Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i Florida Sportsman

There I was, smug and satisfied with technology. Nothing for me to do, really, other than verify that my motorized kayak was on course. A quartering sea off the port bow lent a fine rhythm to the Old Town Sportsman 106, just about rocking me to sleep. Closing my eyes for a second and breathing deeply of the trade winds, I felt a rogue wave of anxiety roll through my gut. How much charge remained in the battery? Did I run this thing too long at full throttle? I’d circumnavigated Boot Key, about a 5-mile course, and been on the water for at least six hours, some of it paddle-poling the flats. I was dog-tired. I do enjoy paddling, but at day s end when you’ve got a throttle lever,…

WHERE: Pinellas County’s northernmost park, Fred Howard sits due west of the famed Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks and faces the pass between Three Rooker Bar’s northern shoal and the southern end of Anclote Key. WHAT’S IN A NAME: Fred H. Howard served as Mayor of Tarpon Springs (elected in 1945) and also a City Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Pinellas Park Board. Howard’s efforts to secure the park for residents and visitors earned him a bronze plaque at the base of the property’s flagpole. GAME PLAN: Wade, paddle or shore fish from the causeway (check the two flow-throughs on moving water), enjoy a picnic lunch under a covered shelter, catch some rays on the 12-acre beach and watch a brilliant Gulf of Mexico sunset. WHEN: Spring through fall finds…

According to manufacturers, one can’t just wear these self-inflating PFD vests in a harsh climate and expect them to always work when needed; they must be maintained. Read the owners' manual for specifics. The outer coating is canvas-tough, but the inner air bladder is plastic and must be checked for leaks—Mustang Survival, one maker, recommends inflating the PFD every two months using the oral inflation tube, then letting it sit for 16 hours to confirm no leaks. The auto-inflate device, called a bobbin, should show no evidence of compromise. The small CO2 canister should be inspected for corrosion or leaks. Many of the inflatables have a transparent panel with a visual confirmation, green, indicating the PFD is armed with CO2 and ready to inflate. The Hobie model shown at right…

Prep time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Serves 6 1 pound large Florida shrimp, peeled and deveined ½ cup orange juice 1 canned chipotle pepper Spray canola oil 1 sweet onion, thinly sliced 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced 6 large flour tortillas 2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese Salt and black pepper Guacamole and chips, on the side In a blender or food processor, puree the chipotle pepper and orange juice. Then add the shrimp and marinate for 15 minutes. While the shrimp are soaking, heat a fry pan to medium-high, add the spray oil and cook the onion and pepper until the edges char. Drain the shrimp of the marinade and add to the vegetable mix. Cook about 5 minutes, taking care not to overcook. Remove the…

Water quality, marine fisheries and recreational angling were given a boost as truck loads of oyster shells were deployed in Turtle Bay in Charlotte Harbor earlier this year. Coastal Conservation Association Florida (CCA Florida) partnered with Ingman Marine, Abbott Construction, Lee Reefs, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF), Capt. Jay Withers, Placida Point LLC, Clermont Oyster Bar and Lake County Solid Waste Division. Abbott Construction hauled oyster shells from CCA Florida’s Oyster Recycling Program at the Lake County Landfill to a staging area in Placida. Materials were loaded onto a barge provided by Abbott Construction and deployed in Turtle Bay at a pre-permitted location. “This is a unique partnership involving a huge amount of support from the community as well as our sponsors and members,” CCA Florida Chief Operating Officer Adam Miller…

Here’s a cool trick with a non-slotted popping cork. Tie a swivel to your line. Use a swivel bigger than the hole on the cork, or add a plastic bead as a stopper. Tie about 24 inches of leader to the swivel and slide the cork on it, cup-side facing up. Now tie your jig to the leader. When you cast, the cork and jig will stay together and sail through the air much farther and with many fewer tangles than other methods. When the rig lands, the jig will pull the leader down to the swivel. Jerk the rodtip and the lure will slide up to the cork, popping it, and then sink slowly. It’s a great trick fish-calling trick—the lure looks like a shrimp or bait-fish drifting down…

