Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Florida Sportsman

DIGITAL WEB EXCLUSIVE BEST BAITS & RIGS FOR SURF FISHING IN FLORIDA - BY MIKE CONNER Nothing says summer like sand between your toes and a line in the trough. Use these recommendations for surf success! YOUTUBE LATEST & GREATEST IN KAYAK FISHING Industry professionals cover the latest models, most inspiring builds, new electronics and innovative accessories in the kayak fishing scene. PODCAST HOT WEATHER TACTICS It’s a hot a one, and the fish are feeling it too. Let’s cover how you can entice the bite even as air and water temps rise. BECOME A SOCIAL STAR Send post-worthy pics: @floridasportsmanmaga-zine or #floridasportsmanmagazine GET YOUR MUG IN THE MAG Email your best catches or scenic shots to photos@floridasportsman.com…

If you find yourself in South Florida during the month of July, then you better be prepared to sweat. Step outside from the comfort of your home and the heat and humidity will smack you in the face. Floridians are comfortable with the summer climate, knowing there are still a ton of outdoor activities everyone in the family can enjoy. Wearing the proper attire can really help keep you cool, even on the hottest days when temperatures soar. Fishing at sunrise can be outstanding because it’s going to be the most comfortable time of the day. Late morning and early afternoon swimming and snorkeling will cool you off and nighttime fishing can be productive and entertaining for the kids. If you enjoy catching and eating Florida spiny lobster, then take…

We currently have all the usual suspects being caught both in the backwaters as well as in the open Gulf. The weather will certainly be something anglers will need to keep tabs on this time of year, as afternoon thunderstorms can pop up out of nowhere. Catching bait will not be a problem, calm seas will be common in the morning, and I can guarantee the humidity will be stifling. Those that get out in the morning will typically see the best action. If the early hours simply aren’t convenient for you, fishing after the afternoon rains have subsided can be epic. The rain cools the shallows and helps to boost dissolved oxygen. Oftentimes, these subtle change can be enough to turn on the bite. Weather apps are a fisherman’s…

Juvenile threadfins, pilchards, and sardines form dense schools in and around Sebastian Inlet and Port Canaveral this month. The shadows of these immense schools can black out the water around rocks and jetties. Schools combine and form giant blobs meandering in and out of the inlets with each tide. A throw with even a 4-foot castnet can yield enough bait for a full day of fishing. Snapper, always the opportunist, are rarely far from these buffets, offering jetty and boat anglers the chance to pull up a 5-fish limit with the right presentation and tackle. The basic setup for inlet snapper fishing is a light to medium-weight spinning outfit and a sliding sinker or knocker rig with 15- to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader and a sharp, light wire hook. If the…

Beat the heat; that’s always the motto this time of year. The first week in July is widely known as the peak of the tarpon migration along the Panhandle so if you get some nice weather days and have a tower on your boat, then it may be worth cruising the beach first thing in the morning before heading offshore. At times you can see a school of 100 or more fish, which is a sight for even the most experienced tarpon angler. Bull redfish are also great on all your big bridges such as Hathaway, Marler, and Three-Mile—visit your local bait shop to find out the inside scoop. Speckled trout always seem to be the hardest fish to locate and convince to take your bait during the hottest months…

Want to look like you really know what you’re doing? Hook a fresh shrimp on a bottom rig and have your guest drop it on an artificial reef. You can guarantee they’ll hook a fish within a matter of seconds. Go ahead and tell them! Ninety nine percent of the time, you’ll be right. There was a time when you could perform a stunt like this on our seagrass beds, but thanks to the slurry of crap we’ve dumped in our bays, for a lot of us that time has passed. I’ve seen live shrimp sit 30 minutes on dead Indian River Lagoon bottom that once held raging hordes of pin-fish, snappers and trout. After 30 minutes, a catfish or puffer eventually eats it, but by then the magic is…

