Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2022-23 i Florida Sportsman

SELECT CONTENT AVAILABLE NOW ON OUR DIGITAL CHANNELS WEBSITE WWW.FLORIDASPORTSMAN.COM TACTICS FOR BIG PRESPAWN BASS – DAVID A. BROWN Florida blesses bass anglers with year-round big fish potential. But one special period spikes those “personal best” chances: the prespawn. DIGITAL WEB EXCLUSIVE TOP 10 NORTHEAST FLORIDA FLOUNDER FISHING SPOTS – RICK RYALS What Northeast Florida lacks in glamour species is more than made up for by enough flounder to keep your freezer stocked 365 days a year. Rick Ryals divulges the top ten places to catch flounder in his corner of Florida. PODCAST YEAR IN REVIEW This month Capt. Rick and the guys look back on the last year of fishing in each region. What species are doing well? Which fisheries need our help? Tune in to the…

DUCK HUNTING IN FLORIDA? You bet. But it doesn’t look much like the rest of the country. Many of Florida’s largest and most productive wetlands are on state-owned properties. Permanent blinds are prohibited here, and access may be limited to permit holders who got lucky during the periods for quota applications. Eric Orlando, a photographer and elementary school physical education teacher in Lee County, shared these images of friends hunting marshes in the lower Florida peninsula. For details on the 2022/23 waterfowl hunting season, which concludes January 29, visit myfwc.com.…

Wednesday, September 28 is a day that will always live in infamy for Southwest Florida. I don’t know how to explain the effects besides that this storm literally wiped Sanibel off the map and has traumatized hundreds of thousands of people, and untold more. As I write this, the death toll is over 100 souls and I have a sickening feeling that isn’t everyone accounted for. Fort Myers Beach looks like ground zero of a nuclear explosion. My Mom called me to ask if our old family timeshare, the Lahaina, was okay? Over the phone I could tell it wasn't exactly sinking in what I was saying. “Mom, it’s just sand and sticks, it’s literally erased.” My family has lived in Naples since the early 1960s and never have we…

Winter in West Central Florida can test your capacity to handle and manage the changing weather situations. It also teaches you how to understand the changing conditions that influence fish feeding habits. There are a lot of variables, so taking each one in consideration can help you stay on the bite. For fish like snook, which are very sensitive to temperature, it can mean a difference between survival or death if they are caught during a temperature drop outside of their comfort range. For them, moving toward the headwaters of rivers with springs that have an upwelling of groundwater that is a constant temperature is key to survival during the winter. Over the past several years, moderate winters have allowed the migration of snook much farther north. Where the Tampa…

It was a beautiful morning out of the St. Lucie Inlet. However, it soon proved to be a tough day to find any live bait. We tried all the known spots and ended up at the sea buoy. Captain Bob Pelosi drove the boat right to it and we could see bait on the surface all around. My friend John Amico and I pulled out our sabiki rigs. As John was bringing up a stringer of bait he suddenly spotted a giant cobia beneath the surface. The massive fish opened its mouth and swallowed the sabiki, along with the three sardines on it. Immediately, the light monofilament on the rig broke. I tossed my bait rod down, grabbed a heavier outfit, hooked a sardine and tossed it in. And it…

Flares are kind of a PITA and seem to expire faster than milk. Recently I’ve taken to carrying the ACR ResQFlare. It’s a C-battery-powered, handheld device which meets U.S. Coast Guard standards for nighttime Visual Distress Signals (VDS). It automatically flashes the Morse Code S.O.S. at the correct intensity. You carry this plus an approved daytime distress flag to conform to the Coast Guard rules for day-and-night signals. (Don’t DIY this stuff: There are very specific requirements—published to save your life.) But news out of Alabama this fall has me thinking I’ll update my conventional pyrotechnic signal flares. Yes, first I have to take my expired flares to my local hazardous waste drop (AKA: PITA). But, I’ll probably keep a few of those on the boat as backups. Here’s why.…

