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More fishing reports and
articles:
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| Catching shad can be a
snap
At one time, the
annual run of American shad into the
St. Johns River set off the largest
fishing tournament in Florida, as more
than a thousand boats were launched to
pursue these silvery fish, with top
prize a brand new luxury automobile.
Those days are long gone, but the
initiation of another shad tourney on a
much smaller scale may bring many
anglers back into a fishery that has
been largely forgotten except by a few
disciples |
Why Stick Anchors?
Ten years ago, there
were only so many ways you could anchor
your boat. You tied a rope to a big
chunk of metal (available in a variety
of shapes and , but still big
pieces of metal) and dropped it off the
side of your boat. It hit the bottom,
and if you had enough line out, and a
length of chain to keep the anchor
laying sideways and stuck into the mud,
gravel, grass, or sand, there was a
good chance you wouldn’t drift
fast into the sea wall twenty yards
away, downwind and
down-tide. |
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| Volunteering with
the FWC helps the
environment
Are
you interested in helping conserve
Florida's habitats and fish and
wildlife species? Do you want to teach
a child to hunt or fish? Do you have an
interest in becoming a volunteer law
enforcement officer? The Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) has numerous volunteer
opportunities available in these
programs and many more. The FWC has
approximately 3,100 volunteers in more
than two dozen programs, including
Hunter Safety, Ridge Rangers, Project
WILD, Chinsegut Nature Center and a
variety of scientific research and
resource management projects .FWC
volunteers are worth their weight in
gold to the agency and to the
state. |
GOODBYE TO AN OLD
FRIEND
Many
of us will always hear his voice,
somewhere in the back of our heads,
every time we step into a boat or
release a fish or turn on a
radio. Captain Mel Berman, who
died February 4 at 81, was an icon to
anglers all over Florida, a
conservation leader, a master of his
craft as radio host. But what the
hundreds of us who knew him will
remember was that he was simply a good
man and a great friend. Mel had
done it all, from interviewing
premieres and potentates to starring as
a New York City Top 40 DJ. For 25
years, he hosted what was by far the
largest fishing show on radio in
Florida, and perhaps in the
nation. |
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Those who would do
away with the regs
On one of my 970-WFLA
“Capt. Mel Shows” some
called to talk about the lack of trout
this year. Many blamed the poor showing
to some degree on the 2005 red tide
outbreak -- but most attributed the
decline of this once abundant fishery
to the extreme fishing pressure of the
last few years. Many suggested than
most of those who catch and release
these delicate fish harm them during
their release by
mishandling. |
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Fast, furious action
on Gold Coast
Miami
psychotherapist Jan Maizler frantically
cast his white Spro jig into the cool,
somewhat murky waters of Peck's Lake
near Stuart. As soon as he began to
reel, line spooled off in a backward
blur from the yank of an unseen
creature. ``I am addicted to plug
tackle!'' Maizler said, sounding very
un-psychologist-like. ``I just love
this. ''After a brief tussle, he reeled
up a five-pound Spanish mackerel --
large for that species
-- |
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Catch-and-release
still allowed for snook, bonefish and
tarpon While the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
issued an executive order on Jan. 15
that temporarily extends closed harvest
seasons for snook statewide and
establishes temporary statewide closed
harvest seasons for bonefish and
tarpon, the FWC advises anglers that
catch-and-release fishing for these
important game fish species is still
allowed. |
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Gliding through the
'Glades
Whether you're a
tourist, a snowbird, a resident or a
South Florida native, you need to visit
the Everglades at least once in your
life. So when my mom, who lives in
Wellington , said she wanted to go for
an airboat ride, I called Capt. Armando
Horta to arrange a trip with him in the
Everglades. The best way to see the
'Glades, in my opinion, is from an
airboat. |
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Catching
cold weather bass
You
awaken to a massive cold front
originating in the Arctic Circle moving
through Florida with gale force winds
and white caps for as far as the eye
can see churning up your favorite lake.
What should you do? The logical
answer is to roll over and go back to
sleep. But, let's assume that's not an
option and, for whatever reason, you're
obligated to bundle up and give it the
old college try. Bass tournament
contestants, for example, often lack a
choice and must compete in less than
"blue bird" conditions. |
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From Deep Pacific, Ugly and
Tasty, With a
Catch The answer to the eternal
mystery of what makes up a Filet-O-Fish
sandwich turns out to involve an ugly
creature from the sunless depths of the
Pacific, whose bounty, it seems, is not
limitless. The world’s insatiable
appetite for fish, with its disastrous
effects on populations of favorites
like red snapper, monkfish and tuna,
has driven commercial fleets to deeper
waters in search of creatures unlikely
to star on the Food
Network. |
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Get Serious
about Big Trout!
