Florida Sportsman is the complete fishing magazine for Florida and the Tropics. Devoted to fishing, boating, and outdoor activities in the Sunshine State, Florida Sportsman is the authoritative source for Florida's most active fishermen.
I’m the guy wearing the orange flotation vest. You’ll see me running my center console early in the morning heading to the reef. You might see me catching bait. You’ll see me coming back into the inlet early afternoon. Importantly, if for some harrowing, unexpected reason you don’t see me on the boat—you’ll see me in the water. Without that bright vest, I’m a coconut. I like my conventional foam vest. But you might prefer the i nflatable types—by design, they’re high-vis when they inflate. I wear a Mustang Industrial Mesh Vest. It’s a Type III in the Coast Guard rating system. It has reflective tape on it; I fish nights a good bit. It also has two pockets—my ACR Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) sits in one of them. My…
> Of the 79 boating deaths in Florida, 53% were due to drowning. >Almost half (402) of all reportable boating accidents in 2020 were due to collisions, 44% of those collisions were attributed to operator inattention or improper lookout. > 23% of the boating fatalities in 2020 were alcohol or drug related. > 69% of operators involved in fatal boating accidents in 2020 had no formal boater education (In 2020, 71% of operators with no formal boater safety education were over the age of 35. Operators age 36 and older represent the largest age group involved in accidents for the last 10 years.)…
Before we begin, let’s get a lay of the land. On the field we have three teams: Rec's, Charters and Commercial. Not blood enemies but fighting for the same yardage nonetheless. The recreational anglers, the for-hire charters and the commercial fishermen (three sectors) with each having been allocated a certain number of fish and it’s up to those in government to determine who catches what and when. By design each sector is given a finite number of fish they can catch in the federally managed fisheries. Information collected over the course of the year, for each of the sectors, determines who gets to fish and who doesn’t. The sector scrum isn’t new, but the availability of real-time catch information is, and not all teams have it. The playing field is…
Due to an unprecedented interest in getting outdoors, camping reservations at popular parks during peak months in Florida are hard to come by. But that’s not the case with the Flamingo Campground, in Everglades National Park. Even in the dead of winter, the somewhat legitimate fear of mosquitoes keeps the park from filling up. With that being the case, don’t use your calendar to book your reservations—use your weather app. Ideally, begin packing when the wind blows hard from the south, giving you about two days to get your act in gear. As soon as the wind shifts to the north, following the wet part of the cold front, you want to be driving through the park gates. “Get yourself some live shrimp and head out to Snake Bight channel,…
GAMEPLAN: Plan your trip around cold fronts. Pass your boater’s course. Pick up your live shrimp at Don’s Bait & Tackle in Homestead before entering the park. Pets are okay, but tree hung hammocks are not. STAYING OVER: To book a campsite or ECO-tent, visit flamingoeverglades. com or call 855-708-2207. HOUSEBOATS: Pricing starts at $300. Each boat sleeps maximum of 6 guests. FLAMINGO LODGE AND RESTAURANT: Coming Soon. As of October 2021, construction was moving along on Flamingo’s new 24 rooms and indoor/outdoor restaurant. You can follow monthly updates on construction via flamingo-everglades website. BOAT RENTALS: You can rent 17-foot Mako and Carolina skiffs in addition to canoes and kayaks. The skiffs are $195 a day, plus the cost of fuel. GUIDES: There are several. Capt. Bou Bosso (561) 262-6377,…
GARMIN G3 RELIEF SHADING AND MORE Everybody’s watching for the latest digital cartography updates, and Garmin just released a bunch. Desirable high-resolution relief shading is among options now available via the company’s newest g3 cartography update, v2022.0,for BlueChart g3 Vision coastal charts and LakeVü g3 Ultra inland maps. Relief shading offers a rich blend of color and shadow to create a multidimensional view of bottom structure to enhance situational awareness. It’s awesome for finding grouper spots, shelf breaks for pelagics, new bait sources, you name it. Other v2022.0 cartography updates include more than 400,000 updates to global chart content, NOAA rasters, new survey lakes and more. v2022.0 can be downloaded to Garmin chart cards via the ActiveCaptain app or via Garmin Express. GILL PRO TOURNAMENT 3 LAYER JACKET Fish on…