PENN FATHOM II LEVER DRAG Building upon the proven family of PENN Fathom conventional and low-profile baitcast reels, the all-new Fathom II enhances the user experience with new sizes, features, and specific billfish models. At the Fathom's core is a stainless steel main and pinion gear and a forged and machined aluminum spool for maximum durability. With a design borrowed from the International series, Fathom II 2-speed reels now feature a Quick Shift II mechanism that makes switching gears more accessible. The Fathom II Lever Drag series also delivers a new pull-to-turn preset knob that firmly locks in place once adjusted. There are four single-speed models (10-30 sizes), seven 2-speed models (10-80 sizes), two high-speed tournament models (40 and 60 sizes) optimized between 4 to 7 pounds of drag at…

CUT THROUGH THE HIGH-TECH TERMINOLOGY OF MARKETING TO UNDERSTAND ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF REEL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ANY ANGLER should know that a decent reel must have CorroBlock, UniMod gearing, a Titan Alloy pinion gear, Nannoseal construction and Monad-Body design. And that’s just for starters. Clearly, these are cutting-edge, high-tech proprietary features without which a reel will be doomed to short-lived, mediocre performance. The truth is, I just made up all these terms. But take a look at the lists of features for just about any reel on the market, and you’ll find myriad catchy trademarked names that sound like something important but which in reality are meaningless to most consumers. Whenever a consumer is looking at reels, they would be wise to look past all the techie mumbo jumbo and…

Purpose Driven Recreational boating is one of the fastest growing activities in the state of Florida. It’s undoubtedly one of the main attractions in our home state due to the amount of accessible water from fresh to salt and everything in between. The explosive expansion in our state’s population along with unprecedented growth in both new and used boat sales presents some unique challenges to the first-time boat buyer. Add to this the fact that demand for boats far outpaces the available supply and it’s easy to see how a newcomer to the game might make some regrettable decisions during the buying process. Luckily, this doesn’t have to be the case. There is much useful information out there to help you become an informed consumer and satified boat-owner. Let’s examine…

‘‘The sails are usually in the 150 to 250 foot range mixed in with wahoo and blackfin tuna, while king mackerel can be found a bit shallower over the reefs. It’s time to break out the foul weather gear because the next couple of months will be cold and windy at times. Offshore, the blackfin tuna, sailfish, kingfish and wahoo will be chewing the bottom of the boat, but you will have to earn it! Expect conditions to be quite sporty at times, if not downright rough. Pelagic species like it when the ocean is stirred up, but with the cooler temperatures of the coming months many different gamefish get frisky, and you don’t always have to go far to get in on the action. Wahoo are commonly found in…

During December and January drastic changes in the weather can make things a little difficult to pattern with any consistency, especially inshore. Winter fronts can drop water temperatures overnight, sometimes to the point of putting fish, such as snook, into shock. When these fronts roll through, inshore gamefish will often seek refuge in deep holes and depressions with a more constant temperature. The tide, or lack thereof, also plays a factor into these fish finding deeper water. December and January have many days of negative low tides, which also channels the fish into this deeper water. Be sure to carefully study local tide charts so you know when these negative tides occur, both for fishing and navigational purposes. There is a flip side to this coin though. The weather window…

Each December we think about a fresh flounder dinner, after seeing more of these fish now than any other month. Ideally, we will have a dry autumn and clear water; it certainly helps flounder spot a moving target. Plus, you may see flounder following your bait and can make repeated casts. If there is one flounder down there, there’s usually more. My record two winters ago was catching five flatties on consecutive casts, in only a 10x10 patch of sand bottom. The water was clear that day. If murky, work the jig more slowly, hop bottom and hope for the best. Flounder are most often spread out, so cast soft plastics to cover a wide area, making long casts. Forget about sitting in one spot for long. A white, 4-inch…