Of all the game
fish we target on Flats Class TV and
me in my guide business… big
“gator-sized” speckled
trout are definitely my favorite
species to pursue! It takes extra
effort and planning to catch these
wily fish who can often detect an
angler from 50 yards away in shallow
water. And once on the hook, these
big “gator” trout always
seem to pull a Harry Houdini -like
escape… freeing themselves with
violent head shakes at the surface
or, more often, a last second”
ditch” run under my boat
ridding them of my lure for
good.
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Where Has the Sport of
Fishing Gone?
It alarms me that
fishing appears to be abandoning the
sporting element that once made this
past time great. Maybe it is because we
have too many fish or too many anglers
because hunting has gone the opposite
direction. The men and women who stalk
big game do so now with primitive bows
and arrows, cameras and even paintball
guns. They’ll be reduced to
spears and slings before it’s
done and the entire reason for it is to
put sport back into the hunt by
handicapping the modern
practitioner. |
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February: Fishing
can be cold and
challenging
We’ve
begun to see commercial chum for
baiting. It comes in bags, cans, and
frozen blocks. We don’t buy it,
we make our own. You probably should
follow our lead here – it’s
far cheaper, you can control the rate
at which it sinks, and the amount of
time it takes for it to come apart into
a stinky, oily slick. The recipe we use
is very simple. There are several
recipes we’ve heard that work,
but once again, you probably only need
one to get
started. |
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All the right
moves When the fishing gets tough,
sometimes the best thing to do is the
opposite of everyone else. So when
Harry Vernon III heard captains
commiserating on the VHF radio about
how slow the bite was off Miami Beach
and Key Biscayne Tuesday morning, he
decided to head south to Fowey Light.
That move, and his patience, resulted
in a busy day for Vernon, Craig Hardie,
George Poveromo and me, as we caught
two sailfish, three kingfish, four
dolphin, a skipjack tuna, two groupers
and sharks |
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It’s an
addiction!
Yes
sir, we're talking about those
occasions when the fish bite like
crazy, nailing every bait you'd throw
at them. It is indeed what keeps us
hard core fishing junkies enduring
those more common slow, boring trips,
and all kinds of foul weather.
It’s what motivates us to plunk
down hard earned cash for expensive
accouterments associated with our
angling obsession. And it's interesting
how indelibly recorded into our
memories these banner fishing
adventures can be. I've lived in
Florida long enough to qualify me to
sport one of those "Almost-Native"
bumper stickers. |
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Custom flats skiff
benefits anglers in shallow
water
Poling
through a muddy bay deep in the
Flamingo backcountry several weeks ago,
it seemed like an Everglades time warp.
Captain Brian Esposito and I never
encountered a living soul -- except for
crocodiles, spoonbills, herons, wood
storks, ospreys and a thing that looked
like a thick snake slithering lazily
across the shallows with its back out
of the water. From my perch on the bow
of Esposito's 18-foot skiff, I first
thought the snaky-thing might be a
Burmese python. But when I cast a root
beer-colored Bass Assassin jerkbait
... |
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Time to play in
Palma Sola
Bay
Just a little bit
south of the Bradenton’s Memorial
Avenue Causeway, off the northern end
of Sarasota Bay, is a diverse fishing
habitat known as Palma Sola Bay. There,
one has access to miles of productive
shorelines ringed with oyster bars and
mangrove points. Great schools of
mullet are often seen working through
the area, almost always stalked by
hungry populations of redfish and
snook. The deepest part of Palma Sola
Bay is a channel that runs through its
center, which is surrounded on either
side by sand bars. Between the sandbars
and mangrove shoreline is a trough,
which provides ideal ambush points for
the resident species |
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Flying carp threaten
bond ratings, Great Lakes
fish William Contos has piloted
barges on the Chicago canal connecting
the Mississippi River to the Great
Lakes for a quarter century, hauling
salt that melts ice off the
city’s roads and coal that feeds
its power plants. Denny Grinold also
depends on the water, running a charter
salmon-fishing outfit in Grand Haven,
Michigan. Both men’s livelihood
is at risk from the Asian carp, a
non-native fish that threatens to enter
Lake Michigan through the canal. Fifty
members of Congress, including several
from Illinois, sent a letter to
President Barack Obama’s
administration today urging it to
consider closing the canal’s
locks. |
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Fish can still be found
beyond the chill
There's
no question that Florida's inshore
fisheries took a whack from this
month's Big Chill. There's also no
question that there are plenty of fish
left and angling action should be fine
on most fronts as soon as the water
gets even warmer than it has the past
week. "We found one place where there
were so many trout it looked like the
whole bottom moved," said captain Scott
Moore, who also said he is seeing fair
numbers of snook, evidence that the
cold kill left some survivors of this
delicate
species. |
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Get Your Feet Wet
- Catch Fish!