“A good jig rod has what we call a parabolic bend, meaning it will flex from the tip all the way to the butt,” explained Chris Doyle. “We don’t pump and reel, we just apply steady pressure on the fish as we bring it up so the rod doesn’t do a lot of work during the battle. Basically, match the rod size and strength to the lure you are jigging. “The rod should load when you jig up to give you the best vertical thrust. A rod that is too flimsy won’t straighten at the end of the jigging motion, reducing your action. Too much rod power ends up decreasing the action as well. If you are balanced, you can be successful with either a spinner or conventional rod.” Technical…

Bobbing around on a big ocean, far from land, in a little plastic boat might, on the face of it, sound like a bad idea. But if done smartly and carefully, it’s a great idea. I remember with amazing clarity my first serious offshore experience, nearly a couple of decades ago, when I was put out on the Pacific in a Hobie Outback (about the time Hobie started making those) a dozen miles off the southern Baja coast. Bait schools and baitballs (sardines and mackerel) were everywhere over the deep offshore bank, and it was one huge party. Around me, gannets plummeted to disappear under the surface in a trail of bubbles; under wheeling terns, predators slammed baitfish; and humpback whales, dwarfing me, rose to feed. Below my kayak in…

Beach Patrol for Linesiders With summer on the horizon, the month of May traditionally brings stable, warm air and water temperatures and as a result, creates one of the most unique sight fishing opportunities that we have in the 10,000 Islands region. Sight fishing pre-spawn snook on our beaches and hard-bottomed shoal areas in gin clear water has become a tradition in the month of May. Snook typically spawn on the full and new moons from May through September in our passes and on nearshore wrecks and reefs. This results in large, pre-spawn females and wolf packs of mature males staging on the closest, warm, shallow, hard and sandy bottom areas. Once the full and new moons approach, they proceed to move and spawn, then return to these same areas…

Watch the Moon in May A lot has changed over the last 10 or 11 years here in the West Central Region. Thousands of new residents inhabit the area and are enjoying our Chamber of Commerce weather and amazing fishery. The Tampa Bay estuary is a crown jewel of Florida with its spring-fed rivers, creeks, flats, sand bars, oyster beds, and tidal influence. Over 200 different species of fish inhabit Tampa Bay. Add the hundreds more that live just outside the mouth of the bay in the Gulf of Mexico, and you have one of the most diverse fisheries in the world. Winter freezes back in 2010 that hit snook hard, decimating the population, have given way to a warmer winter trend over the past few years. However, red tide…

Sorry Boss, the Fish are Biting The finest of the twelve months for fishermen in Northeast Florida could most surely be May. May generally has more fish and smaller waves than April, and the mahi we have waited for all winter should be starting to show in their best numbers. Now it is becoming increasingly clear, that we just don’t have the numbers of mahi we used to. Still, I feel certain the best of whatever mahi we will have will show in May. The wahoo are still here, but their size tends to drop off after April passes. Closer to shore, cobia are at their the best this month. I never would have dreamed I’d see 18-foot boats with towers on them, but they will be crawling all over…

Sights Set on Pelagics May can be amazing for the Florida sportsman, but keep a keen eye out, it can be deceiving. In the Panhandle, with passing fronts, strong east winds running directly into the westerly current can make things very sloppy offshore. The upside is the following days, when the Gulf will lay flat enough that you could skip a stone on it. Those are the days to be on the water! The warming nighttime air will raise water temperatures quickly and we’ll see the beginnings of summer patterns. During these transitions, the trout and redfish will be cruising the flats and the pompano, whiting and mackerel should be showing up in numbers along the beaches. Offshore, the bottom fishing will be ramping up with bonus fish like cobia,…

You Better Belize It The only English-speaking mainland country in the Americas south of the U.S. border, Belize boasts some 400 coastal islands with numerous lagoons and river mouths. Here lies the home of the world’s second longest barrier reef, and three of the four atolls in the entire western hemisphere. Does all of this add up to superior fishing? You bet. John Smith has been running Action Belize for around a quarter of a century, and the resort itself has been serving guests for over 40 years from the same location. Safe to say, John has seen it all when it comes to fishing in Belize, and he was eager to share a sliver of his knowledge. “This time of year, May and into early summer, is a great…