During the dog days of summer anglers can usually get by with checking on the weather once or twice a week. During December and January, you’d better check it once or twice a day. This is especially true if you’re an offshore fisherman. Around the docks in Mayport we’ve always called a northwest wind a sucker’s wind, as the first 2 to 3 miles you get offshore you’ll find the breeze soft and the seas at your back. Cross that 20-mile mark and get ready for Mother Nature to slap you in the face. What starts out as a delightful 5-knot wind at your back will become 20 knots and evil in a heartbeat. The targets for offshore anglers are the best-eating fish of the year. Within 40 miles of…

While the beaches and Highway 98 quiet down tremendously in the winter, the fish are still here for the catching. For this warm-blooded girl, mornings are flat-out cold, but we always have a handful of days with a little warming trend, which is a nice relief for me. Redfish, sheepshead, flounder and vermillion snapper are at the top of my winter target list and despite the cold weather, the fishing can be red hot if you know where to look. I love inshore fishing this time of year. Redfish and sheepshead offer the perfect mix for both getting some tasty fillets for the fridge and to scratch my sight fishing itch. If you want to get into numbers, smaller redfish and trout will be schooled up back in creeks and…

In Everglades National Park (ENP), a good reason exists for how Hell’s Bay got its name. It’s a mangrove maze unlike few ever encounter—turn down one corner and it looks like the last one and the next one. A compass or GPS is as useless as an inflatable dart board. Only one man would be called by park rangers to guide lost boaters out of Hell’s Bay: Herman Lucerne. He died in 1992, but his legacy as a backcountry angling legend lives on through the annual Herman Lucerne Memorial Backcountry Fishing Championship that began in 2000. It’s a two-day competition sponsored by Costa Del Mar, with a unique seven-species format that challenges anglers to catch at least one bonefish, snook, trout, black drum, redfish, snapper and tarpon. On September 17…

“I lost everything I own when seven feet of angry Caloosahatchee raged through my riverfront home.” September 29, the day after Hurricane Ian made landfall, volunteer relief efforts were already underway. Alex Pomareda, of Boca Raton, posted on Facebook that he had an airboat and was looking for people organizing relief efforts. Captain Ed Zyak, of D.O.A. Lures in Stuart, already posted his company’s address as an official hurricane relief drop-off center. Conrad Peterson, of Fort Myers—even with his own home damaged by the storm—posted his phone number for boaters in need of help. Countless others around the state shifted into gear, ready to help. “Outdoorsmen don’t need a plan,” Zyak said. “We get stuff done.” Alex said that when he saw the size of the hurricane and where it…

From Stormtroopers to Die Hard thugs, recall the most incompetent gun play shown on a movie screen and that was still superior to how I performed when flocks of green-winged teal came wheeling over a Sarasota County flag lily pond last December. Of course, I had my excuses. In ideal situations, these diminutive speedsters are tough to splash, habitually arriving in the poor visibility of first light. Foggy that morning, this particular pond was encircled by ancient live oaks; a picturesque setting, for sure, but wildly firing at ghostly teal teleporting from one slight porthole of light that peeked through the dark, low-hanging canopy to the next was certainly ugly. Also, in the back of my mind, was one bird that was struck and swallowed by a mudfish or other…

Fifteen years ago when we lived in Destin, I’d return home from tuna season around mid October, just in time for flounder gigging in Destin Pass. My local diesel mechanic, Jeff Chesser, whom I went with, had a 20-foot Bass Tracker. We rigged a 12-volt light and filled the freezer in a couple trips. The limit was ten apiece and the commercial guys could harvest a hundred. There were heaps of flounder filtering into the Gulf to spawn, stacking up on wrecks where charterboats would hammer away on them. Well, like anything when you are targeting spawning fish, you can make an impact. Today, flounder in the Panhandle, like all over the state, are in a down cycle. There are lots of reasons for cycles. At one time or another…

It happens most years in the first two weeks of December. The winds of October and November lay down and the sky opens into a crisp blue. For the first time since summer, the ocean becomes calm enough to run a small boat at full throttle. Low swells roll down from the north. Beneath the surface, pleasant surprises await those who go looking. The blustery winds of fall—a time for hunting, boat maintenance and other shoreside activities—concealed from many of us the migrations of several fish species. Chief among them is the Spanish mackerel. These smaller members of the mackerel family are schooling fishes whose summer range reaches well up the Atlantic seaboard into New York and beyond. Water temps below 69 degrees send them scooting down the coast, and…

