Next time you head outdoors, take a look around you: many of the fish and wildlife species you see, as well as their habitats, are healthy because of hunters and anglers. Additionally, from boat ramps to shooting ranges, artificial reefs to educational programs, Florida’s more than 7 million hunters and anglers fund and support access to fish and wildlife resources for everyone to enjoy.

Celebrate National Hunting and Fishing Day with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Saturday, September 24th, by getting outdoors and appreciating the contributions to conservation and wildlife that hunters and anglers make daily.

“Through the federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, millions of dollars a year from license, hunting, fishing and boating purchases are returned to Florida to support conservation of and access to Florida’s natural resources,” said FWC Chairman Brian Yablonski. “National Hunting and Fishing Day is a great way to celebrate what started as a seed of sustainability planted a hundred years ago by early conservationists such as Theodore Roosevelt. That seed of sustainability has turned into the greatest conservation success story of all time.”

Whether you participate in outdoor activities or not, you too can contribute today by purchasing a hunting or fishing license.

Nearly 100 percent of the money spent on licenses goes to the FWC to connect kids with the outdoors, support science-based management, and expand access to shooting sports and fishing opportunities.

Purchase your license today by visiting GoOutdoorsFlorida.com, by calling 888-FISH-FLORIDA or 888-HUNT-FLORIDA or by visiting your local tax collector or bait and tackle shop.

Already have your license? Another way to support conservation is through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs. Every time you purchase equipment for hunting, fishing and boating, the industries that make that equipment contribute funding for fish and wildlife conservation at the state level including here in Florida. Since the 1930s, over $354 million has been provided to Florida for conservation efforts through Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program grants. So when you buy gear for your next hunting or fishing trip, take pride in knowing you are playing a part in conservation through these purchases.

“In addition to providing funding through purchases, hunters and anglers can contribute physically to the resources they enjoy,” Yablonski said. “You can be an essential partner in wildlife management by providing the FWC and other agencies with important information on what is happening in the woods and on the waters of Florida.”

You can also contribute by joining a sportsmen’s group or conservation organization dedicated to on-the-ground projects that benefit fish and wildlife – everything from cleanup days on public lands to wildlife habitat enhancement projects.

Reconnect with family, friends and nature today by enjoying all that Florida’s outdoors have to offer.

Over a year ago, Biscayne National Park officials approved a plan that will place over 10,000 acres of prime fishing areas off limits to recreational fishermen, despite strong opposition from anglers and the state, and a total lack of scientific backing.

Fortunately, Florida’s Congressional delegation has been working to rectify this poorly-conceived plan, but we’re running out of time. Please take a moment to sign a petition urging Congress to stop the Biscayne marine reserve before the clock runs out at the end of the year.

Championed by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Carlos Curbelo and Mario Diaz-Balart, a bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives that would ensure the State of Florida has a say in these decisions before the federal government closes down fishing in state waters.

In the Senate, a bill sponsored by Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio would prevent fishing closures in Biscayne National Park that are not developed in coordination with the state and are not based on sound fisheries management principles.

While we’ve seen significant legislative progress, unless a bill gets signed into law before the end of the year, all these efforts will be in vain and we’ll have to start over from scratch when the next session of Congress starts in 2017. We can’t let that happen.

Please take a moment to add your name to this petition and make sure our Florida delegation knows that they need to act now to stop the Biscayne marine reserve – please share this petition with family, friends, colleagues and supporters today!

Fishbrain (www.Fishbrain.com) is the world’s most popular mobile app and social network for anglers, and the fastest, easiest way to log fishing activity and share it with anglers worldwide. Available on iOS and Android, the free-to-use Fishbrain app helps sport-fishing enthusiasts catch more (and bigger) fish by gathering and managing vast amounts of meteorological and user data, and presenting it an intuitive and responsive map format. The app has over 1.7 million users worldwide, with over 1 million in the US, and is growing rapidly.

Within the app, Fishbrain users can:

Log their fishing trips and catches

Explore detailed maps and zoom in to discover what fish have been caught in a particular area and with what bait

Follow other users in real-time

Share pictures of their prized catches

The Fishbrain Forecast, developed in partnership with world-renowned scientists in Complex Dynamical Systems & Artificial Intelligence, is a revolutionary new feature that helps anglers worldwide catch bigger fish by providing detailed forecasts that reveal the optimal time to catch a particular species of fish in any given location.

By looking at the weather forecast for the coming days in a particular region, and applying Fishbrain’s predictive analytics algorithms, a personalised Fishbrain Forecast is calculated and presented to the user, increasing the chance of anglers achieving that dream catch.

Another new feature is ‘Teams’, which allows users to compete against friends and other Fishbrain users from all over the world for leaderboard supremacy, reflecting the real-world habits of anglers.

Fishbrain users can upgrade to a Premium Account for £4.49 per month or £29.99 annually, which allows deeper insight and personal analysis that helps improve an angler’s performance, for example by predicting what bait would be most effective in catching a particular type of fish in a specific lake.

As well as taking users’ input into account, Fishbrain also automatically gathers a whole range of external data that it matches to a user’s position using geolocation. Detailed weather, tide, and wind conditions are fed back to a user in real-time, helping them to make smarter decisions whilst out fishing.

Fishbrain recently teamed up with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (www.fws.gov), the federal government agency dedicated to the conservation of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats, to invite the American public to identify and document threatened, endangered and candidate species across the country. The ongoing initiative represents one of the biggest crowdsourced conservational data collections in history.

According to a report entitled Fishing For Answers (which researched the benefits of angling for individuals and communities over a period of four years), angling has over 4 million regular participants in the UK, and is worth in the region of £3bn to the economy. Already a success in its native Sweden, and the fastest growing platform of its type in the US, Fishbrain launched in the UK in March 2014 in association with the Angling Times, tapping into this active and burgeoning market by providing users with a tool to maximise the success of their fishing trip.

