Here is a collection of Florida Fishing links to saltwater fishing information in and around Florida.
Sometimes we take things for granted. Growing up, our surroundings, no matter how exotic or grand they may be, will become common place to us. Florida Keys fishing is like that for me. I grew up on the Florida Keys fishing with my father. We actually lived in Key West, but we fished up and down the Florida Keys.
Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Tano and I am a So.Fla. skinny water fisherman. I've been here in Miami for 20 years and I've fished every single one of them! I've got a lot of fishing annecdotes but the one that really sticks didn't happen here in Florida but in N.J. where I lived before transplanting myself to Fl. The story begins with my friend Tommy, his son and myself fishing for carp in the Passaic river.
Tom Davis, one of our readers from southwest Florida, shares one or two of his secrets for catching skinny water fish in cold weather.....
Everything you need to know and more about fishing in South Florida without a boat. This is a very comprehensive and well kept site.
Deland, Florida, Bass Fishing
Every now and then people need a break. They need a change of pace from what they normally do, from what they normally see. People on the coast head for the mountains. People in the mountains head for the coast. And so it is with me and a number of my friends. After fishing and working all year in saltwater, we simply need a change of pace. We need a break. We need to experience some other aspect of life that we rarely get to see.
Dog days mean hot, sultry afternoons that more often than not end up with rain. They also mean that shrimp are on the run, and recreational shrimping can help cool off those hot days.
Many articles describe catching fish in the mouth of or back in a saltwater creek, marsh or mudflat. They describe the action and technique involved in catching fish that are coming out of the creek on an outgoing tide. The question many anglers have is, which creek is the right creek? Which creek is the one that will have the fish?
They are the shrimp boats that spend the night dragging their nets for pink gold. By night they work the nets, and by day they rest and clean. The by-catch from their nets often litters the deck and holds, and it must be done away with to keep the catch pure. So the morning ritual includes sweeping and hosing down the decks, and washing all the by-catch overboard.
We were fishing Blue Bank in Florida Bay, about fifteen miles south of Flamingo. Trout were working the bank, and we were catching them on live shrimp under a popping cork on an outgoing tide. There were two other boats on the bank with us, one from Islamorada and one more that followed us down from Flamingo.
This is the time of year to fish with live shrimp under and around the docks in the middle St Johns River in Florida. While mostly a freshwater area, the shrimp migrate inland to spawn. Saltwater species like sheepshead and redfish also migrate inland, and this is the time to catch them.
Idling out with Captain Jody Campbell, a seasoned flats guide here on the Nature Coast, we were fishing for seatrout on the flats of Florida’s Apalachee Bay around the St. Marks and Ochlockonee Rivers.
Catching one of these huge snappers takes some special bait and special technique.
Slow trolling is a lazy way to spend a hot summer day, and some nice king mackerel make it even nicer!
The bite is on up and down the eastern seaboard and boats are limiting on a variety of fish – that is if they are able to get out. This fall has been a particularly windy one, and relatively calm days are few and far between.
Tournaments abound up and down the coast for these "'Smoker" kings.
When I was growing up, the shallow water flats we used to avoid were dubbed "shadow" water by me after I heard an old timer obviously mispronounce the word shallow. Flats back then were huge areas of water that, on a low tide, caused you to run several miles further than you wanted to run.
Go fly a kite! And catch some fish while you're at it!
Snook season opens in Florida on September 1, and Sebastian Inlet is stacked with fish (and boats!).
Here is how I catch flounder, including bait, rigs, and techniques.
The long sleeved khaki shirt he wore was soaking wet. On a day with no wind, no rain, and temperatures hovering around 95 degrees, he wore that heavy long sleeved shirt. Actually he was forced to wear it. Being in the sun for far too many years without protection had taken its toll.
I still smell the flats. I can see the mud at low tide, glistening in the midday sun. Small spikes from mangrove seeds dot the brown mud, and a long-legged great white heron stalks its prey at the water’s edge.
Fall is the time of year to catch some really big convict fish, and here's how do do it, including catching the bait! Part 2 is below.
Now that we have the bait, from last week, let's catch some of these good eating dudes!
Information on fishing Southeast Florida from your About.com Fort Lauderdale Guide, Joe Filippone
Catching a bull red on a fly in a tidal creek can be quite an experience!
Let's clear up some misconceptions I seem to have fostered. Dolphin or Mahi Mahi?
Catching that one fish can be an experience, especially when you see that you are about to loose it!
Here is an offering from Captain Frank Bourgeois, who guides on Florida's West Coast. He has an interesting perspective on both fresh and saltwater fish in tidal waters
About half way and along the shoreline between Flamingo in Everglades National Park and Cape Sable on the southwest tip of Florida are two canals. Actually they are more like ditches at this point, and are so named. Slagle’s Ditch and House Ditch (some of us know this one as “Third Ditch”) make their way north into the marl prairie of the southern everglades. Both ditches were dug back in the early ‘20s in an effort to “drain the swamp”.
