Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Florida Sportsman

For a brief period over the summer, I thought about moving. To California. Don’t criticize me. You know you’ve done it, too. It’s in our blood, after all. That instinct that impels us to follow the sun, find what’s over the horizon, it’s there. I wasn’t serious, of course. Just daydreaming while on vacation. San Francisco does feel mighty fine in the summertime. The air is brisk. You can walk for miles without breaking a sweat. You can also drive in circles, for hours, without finding a parking space or public restroom. Yosemite National Park—it’s everything it’s made out to be. “Kids, just look at all this,” I said, breathing through my mouth, selfishly praying the radiator leak was someone else’s tour bus. “The most scenic traffic jam on Planet…

There are two things you can get year-around along the lower Gulf Coast of Florida—that’s advice and snook fishing. Both can be good or bad, depending upon the source. Snook fishing occurs throughout the year along the West Coast, peaking in May to July, and tapering rather sharply as cool weather approaches. Snook are preferred among coastal anglers to all other species. Fortunately, snook can be taken by trolling, or by using bait, fly, plug or spin tactics. In fact, artificial lures often will outfish a swimming live bait. Night or day, snook can be caught; and the lucky fellow who has a daytime job, well, he gets a break. Generally, the best fishing does occur at night. Snook are seldom caught far from land, although skin divers tell exciting…

BEST BET September is a great time to fish the flats and backcountry. With the consistent warm temperature, you can find all three of the most popular flats species to target: bonefish, permit and tarpon. It’s slow season, tourism-wise, so there is less traffic on the water and less pressure on the fish. If you don’t mind the heat and you enjoy flats fishing, this is a great month to visit the Keys; besides the fishing, you’ll likely find great deals on hotels, flights and even a few of the restaurants will have specials. Jump In, Water’s Fine All I can think about in September is getting in the water to try and stay cool. Lobster season has been open since August 6, and while they’ve been picked over pretty…

BEST BET September is the month for snook. Season just opened up, they just finished up their spawn, bait is by the millions, and they’re ready to eat. I like to fish areas with a lot of structure this month, such as bridges like the Roosevelt (U.S. 1) in Stuart or the A1A Bridge in Jupiter. Large marinas, if you can attain lawful access, are another good option. An 8-inch silver mullet is my bait of choice. One, it’ll get the attention of the big fish, and two, they’re easy to come by, as the mullet move through the region. I usually free-line a bait first, but if it’s not producing, I like to pin it to bottom with a knocker or Jupiter rig. Make sure to fish heavy enough…

BEST BET Inshore seatrout fishermen may have to dodge snorkelers in deeper waters where scallops are still plentiful. Just look for the “fleet” and head the other way! However, school is back in session, summer vacations have ended, and weekdays should be relatively quiet at Steinhatchee, Crystal River, Homosassa and Hernando Beach until the scallop harvest ends. Offshore, gag grouper should move closer to shore as waters begin to cool, with the bite getting better as we start to see some early October fronts arrive. Mark Your Spot! Florida’s second largest grassflat is located on our Big Bend. And healthy seagrasses combined with low angler pressure means lots of bait and therefore lots of spotted seatrout. In fact, for the better part of 50 years, our abundance of that species…

BEST BET Fall is the best time to target great-eating flounder. They can be found offshore around many of the shallow artificial reefs scattered across Northwest Florida. Reefs located in 20- to 30-foot depths are good places to try first. Reefs with concrete culverts are easier to fish than wrecks and reefs made of debris that’s easy to snag. Bendable wire hooks make it easier to save bottom rigs in these situations. Bull minnows, fresh shrimp and small jigs are popular ways to fish for flounder. The outer edges of the reefs are often productive and easier to fish than in the middle of them. The Gulf flounder is the one that’s the most common in Florida. The challenge is to catch the size that fits into a deep fryer…

