Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Florida Sportsman

This month I’m heartened to learn I’m not the only guy who thinks a dead sardine with a hook in it is still just about the best bait in the sea. Writer David Brown interviews a couple of ace charter captains over in St. Petersburg, where the fleet is gearing up for grouper season while eyeing warming water and offshore bait pods. Florida’s peninsular Gulf Coast has been a lively spot to be an offshore fisherman in the last few years: With the explosion in 30- to 40-foot center consoles, satellite fish-finding services and ultra-crisp sonar, anglers are finding the tuna, wahoo and billfish action every bit as good—hey, maybe better—than Florida’s traditionally dominant East Coast ports. I had been expecting David’s article to relay how the boys are tinkering…

WHERE: Matlacha is in Lee County in Southwest Florida between Cape Coral and Pine Island. GAME PLAN: The bridges are popular for fishing, as are the docks out back of many of the inns and cottages. Not many wadable areas in town, but a kayak or small boat is all one needs to reach the flats and mangrove islands. Navigation is pretty simple with Navionics or other chart software, with a glance now and then at Google Earth. If boating, be aware that areas can be extremely shallow, some with shell mounds exposed, especially at low tide. LODGING: Tiny Village (www. matlachatinyvillage.com), Matlacha Cove Inn (www. matlachacoveinn.com), Bridgewater Inn (www.bridgewaterinn. com) FOOD: Olde Fish House Marina restaurant offers fresh, local seafood; Bert’s Bar & Grill; Blue Dog Bar & Grill…

Resumption of travel in many tropical areas, such as Costa Rica, has anglers on the hunt. Fishing Nosara, part of our Action Spotter Podcast, had a big blue marlin catch 5 miles offshore. CATCH MORE ONLINE Fish and hunt smarter and more efficiently. Check our daily "feed" to get on the best bets and top seasonal picks for all regions of Florida. And be sure to share your pictures and stories with us! WWW.FLORIDASPORTSMAN.COM…

Top Season for Big Fish Anglers heading out to the bluewater edge from Deerfield Beach south to Ocean Reef might encounter smoker size kingfish to 50 pounds, large bull and cow dolphins, big Atlantic sailfish, wahoo, 30-pound blackfin tunas, a possible encounter with a yellowfin or giant bluefin tuna, big barracuda, and great hammerhead sharks this month. Most of this action will be taking place near the surface where you can watch the fish strike a struggling live baitfish fished under a kite. For the angler who likes to test his strength, amberjacks will be schooled up over many of our artificial reefs and wrecks. Joined with the amberjacks will be almaco jacks, mutton snappers, gag, black and red groupers and cobia. As you move in closer to the beaches,…

Did Someone Say “Tarpon”? Yep, there will be tarpon caught this month as this spring fishery gets underway. Maybe not a lot of tarpon by Southwest Florida standards, but silver kings are starting to be around in decent numbers and multi-fish days are possible. Some early-season tarpon will be taken in the world’s most famous tarpon hole at Boca Grande Pass but some years there are more early fish in smaller Captiva Pass, the next inlet to the south. And there will also be some tarpon encountered in the river mouths too as our resident over-wintering fish start to move downstream into the harbor. Other fish which will start showing up in catch reports this month include Spanish mackerel and sharks. Schools of Spanish mackerel swarm into the estuaries in…

No and Bad, that’s what we have in Tallahassee, and the 2021 session, right now. No new legislation, or amendments, to stop or curtail pollution to our local watersheds. And a bad piece of legislation that will make waters worse. No and Bad. The bad legislation (Senate Bill 426 and House Bill 267) is what we need to sink. The companion bills are designed to remove control of our state’s 15 seaports from local municipalities, who have been perfectly fine managing their ports for 200 years, and create a blanket, one-size-fits-all, law. “You may finally see Key West secede from the Union if this passes,” exclaimed Key West fishing guide Will Benson. Key West’s population is just 25,000 and in recent years, the 5-square-mile island received over 400 cruise ships…

MERCURY V12 600-HP VERADO Mercury Marine has introduced the world’s first V12 outboard—and the word's largest outboard. In addition to its considerable 7.6L displacement and industry leading horsepower output, the new V12 features a unique design for steering: an electro-hydraulic steerable gear case that turns independently from the top end of the engine. This lower unit can turn outward to 45-degrees in either direction with the joystick engaged for better agility. Steering orientation is monitored via a rudder angle indicator at the helm. Another innovation is a two-speed automatic transmission which begins acceleration in low gear for easier start up and shifts into a higher gear at running speed for efficiency. Behind the two-speed drive is a contra-rotating dual propeller system. This massive power plant is designed to meet the…