Alan Pope was literally begging me to take him to Flamingo, something that I actually didn’t want to do at the time. Who needs a ten year old hanging on you all day? But the chance to fish outweighed any burden I had to bear, and one morning we left with my Dad’s boat in tow, headed for Flamingo.
Secret fishing spots – some call them honey holes – often get passed from father to son through generations. Of course the reality is that our secret spots probably aren’t as “secret” as we think they are. We may only get to them every few weeks while other anglers visit them in between without our knowledge.
Over all the past years of my fishing, the place I fished most and perhaps liked best was and still is Flamingo. Located in the Everglades National Park at the southernmost tip of the mainland of Florida, Flamingo provides more great fishing opportunities than most other places I have fished.
We probably could have caught quite a few more snapper – the Intruder wreck was covered with them that day. But the limit is two per person and we had ours, so we finished the day trolling up a couple of fifteen-pound kingfish. Not bad for a hot summer day with a pesky barracuda trying to get your fish!
Reports coming in from Key West to the Carolinas say that offshore fishing is, along with the weather, really heating up. Anglers both trolling and bottom fishing are bringing good fish to the boat on a regular basis.
It's really an insignificant marker in the scheme of Florida Bay. It's numbered 10X because they needed another single pole marker between big tripod marker 10 and marker 9 on the intracoastal waterway route up the west side of the bay. The channel curves a bit going into the flat there and 10X sits on the outside edge of that curve. It was really put there as an afterthought.
I fished last week with a couple of old friends from my years in Miami, Dr. Richard Kernish, a fixture on the Flamingo fishing scene for many years, and his partner Jim O'Brien, a soon to be charter captain. They took me back thirty years last week.
We were minding our own business. The battle of the ramp on a holiday morning had been successfully negotiated without incident, and we were set up in a creek all by ourselves, looking for fish. Then I heard them. Across the marsh grass I could see several heads moving in the Intracoastal Waterway. There were four of them, and they were each on their own personal water craft (PWC). They were twisting and turning, jumping each other's wake, and generally having a good time.
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Saltwater Fishing
Before We Had Ice Chests
by Ron Brooks
Dateline: June 12, 2000
I can still smell the wonderful odor of fish dried into the heavy canvas bag. It’s one of those smells that, when you run across it, takes you back a lot of years. It takes me back to the times we fished and had no ice chest to hold our catch. This was before we moved to Key West, and back then our catches could be substantial.
It looks like the beginnings of a great summer offshore – at least here in North Florida. My son took his family fishing this weekend, and along with two other boats, went fifty miles offshore from St Augustine, looking for dolphin and billfish.
Night fishing can be very easy and a lot of fun, or it can be a perfectly miserable experience. The difference comes in how you prepare for the trip. I have fished more times at night than I can count, and I learned quite a few tricks to make it easy and successful.
A guest article by Justin DeBerry about night fishing for sharks off of Carrabelle, Florida
It was in April some 20 years ago, somewhere around Easter, that we made a two day trip to Marquesas Key off of Key West, Florida, looking for yellowtail. We took two boats for safety, and after the 5 hour drive from Miami, we launched at Stock Island Marina. Six of us went this time, two in my 20 foot Seacraft and the others in a 26 foot Ana Capri.
Every angler needs a change of pace from time to time. This one is no different. Last year I went with one of my best friends, John, to Texas and fished on Toledo Bend Reservoir. We had planned to make a trip to Lake Okeechobee this year, but sadly he passed away before we could plan very much.
Charlie. Every angler should have a Charlie in their life at some point. Charlie was the quintessential sportsman. From fishing South Florida to hunting caribou in Canada, Charlie was about as good as they come.
A short drive from most areas of the southeast United States, but a world away from daily pressures, sits one of the last areas in Florida that remains relatively untouched by human development. North Florida’s Wilderness Coast, and specifically Wakulla County, is making a conscious effort at bringing in orderly, managed growth to the area, growth that benefits the local economy while protecting an almost pristine environment.
I had a number of "secret" fishing spots when I was growing up. Several were like the small mangrove creek that I had to drag or push the boat across a flat to get to, and I was convinced that I was the only one ever to fish this hidden creek.
Winter fishing has set in around everywhere. King mackerel are being caught off south Florida, and sailfish are jumping in the boat down there. Farther north, vermillion snapper and black sea bass are cooperating in huge numbers on near shore wrecks and reefs.
The Christmas holiday season is once again driving me to look back at my life. And the question I always end up asking myself is, did I make a difference?
We made it to the launch ramp at about 4:30AM. Too early, you say? We were about number ten in line to launch. Yes, on a holiday weekend it gets that bad. Had this been a normal weekday, we would have been all alone. We launched and headed out the inlet in the dark along with several other boats.