‘‘Surf, jetty and pier fishermen have plenty of opportunities to try their luck for snook, pompano, snapper, Spanish mackerel, bluefish and cobia. What a great time to be a South Florida fisherman. As we transition out of fall and into winter, anglers from the Upper Keys to Hillsboro Inlet are looking forward to what might be another outstanding Atlantic sailfish season. During the coming months, when ideal conditions exist, sailfish will pour through local waters. In the old days, offshore fishermen targeting sailfish would start their day by rigging dozens of fresh ballyhoo. Two of these baits would be trolled on the surface behind the boat from the port and starboard corners. Years later, after the introduction of outriggers, captains would skip two more baits way off the sides of…

“Trout will be another good target to go after in the chilly water. Using a popping cork with a live shrimp on the grassflats should yield plenty of action. As we pick up the pieces from Hurricane Ian, I can’t help but think back about all the great fishing memories that have been made this year. We have December to finish the year strong and the cold fronts that push through Southwest Florida will dictate the target species and best approaches. On days with little wind, fishing out in the Gulf of Mexico is the thing to do. When it’s blowing, or the Gulf has not settled down, then we will be fishing in the back bays, rivers, and protected areas. Water temperatures will fluctuate between cold fronts, and the…

As cold fronts continue marching south, opportunities broaden for finned, feathered, and furred game throughout East Central Florida. December is primetime for Space Coast surf fishing. North winds funnel clear, blue water close to the beach where pompano, whiting, sheepshead, and Spanish mackerel move in to nearshore troughs. Pompano—the Goldilocks of surf quarries—are notoriously snobbish about clean water and optimal water temps. They’re particular to blue and aquamarine water colors. If it’s too turbid (stirred up with suspended sediment) they’ll move to less silted-up water. A milky blue may look pretty, but underwater visibility is decreased which doesn’t bode well for the pompano, who, in clear water, feels safe from predators and finds prey more easily. These silver nuggets don’t make a straight southerly migration. They may hang in one…

Cold weather can be a good thing for fishing on Lake Seminole. Captain Paul Tyre looks forward to the cooler months of December and January because the crappie fishing gets hot. According to Tyre, large schools of bait gather in the deeper areas of the lake. This is often along the river channels and sloughs in the lake near the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers and Spring Creek areas. These schools of bait attract large numbers of speckled perch that typically stage close by, near stumps, log jams and downed timber. Tyre relies heavily on his electronics to find these fish, which are usually suspended directly over these structures. The crappie schools typically show up on a fishfinder in a Christmas tree pattern. He also uses the side-scan and live-scope…

Belize has moved to the very top of the list of my favorite wintertime holiday destinations. There might not be a better place in our region to work the flats in search of the holy grail of slams: permit, bonefish, and tarpon. Winter isn’t the traditional time to target these top three, but they are certainly available plus you get the bonus of excellent snook and snapper fishing. The abundance of preferred permit habitat is unparalleled, with a shallow barrier reef protecting miles of turtle grass, clean sand and sporadic mud holes. This time of year, anglers are less likely to find feeding schools so get yourself into the mindset of hunting single fish or small groups. Permit of all sizes slip up over the reef from deeper waters during…

Stone crab claws? Blue crab cakes? Yes, please! Florida boaters are accustomed to sharing the waters with commercial trappers. Some of us set our own recreational traps, too. Despite the marker buoys and expense, significant numbers of the traps go missing each year. The lost gear can entangle props. It can also continue to catch and kill marine life. “Ghost trap,” is the term used to describe an unattended wire, wood or plastic-mesh box that can trap fish or shellfish, which in turn die and attract more fish and shellfish. Five years ago, Capt. Neill Holland, in the Tampa Bay region, saw an opportunity to clear lost or abandoned traps. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had set aside certain seasons for that very purpose and offered a…