Johan Attby, CEO of Fishbrain comments, “Anglers love exchanging tips and telling stories about the one that got away – and also bragging about the ones that didn’t! It is this that Fishbrain taps into: offering a completely

new way to track, record and plan fishing trips, as well as connecting a community of like-minded individuals from around the world. Our users have logged over 500,000 catches, demonstrating that there is real demand for a tool that can identify exactly when and where to locate certain fish, the correct bait to use to maximise the chances of success, and to share tips and success stories with fellow fishing enthusiasts Fishbrain has proven to be popular in Sweden and the US, and we are excited to see the response from the UK market.”

Fishbrain Features Include:

A personal log within the app that allows users to keep a detailed record of all their catches, fishing trips, tackle box and statistics.

A highly-detailed interactive map that lets users to explore fishing areas nearby. Users can access information about what species of fish have been caught in the area, the method and bait used, as well as details such as the weight, time and the conditions when the catch was made.

The option to follow other Fishbrain users, track their activity, leave comments, and give a thumbs up to their latest catches. Specific fishing areas can also be tracked, so users can keep up-to-date on all activity in areas of particular interest. This tool also allows for the planning of fishing trips with other local users.

Users who hold the record for the largest catch in a specific lake or river are named ‘King of the Water’ and their user profile is highlighted within the page for that body of water.

Recent inshore fishing reports from the Big Bend region.

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Fishing with Dad

Florida Sportsman member: ghostrider8

I see Jay putting on a paddle tail and I STRONGLY suggest that he use live bait as we had a bait well full of shrimp, pinfish and mud minnows and I figured it would increase his chances. But no, he stubbornly insists on using it and then promptly pulls this 29-inch snook out from under the mangroves on his first cast.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Crystal River Redfish Action

Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286

We had a hard time catching a lot at first, being on the opposite side of the bar from the school, so we got snagged a lot. There was so many that we still managed catching several on top of the rocks though.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Waccasassa Redfish

Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz

You gotta love this time of year. The Reds start coming alive, cooler weather is on the way and the fishing should just explode.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Crystal River Snookin’

Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed

Today I went out early with Robbie, but we started at slack high tide and didn’t catch anything until the water was flowing out hard. Been catching smaller snook and this 35 inch snook is the first big one I’ve gotten in a month or so and a real treat.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Hot Redfishing

Florida Sportsman member: Billy

It was a little slow at first but then as we warmed up so did the fish. I started off with three keeper reds and a trout before we decided to move. Duane, not to be out done, adds three more keeper reds in the boat.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Early Morning Reds

Florida Sportsman member: Billy

So off we go to Billy’s Creek. It was full of reds with some with their backs out of the water. The problem was they wouldn’t bite anything we threw at them. After a frustrating period of time, and for once wishing (sort of), that we should have had bait Duane says let’s move.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Big Bend Reds

Florida Sportsman member: Billy

Fished a bit for a few trout, caught maybe three or four, to wait for water. That didn’t last long, just needed one for the box anyway, and Duane says let’s go for the reds. They were around, even saw one with it’s fins out of the water, but they were reluctant to feed. We kept trying and eventually put eight keepers in the boat all around the 22 inch size.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Getting Revenge

Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed

It made a loooong run of probably 100 yards and we ran it down. When it came to the net, it was a “slob”, very similar to mine from the other day, in fact we measured it at 39″, same as mine, but a different place.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Incoming Bite

Florida Sportsman member: permit_me

As I was re-rigging a spare rod, I put my rod in the holder and slam, Jack grabbed the rod was on with a 26 inch red. A couple minutes later we resume, I am just finishing my knot from earlier and slam, Jack takes my rod and lands another upper slot slob.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Fishing with Grampa

Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286

My grandpa was able to catch a couple which was cool because they are pretty much his favorite fish to catch, and this was his last trip he had before heading back to New York.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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A Trip to Crystal River

Florida Sportsman member: badonskybuccaneers

As the day progressed, the wind seemed to die down some, so we hunted some crab pot floats for tripletail on the way out but didn’t find anything legal. We tried working another bar along the spoils further out and picked up a couple more trout, some jacks, a redfish, and I finished my inshore slam with a decent snook.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Steinhatchee Trip

Florida Sportsman member: Cole321

We went out the next afternoon into the Gulf and fished on the grass banks north of Steinhatchee. Found spots where there was thin grass and adjacent oyster bars/rock piles. The first spot we could see reds and drum tailing all over the place, the reds were also rubbing in the grass.

Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Slam

Florida Sportsman member:Blkmnstr

Finally had a nice enough day to head out to long point. We got a later start than what we wanted too but were still at the ramp in time to get to the banks before the tide changed. I hooked up with the first trout then my girlfriend landed the next three back to back.

Click here to read the full forum report

 

 

 

 

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Short Trip, Hot Bite Florida Sportsman member: Jim311 The first stop was a creek that had produced well for me on Thursday, but it generally holds smaller fish. It was about two hours from the bottom of the low tide but we made the call to get skinny and risk getting stuck in the creek in hopes of finding a good bite and it paid off. Click here to read the full forum report

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Fun on the Chaz Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One Duane uses that Chaz finesse and this snook is caught! But, he swallowed the lure completely and there was no way this one would go back. The damage was to great. At 28 1/2 inches he was legal and will give up some delicious fillets. Click here to read the full forum report

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Fishing Both Sides Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown From Yankeetown to Cedar Key to Horseshoe and both Palm Coast and Matanzas on the east coast. The east coast has had vary clear water for sight fishing and we have been getting 10 or so a trip. The west side, well let’s just say it’s been catching, not fishing. Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Trout and Sheepshead Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286 After reading Super D’s post about catching trout in the days inn canal figured we’d start there since we launch there on every trip and was surprised to catch a 17 inch trout on my first cast with a gold lil john. Caught a few more on every other cast then got one more in the mullet hole before heading to the creeks. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Trip Florida Sportsman member: Flat Nuts I made an excuse to come back up your way with my daughter. We were sneaking up to Ocala to pick up a new pup for my wife for Valentines day under the guise of a quick father daughter fishing trip. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching in the River Florida Sportsman member: 4WARD We stayed in the river on Sunday and jumped around here and there. Snapper were not very active but a couple reds decided to play. We ended up with two reds (23 and 26 3/4 inches), one drum and a couple snappers. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching on the New boat Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2 I saw a fish tailing so I told mom where to look and she saw the fish and made the shot. Without me telling her where and boom, fish on! A solid fish at 27 inches and was her first real fish that she has sight fished. Click here to read the full forum report