Wade
fishing, has to be on of the most
enjoyable ways of fishing our skinny
Florida waters. Our late wadefishing
and kayak fishing expert, Jay
Brewington, before he passed, told us
why he believed this very popular style
of angling is so much fun and, best of
all, so very productive. In addition,
Jay shared his expertise when it comes
to some of the equipment you'll
need to "get your feet wet" as a wading
angler. And best of all, how to be very
productive wade fishing our bountiful
local waters. |
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A Winter-time weapon
the “Tube
bait”
When water temps
start plummeting during the “dead
of winter”, inshore fishing can
get very tough. Since fish are
cold-blooded, their appetites are
generally suppressed during colder
periods… this creates quite a
challenge for those of us who enjoy
throwing artificial baits. In fact, it
requires us to painfully slow down our
presentations and choose bait profiles
that appear natural and easy for game
fish to catch. The tube bait has always
been my “go-to” lure when
confronted with these demanding
conditions! The attributes of the tube
bait are
numerous... |
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Record largemouth bass
caught in
Japan DANIA BEACH --- After
nearly six months of waiting,
Japan’s Manabu Kurita is taking
his place along side Georgia, USA
angler George Perry in the
International Game Fish
Association’s (IGFA) World Record
Games Fishes book as dual holders of
the All-Tackle record for largemouth
bass each weighing 22 lb 4 oz and
caught 77 years apart. Today the IGFA
approved Kurita’s application for
the fish caught from Japan’s
largest lake on July 2, 2009. The
70-year old non-profit fisheries
conservation, education and
record-keeping body, received
Kurita’s application and
documentation on Sept. 19,
2009. |
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With spinning
reels, put the line on correctly for
best results
There's
no shortage of reasons to keep a few
spinning reels in the boat. Perhaps you
haven't yet mastered a baitcasting reel
or maybe the fishing conditions require
you to downsize your bait selection to
try to finesse a bite. Either way,
despite the ease of use on a spinning
reel, there are some common problems
that even the most experienced anglers
encounter when using them. Some of
these problems can be lessened - if not
avoided all together - by properly
spooling line onto the
reel. |
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Acid oceans: the
'evil twin' of climate
change
Far from
Copenhagen's turbulent climate talks,
the sea lions, harbor seals and sea
otters reposing along the shoreline and
kelp forests of this protected marine
area stand to gain from any global deal
to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers
of the sanctuary's frigid waters,
flipping in and out of sight of
California's coastal kayakers, may not
seem like obvious beneficiaries of a
climate treaty crafted in the Danish
capital. But reducing carbon emissions
worldwide also would help mend a
lesser-known environmental problem:
ocean acidification. |
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FWC makes
bonefish a sportfish - Adds more shark
protections
The
FWC voted last month to elevate public
awareness of the importance of Florida
bonefish by declaring it a saltwater
game fish. "Bonefish are one of the
major reasons Florida is 'The Fishing
Capital of the World,'" said FWC
Chairman Rodney Barreto. "We took this
action today to emphasize how important
the bonefish fishery is to Florida
anglers, visitors and South Florida's
recreational fishing industry."
It is illegal to commercially harvest
and sell bonefish in Florida, and sport
anglers are allowed to keep only one
bonefish 18 inches in fork length or
greater per day. |
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FAnglers
keep plugging for lost
friend
:
After two
weeks of bitter cold, the sun finally
broke through the clouds and warmed the
water enough that the fish would bite.
"It seems like this happens every
year," said Al Autenrieth, for whom the
month of January holds special meaning.
"Whenever the Johnny Kellar Tournament
rolls around, you know it is going to
be cold." In 1990, Autenrieth and
fellow members of the Old Salt Fishing
Club took a little boy fishing. The
9-year-old hemophiliac, who had tested
positive for HIV after a receiving
blood transfusion, was having a hard
time fitting in. "He felt alone and
isolated," his mother Margie Kellar
recalled. " |
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