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.
Last summer, when I found a canoe advertised at 42 pounds, I was immediately curious. When the local dealer, Ted Nielander of Native Water Sports in Jensen Beach, humored my request to test rack the canoe, I threw it on my truck and there it stayed. Today, my “ultimate middle-age solo cartopper” is a 12-foot Esquif Adirondack. It’s made of T-Formex, a laminate of ABS sheets, foam core and an outer plastic skin. You wouldn’t think of it as a laminate, because it feels like a solid, albeit thin, “shell,” but it is. It’s a lot like the Royalex laminate used to build many canoes and whitewater kayaks up till around 2013, when production was discontinued. You can buy even lighter canoes in Kevlar, carbon and various other materials, but…
Fish or cut bait. Help or don’t help. There’s a clear line. If you cross it and become part of this effort to bring back a fishery, you’re in one boat. If you don’t, and do nothing, expecting someone else to do it, you’re in another boat. A fishless boat. Stay out of the fishless boat. Sign the Save The Mahi petition, scan the QR code below, lift a finger, it takes less than two minutes. If you’ve already signed the petition, send an email to someone from NOAA and tell them how you feel about the dolphin fishery. Now is the time. Ms. Janet Coit, Assistant Administrator, NOAA Fisheries, laid out where we stand right now. “The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has transmitted Amendment 10 to NOAA’s National…
Gasparilla Sound, sandwiched between Gasparilla Island to the west and Cape Haze to the east, was named after the Spanish pirate captain Jose Gaspar, who terrorized Florida’s southwest coast in the 18th century.* According to legend, Captain Gaspar amassed a fortune in gold and silver from the ships he seized, and he hid the treasure somewhere on Gasparilla Island, where it has never been found. The real treasure, however, is the Sound’s outstanding fishery, owing to some of Southwest Florida’s healthier seagrass beds, thanks to careful monitoring and restoration efforts of the Gasparilla Sound-Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserve. On weekends the Sound resembles a saltwater version of Grand Central Station, with a steady stream of Intracoastal Waterway boat traffic destined for Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound, Lemon Bay, Gasparilla Pass and…
PUBLIC RAMPS PLACIDA PARK: 6499 Boca Grande Causeway, Placida. Double concrete ramp, fee, ice, toilet, parking. ELDRED’S MARINA: 6301 Boca Grande Causeway, Placida, (941) 697-1431. Extra wide double ramp, fee, parking, bait. BOCA GRANDE FISHING PIER: 5810 Gasparilla Road, Placida. Kayak launch, free parking, safe pier. BOAT RENTALS/BAIT & TACKLE GASPARILLA ISLAND BOAT RENTALS: Inside Placida Park at 6499 Boca Grande Causeway, (941) 505-5657. GLASS BOTTOM BOAT RENTALS: 5810 Gasparilla Rd, Placida, (941) 237-1756. GASPARILLA MARINA: 15001 Gasparilla Rd, Placida, (941) 697-2280. CC’s and DC’s, 21- 24 feet. Tackle, bait, restaurant, boat tours, guides, rentals. ACCOMMODATIONS & DINING GASPARILLA INN & CLUB: 500 Palm Ave, Boca Grande, (800) 996-1913. BOCA GRANDE HOTEL: 5800 Gasparilla Rd, Boca Grande, (941) 964-4443. THE PALMETTO INN: 381 Palm Ave, Boca Grande, (941) 964-0410. JERRY’S…
PENN CARNAGE III RODS Florida Sportsman editors are field testing the new PENN Carnage III Inshore rods and reporting favorable results. The rods feature SLC2 construction, which PENN describes as an inner spiral carbon wrap layer with outer layers of longitudinal carbon fibers. That translates into impressive strength-to-weight ratio. But perhaps more significantly, PENN designers have got the actions and line-lure weight ratings of this rod series right. This isn’t just a cosmetic update of second-gen Carnage rods—it’s a total revision with a careful eye on the spectrum of saltwater techniques. For example: The lightest of the Inshore series, a 7-footer rated for 6- to 12-pound mono or 10- to 15-pound braid (you’ll want 10-pound braid), loads easily under the weight of a ¼-ounce jig—and the reserve energy in the…
If you find yourself enjoying the beaches along the lower east coast of Florida this time of year, chances are you are going to see some kind of shark activity. You may even lose a fish to these fast-swimming predators. What are those leaping acrobats you see in the surf? The main culprits are spinner and blacktip sharks. These two species migrate down the coast from the north by the thousands in winter, chasing bait and searching for warmer water. Both are very similar in stature, averaging four to six feet in length and look almost identical. You can distinguish the two by the dark black spot found on the anal fin of the spinner shark, which the blacktip does not have. It’s pretty easy to find these sharks from…