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Low Tide Action Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2 The water came in a little bit so I started working a shoreline next to a creek mouth. This turned out to be the best decision. We saw several fish, and some absolute studs, on the outside along the shoreline. Ended up picking up a couple fish this way. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching on Topwater Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown I got blasted three more times by giants here but they were over hitting the plug, literally coming out of the water. My co-worker had enough and went to top water as well. Did not take long and he was crushed by a giant. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching in the Creeks Florida Sportsman member: kingkong954 On our way out of the creek I managed to get my lure stuck in some grass. After much yanking and pulling and cursing the lure pops out into the water and wraps around my rod tip. After some cursing and untangling I find out the action had somehow attracted a redfish, who had eaten the lure while I untangled the line! Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Variety Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Tripletail fishing has been great along the channel markers, crab trap buoys, and floating grass mats. Live shrimp under a float is a sure bet when targeting these fish. Look for them as you run from spot to spot. They hide just below the floating structure or nose up to channel markers. Click here to read the full forum report

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December Big Bend Action Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown We had a negative low mid morning which I like to fish up there, well it did not disappoint. The trout and reds were laid up in the pot holes just like they should be in spring weather. Caught well over 40 nice trout up to 23 inches and 20 reds up to 30 inches. Click here to read the full forum report

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Topwater Action Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed I hear a big snook hit Robbie’s lure with that telltale giant suction slurp they do and the battle was on. Fish was in good current and was a multiple jumper of five or six times. After a good battle the 31 inch fish came to the net. Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Reds and Trout Florida Sportsman member:StandOutI2 We ran out to a pretty low tide, so we started trout fishing. Boy were they on fire, they were eating everything, topwater, flukes, jigs, whatever we threw. Most of them being 19 to 23 inches with a few smaller ones mixed in. After about two hours of that we went to go find some reds. Click here to read the full forum report

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Patience pays Florida Sportsman member:shuterkng Not a great day as it was starting to get late and the tide was about full. Then surprise, monster red invasion. Almost everyone got a big red as we were fighting for position on the boat, girls won. We kept four that were just under 27 inches and released a bunch more. Click here to read the full forum report

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No Water No Problem Florida Sportsman member:barhopperAD Catching mullet paid off, first cast was a 26 inch red. Little bro was catching rat reds left and right. The water got higher and action got slower. So we moved around explored a little to find a fishy looking cove with lots of activity and that REALLY paid off. Click here to read the full forum report

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Cedar Key Action Florida Sportsman member:Big Bend Brian We were without a bottomfinder as I just sent my Furuno in for repair so our plan was to just troll a shallow broad area of intermittent hard bottom we used to stone crab on. Stopping in 19 feet we deployed some grouper plugs despite a fair amount of grass on the surface and within 10 minutes had our first fish. Click here to read the full forum report

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First Trip Success Florida Sportsman member:Gman27 30 minutes later I found a nice creek and a few lagoons and began working the banks with a paddle tail. I could see reds pushing bait on to the banks and lots of activity. Couple casts in and landed my first cedar key redfish of 19 inches. After the activity slowed down, I moved to a new lagoon and found more activity, landed another redfish of 29 inches. Click here to read the full forum report        

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A Trip Down South Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Friday, we decided to trailer up to Flamingo and sight fish way back up in the glades. Made about a 25 mile run north of Flamingo to some super skinny creeks. Ended up sight fishing around 10 nice reds up to 30 inches and 4 snook up to 28 inches. All fish being caught in less than 12 inches of water. Click here to read the full forum report

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Fishing with the Girls Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz Being the two girls have never caught redfish I thought this would be a good chance to put them on some fish. Didn’t really matter most were under slot, just catching was a blast for them. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching in Cedar Key Florida Sportsman member: barhopperAD We started off two keeper reds back to back. My little brother then hooked into a “redfish” which was screaming drag, pulled up to boat and it was a giant trout probably 25-27 inches, but the hook pulled right there and watched him swim away. Click here to read the full forum report

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Waccasassa Reds Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz Headed out early even though it was a pretty early low tide. Took out a buddy that has not caught a lot of reds and was hoping to get him into some quality fish. He was not disappointed as we got into them pretty good. Click here to read the full forum report

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Slot Slam Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286 Bob stuck to topwater like I’m sure Ted does because they want that one fish, which I understand but I wanted to catch my share of reds and wanted to see if it worked for him before doing so. All my redfish didn’t change his mind then he landed a top of the slot redfish that inhaled his plug! I stuck with the spoon then hooked the first snook! Click here to read the full forum report

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From Tripletail to Tarpon Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown We head to where the third and final trap is, hopefully and sure enough it’s still there. We did not see any fish on it but made casts at it any way. My second cast and the cork goes under and drag starts screaming, another 10 pounder jumps. We get him netted and in the box. My kids both agreed that I needed to put my rod down. Click here to read the full forum report

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Father and Son Fishing Florida Sportsman member: huntentails With the youngest son off of work and a favorable tide we settled on yesterday morning and it wasn’t a disappointment. We fished out of Crystal River and were on fish all morning with a strong outgoing tide. Robbie caught his best snook to date at 39 & 1/4 inches and I caught a 30 incher. Click here to read the full forum report

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New Spot Producing Florida Sportsman member: Billy We went to an area that I’ve never been before, Duane hadn’t been in years, and we spent most of the trip fishing the same area. We put twelve keeper reds in the boat and Duane managed a snook after another one got off earlier. Click here to read the full forum report

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Cedar Key Reds Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz Mid-morning the tide was moving pretty good so we hit up into some creeks and found what we were looking for. We got 14 reds on rattletraps, spoons and jerk baits. A couple of oversize, a few under, with the majority in the slot. Click here to read the full forum report

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Muddy Water, Big Drum Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown I told myself that when I hit this one bar, if there is a drum on it, I was going to get him. It was protected from the wind and would allow me to make a perfect cast. Sure enough, I round the corner and the tail was a waving. Click here to read the full forum report