• Plan your day wisely. Know that afternoon storms near the Florida coast are a fact of life in the summer. Certain areas are more prone than others to produce the rapid updrafts which charge the atmosphere. If locals advise you to “get to the dock by noon,” heed their advice. • Download a radar app for your cell phone, or install Sirius XM Marine Weather satellite service on your vessel’s chartplotter to give you a look at developing storm cells, where they are moving and how quickly. • Speaking of cell phone, if your boat has a microwave oven, which is an enclosed conductor, store your phones inside during a lightning storm. The oven will act as a protective Faraday cage (also good place to store a backup PLB…

Along with those flats of sardines, Boston mackerel and squid, loading the live well with an assortment of frisky baits readies you for a mixed bag of Gulf bottom fish and pelagic opportunities. The more the merrier, but a few strategy points merit consideration: Capt. Kevin Farner catches his live baits inshore. Foremost, he doesn’t want to risk running offshore without a day’s supply. Also, cast netting and working sabikis becomes more laborious the deeper you run. And then there’s the whole predation factor. “Half the time the baits you catch offshore you don’t get them back to the boat,” Farner said. “Barracudas and all the pelagics on your offshore spots will eat them on the way up.” Jigging markers is usually productive, but Capt. Frank Perri knows there’s nothing…

There have been some questions raised about chumming for sharks in recent years. Oily amberjack and kingfish carcasses were once common for chumming, but today these and most all game-fish species may not be filleted on the water and must remain whole until back at the dock. Barracuda is another common species used to “butterfly” and hang to attract sharks, and the rules vary depending on where you are. From Collier to Martin County, there is a 15- to 36-inch fork length, with one over 36 inches, slot limit and a daily bag limit of two per person or six per vessel. Season is year-round. If you use a cuda as chum in this area, the fish must be in the slot and remain in recognizable, whole condition where an…

While I found my fellow island neighbors to be extraordinarily generous, hunting on St. Vincent requires you bring all the necessities to sustain yourself for five days. Premium bullets are a sine qua non for quickly and ethically bring down a 500-pound animal, lest you risk forever losing him to the swampy labyrinth. I treated my experience as one would a backcountry hunting expedition: my clothing, food and camping supply choices more typical of a backpacking list than one may expect to prepare for a hunt in the Florida Panhandle. I assembled mine while pulling ideas from both Kifaru and Kuiu’s excellent backpack-hunting YouTube channels, as well as a list made available at GoHunt.com. However, access to a boat offers a great level of flexibility and allows you to truly…

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 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 big catches.…

Tarpon Fever If you are seeing visions of gill-rattling head shakes and spectacular aerial acrobatics, you may have tarpon fever. It is real and it kicks off this month throughout the region. April tends to be a favorite month for targeting tarpon, as they are aggressively on the move and we see northbound and southbound fish migrate through our area. Catch these fish around the new (dark) moon on the 11th or the full moon on the 26th, mixed in with favorable winds and stable, warming weather and it will be absolutely lights-out action. You can target spring tarpon numerous ways, whether with artificial, live bait or on fly. Two main areas to focus on during this early part of the migration. First, fish will be readily available on the…

Fish to the Macks Cobia, bonito, Spanish and king mackerel, wahoo, dolphin, tuna, and others are making their way northward with the rising temperatures. Kingfish tend to show up first on deepwater wrecks and then along the beaches as it warms during their migration. A mid-point in our region is the Egmont Key shipping channel that runs out of Tampa Bay and westward. Bait schools that begin moving toward shore attract pelagics that are on the move. Spanish mackerel move in wherever there are schools of baitfish. As winds shift to a predominantly easterly direction, seas lie down, especially near the coast, and nearshore waters become clear. As water temperatures begin to nudge the 70s, bait schools start to move to the mouths of bays and passes to feed on…

Dolphin Season in Full Swing No matter how it’s known—be it dolphin, mahi-mahi or dorado—the dolphinfish is one of the most sought-after species in the ocean. And the time to catch them starts now. Catch records show that some of the largest dolphin taken offshore our East Central Florida ports occur from early April through June when bulls will range to 40 and 50 pounds, and occasionally larger. Beyond that, look for catch numbers to rise as water temperatures and weedlines increase into the summer months. Two of the largest bulls on record for this part of the state were a 75-pounder by Brian Rowland of Palm Bay in May 2013 and a 73.3-pounder by Evemarie Becker of Grant-Valkaria taken in June 2020. Those were catches of a lifetime and…

