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.
At Florida Sportsman, we’re always exploring developments in technology to make our time in the outdoors more efficient and satisfying. In this issue, Managing Editor Steve Dougherty and I document inside stories behind some exciting gear reveals in the sport-fishing industry, from electric outboards to UV-protective fabrics. At the same time, as we do in pretty much every issue, we’re proud to celebrate the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Florida anglers and hunters. Look around at your friends on the water and in the woods: Inventors and recyclers, always finding novel ways to re-use materials already in hand. It might be little things, like writer Tim Lewis sharing his turkey calls crafted of “found” objects (page 28). Or really big things, like the self-perpetuating oyster reefs nurtured by an academic and…
Not to second guess what the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), along with a private partnership with Duke Energy, and Mote Marine to a lesser extent, have been doing over the last two decades regarding fish hatcheries. Scratch that, it’s time to second guess them. With the current water quality issues statewide, I realize and appreciate that many of you are ready to stop reading, not wanting to see another word about hatcheries when we’ve got dead zones for estuaries. But, truth be told, that’s exactly when a successful hatchery strategy can make an impact. What we’ve unfortunately got in Florida right now is a broken water management system and an underachieving fishery enhancement program. We’re fishless with no help on the…
South of Jupiter sits Juno Beach Pier, one of Florida’s favorite fishing piers. Walk out and you’ll find folks always seem to be catching something. The water is often a clear blue out at the end, with a murkier, powder blue at the beach when a mild surf is breaking. Folks at the pier store, where you pay admittance, are helpful enough, but getting information from pier customers can be elusive. It’s possible they don’t want to share their great spot with the rest of the world, since the pier and casting distance are finite. However, you’ll undoubtedly meet kindred spirits with a broad spectrum of anglers of all age. The local “pier rats” (slang for regular customers) are dialed in with their buddies when the action heats up. Weekends…
The adage “elephants will eat peanuts” has been used many times when discussing big kingfish, and for good reason. We’ve certainly won our share of tournaments by using hand-size menhaden, small blue runners, bluefish, even a tomtate grunt. However, if you really want to target big kings, trying using bigger baits. It isn’t much fun wrestling with a writhing blue runner weighing two pounds or more, pinning a couple of hooks in the right spots, but it can pay off. A friend towed one of these strong baits in 200 feet of water over an offshore rock, and came up with a 66-pound king, winning a summer-long tournament by a wide margin. The crowd was shocked and grim, as he drove away with all the money. Years ago before amberjack…
What’s now widely called the free rig was created by Japanese bass fishermen as a hybrid of the drop shot. Both systems are anchored by a cylindrical sinker, normally tungsten, which compacts more weight in a smaller size than lead. Tungsten is also harder than lead. This makes it more sensitive to hard bottoms and slippery through grass cover. There are differences between the two weights. The drop shot has a wire pinch clip that holds the weight in place whereas the free rig weight has a small, compact swivel inside the weight with only the ring exposed. The free rig weight slides freely up and down the line. The free rig was created to get the most action out of small finesse-style soft plastics. With buoyant plastics, I have…
Chain pickerel don’t grow to 4 feet like their northern relative, the muskellunge. But they act like they do. Next time you catch one, look it in the eye and tell me you don’t see it staring back at you, sizing you up. This is a fearless predator. At the same time, these fighters are temperamental and hard to predict. Sources note that pickerel are more tolerant of warm water than musky or northern pike, neither of which live in Florida. Consensus seems to be a preferred range of 70 to 80 degrees, but it’s obvious pickerel thrive well outside that zone. Their native range is from Maine to Texas. A number of state fisheries agencies indicate chain pickerel spawn in the early spring as water temperatures reach the mid…