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Backwater Snook and Reds Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One With the tide getting lower every second, Duane say “Lets hit some redfish spots closer to home base”. Off we go on another wild ride and before you know it we are sitting on some rocks with redfish swirls looking us in the face. Pitch a spoon and a nice redfish is going home for dinner. Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Drummin’ Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286 The fishing really picked up with the incoming tide, as we released a few slot reds and one over slot. We also caught three black drum, all were great fights in the kayak. All fish were caught less than a mile from the ramp and on live shrimp. Click here to read the full forum report

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Grinding it Out Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed Robbie went out with me for some topwater casting practice. Low outgoing to start and the incoming the rest of the morning. Robbie must of practiced ahead, because he hit a nice 36 inch snook at the first stop. Click here to read the full forum report

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Cedar Key Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Well with in three casts with the skitter walk, I get smashed and a school stands the water up. Josh throws in and we are doubled up. Mine came in at 29 inches and his was 26 1/2, that set the tone for the day. We hit five or six spots and every spot had a school on it. Click here to read the full forum report

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Snook and Scallops Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed We went to Sandy Hook yesterday so we decided to go Scalloping again on this beautiful day. After a late start, we motored out to the boat pack and found all the scallops I care to clean in a reasonable time. There are still plenty out there and they were big! Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Mixed Bag Florida Sportsman member: huntentails We started with an outgoing tide and a slight east wind. First cast was a great snook, but was lost before it was boated for a photo session. We had to make a move a few hundred yards to get away from the bluefish as they were just tearing up anything we threw. Click here to read the full forum report

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Cedar Key Reds and Trout Florida Sportsman member: me3260 Live shrimp and cut ladyfish were the bait of the day. We caught a few on Gold Spoons, but the water is so dark, the only hits we got on spoons were throwing over a white sand bar, and reeling back across. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Snook Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed By now I am fishing spots where I’ve never fished before. Paid off with this massive 39 inch snook that was the toughest I’ve ever caught. 3 jumps and 3 long runs and somehow she didn’t wrap herself up in the sargasm. Missed another big one a few casts later and left early with the grandkids visiting at home. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Giant Florida Sportsman member: Biggary16 I called Pete (Snookspanker) to try for some snooks with the morning high tide. He liked the tide today too so we went out for a quick trip. He stuck a giant one within the 1st half hour. The shoulders and the girth of this 40 plus incher was unreal. Click here to read the full forum report

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First Snook Florida Sportsman member: Lake13 We both were looking for our first snook and just pounded till we both got one. 14 hours of fishing for one fish apiece. Couldn’t be happier though. What a beautiful area and we will both be back. Click here to read the full forum report

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Jumbo Drum Florida Sportsman member: Biggary16 We had some gulps so we messed around with some big drum pulling us around for a while. The last one that I caught was a behemoth and that was enough for me. We got out of there before the storm and made it home still dry. Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Reds and Scallops Florida Sportsman member: T-Bonefc After 15-20 minutes we shot further south and joined a small community between the C.R. crowd and Homosassa . The scallops were much better here in numbers. Still small for the most part but it is what it is in the beginning of the season. Click here to read the full forum report

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Poling to the Reds Florida Sportsman member: Dveres95 We started the day out in Mason Creek and worked south toward Chassahowitzka, with a high morning tide we got deep into the back country to a flat that is very active and holds big redfish. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching in the Creeks Florida Sportsman member: Billy We managed a few reds and maybe a half dozen snook that actually made it to the boat. We kept hooking up the snook but a bunch simply either cut us off or came unbuttoned before we could get them to the boat. Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Variety Florida Sportsman member: Biggary16 My brother was in town so we hit Yankeetown early. Got a nice snook on topwater that started the day out great. Had a couple other snook blow ups. Then went looking for reds. Click here to read the full forum report

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Early Morning Snookin’ Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed Robbie had the big fish of the day on first and after a good battle, it gill plated the line, but we saw enough to know it was a big one. Then I got a fat 32 inch fish, which was a welcome relief. Click here to read the full forum report

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Low Water, Big Snook Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2 I heard drag screaming and saw a wake that looked like a torpedo going through the water. Had to pull the powerpole up and chase it for a little bit then finally it stopped making the long run and came close enough for me to realize it wasn’t the big red I thought it was. Click here to read the full forum report

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On the Reds Florida Sportsman member: bigkahuna Forum member bigkahuna and wife got into the redfish in the big bend region, as well as a few bonus snook. Nice! Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Redfish Bite Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2 My step dad picked up a couple more shorts. Well, the school died down and we started working to another area. My mom was real quiet in the back of the boat and said she sees something. So she throws to it and sure enough, it’s a nice 27″ red! Her biggest to date. Click here to read the full forum report

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Calling in “Sick” Florida Sportsman member: hausw Not more than 5 minutes later I hooked into a much larger one and battled him for almost an hour. Hoisted him in the boat for a few pics and released him. After that I was exhausted and called it a day. Click here to read the full forum report

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Mason Creek Reds Florida Sportsman member: Dveres95 We caught all our Reds on gold spoons, the fish were concentrated in the deeper mud troughs between the islands, which still held 2 to 3 feet on the dead low. It has been a great past month in the creek and it’s only looking better. Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Redfish Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2 Well, got back to our normal spots on the incoming and noticed there wasn’t a whole lot of water moving. Turned around and went back out the way we came still on the incoming and boom, started seeing reds everywhere. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Inshore Bite Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Forum member and the Big Bend’s weekend 4caster ripnlips has been on the fish. Catching snook, trout, redfish and more. Click here to read the full forum report

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Windy Day Success Florida Sportsman member: Billy It was windy. Even in the creeks it was a chore to have any kind of boat control but we stuck it out for a few hours. Tide was rushing in heavy and flooded a bunch of areas we usually fish. We had to change up a bit but it all worked out. Click here to read the full forum report

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Working the Docks Florida Sportsman member: Bassin Assassin Switched to the smoke/gold halo color and was slowly swimming my lure near the bottom in the front of a dock, it got blasted. Set the hook on a solid fish. Got it away from the dock. After a nice aerial display and some good runs, Pat got her in the net. She measured 28 inches. Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Snook Bite Florida Sportsman member: Biggary16 Hammerhead Ted and I got out there early to catch the outgoing tide. Ted is the king of topwater snookin and he hooked a giant one on his 3rd or 4th cast. He fought it for a long time but it scraped his 40 pound leader up and broke off. Click here to read the full forum report