We think David Wandel is onto a really good thing. Wandel teaches science at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville. The ESJ, a private academy with a regular school year schedule, also offers a variety of summer camps, open to the public. Six years ago, Wandel, an avid angler, started a surf fishing day camp for kids. It took off. Daily for one week in June, Wandel, adult assistants and older student volunteers accompany fifth- through ninth-grade campers on ESJ buses bound for shore-fishing hotspots in Northeast Florida: Crady Memorial Bridge over Nassau Sound (drum and seatrout); the surf at Atlantic Beach (whiting and croakers; ideal spot to get those first hookups). As you might guess, Wandel has learned as much from the experience as his proteges. Some pointers for anyone…

RAPALA SKITTER V For anglers targeting big coastal gamefish like snook and bull reds, Rapala unboxed the new Skitter V top-water. At 5 ¼ inches, the new No. 13 Skitter V is 1 ¼ inch longer than the original No. 10 model. Weighing a full ounce, it weighs a half-ounce more than the original. It’s armed with three No. 3 VMC Black Nickel, round-bend treble hooks. An exclusive V-Rap belly design radically alters a Skitter V’s action on the retrieve. Quick rod snaps create drastic direction changes, followed by soft, long glides on slack line. Single internal ball bearing broadcasts a unique, fish-attracting “clickety-clack.” The new Size 13 Skitter V is available in the same 10 color patterns as the original: Bone, Chartreuse, Chrome, Gold, Gold Chrome, Glass Ghost,…

Editor’s Note: In the summer of 1969, Florida Sportsman made its first cast with a how-to-catch snook article by Associate Editor Lefty Kreh. At the time, Kreh, a native of Maryland, was living in Miami and working as director of the Metropolitan South Florida Fishing Tournament, or MET. Kreh was already a nationally recognized outdoors writer, and while his formal tenure at Florida Sportsman was brief, his star would continue to brighten through the years, with books, videos, newspaper columns, magazine articles and even a U.S. Postal Service stamp bearing his name (1991). Kreh passed away March 14, 2018. The MET, incidentally, dissolved in 2009, but the big fish/light tackle ethos cultivated by the tournament, and by writers like Kreh, continues to influence today’s anglers.…

VERMILION SNAPPER (BEELINER) Gulf Coast: 10-inch total length minimum. Bag limit 10 per person, not included in the 10-snapper aggregate bag limit. Atlantic: 12-inch minimum. Bag limit 5 per person, not included within snapper aggregate. Limits are same for state and federal waters. MANGROVE (GRAY) SNAPPER Gulf and Atlantic, state waters: 10-inch total length minimum. Bag limit 5 per person within the 10 snapper aggregate bag limit. Federal waters, Gulf and Atlantic: 12-inch total length minimum. Bag limit 10 per person in the 10 snapper aggregate bag limit. What to make of the differences in size and bags? Do not get stopped in federal waters (outside 9 miles on the Gulf, 3 miles on Atlantic) with sub-12-inch mangrove snappers in your possession. Similarly, don’t get stopped in state waters with…

Yankeetown sits on the banks of the Withlacoochee River where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico, just a few miles north of Crystal River and a few more south of Cedar Key, or more nautically, nestled between Wacassassa Bay to the north and Crystal Bay to the south. The town was initially settled in 1923 by Armanis Knotts, a lawyer out of Indiana who had been influential in the development of Gary, Indiana. Knotts was living in Inglis and started buying property along the Withlacoochee. Early in the development of Yankeetown, Knotts built the Izaak Walton Lodge on the river hoping to attract anglers to the area. So, Yankeetown truly has been a fishing town since its inception and the region deserves recognition as one of the most dynamic…

BEST BET Snook season reopens on both South Florida coasts this month. With most female snook spawned out by now, it’s time to bag a slot fish for dinner. Lots of snook are still hanging out in and around the ocean inlets, beaches creek mouths and river mouths. With big schools of mullet migrating south, catching a dozen 8-inch mullet with a cast net should be no problem. Attach a frisky mullet to a Mustad 7/0 Ultra Point or similar shortshank hook. Add a 1-ounce egg sinker to the rig and fish that bait near the bottom. If you’re using braided line you will know when the strike is about to happen. Set up hard and enjoy the fight. Flat Out Fun September means calm waters and the first schools…