Nothing on earth is more clearly designed to frustrate the angler than the notch in a lily pad. It’s almost as if the Maker had included a built-in reminder for us: Stop this frivolity. Get back to work. If you’ve spent any time fishing the pads, you surely recognize that feeling when your line slips into the space. It’s followed by something like the hopelessness that arrives when you run a boat hard aground. You’re stuck. Until someone comes up with a genetically modified, notch-free pad, it’s just something we deal with. Choosing the right lure helps—something compact, floaty and shielding the hooks, for starters. Hollow-body plastic frogs are a good choice, and it doesn’t hurt that they obviously represent natural forage bass might find in the pad fields. Plugs,…

With summer rains coming and plenty of new Floridians learning about lawn maintenance, it’s a good time to share reminders on how to minimize runoff of nutrients and bacteria. Help avoid the algae pains associated with summer rains! The University of Florida IFAS Extension Program offers these eight tips: 1) Direct rain gutter downspouts away from sidewalks, seawalls and dock ramps. Install rain barrels, rain gardens or swales to collect and control runoff. 2) Pick up and dispose of pet waste into garbage cans. Pet poop contains nutrients and harmful bacteria that should never reach the water. 3) Blow or sweep lawn clippings (high in nitrogen!) back onto the lawn and off the top of seawalls and dock pathways to prevent contact with water. (Also note that clippings drifting onto…

There are plenty of places to hunt in Florida, for sure—the state has some 6 million acres of public forest, marsh and pasture land open to hunting under specified limitations. But, as all deer hunters know, except for extreme North Florida, the deer here are not the deer of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and other mainland states. Florida whitetails for the most part do not get as big and do not sport the same large bodies and awesome racks seen farther north—they’re actually a slightly different genetic strain of Odocoileus virginianus better adapted to Florida’s swamplands and pine forest uplands rather than the fertile hardwoods and grain fields of the mid-South. Add to that the amazing amount of woodlands in the southeastern states—including millions of private acres available in hunting leases—and…

July starts off with a bang, and by a bang I mean fireworks and fishing—especially when you are referring to the Everglades City area. Not only do we have great year-round fishing opportunities, but also one of the best Independence Day fireworks displays on the southwest coast. Information about the festivities can be found at www.visitevergladescity.com. The 10,000 Islands area has a diverse array of creeks and rivers feeding the watershed with an influx of freshwater from the daily afternoon thunderstorms. The hordes of baitfish that are flushed in and out of these tributaries on each tide cycle are much welcomed by numerous predators. The trout, snook, and redfish bite is very consistent throughout the month of July. Live finger mullet make an excellent bait and the predatory fish in…

Hang on for a hot one this month. West Central anglers may find the heat to be almost unbearable at times—imagine what fish must feel. We are fortunate to be able to crank the A/C, fish have one option and that is to move to places where they find it more comfortable. We’re probably looking at average air temperatures in the low 90s, but the 100-degree mark might be hit at times. If you kept good fishing logs in years past, then you likely took note of both air and water temperatures along with the species of fish caught, where and when you encountered them, tide levels, and other considerations. Were changes in habitat included in your notes? Fish are probably telling you something that you should pay attention to,…

May might be the best month of the year for mahi, but the speedy kingfish own the month of July. Tournaments will abound out of every inlet, and the numbers tentatively look pretty good for this year. Pogies were thick this spring, and here’s hoping they stay through the summer. A good rule of thumb for hunting pogies is to look for mornings with a westerly wind. These baitfish don’t like crystal clear water, and a light easterly wind can push the clear water all the way to the beach. When this happens, it’s time to head north and go around the tip of the Fernandina jetties. Don’t ask me why, but the water off Cumberland Island never clears up, and when there are no pogies south of the jetties,…

If an offshore tournament with unique rules tickles your fancy, then this event provided many giggles. The Northeast Florida Wahoo Shootout completed its 12th annual tournament, allowing each boat the choice of only three days of fishing during the 50 eligible days from February 4 to March 26. With official weigh stations in Melbourne and Jacksonville, the heaviest three-fish aggregate of wahoo determined the winner. Each boat could weigh a maximum of two wahoo per day. Electric reels were not allowed and the maximum number of lines in the water at one time was restricted to six. Since rules only allotted three days out of 50, you’d expect the teams aboard 217 boats to select only days with optimal conditions. Certainly, one would expect the advantage would go to the…