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Fun with Friends Florida Sportsman member: Billy A great day on the water with a couple excellent fisherman and lots of laughs. Almost all fish came on top water and a Redfish Magic type lure. We’ll definitely do this again. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Mixed Bag Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Forum members ripnlips and Swampthing07 got into a nice mixed bag of fish from triple tail to black drum. Swampthing07 wife Kayla got in on the action too. Click here to read the full forum report

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Successful Scouting Florida Sportsman member: CarneLoco We saw some big tails pop up in about 3 foot of water. Have heard of big black drum in these areas, but had no live crabs. Could have swore a few were reds mixed in. After many very good casts from both of us, Libby had a monster on. 15 minutes and a few laps around the bout she had her first black drum landed. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend, Big Reds Florida Sportsman member: Jim311 I pushed in further into the creek. I spooked one nice red which I didn’t even see until he’d spooked. Then I hooked up again, and again it was another super hard fight. This fish was bigger though, over 32 inches. It had a head on it the size of a football, a real stud fish. Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Snookin’ Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed We caught fish everywhere we went including some places that haven’t produced the last couple years. Robbie got 4 lower slot and under slot reds and several jacks. I missed a big snook early, but disappointment didn’t last too long when i got a 31 inch snook at the next place. Click here to read the full forum report

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Sheepshead, Snook and Snapper Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Sheepshead Snapper and Snook have been the targeted species lately. Seems like the sheeps are finally spawning out on the rocks reefs and ledges just offshore. They are willing to bite if you get good enough weather to get out there. When the weather gets bad we have been getting snapper and snook in the river. Live shrimp has been the bait of choice. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Bruisers Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown We hit the first spot, the water was clear and they were schooled up. Watched a school of over slots swim down the bank. Then got to watch the whole school fight over my fluke, simply awesome to watch. Click here to read the full forum report

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Homosassa Redfish Florida Sportsman member: floridafan Pulled in about 60 mostly undersized reds but managed 4 keepers between 20 to 24 inches. We each had a run 10 fish in 10 casts for me and 11 fish in 11 casts for my son, both at the same time! 21 fish in less than 10 minutes! Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Inshore Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Sheepshead are starting to show up in their normal wintertime spots. We’re still getting a by-catch of gag grouper too. All on 8 pound braid and live shrimp. Click here to read the full forum report

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Afternoon Redfish Bite Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Once the tide came in enough we headed out front to fish the outer bars. Was slow for an hour or so but the last hour and a half of daylight they turned on. Had a couple of doubles then switched out to topwater and got a few good ones on top. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching the Bulls Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Well Jacobs first blind cast was inhaled by a 20 pound stud. I was thinking this is a good way to start. Jacob, my youngest son, and I were on one boat and moved out to another cut to the gulf. Took a while for another bite and I finally got on the board with another 25 pounder on topwater. Click here to read the full forum report

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December Inshore Fishing Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips My son Jeremy came home for Christmas so we went out and fished for a few hours for trout around some creeks. Caught our limit of trout and released about 20 more by 11:30. Also caught these on jig and DOA Cals and some with live shrimp on a jig. Click here to read the full forum report

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Nice Weather, Hungry Fish Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown As I get within casting distance I see a pack of about 5 reds milling around so I post up and tell the boys to throw up there. Jacobs cast was right in the middle of them and he hooks up instantly. Click here to read the full forum report

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Hiding From the Wind, Catching the Fish Florida Sportsman member: Billy Moving to some areas that were sheltered from the wind we caught jacks, more ladyfish than we cared to, mangroves with some keepers in the bunch, a red, and lots of snook. We managed to put twelve snook in the boat losing more than that before touching the leader. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching with the Kids Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown We headed to the first spot and started throwing topwater over some oyster bars. Got one 25 inch red and a stud trout right off the bat. Pulled the hooks on two over slot reds and had several misses before making a move. I then jumped up on the platform and turned the front of the boat over to the boys. Click here to read the full forum report

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Birthday Fun Florida Sportsman member: Bluewaterdrew We chased huge schools of mullet picking off reds here and there, Jen even hooked a nice flounder. After high tide we went to a bar to try our luck with black drum. Saw a few huge ones that didn’t seem to mind us being right on top of them, but the jacks were so thick it was hard to keep a lure in the water. Click here to read the full forum report

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Catching in the Transition Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips For the past few weeks we have been seeing fish transition from Summer patterns to Fall patterns and this means that they are in the mood to eat. Now is the time to get out on the water and take advantage of it. Click here to read the full forum report

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Seeing Red Florida Sportsman member: G8trbait Then the girls got a double hook up. It must have been a small school that swam by because they were hooked up back to back! April’s was a keeper, but Sophie’s had to grow up a little. It was legal, but we could afford to be picky and I don’t usually keep them unless they’re over 20 inches. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Redfish Action Florida Sportsman member: cthurow Drew’s first cast with his Zara Spook and boom, fish on! Nice drag screamer. I already had a piece of lady fish rig on a larger rod so I went ahead and threw it out while Drew played his fish. As soon as I netted Drew’s 26 inch red, he yells, Dad that rod is bowed to the water! Click here to read the full forum report

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Suwannee River Tripletail and More Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown As we trolling motor up to the first pole, a 10 pounder sky rockets 6 feet in the air about 75 yards out in the open. First time I have seen one free jump. My brother makes a cast at the pole and hooks up instantly. The fish gave two amazing jumps and spits the hook. Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Fishing and Fun Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Forum member ripnlips and friends had a great weekend, catching a slew of fish. They also loaded on scallops, making for a nice meal! Click here to read the full forum report

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Waccasassa Reds Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz About the time the tides were getting right the heat was kicking into gear. After a couple of decent Reds a storm started brewing up towards Cedar Key so it was time to cut it short. Click here to read the full forum report

