjoy a family fun day chumming up and catching yellowtails for the ice box. Talk about one delicious meal!…

Yes, the Big Bend’s bay scallop harvest is now in high gear. Boat ramps from Aripeka to St. Marks are crowded, motels are fully booked, and you can expect long lines at coastal restaurants. But despite the madness, the take-home of these tasty morsels is always worth the hassle. Our Big Bend grassflats are pristine and offer the clear salty water that bay scallops require to spawn. Bay scallops typically have a one-year life span, and they usually reach maximum size by mid to late summer. That makes them easy to spot, nestled, all 200-or-so blue eyes facing up towards the water’s surface, in sea grass or along the sides of white sand patches, in 3 to 8 feet of water. Scallop season for Dixie and most of Taylor counties…

It’s kingfish time offshore, and it should be a great season if the big storms stay away. Last season saw a return of school sized fish to the artificial reefs. Whereas pogies are the easiest live baits to tempt these midsized speed demons, I’ve seen many a day either live or frozen cigar minnows pulled on a jighead would far out fish a live pogy. Once you’re past the three-mile limit offshore, give me a well full of big sardines and cigar minnows and you can keep your pogies. The July full moon will also bring the true start of the mangrove snapper spawn. Chumming them on heavy ledges in 120 feet will bring them up in the water where a chunk bait dropped on a light fluorocarbon leader will…

Scallop season dates were changed earlier this year. Between St. Vincent Island and NW Taylor County, the new season opens July 1, 2018. St. Joe Bay doesn’t open until August but there are numerous other places in NW Florida to find them. Keaton Beach, another very popular place, opened in June and remains open through July. Scallops are pretty easy to find in this area. Just look for shallow grassflats or lots of anchored boats. There are other productive spots scattered throughout NW Florida although they may be more of a challenge to locate. Scallopers usually have good results around the flats off of St. Marks and Live Oak Island but there are scattered pockets of scallops along the coast.…

Not charter captains—not even the professionals at this magazine, if you can believe it—can tell you all the size, bag and season limits for all the species within their range of fishing activity off the top of their heads, much less when they travel far from home to fish. With state and federal levels, Gulf and Atlantic, and seasons opened and closed based on Annual Catch Limits, the Florida angler can hardly be expected to remember so many different regulations. But having so many species and so many different waters to fish as we do in Florida is a good challenge, and that’s where fishery regulations apps enter the picture. In January of this year, the South Atlantic Council transitioned to use of the Fish Rules app to keep everyone…

Also known as cord-grass, spartina ranges from six inches to over five feet in certain areas. It grows very quickly, so you don’t often see just a bit of spartina—you see entire flats covered in it, some places thicker than others. There are multiple species of spartina, all similar in appearance. Hybrids are often produced when two species come into contact. Spartina is valuable not only as habitat for birds and marine organisms, but also as an anchor. It has been planted along shorelines by organizations such as the North Carolina Fishery Management to prevent erosion.…

A good way to beat the heat and have fun is to go nighttime bottom fishing over the offshore reefs from Deerfield Beach south to Ocean Reef. The ocean this time of year is mostly calm and nighttime temperatures run in the low 80s. The mangrove snapper range in size from undersize fish of less than 10 inches to granddaddies that can exceed 15 pounds. My personnel best was a fat 16-pounder caught offshore of Haulover Inlet. This fish offers great edibility, feeds night and day, fights hard but can be frustrating to catch. July is mangrove snapper spawning season in South Florida, when they congregate in select locations. Mangrove snappers can easily be caught in our inshore waters, but during the month of July this fish spawns over our…

July 5: The Marco Sportfishing Club monthly meeting, Rose Hall of the Marco Island Museum July 20: Last day of recreational red snapper season for Gulf state and federal waters July 22: Last day of red snapper season for for-hire operations with a valid federal reef fish permit July 25-26: Spiny lobster mini season July 28: Archery season for antlered deer opens July 28: Archery season begins for gobblers and bearded turkeys Get you some red snapper like these guys did—while you have the chance this month.…

Tarpon fishing in Boca Grande Pass is winding down, but tarpon fishing further inland in Charlotte Harbor is cranking up. Tarpon fishermen often refer to a “black water” tarpon fishery in Charlotte Harbor’s dark-colored summer waters. Black water is a bit of an exaggeration. Bay water in the harbor turns to a color that approximates iced tea during the summer rainy season. Not black, but dark enough to preclude sight-fishing in the traditional sense where fish are seen as they swim beneath the surface. Sight-fishing for summertime tarpon in Charlotte Harbor instead focuses on spotting rolling fish, a task that’s easy on calm windless summer days but one that’s not so easy when there’s a chop. Look for loose aggregations of fish spread over an acre or more and target…