It was mid-morning when I saw the floating plastic. I had not seen one in quite a while. It was a square bundle of black plastic floating half way down in the water. Square grouper! In the '70s and '80s we used to see them all the time. Some anglers were foolish enough to try and bring one on board and take it back to the dock. This, my friends was a bale of marijuana!
The kingfish are on the beach!", was the cry of the weekend. Huge pods of pogies (menhaden shad) are finally making their appearance on the North Florida coast, and the kingfish are beginning to make their presence known in the midst of these pods. These kings, coupled with the monster redfish that follow the bait on the bottom, were reason enough to hug the beaches this past weekend.
A trip to the Port is easy if you come to Florida. Heading south on I-95, simply exit east on the Beeline Expressway. A five minute drive on the Beeline east takes you directly to the port where multiple tackle shops can fill your every need. Excellent ramps and free wash down facilities make it one of the most popular departure points on Florida's East Coast.
The ramp at Matheson Hammock was void of people and vehicles when we launched. We seldom fish on the weekend, and this Tuesday morning was like most weekday mornings at the boat ramp. We launched and headed out into Biscayne Bay and turned north for the short run.
Summer fishing is over for the most part, and lots of us are preparing for the changes that colder water temperatures bring. Tactics, locations, and tackle choices usually change with the colder weather.
Veteran Key West light tackle guide Kenny Harris and his team didn't catch any fish Saturday, but still managed to survive more than 110 angler entrants in a 41-boat field to take top honors in the billfish division at the 16th Annual Key West Classic, presented by the Boomer Esiason Foundation.
Florida has, as one of its many resources, the spiny lobster, panulirus argus. These clawless lobsters are known as crawfish or “bugs” to the locals. Each year, the lobster season runs from August through March with a special two-day “recreational” season in July.
I still smell the flats. I can see the mud at low tide, glistening in the midday sun. Small spikes from mangrove seeds dot the brown mud, and a long-legged great white heron stalks its prey at the water’s edge.
Here's how to get into some nice Spanish and Cero mackerel.
Someone asked me the other day - what’s your favorite fish? I thought for a minute and named a species, snapper as I recall. But I thought about that encounter later and began pondering about just what my favorite fish really is.
Bluefish can make or break you day, including all your tackle!
Bull dolphin (mahi mahi or dorado) can be the fish of a lifetime, if they don't cause you a heart attack!
Cane pole fishing is a cheap fun way to fish the fresh waters of Broward County.
Fishing central Florida’s coastal waters can be a real treat. It’s an exciting visual experience as well. Redfish, trout, and snook are favorites in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River areas.
Everything you need to know and more about fishing in South Florida without a boat. This is a very comprehensive and well kept site.
A listing from the state of the most common fish caught in Florida with descriptors and great pictures. Not every fish has a picture, but the vast majority do and they are in living color!
If you live or fish in Northeast Florida, this site is the perfect site for you! Some really good information here.
An online fishing magazine that is very complete. Some great articles.
I like his quote - "God does not subtract, from your allotted time on earth, those hours spent fishing" - nice site.
Welcome to the Everglades Angler’s redesigned web site! Book a fishing trip, see the shop, plan a destination fishing trip, meet the staff, and read the fishing report for southwest Florida.
A nice site for fishing all of Florida, both fresh and saltwater. Even has a monthly photo contest.
Fishing reports as entered by some of the local area fishermen. These reports will increase as more fishermen report their catch. They are up to date and populated daily.
Lots of good information, including online purchase of fishing and hunting licenses!
Jacksonville Kayak Fishing's mission is to be the premier website for kayak anglers in the greater Jacksonville, Florida area. They provide forums, photo galleries, destination and fishing spot information, trip-planning data, and yellow pages listings of local kayak outfitters, bait&tackle shops, and guide services.
A boating, yachting and fishing site for then Fort Lauderdale area.
How to fish Florida's Gulf Coast with tips and links to some good sites from J. Ozolins.
Contains license and regulations, but you will need and Acrobat Reader 5.0 to see the files.
Tide charts and differences for all of Florida
Links to fishing and boating information in Northeast Florida from former About Jacksonville Guide JoAnne Young.
Arguably the most famous marina in the United States located in Islamorada in the Florida Keys.
Online version of this fine magazine. Bringing you the best in saltwater fishing and boating in Florida.
More reports from Tampa Bay from Captain Paul Hawkins.
Fishing report from Tampa Bay area of Florida
Reports from Tarpon Springs from Captain Dennis Royston.
Tidal Fish a great fishing site facilitating and providing a platform for anglers of all types to share reports, meet new friends and just enjoy a community of people who just plain old loves fishing. It features fishing reports, a fishing message boards, fishing articles, boating tips, and a whole variety of other fishihy stuff for anglers up and down the Atlantic coast.
Updated every Thursday for weekend anglers, this is Florida Sportsman Magazine's online fishing forecast