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Tearing Up the Tripletails Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown The chop made it a slow boat ride out but busted one on the very first pole. The fishing was hard due to waves coming over the bow and only being able to see down 3 to 4 inches but we made the most of it and put 5 in the box and called it after about 4 hours. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Slam Florida Sportsman member: Billy All the fish were caught on artificial and I believe we didn’t get any on topwater. The snook was about 31 inches, the red is dinner, and the trout is back in the water. I have a place that you can almost always catch a trout even in this heat so we went there so Duane could try to get his slam. Duane came through with a Mirrodine. Click here to read the full forum report

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Horseshoe Beach Inshore Florida Sportsman member: florida_dorksman The thunder cloud may have saved the day, because the first creek we hit had more activity than I have seen out of there in almost a year. A steady stream of live shrimp kept the bite on fire, and within an hour and a half we had 4 redfish to 28 1/2 inches, an 18 inch sheepshead and a 24 inch black drum. Click here to read the full forum report

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Waccasassa Reds Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz So after the skies cleared up we were able to get up to where we wanted to fish. Strong tide and the breeze made for some tough fishing at first but we stuck with it and hit some quality fish. Five reds from 16 to 34 inches with two right at 27 inches that went home for dinner. Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Black Drum Florida Sportsman member: Biggary16 Forum member Biggary16 got into some nice black drum! Only fishing for a few hours he caught 6 “big uglies” and a nice flounder. Tight work! Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Snook Bite Florida Sportsman member: Snook Spanker These fish weren’t just slobs, they were smart slobs just like all the big snook I’ve encountered. In fact the first 6 or 7 I hooked were on topwater lures and either threw the hooks, ran me into and around rocks and snags or had me on so long they wore through the 50 pound leader! Click here to read the full forum report

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Wrecking the Reds Florida Sportsman member: PONCE Brandon and I had the best day of our life inshore fishing for Reds. We caught Reds up to 32 inches and 13 Reds overall on the outgoing tide, all reds and trout were caught on soft plastic paddle tail on a jig. The big fish came first then as the tide was bottoming out came the four 26 and 27 slots for the cooler. Click here to read the full forum report

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Tarpon and Scallops in the Big Bend Florida Sportsman member: Bluewaterdrew Started off the day at my honey hole. Caught several jacks and runners. Then Jen hooked a nice little Tarpon that burned off lots of line and gave us several great jumps for the camera. Later we headed out for scallops and quickly got out limit. Click here to read the full forum report

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Yankeetown Slam Florida Sportsman member: StandOutI2 5 minutes after we came off plane I get a little 16 inch red on a topwater plug to start the day off. My step brother threw right behind me and picked up another one about the same size. It was starting out as a promising morning. Just around the corner I threw into a spot I knew I was gonna hook up with a fish. I didn’t expect a 27 inch red to go into the box. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Inshore Bite Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown My brother said he was tired of catching jack so he declined to throw into the madness. I got hit three times before getting buttoned up. This was a better class of fish. Thought it was one of the 12 to 15 pound jacks but after a good battle a 10 pound permit pops up next to the boat. Click here to read the full forum report

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Crystal River Opening Day Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips If I was to guess how many boats we saw out of Crystal River I would say maybe 1000. Even with all of the crowds we still got a boat limit of scallops in a decent amount of time. We had time today to even get some fishing done. Click here to read the full forum report

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Scouting the Crystal River Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips After seeing the scallops we decide to see if the fish were biting. Jeremy got a quick slam and I got a decent snook. Jacks seem to be everywhere as always. Everything was caught on the same bait, DOA Cal shad tail on a jig. Click here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Slammin’ Florida Sportsman member: Billy Initially we stopped for some fishing and I hook up a decent snook but lose it, I hook up a red, yep, and lose it. Duane hooks a red and he too loses it. We’re thinking maybe we are getting rusty. Click here to read the full forum report

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Father’s Day Fun Florida Sportsman member: huntentails Its not always about the fish You catch, it’s about the memories made and the things passed on from one who loves to fish to another! All I can say is thanks son for a great day on the water! Click here to read the full forum report

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Getting to the Point Florida Sportsman member: shuterkng Forum member shuterkng got out this weekend and got into the fish! Fishing Long Point with live shrimp produced some nice fish, including black drum and flounder. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Cedar Key Catching Florida Sportsman member: Flash Picked one of the islands out and moved down the shoreline. Saw some reds but got no action. Finally I eased us up along a bar, gave it a cast and fish on! Took me under the boat a couple of times but managed to bring him to the net girl. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Shired Island Monster and More Florida Sportsman member: jwroe I started throwing my top water at it, but no luck, and a few minutes later , the tail pops up again. My wife casts a shrimp to it, and off to the races. She nails a nice 35 inch plus drum. about 10 to 15 minutes of fighting and we had it boat side. I reached down to get the lippers on it and it turned and broke line right at the boat. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Cedar Key Trout and Macks Florida Sportsman member: lboverhof After being done with catching mackerel and before the tide slowly started coming back in, we started drifting over some grass between 3 to 4 feet of water behind snake. We ended up with 5 keeper trout with the biggest being 19 inches. At first there was maybe one other boat out there, but around 3:00 I look around and it looks like a parking lot. There had to have been 15+ boats that were pretty close to each other on the flats! Click here to read the full forum report.

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Reds, Over and Under Florida Sportsman member: Billy No fish dinner tonight. Two over slots that were fat and healthy, plus eight under slots. I did catch a trout but no snook. All fish came on spoons, redfish magic, and soft jerkbaits. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Busting Reds on Both Coasts Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown I then jump up on the poling platform and start poling the boys around this big mud flat that has some scattered fish on it to see if we could sight fish some. We see a few and miss a few, then I see one headed down the bank and tell josh to cast a 11 o’clock and he nails the cast and the red jumps on the fluke. Another nice upper slot fish joins the party. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Birds to the Bay

Florida Sportsman member: huntentails “We hit the water at the crack of noon. It wasn’t long before we had trout on almost every cast. Most were just underslot but we did manage to sort thru them for a nice bunch for dinner along with a nice pompano…” Want to catch trout like this? Click here for how-to videos, feature stories, and more!