July: Gag grouper scheduled to be open in state waters (all counties, excluding Franklin, Wakulla, Taylor, Jefferson counties) through Dec. 31 July 1: Scallop season begins in Franklin County through northwestern Taylor County AND Levy, Citrus and Hernando counties (ends Sept. 24). Dixie and most of Taylor County opened June 16, to close Sept. 10 July 7: N. Florida Gulf Fishing Club redfish tournament, Panacea, www.nfgfc.org July 21: Red snapper 2018 state season ends, state and federal waters, fishing from private recreational vessels. See myfwc.com for details…

As more and more seafood consumers insist on wild-caught Northeast Florida shrimp, you can look for more shrimp boats to be working our beaches in July. Tarpon, sharks and kings will all be following the shrimpers and the age-old method of getting chum from them or cast netting pogies and throwing them up behind the shrimper’s transom will provide incredible action. As tower boats have gained in popularity, many Northeast Florida tarpon hunters have started spot casting to the tarpon that are often competing with dozens of sharks for the scraps thrown overboard.…

The first thing everyone thinks about when it comes to July in the Panhandle is warm sunny skies and afternoon showers. The first thing that comes to my mind is pelagics. July is the time to get out and search for those weedlines, temp changes, and flotsam. The bait will be around. The question comes down to how much rain did the Midwest get up until this point. If they get a lot of rain, it usually means our waters will likely get dirty in close. The good news is that means there has to be one heck of a rip where the water changes. Good clean water in July means wahoo, mahi, marlin and tuna! It’s been a few years since we have seen a good push of good…

Locations for the towers are currently indicated on navigational charts, such as Navionics products, but general GPS numbers are as follows (you’ll see them!): SOUTHERN (Fort Myers - Key West) R Tower: 25°48.0’N/82-13.0’W 68 feet D Tower: 25° 34.0’N/81-43.0’W 28 feet T Tower: 25°28.0’N/82-06.11’W 69 feet L Tower: 25°22.0’N/82-28.0’W 105 feet P Tower: 25°07.0’N/82-00.0’W 65 feet S Tower: 25°02.0’N/82-22.0’W 85 feet W Tower: 24°56.0’N/82-43.0’W 120 feet NORTHERN (Apalachicola-St. Marks) C Tower: 29°24.751’N/84-51.386’W 82 feet O Tower: 29°32.402’N/84-37.093’W 70 feet K Tower: 29°40.000’N/84-22.160’W 60 feet S Tower: 29°18.123’N/84-36.541’W 100 feet SMI Tower: 29°05.000’N/84-19.300’W 96 feet V Tower: 29°25.000’N/84-24.600’W 78 feet…

Lure Lock Pads Keep plugs from rattling off their paint and weaving hooks together with these retro-fit Lure Lock kits. The patented gel pads grip and hold terminal tackle, hooks and lures. You can also put pads to hold cell phones and tools in place around your boat or truck. Lure pads sell for $6.99 or $7.99 (5 by 2 ½ inches, or 5 ½ by 3 ½ inches) and the tackle box retro-fit kits go for $7.99 for a two-pack of 3500-size, $8.99 for a 3-pack of 3600s, and $9.99 for two 3700s. www.lurelock.com…

Along time ago, in a decade far, far away: My dad, a lieutenant colonel stationed at Homestead Air Force Base (HAFB) south of Miami, heard a tantalizing rumor from an Air Police officer on base. Manmade canals on the other side of the flight line held unworldly populations of fish. Bass, all types of panfish, snook and even small tarpon hungrily cavorted about. Unauthorized personnel dared not tread these closely guarded waters due to a well-rooted fear of being water-boarded some 90 miles south of there. And guess what? As Providence would have it, Dad served as commander of security for HAFB, meaning he could access the canals simply by notifying the air tower and later displaying his military I.D. Dad indeed called the tower, and we soon received the…

Artificial Intelligence While lively shrimp are critical to steady docklight action, there is always a time and place for artificials to shine in Intracoastal waters, both in the backcountry and the main river channels. For inshore fishing, Anders uses two 7-foot spinning rods (Crowder), both with a 2500 size spinning reel spooled with 10-pound braid, and about 4 feet of 20-pound fluorocarbon leader attached via a uni-to-uni knot. He attaches all lures using a loop knot as this allows more natural action during the retrieve. DUSK AND DAWN: TOPWATER We’ve had great success on topwater lures for both trout and redfish. I often use a popper, such as the Storm ChugBug. Anders always uses “walk-the-dog” floating lures with pauses during the retrieve. Here are a few we’ve had success with:…

