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.
Lewis Carroll was a great angler—not a guide, not a tournament pro, not a TV star, but an angler. To my mind, he was the best kind of angler. I knew Dr. Carroll pretty well as he was the father of a longtime fishing buddy of mine, David Carroll. North Miami Beach dentists, both of them. Lewis passed away in January this year at age 85. What made him the best kind of angler? He had solid skills, good gear, a great network, a one-of-a-kind boat. But mainly, he was self-assured. He had to be to catch all the fish he did in his long life. But here’s the thing: Self-assured doesn’t mean self-absorbed or self-promotional. Lewis didn’t have anything to sell you. He had things to prove, yes, but…
If you’re new to Florida, meaning you moved here or were born fewer than 30 years ago, you may have missed Florida Sportsman’s campaign against the establishment, and growth, of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). Our fear was, and is, that the Sanctuary will limit or eliminate family level fishing beyond that of the established state and federal catch limits. Thirty-four years later, with the footprint of the Sanctuary growing in both size and number of “zones,” our fears have been validated. And now this. A power grab that would change everything. “We were totally blindsided by the language in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Restoration Blueprint: Revised Draft Management Plan,” Rodney Barreto, Chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), told me. “When staff…
Florida’s Nature Coast has its so-called “road to nowhere” (Hwy. 361) located between Steinhatchee and Horseshoe Beach. The road begins at Casey’s Cove grocery and gas in Jena, last call for necessities. Old newspaper stories claim the road was built by county officials for drug trafficking in the 1970s, as the road offered access to three saltwater creeks. The long, straight road, perhaps eight miles and close to the Gulf, became notorious for landing small aircraft late at night. Today, I can’t vouch for what goes on after dark, but for anglers in small boats accessing the Gulf here avoids boat traffic, wake zones and fishing pressure back at the nearest town, Steinhatchee. What will you find out there? >ROCKY CREEK Road has a turnoff sign right off 361 and…
Four wahoo over 100 pounds. Yes, you read that right. Right here in Northeast Florida, Capt. Frank Vining has caught FOUR triple digit wahoo and has lost count of the ones over 80 pounds. I’m 71 years old, have fished my whole life, and I’ve never broken 80 pounds. Yes, it’s easy to see Capt. Frank Vining of the 39-foot Contender Walk Thru, clearly has the big wahoo dialed in. Now, it’s been decades since boats started dragging big lures at high speeds to catch big wahoo, and Frank is really good at that method, too. “I just got to thinking that we learned long ago that wahoo were more structure-oriented,” Frank explained, “but as high-speeding grew I began to feel that when more than a boat or two got…
Kidnap a Major League Fishing pro off his carpeted metalflake speedboat, plop him onto a skiff in a Fernandina creek, and watch him keep landing fish. Big copper “hawgs” with spotted tails. It’s kind of one of those rules: If a bass will eat it, a redfish probably will, too. Our traumatized bass pro will do especially well if he’s throwing a jig—but it won’t look like the jigs on the skiff. If the term “jig” brings to mind a painted leadhead with a hook threaded through a plastic grub, well, you have some fieldwork to do. Sophisticated jigs in various forms have taken the bass world by storm in recent years, and there’s much we can learn from this on the saltwater side. Let’s first look at the swim…
“Bump it, bump it, bump it!” I shouted from the platform, as the angler’s fly intercepted a school of redfish barreling down the bank, feeding on shrimp. That brisk, short “pop” style strip caught their attention in the dirty water and convinced one of the fish it was a shrimp fleeing the scene. A good strip set and we were tight! Redfish tend to be receptive to most retrieves; it’s one reason we love them so much! But some strips to do better than others, depending on the situation. There are two different styles I prefer for redfish, depending on the fish’s demeanor, forage and fly I’m throwing. The first is the “bump.” With your rodtip down, often in the water, make a very short 2- to 4-inch brisk strip,…