I’ve seen the white chalk, the dead bodies, the drug deals—and much of it from the top of the very high skateboard ramp my father built for me in our backyard,” Capt. Mike Goodwine explained. “Our house was just blocks from the ‘hood’ of Plant City but my dad made certain that I was not going to be limited by the color of my skin. In addition to skateboarding, I rode BMX, but what I loved most of what my dad opened my world to was fishing.” And today Mike Goodwine is an inshore charter captain, “Voted Tampa Bay’s best black charter captain,” says the headline of his popular Instagram page. And then followed with, “Wait, I’m the only black captain.” And, a laughing emoji. It’s clear that Mike is…

NO FISHING, the newly installed sign read. My inbox lit up. I got three emails from anglers who thought Florida Sportsman should know about this, that Florida Sportsman could do something about this. Hardly I thought, we’re a statewide magazine, how could we be expected to intervene at such a local level. Except, in this case, the said “No Fishing” sign on the Jensen Beach causeway is just a few miles from our Stuart, FL office. The Florida Department of Transportation, FDOT, installed the signs a year after removing similar but unauthorized signs, for which no one has ever claimed responsibility. Based on comments by some Martin County Commissioners, it soon became clear that local lawmakers were linking discarded McDonald’s bags, which when found on a causeway used by anglers,…

Fly fishing for tarpon is kinda that next-level deal, but even experienced anglers are often left scratching their heads when fish after fish snubs their offering. Assuming the requisite casting skill, it’s often a small detail that turns lookers into biters. Capt. Rick Grassett, of Sarasota, offers this tip for tough fish: “Sometimes, it’s a matter of changing the placement of the fly (closer or farther away); sometimes, it’s color or fly size. If the angler is getting their job done, those are the things I would change.” Working out of Hawk’s Cay Marina on Duck Key, Capt. Tom Rowland finds fly fishing for ocean-running tarpon the most challenging. There’s usually plenty of targets, but the relatively low success rate makes the pursuit all the more intriguing. “You get hundreds…

SOME OF THE following articles and photos are excerpted from the 124-page Kayak Fishing Fun specialissue, on sale at newsstands April 13 - July 12. Find a copy and scoop it up! Also don’t miss the special one-hour televised episode of Kayak Fishing Fun on Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and World Fishing Network. This limited commercial interruption production, which premiered April 17, will air four more times on each network and dynamically demonstrate the latest kayaks, gear and equipment. Lastly, check out our kayak reviews and instructional vignettes on our Florida Sportsman YouTube channel. —Jeff Weakley, Editor SAIL ON! Charles Long of Canada with his first sailfish taken on a week long package trip in Southeast Florida, guided by Brian Nelli of Pushin’ Water Charters, who snapped the photo. Fish…

Fishing Options Abound May is the most sought-after month for anglers visiting the Keys and marks the peak of the tarpon season. In preparation for their spawn, tarpon migrate through the Keys and congregate in large biomasses. They hang around in the area while they lie in wait for the full moon of May, which more often than not will trigger the annual palolo worm hatch. These worms hatch out of the shallow corals that surround the Florida Keys archipelago. Most of them will hatch on the Atlantic side, but they have been observed in the Gulf as well. The worms seem to have an intoxicating effect on tarpon, as they will begin to display uncharacteristic behavior. Many believe that the worm is an aphrodisiac, and may be a catalyst…

Big Opportunities Inshore and Off Looking to catch big dolphin in the Southeast region? May is your month! These fish ride the Gulf Stream as they pass through on their spring migration. On the southern end of the region, such as Boca, these fish will tend to concentrate closer to the “edge” of the continental shelf as this is a highway for the fish. The fishermen tend to focus around this area from 120 to 300 feet or so, for good reason. More north where the edge is less defined, adapting a run and gun style approach can pay dividends this month, allowing you to cover more ground in search of debris, rips and temperature breaks. Go big when it comes to your baits for jumbo dolphin. George LaBonte, Boating…