The amberjack is a familiar catch in deep waters around the Florida coast. Send a bait down over a reef in the hope of catching a grouper, and there’s always a good chance a stubborn “AJ” will intercept it. The fight is memorable, and many anglers rank the fillets as excellent. But did you know there are actually four species whose appearances—depending on the stage of maturity—might strike the casual observer as “amberjack?” The greater amberjack is the banner sportfish, attaining weights of over 140 pounds, but the almaco is no slouch, either, sometimes weighing over 70 pounds. The lesser amber-jack and banded rudderfish are panfish by comparison, seldom reaching more than a few pounds. The “amber” in amberjack refers to a colored stripe that runs the length of the…

SPORTSMAN’S REGIONAL EXPERTS GUIDE YOU TO THE HOTSPOTS JULY SPOTLIGHT Cobia on the Reef, Wrecks and Bays Cobia are an enigmatic and much-loved catch around the state, where they’re also sometimes known as ling or lemonfish. Whatever you might call them, look for them around markers and buoys where they sometimes linger. They can also be found trailing big rays, turtles and whale sharks. Often anglers will catch them by jigging reefs or by scanning waters off the beaches, where they like to surface swim. And be prepared to toss them a bait if they show up in your chumline while you’re reef fishing. 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. Send…

Exercise some caution with Mother Nature this month, and the Ten Thousand Islands can be a stellar place to fish in July. With exception of the Fourth of July weekend, fishing pressure is at a minimum. Bugs can be fierce this time of year throughout the region in low light conditions, but long sleeve performance shirts, plenty of bug spray and even head nets can save your outing, so at the very least, be prepared. It’s my favorite time to snook fish in the region, largely in part because of the non-traditional way that I approach it. Traditionally, we are monotonously beating the banks and points, and while fish can certainly be caught in the backcountry, in order to beat the heat and storms, I prefer to pursue snook other…

Ugh, it’s too hot to fish today.” I have heard that from so many anglers during July. Yes, it’s so hot you can cook an egg on the hood of your car, but that doesn’t mean the fish aren’t chewing. One of my favorite fishing opportunities throughout the region really turns on this month, and that is snook fishing on the beach. These fish have migrated out from the rivers and inlets on their annual summer spawn. With the light winds and little to no swell in the summer, sightfishing can be incredible as they traverse the trough. This can be done by boat, but I prefer to stay on the sand when targeting snook. There are a few tactics used to get an upper hand in this, live baiting…

Coming off the June 27 full moon we’ll see good moving water for ambush predators like snook, trout, tarpon and others. Again, we’ll see good tides around the new moon on July 12, followed by July’s full moon later in the month. Monster silver kings will head offshore to spawn around the full moon. For the best action, focus your fishing three days before and after these dates. This has been a very different year in terms of fish and their habits. Anglers in many areas are reporting far fewer redfish than in previous years, and this could warrant tighter restrictions on the fish until stocks rebound. On the plus side, I’m betting some banner tarpon fishing will be taking place around the new and full moons in July. Shrimping…

In his 40-plus years as a licensed guide, and a lifetime resident of Ormond Beach, Capt. Kent Gibbens, 75, has fished just about every stretch of backwater, tidal flat and mangrove shoreline from Mosquito Lagoon to Matanzas Inlet. Considering all that knowledge and experience, Gibbens picks the Tomoka River and the Tomoka Basin in his own backyard as the No. 1 area for consistently good catches and variety of species. “It’s my go-to area, exclusively, ” Gibbens said. “Whether I’m fun fishing by myself for a few hours, or fishing a client, I can find multiple species starting with snook, reds, trout, sometimes tarpon and going up the scale to some nice largemouth bass.” The 19½-mile Tomoka River begins as a trickle in the backcountry west of Port Orange and…

July is a good time for anglers to break out their bottom gear and put some fresh snapper on the table. Northwest Florida has an abundance of reefs and offshore structure to explore and these are listed on the Myfwc.com website. They are listed by name and include GPS coordinates, depth and reef material. In addition to artificial reefs, there is extensive hard bottom habitat offshore that red snapper prefer. This coral and rocky bottom occurs more commonly from Dog Island to the west. Generally, snapper prefer some type of structure and this applies to the gray or mangrove snapper as well. Anglers have both of these great-eating bottom fish to catch in July. Red snapper is generally associated with deep water but this is not a rule. Frequently in…

Summer marlin fishing? Bermuda is where you want to be, end of discussion. “Bermuda is about temperature and topography,” says Leah Baumwell, Conservation Coordinator at the International Gamefish Association (IGFA). If anyone should know a thing or two about marlin and their preferences, it is Leah. As manager of the IGFA’s Great Marlin Race (IGMR)—a global marlin satellite tagging program that is in its eighth year—she is swimming in valuable data. “Seasonally increased numbers of animals in an area are generally due to either an abundance of food in an area or ideal conditions for reproduction,” Leah said, “and one thing we’ve learned about marlin through this tagging program is that they prefer warm waters. Bermuda is sort of a warm bath tub this time of year, with very consistent…