Tough Call: Reefs, Flats, Beach or Lake? Northwest Florida waters come alive with fishing possibilities. Gag grouper season starts the first of the month and there is nothing better than a really fresh grouper fillet. It’s hard to believe that during Florida’s early bottom fishing years, grouper were considered bycatch while targeting red snapper. That attitude was short-lived. Grouper are among the most sought-after gamefish in the state today. Gags can be caught in waters from shallow to deep and with a variety of methods. Deepwater grouper fishing usually involves live or cut bait fished on the bottom around some type of natural or manmade structure. This area is covered with wrecks and reefs that extend from relatively shallow to very deep. The only limits on anglers are the weather…

Gut-Busters in Guatemala April and May bring a smorgasbord of fishing in Guatemala, according to Ozzy Delgado, VP of sales & marketing at Pacific Fins Resort, near the port city of Quetzal. “Big dorado, plentiful yellowfin tuna, striped and blue marlin are all over the place, and you are just getting into prime roosterfish season,” he said. The fishing can be strong all year in Guatemala, with an extended “peak” that runs October through May. “May still has great fishing, but it starts our transitional weather period–heading into our winter –with overcast days and some rain. Then we get heavy rains in September and October, then it clears up and starts over again,” Ozzy explained. “But April and May is just freaking awesome because there are so many fish, plus…

“A hefty, silver-colored fish leaped and struck her hard on the leg! At first I thought her jack had jumped out of the water.” Our son Chadd and daughter-in-law Emma were down for a visit from Kentucky last fall, and were hoping to do some surf fishing for pompano at our condo on Melbourne Beach. Unfortunately, the wind and waves had kicked up a few days before, and continued blowing, making it impossible to fish off the beach. I suggested we head over to the almost placid Indian River, just steps to the west, and try our luck for trout and mangrove snapper. We launched our 16-foot Scout at Long Point Park in Sebastian, loaded with live shrimp. The east side of the river was completely calm, protected from the…

Remember when manta rays coming up the beach meant we would soon all have a freezer full of cobia? I do. Back then, the manta rays far outnumbered the boats pursuing them. Times have certainly changed when it comes to pursuing cobia. At least until the stock rebuilds, I’m afraid the days of easy limits of legal cobia on the beach, under the manta rays, are mostly a thing of the past. Captain Steve Szczepanik of Luckybird Charters in St. Augustine has advanced another method of finding cobia, one which I started trying many years ago off Northeast Florida. In this part of Florida, we have an abundance of pogies on the beach starting in April, and I found the easiest way to catch cobia was to punch a half…

Fix the Flo and Send Water South Contact the Governing Board members of the South Florida Water Management District and remind them who pays for the Stormwater Treatment Areas and why you want Lake Okeechobee water flowing south instead of to tide. To contact your district’s Governing Board member, go here: www.sfwmd.gov/who-we-are/governing-board Also: Sign the Petition! www.everglades.org/tell-the-army-corps-to-fix-the-flo/ A LOSOM Plan that Works for Everyone Contact the USACE Project Manager and ask that LOSOM include one of the 4C-1 models, specifically 22448. This model will do the most to improve Everglades ecology, eliminate discharges to the St. Lucie estuary, and reduce discharges to the Caloosahatchee while not adversely affecting water supply south of the lake. Send your comments to: LakeOComments@usace.army.mil Or call 904 232-3272 • www.saj.usace.army.mil…

Mariners and anglers have a long history of respect for our feathered friends. Historians speculate that early seafarers used birds to aid in navigation. Some historians have speculated, for example, that Christopher Columbus made landfall on the new world by following birds as their flocks increased, signaling proximity to land. Other maritime historians have shown that ships’ crows nests were developed so that sailors could keep crows with them on long voyages. The sailors would release the crows and observe their flight. Crows that flew around and returned to the ship’s nest conveyed that the vessel was too far from land for the crows to leave the safety of the ship. Crows that left and did not return implied a direction in which sailors could likely find land. Today, of…

Speaking with Captain Sandage, he explained that the spring and fall are the best time to target sharks with a fly rod, but there is opportunity year-round with these hard fighters. “I’d say I run 15 trips a year shark fishing with a fly rod, I wish it was 100! People just don’t know about this awesome fishery we have here.” Sandage runs 6- and 8-hour shark trips at $700 and $900 for three anglers, departing out of Angler House Marina in Islamorada. This includes gear, bait and necessary licenses needed. For more information on booking a trip, visit www. floridakeysfunfishing.com.…