BEST BET Inshore anglers who want fish to eat are in a bit of a pickle since the harvest of snook, redfish and trout are temporarily suspended in SW Florida. Not everybody cares to eat sharks or mackerel, and tasty sheepshead are tough to target this time of year. As a result, mangrove snapper are receiving a lot of attention. Your best bet this month is to target 12- to 16-inch mangos in the passes and under docks along the ICW. Pass fishing is most productive when anglers drift on the tide to cover lots of territory, but fishing docks is best done by anchoring uptide and feeding baits back among the pilings. Snook Steady Get ’em while you can. September is pretty much the last month of the year…

BEST BET More material was deployed earlier this year on five of the 15 Volusia County artificial fishing reefs offshore Ponce Inlet making for even better catches of legal grouper and snapper. The series, numbered 1 through 15 for easy reference, range in depths from 45 to 135 feet of water, with most in 60 to 85 feet. The reef sites, going back to 1996 when 24 U.S. Navy Intruder airplanes and a 100-foot ship were sunk on a site in 135 feet of water now known as reef No. 9, include a dozen ships and barges, concrete culverts, Jersey barriers, and Reef Balls dumped on the permitted zones. A listing of the 15 reefs with the deployment history and locations for each, is available at www. volusiareefs.org. Bright Spots…

BEST BET The best bet this month will be fishing for wahoo, billfish, dolphin, and tunas. Shorter runs this time of year make "lifetime fish" available for a lot more anglers. Anything is possible in September and just about every type of pelagic in the Gulf has the potential to be caught within 30 nm of our shorelines. The best thing will be to check online forecasting sites like ROFFS, Hilton's and Ripcharts for satellite imaging. For most serious offshore anglers, now is the time to pull large dredges and fish naked ballyhoo or blue-and-white Ilander-style lures with ballyhoo. Find the bait and you should find the fish. The summer months can be tough, with a lot of the pelagic species focusing on the smaller bait. By September, most of…

WHERE Sebastian Inlet State Park Open 24 hrs. a day, 365 days a year. $8 per vehicle admission; 321-984-4852 WHAT Jetty and surf fishing for basically every species that swims temperate and subtropical Atlantic shores. Opening of snook season in early September may get perilously crowded; let a few weeks go by and go for flounder, reds and snapper. Mackerel and bluefish will arrive with the first north winds of a cold front. Riverside action great for spotted seatrout, reds, snook, black drum and more. Big king mackerel and tarpon lurk just off the breakers through the fall mullet run. Sharks? You bet. SURF CHECK www.Sebastianinletcam.com Easy to select different views to spot bait pods, assess crowds, check tides and other details. CAMPING The state park has 51 sites…

TSUNAMI EVICT SPINNING REELS As many anglers are learning, there’s not much you can’t tackle in Florida waters with a few hundred yards of braided line in the 20-pound-test range. Reel manufacturers such as Tsunami have picked up on this, introducing products like the Evict reel series, available in 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 size categories starting at $139.99. The Evicts feature aluminum bodies, machined aluminum spools, stainless steel main and pinion gears, and sealed stainless steel main shafts for durable performance in the salt. The 4000 model holds north of 250 yards of 20-pound braid, and weighs in at 12.2 ounces. A good option for anything from jig-fishing for snappers to spot-casting for big mahi.…

