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.
A SEA STAR INSPECTS a new artificial reef off Okaloosa County. The 8-foot-tall concrete tetrahedrons are embedded with pieces of Florida limestone, which has a natural pH conducive to the growth of attaching organisms. Reefmaker-Walter Marine in Orange Beach, AL pioneered this design and continues to supply units like these to artificial reef programs around the Gulf Coast and beyond. Cost of one of the 8-foot units, including deployment, is about $2,695. See pages 36-40 for GPS coordinates of some recent installations around Florida.…
A good friend from my college days recently invited me to join him and his son for a morning on Tampa Bay. He said he figured I could show them a thing or two about fishing. They didn’t have a specific goal—which was good, as I don’t fish Tampa Bay much. I know enough about the Bay to know that, for some fish there—like snook, tarpon or grouper—specific plans are needed. Just bend a rod? Easy. I looked up a few public artificial reef numbers, plugged them into the Garmin Navionics app on my iPhone, and we were soon hauling up grunts and mangrove snappers. For a finale, a blacktip shark put on its best tarpon impression. On the way in, I heard a 15-year-old ask, “Dad, when can I…
I’ve written a lot about improving our inshore fishing by addressing seagrass dieoffs and inland habitat degradation. What I haven’t touched on enough is remedying the poor health of our shallow water coral reefs. And with NOAA Fisheries estimating that at least half of all the federally managed fisheries depending on coral reefs at some point in their life cycles, that’s a big miss. Fortunately, the “call to action” has already been issued by the hundreds of people and dozens of organizations who’ve been busy for more than a decade engaging with the public with meaningful hands-on projects. Case in point, when I told Florida Sportsman Editor Jeff Weakley about my idea for a column on coral reefs, he told me I should contact Natalie van Hoose, a Florida science…
Remember that line from Field of Dreams: “Build it and he will come…”? Well, let’s change that around a little to, “Build the reefs and the fish will come.” The Okaloosa County folks have been doing just that—building reefs—and by all accounts, the fish are coming. The Okaloosa County 5-Year Artificial Reef Plan is aimed at making Destin–Fort Walton Beach the dive capital of Florida and building upon its status as a premier fishing destination. The plan provides for an annual budget of $1.5M, excluding any grant funds or partner contributions. This year, with partner support, the annual project plan totals $1.71 million. The 6th penny tax program is conservatively estimated to generate $4 million this partial fiscal year. Funding up to $1.71 million from the 6th penny was requested…
I CERTAINLY appreciated the fact that I was fishing with the great Captain Bouncer Smith. He is not only one of the best of the best, he’s legitimately a great guy. I can’t think of a saltwater delicacy he doesn’t have access to. Imagine my surprise when he stopped me from throwing the front half of a blue runner back overboard, after a kingfish had cut it in half. I was shocked when he filleted what was left of the runner, and stuck it in a tiny Ziploc full of sashimi ingredients. Blue runner? When you catch tuna, wahoo, and mahi on a regular basis, how can Capt. Bouncer’s delicacy be blue runner? My buddy Dan Parker pulled a fast one on me offshore Fort Pierce one winter. We were…
IT DOESN’T MATTER how good your bait looks, if it’s not in the zone the chances of a bite are slim. There’s a plethora of gadgets and gizmos nowadays to help keep your bait there. An old school tactic, still overwhelmingly popular in the freshwater world, that most saltwater fishermen seem to overlook is the slip float rig. There’s a bit more to a slip cork than your standard “peg” style float. These components and their adjustability are what make this rig so versatile. The float, typically foam or balsa wood, is a line-through float, often in a tapered cylindrical shape. The line-through design allows the float to freely slide up and down your mainline, which you want. But if it was to slide up your line and never stop,…