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Slammin’ the Big Bend Backcountry Florida Sportsman member: Billy Still looking for reds and trying to avoid the trout we pulled up on a point and a 33 inch snook hits my lure. After a long fight on trout and redfish gear I got it in the boat. The area we fish has some nice snook but they aren’t easy to catch until it warms up a bit. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Light Tackle, Low Tides and Keeper Trout Florida Sportsman member: PONCE I finished today around noon and took off to Waccasassa. Short and Sweet, here it is guys I`m not going to hide where , what bait and everything. Got on the water at 2:30 this afternoon and headed in around 5:30. Fished the outgoing tide back in the creeks and caught Trout up to 18.5 inches and a small Red around 16 inches. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Seein’ Red in Cedar Key Florida Sportsman member: GatoRella The contrast of a dark fish on a light colored bottom made them real easy targets for sight fishing. For the next hour or so we took turns netting and releasing big over slot reds, high-fiving, and generally having an awesome time. We ended up with 3 keeper reds including 2 bookend 27 inch tourney winners, a handful trout, and a bunch of 30 plus inch over slots. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Rainy Day Trout Florida Sportsman member: huntentails Liking what I was seeing, but with little or no bait action we decided to fish a few of the points with deep water. It didn’t take long as the fish were there and hungry, we made short order of putting some in the box for a couple dinners until this weather cleans up. Click here to read the full forum report.

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MidDay Trout Bite Florida Sportsman member: dakilmartin1 We worked the edges of deeper cuts during the outgoing tide and the shallow flats on the incoming. Every fish was taken on a MirroDine and several were sight fished. Long light leaders and longer casts were the trick today. Both Rob and I caught our personal best trout today on hard baits but I was more excited for rob as this was his first trip down the river! We easily put a limit of upper slot trout in the boat today but only kept a dozen. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Steinhatchee Bulls Florida Sportsman member: JC_UF_ITK Outside of a handful of trout, 3 being keepers, we managed two monster redfish on a double hook up. The first fish ate a jerkbait and was followed by two others. A quick cast of a spinnerbait managed the second fish. One weighed 26 pounds and the other was 20 pounds. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Catching A Little Bit of Everything Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 The first stop Jake says “Look at that gag”. I told him it looked like a trout to me and caught it to prove it. Seems like those trout just like me! It was so smooth I could read good structure from a half mile away by the surface boil from the tide moving over the rocks. Knocker rigs with 2/0 worm hooks 1/8 to 3/16 oz bullet weights tipped with shrimp did the job for us. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Big Bend, Big Reds Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Had a good bit of time of over the holidays. Unfortunately the weather was bad for a good part of it. Was able to fish in several locations including Wacasassa/Cedar Key, Suwannee, and Palm Coast on the east coast. We managed to get good numbers of trout on the lower tides, but once the tide came in it was all about reds! Caught reds from 8 inches to 34 inches. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Winter Time Trout Florida Sportsman member: kingkong954 Then with about an hour left before we were due at the marina, headed off to the flats in search of the trout, which I thought were supposed to be tucked into their creeks. To our surprise, we found them! In about an hour of fishing we landed 4 keeper trout, Nia catching two 18 inch trout and I found a much smaller pair. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Steinhatchee Reds Florida Sportsman member: JC_UF_ITK While we didn’t find fish at the same spot I’ve been seeing them, we did manage two nice reds while working our way to the spot. The largest was well over 36 inches (biggest ruler I have) and weighted 18.5 pounds on the boga grip. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Homosassa Inshore Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 The larger trout were in the skinny stuff along with a few reds but not real thick or active. The shallow flat north of the channel up to Homosassa point had a decent number of big trout. Ladyfish were in front of the river along with some big mackerel. Another good day to be on the water with friends! Click here to read the full forum report.

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Creeping The Creeks Florida Sportsman member: PONCE We fished some nice deep creeks right behind our Red spots. The big Trout were loaded up in the deep cuts. There was a double hook-up mixed in there that were keepers. We lost some nice ones but Brandon had a real nice couple hours with his limit and I had a big one in the boat. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Homosassa Reds and Trout Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 The largest trout of the season so far made it into the boat. Along with the trout were a pair of upper slot redfish and a pile of rat reds. We worked the channel edges waiting for the tide and moved in close as soon as we could. Several of the trout were between 23 and 26 inches with most of the big girls released. The reds were in all the usual places and feisty. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Crystal River Trout Bite Florida Sportsman member: OneMoreYear For 90 minutes the action was non-stop, with the majority of fish caught on Mirrolure Lil-Johns. The biggest trout was 20.5 inches. We had a good number of fish between 18 to 20 inches. We had our 3 person limit by noon. Ended up releasing about five 15 to 16 inch fish, and probably caught 5 to 7 shorts. The majority of fish were keeper trout, with only 2 ladyfish and a small redfish. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Windy Weather, Nice Fish Florida Sportsman member: shuterkng She got a nice over slot red, I got a little sheepy. After that the waves were getting to all of us so I figured I could maybe find some action in the crystal river. We anchored up inside of shell island near some bars and the rat reds were eating! We all proceeded to catch and release numerous little reds. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Shallow Creek Reds Florida Sportsman member: PONCE The water temperature was running about 59 degrees today and had a slight breeze to keep us comfortable. We got out to a dead low tide and as the tide turned there was even very little tide on the high. All the bars we fished were out of the water at High Tide. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Homosassa Gator Trout Florida Sportsman member: Troutman57 Trout, ladyfish, and bluefish were all over our Mirrodines. For a couple hours we circled a small area and took a bunch of fat trout all pushing the top of the slot to over 23 inches. We did find a few smaller reds but stayed on the trout since they were pulling more drag. We kept a few for Mikes freezer and one for Bill and his better half’s dinner. Click Here to read the full forum report

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Big Bend Snook Florida Sportsman member: Bluewaterdrew I saw huge swirl and quickly cast on it. Instantly the fight was on making plenty of exciting runs. After what seem like an eternity, this beautiful linesider broke the surface and was quickly scooped into the net. She measured in at 35 inches and I am happy to say swam off to fight another day. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Great Homosassa Inshore Bite Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 We hit several islands and took a total of 8 reds with 3 being between 30 and 32 inches. As a bonus we caught fat 24 inch trout up with the reds on bait. Yes we fished bait as this was Eric’s first time targeting redfish and it was going to be an easy day Click here to read the full forum report.