Tarpon Action, With or Without the Crowd The annual tarpon migration is the zenith of spring sportfishing on the Big Bend. Unlike other species, tarpon fishing is often more about the chase, with hopefully a photo and a safe release at the end of a fierce struggle. As waters warm, tarpon leave the Keys and head north along the Gulf Coast, utilizing similar migratory patterns of their ancestors who swam the same waters before them. These tarpon travel from the Everglades north, stopping to feast on crabs drifting out of passes on big flood tides. Boca Grande Pass and the Egmont Channel at the mouth of Tampa Bay are excellent tarpon fisheries but are often congested with charterboats. As they proceed along the beaches of Pinellas County, the pressure lessens,…

Focus on Oyster Bars for Results No matter how you measure it, May is one of the best fishing months of the year. It definitely is not one to miss. Everything from the smallest ponds to the open Gulf has something to offer anglers. Inshore fishermen with small boats also have lots of possibilities. East River and Oyster Bay are two good choices that provide fishing and protection from the weather. Both of these areas are easy to reach, but the East River area is directly adjacent to the St. Marks Refuge boat ramp. It is a medium-sized flat surrounded by oyster bars that leads up the East River creek into the refuge. The grass flats attract speckled trout, flounder and Spanish mackerel while the bars and marsh grass lure…

Those little red-and-white plastic bulbs with the pinch clips were like treasures in our childhood tackle boxes. We reveled in the fantasies of seeing them pulled under the surface as a fish took our bait. As we grew older, many of us adopted more active styles of fishing, learning to cast and work artificial lures such as spoons, plugs, jigs and soft plastics. The bobber as indicator of a striking fish was left behind. In many parts of Florida, however, it’s common to see mature, skilled anglers using various kinds of “bobbers”— though you’ll seldom hear that term used. A float, or cork, is what a lot of good anglers use in certain situations. Manufactured in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials, the contemporary float may be enlisted to…

There is an art to maximizing the action of your slow-pitch jig in deep water. There are many variations to how you might work the water column, but a basic way to get started is to get your metal to the bottom and work the lower few yards. The best action of the jigs occurs during the fall after you sweep your rod up in a jigging motion. It might seem logical to crank your reel a bit at the top of the vertical sweep, but this is not the case. “You actually want to crank the reel when you first start your jig. This helps load the rod and increase the speed and distance of your vertical lift. In the perfect scenario, the jig will fling up very quickly…

Keepers on the Bottom Many South Florida sportfishermen have been waiting for the month of May to roll around, and now it’s here! The reason is easy to explain. Shallow water grouper and hogfish seasons reopen, the mutton snappers are spawning and snook abound. If you like grouper sandwiches, enjoy getting your bottom fishing tackle tested and your arms torn off, now is the time to accomplish all three of these things. Gag, black, scamp and red groupers have been off limits since January, due to the grouper spawning season. The groupers have had plenty of time to mate, drop their eggs and add a few extra pounds on top of that. Although on the small end they can be a mere couple pounds, some of these groupers will exceed…

Tussle with Tarpon and the Tax Man Catch-and-release snook fishing is red hot. Fish are stacked up under docks and bridges all along the Intracoastal Waterway, with the biggest numbers nearest the Gulf passes. There are ample numbers of fish patrolling the beach too, especially around blowdowns, groins, outcroppings of beach rock and other structures. Whitebait will always catch snook in the spring, but pinfish and pigfish generate a notable bite on dock and bridge snook. Redfish can be found along the mangroves on the backside of the barrier islands, including inside Ding Darling and in Catfish and Whidden creeks. When the tide is half-up or better, reds will be up in the bushes, but when the tide drops look for them to slip away from the shorelines. When the…

A Haulover History Lesson Haulover Canal, a one mile long, man-made cut through the north end of Merritt Island linking Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River, dates back to 1854 when early settlers dug the original canal as a navigable link between the two waterbodies. Today, Haulover, northeast of Titusville, is one of East Central Florida’s fishing hotspots for black drum, redfish, sheepshead, seatrout and snook. The present-day canal, completed in 1884 a short distance south of the original canal site, is maintained navigable as part of the Atlantic Coast Intracoastal Waterway with a 15-foot-deep channel. The canal’s solid rock edges and caves support a diversity of baitfish, crabs and shrimp that makes the canal a prime feeding zone for resident fish and other species that move into the cut…