For a real “surfari,” buy a cart! I bring a 48-quart cooler to ice my bait and fish. I rarely kill snook surf anymore, so the smaller cooler is ample. I bring a smaller soft-side cooler for food. My tackle bag has extra bait rigs, leader material, flies, lures, synthetic strip baits, scissors, a de-hooker for catfish, camera, sunscreen, fish rags round out my supplies. I also bring a sand flea rake if I am without frozen baits. I also bring a mesh chum bag to defrost frozen fleas in the water. A pair of binoculars lets me spot action down the beach. I typically sit on my cooler, but sometimes stick a light chair on the cart. If my wife joins me, we bring two chairs and an umbrella.…

Prime Time for Permit, Sails, Tarpon and More And we are off to the races down here in the Florida Keys! April kicks off the highly anticipated spring fishing season. Most of the trophy species have arrived, so get down here and get in on the action. Expect large schools of tarpon to be found throughout the Florida Keys. They tend to gather and hold in the deeper part of the channels, like the Seven-Mile Bridge, Bahia Honda Bridge, Shark Channel, Boca Chica Channel, Key West Harbor and Northwest Channel, to name a few of the most popular spots. These fish can be targeted by drifting over them or anchoring up current from them. Live bait is my bait of choice. Pinfish, pilchards, thread herring, blue crabs and live shrimp…

Snap to Attention April is typically the month we start to see the first signs of summer. One thing we’re not likely to see yet is heavy summer rainfall. April averages only about three inches of rain in this area, which translates into some of the cleanest water we see all year. It’s usually late May or June when local runoff and dumping from the spillways dirties up the inshore waters throughout our region. Clear water lines up with some great sight fishing for snook this month. Working their way out of the backwaters, these fish often hang along sunlit banks, flats and seawalls. Areas like these are not only a great place for the fish to warm up a bit but are also good ambush points for the typical…

Big Bend Mixed Bag If you’re curious about what’s biting this month, just spend a few hours at the end of any day at your favorite Big Bend marina. Our extensive stretch of lush grass flats begins south of Hernando County and reaches the shallows off Wakulla County. And in April, after the winter’s 40-ish degree waters have warmed, the inshore and nearshore shallows have come alive with a variety of catchable fish species. Just look at which fish are being cleaned and dressed as proof of April’s mixed bag potential. Without doubt, spotted seatrout are the most popular species targeted by Big Bend anglers. This month, seatrout in the 15- to 19-inch slot will likely head to the 3- to 4-foot flats, feeding on small baitfish and shrimp. Look…

From Panfish to Blue Marlin April can be the best of times, or the worst of times depending on what kind of mood the wind is in. Many fish are on the move, and some of the best days you’ll ever see will happen in April, but only when the winds subside. In the freshwater, everything is happening at once. The bass are still spawning (full moon on the 27th). Specks are in the pads of most area lakes like Lochloosa, Orange and Sampson. There are still plenty of specks to be caught by open water trolling, but when the lily pads are blooming, and the stalks of the pads are getting bumped by amorous specks, there’s few places I’d rather be than in pads too thick to plow a…

Seas Layin' Down, Fish Movin' In Spring is in the air! April is an exciting month for anglers along the Panhandle. Along with good fishing comes good weather and hopes of calm seas ahead. As always, pay close attention to the weather and avoid those 15-knot east wind days offshore, as the Gulf gets sloppy when the wind runs against the westerly current on the shelf. Inshore, trout and redfish are moving onto the flats. Around the passes and along the beaches, Spanish and pompano will move in with the bait. Offshore, the bottom fishing is heating up, and for bluewater anglers April is always a great month to begin the season with tunas and marlin. Inshore fishing in the Panhandle can be challenging or super easy in April, kind…

Chuck Steele relaxes on his backyard dock off the St. Lucie River, awaiting feeding gamefish. Is this next bunch chasing mullet? He hears the splashing. Is it jacks—or bluefish? Also available, minus the pyrotechnics, are pompano, snook and lately, Mayan cichlids. Either way, predators are harassing baitfish, stirring up the water, stirring up the memories. You’d think it was only yesterday when Chuck’s grandmother—she lived in West Palm Beach at the time—took her grandson fishing off Spencer’s Dock. Spencer’s Dock? It’s on Lake Worth Lagoon. The upshot? Chuck caught a fish—his first: a puffer. The rest is history. Chuck’s parents moved to Ft. Lauderdale in 1952, prior to his entering grade school. Later, after acquiring a bike, he’d pedal to Anglin’s Pier in the fledgling community of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. That was…