For decades Florida Sportsman has recommended keeping fishery regulations as simple and straightforward as possible. The basic premise was/is, the more complicated we make the rules, the less likely people are going to follow them. And taken one step further, the more complicated we make the rules, the greater the chance people will simply give up on fishing altogether. So, truth be told I wasn’t surprised by current Florida Sportsman Editor Jeff Weakley’s answer when I asked how he felt about the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) proposal to increase the state’s two snook management zones to nine zones. Jeff told me he thought it was a terrible idea. “Who has the bandwidth to keep track of all the different regions and limits?” Weakley exclaimed. “The average angler…

Fly tyers can choose from an array of “body parts” on the tying material market that give their creations more appeal. Monofilament eye stalks, rubber legs and streamer brush are just a few examples. Realistic claw appendages are among the latest components. Adding a detailed claw gained popularity in the Florida Keys around 2019, after tyer Dave Skok introduced the Strong Arm Merkin to Nathaniel Linville, a Key West fly shop owner. Reportedly, the two were simply out to improve the catch rate on permit, and ended up with a fly that has now caught a few hundred permit in the Florida Keys, and placed first or second in 8 of the last 11 permit tournaments. The claw—which may be fabricated by the tyer or purchased as a ready-made component—replaces…

As the heat index continues to rise, the epic springtime bite that the Florida Keys is known for slowly comes to an end. This time of year, we must wake up a little earlier and stay out a little later to optimize our time on the water when fish are most likely to feed. Air temperatures are scorching in July and the tarpon biomasses are heading north after their worm hatch feast. Every day as we head out on the water it becomes more and more apparent that the numbers of fish are quickly decreasing, making for much tougher tarpon fishing. The morning incoming tides can offer the best chances of success. Night fishing is another option if you’re looking to put a silver king in the air. Most of…

A controversial species comes into the limelight this month—the red snapper. Atlantic federal waters recreational red snapper season dates this year are July 14 and 15. Dates and bag limits (1 per person) are tight as fishery managers continue slogging toward a “recovery” set in motion some years ago by contentious changes in stock assessment methodology. Reefs and wrecks from 90 to 250 feet on the northern end of our region up around Fort Pierce and Vero Beach will be your best bet when it comes to consistent red snapper encounters. This seems to be about the cut-off line, as the species becomes less and less prevalent as you head southbound. How about filling your 10-snapper aggregate (in federal waters) with 9 mangroves to top off your American red? Nighttime…

In July, coastal water temperatures feel like warm chicken soup, and some of the fish, including trout, often head farther out into cooler depths. I’ve heard of the “August Hole” a few miles off Horseshoe Beach where trout hang out in something like 20 feet of water during hot weather, but I haven’t tried it yet. Meanwhile, redfish are a bit more tolerant and don’t seem to mind the hot shallows, though an early-morning high tide can bring great topwater action. July still offers plenty of options along the Big Bend, even though gag grouper and amberjack seasons have been delayed until later. Red snapper are plentiful in federal waters of 50-foot depths or more. With a bag limit of only two, target the big ones by using bigger baits…

I know it’s July when my shirt is already sticking to my back at the boat ramp. That sweat quickly evaporates when the boat gets up on plane and I’m focused on what the day offers. July has a lot going for it fishing-wise, it just requires anglers to adapt a bit. I don’t expect to find fish in the shallows after the sun has heated it up all day. I plan most fishing early or late in the day or in deeper water. To escape the heat, many choose to go after scallops. Nothing is as sweet as fresh scallops plucked from the Northwest Florida grass beds. Locating productive areas is always more of a challenge than picking them up. Some anglers scout ahead of the season while fishing…

My friend Pete and I were fishing off Elbow Cay in the Abacos. The morning mahi bite had slowed down, so we switched it up and tried our luck deep dropping. We set up in 800 feet of water and deployed the multi-hook rig on the only electric reel we had—a really old Elec-Tra-Mate that was borrowed from a friend. On our last trip, we lost the 6 and 8-pound sinkers, so we had to use a heavy 10-pound weight which we would later come to regret. It didn’t take long to hit bottom, and it didn’t take long before we saw the twitch of the rodtip, indicating that our baits were getting bit. I toggled the up switch on the electric reel to set the circle hook and get…