Four 4- to 6-oz. servings of grouper 3 shallots 1 jalapeño pepper 2 tbsp. chopped garlic One 28 oz. can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes Fresh thyme leaves or dried oregano Extra virgin olive oil ½-cup red wine (drinking quality!) Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While preheating your oven, peel and cut the shallots into thin slices, then seed and mince the jalapeño pepper. Cut the tomatoes into large pieces, reserving the juice. Pat the fish dry with paper towels. In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil, sauté the shallots and garlic until translucent, about 5 minutes. Cover, reduce the heat and add the tomato pieces and juice, wine, thyme or oregano. Cook for about…

Snook have quite the following, as the ubiquitous decals on cars and trucks will attest. Drive through any coastal Florida town south of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Coast, Crystal River on the Gulf side, and it’s guaranteed you’ll spend some time in traffic staring at a snook decal on the rear window of the truck in front of you. The common snook—by far the largest of the snooks—is the main target, though there are a few smaller subspecies the fat snook, swordspine and tarpon snook—which inhabit the St. Lucie River, Sebastian River and other spots. To my knowledge no one has printed swordspine stickers, but they could be out there. Hint: Bumper sticker is about the max size on that one. Snook are at home in peninsular Florida anywhere…

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 DIGITAL PICTURES, 600 KB to 1 MB in jpeg format. For smartphone photos, email the Actual Size—highest resolution. Images must not have appeared or 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 big catches. NOW ON PODCAST! Florida Sportsman magazine’s READER- FAVORITE Action Spotter section has gone PODCAST. Every Thursday at 7 p.m., tune in to find out where the bite is in your backyard and across the state. EACH WEEK, host Capt. Rick Ryals will dial in on the bite across the state, mirroring the same…

BEST BET Outside points that feature hard bottom, slightly deeper water and shoreline cover such as laydowns and mangroves pockets are the areas of focus in September. Find grassflats adjacent to spots like this, and you have an area that can hold snook, seatrout, mangrove snapper and any number of other inshore species, along with usable bait. The east side of Cape Romano is a prime example of such an area. Spot-Hop for Steady Action Summer unofficially ends with Labor Day weekend in September and it marks the start of one of my favorite 60-day stretches to fish the 10,000 Islands. In September, the daily rains start to slack off, humidity begins to dip and the bait starts to move in with some consistency. With strong tides accompanied by two…

BEST BET The past few years have been warmer than most. Given the apparent weather changes and situations with red tide as it comes and goes, anglers will need to seek clean water where targeted fish find their comfort zones. The clean waters off Hernando County provide excellent habitat for grouper, snapper, snook, redfish and trout. There are also some excellent catch-and-release opportunities along the coastal barrier islands and inside passes from Siesta key to Hernando Beach. Some of the hottest action will be from snook moving back inside the bays to feed. The bite can be insane at times. Yes, the fishery (along with reds and trout) remains catch-and-release for much of our region, but the dependability of West Central Florida’s fall snook action qualifies it as a best…

BEST BET Flounder will be at their most active starting in September. Last year, hurricanes robbed us of what should have been a great flounder run, so we’re overdue to stack them. Finger mullet and mud minnows pinned to a fishfinder rig is the easiest way to catch them. Moving Day September is moving day for just about every species of fish we chase. It all starts with the shrimp getting the word from the wet nor’easters that it’s time to go. Early signs indicate a better shrimp season, and that would mean a return to great croaker fishing. Trout, reds and flounder will pretty much all be on the move in September. They will feed on the massive number of mullet and pogies that have shown themselves all summer…

BEST BET Also referred to as strawberry grouper, don’t let the diminutive stature of the red hind fool you: They have a voracious appetite. Seldom encountered in U.S. waters, they are common in Bahamian depths of 50 to 300 feet. Get a few miles away from the populated ports of entry like Bimini or West End and work your drift with anything from chicken rigs to grouper jigs (red hind have big heads and big mouths to match their appetite) to speed/ Butterfly jigs. Look for marks right on the bottom and be prepared for the occasion thump of a much-larger amberjack, black grouper or shark. Prep for Quick Trips A spontaneous weekend trip to the Bahamas during hurricane season has some pluses, if you can get yourself ready to…