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Seeing Red Solo Florida Sportsman member: PONCE Immediately started throwing Mikes Aqua Dream Gold Spoons and landed a 20 inch Red within 30 minutes and got my 27 inch Red on a Zoom Super Fluke about a hour later on a weedy point to finish my limit. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Kayaking Kings Bay Florida Sportsman member: NoQuarterNoMercy He heads away from the docks and is all tuckered out. I feel him give up and now it’s just a matter of hauling him in. As he nears the yak, he heads underneath it and somehow I managed to pull a ninja spin around the stern of the kayak and get him to the other side. That’s no tarpon, it’s a monster snook! Click here to read the full forum report.

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Cedar Key Smorgasbord Florida Sportsman member: Flash Her personal best Flounder to date at 19 inches. I saw some action also and tossed a rattle trap. Hooked up and had a good fight going until it came free. Turned out it broke one of the hooks on the trap. Looking at them, it needs a new one for sure. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Big Bend Bulls on Top Florida Sportsman member: jperdue Took the wife fishing this morning. Top water is about the only thing she fishes with anymore. I Caught one red about 22 inches then she went back to back on top water with a 38 incher and 36 incher. Bite shut down at 10:00am. Both were the largest I have ever seen caught on top water. They were sent back in with no harm done. Skitter walks around the creek mouths seem to work the best. Click here to read the full forum report.

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Crystal River Reds and Scallops Florida Sportsman member: tekmunki We had a great time, went for a dip with a few scallops, didn’t get too crazy or gung-ho about limiting, just wanted a nice day and something to nibble on… it should be noted, my scallop location skills pale in comparison to Marrio’s. LOL We didn’t spend all day on the scallops by any means, we managed to sneak in some fishing, which I’m sure was a welcome refreshing change to the nonstop scalloping Marrio has been busy with. With Marrio’s help, I caught my first mangrove snapper and the kids each got to reel one in, then we moved into the red-fishing where Marrio got a taste of my redfish curse for a bit- that is until— BAM big hit, big fish, 30-inch red. I caught my first overslot red! Click here to read the full forum report.

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Holiday in Hudson Florida Sportsman member:Jim311 A friend of mine has a small house on a canal in Hudson. I hadn’t ever been to the area and she is out of town and asked me to mow the lawn so I figured I might as well make a weekend out of it. Adam met me down there Friday night. We fished in the canal for a few minutes but got run off by the rain. Got up at a decent hour Saturday and hit the nearest boat ramp. The wind was blowing a fair bit, and we were in my gheenoe and seeking protected water. We fished some grass flats right near the ramp and deep cuts on the outside of a little private bayou with no luck. We ran into some creeks south of a big residential canal and knocked around in there too. The water looked great, lots of deep cuts, grass, good amounts of bait.. but nothing was biting. We got tired of that after a while and ran back towards the marina and had lunch at the restaurant right near the marina. Lunch was pretty good, and after chilling there for a while we went to the marina and got some frozen shrimp, and then headed north to try that area on a suggestion from a forum member here. The area there looked similar to the last place. We beached the Gheenoe near a shack and wade fished for a bit. After a while I had a blowup on a topwater plug, and landed an upper slot trout. That was the only fish caught wade fishing in that spot, so we shoved off and drifted a deep cut between islands, casting topwater plugs, paddle tails, and Mirrodines. Good size trout were just blasting my topwater plug and we took home 4 for a fish fry… Click here to read the full forum report.

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Crystal River Mixed Bag Florida Sportsman member:nick We went out Saturday and got rained on a bit, but that’s what rain gear is for. Cruised in the shallows basically spooking reds with the trolling motor down, alternating between; the gulp shrimp, pumpkin spice zoom super fluke, gold spoon, mirrominnow, and a top dog. Released 6 slot reds and one overslot. I lost a 30 inch plus red that went airborne after my top dog. After 3 attempts at the bait he finally got it but pulled the hook after a few runs. Big trout were busting the mullet schools and this made easy pickings with at mirrominnow. Released 8 trout that were all over 20 inches except one that was 18. Pops also got spooled by a tarpon after it made two jumps. Fish was probably 80 pound’s but he didn’t stand a chance with a 2500 stradic. Lots of juvenile sharks swimming in the shallows. Water temp 79-84. Sunday-Only went out for a few hours throwing gold spoons we released 5 lower slot reds and one 25 inches. I did manage to successfully sight fish a 42 inch black drum with a gulp that put up a good 15 minute fight. After the tide got up high it was over and we decided to try for triple tail on the way back even though I had no shrimp. Saw 7 tripletail, hooked 4 and put 2 on ice. One that wouldn’t eat I attempted to throw the cast net on Water temp 81-85

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Crystal River Snook, Reds & More Florida Sportsman member: mitziboy By the time I loaded the boat, made a sandwich, and lowered my baby into the canal it was about 11am. First spot first cast I missed about a 25 pound snook on topwater, that will get the blood flowing. It was a super low tide so I didn’t expect to get much more than that hit since whatever fish were in the hole would be trapped, but that was not the case. We ended up with close to a dozen snook, most around 25-30 inches and a half dozen reds around 17-20 inches. Fished around some more and caught a few more of both and headed back to the house. Click here for full forum report.

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Chassahowitzka Trout & Reds Florida Sportsman member: Billy Ran to my trout spot and I put a decent trout in the boat. We both said nope, “we want reds”, so back it went. After a couple more fish that didn’t make it into the boat we went hunting for reds. To say Duane knows the area is an understatement. I thought I had a pretty good feel for fishing spots but he took it to another level. The skies were clear as a bell and the sun was beating down but he had a few spots to try. First nice fish was a 21 inch red, then I got a 23 incher, we lost a couple more, Duane hooks a decent snook but it gets off at the boat. He hooks another and it gets off. He then hooked a touney winning red…right under the mark. I hook up on a snook, hoping for some sort of slam[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Redfish & Trout Florida Sportsman member: huntentails We had a window Saturday morning so another instructor and long time friend from North Dakota and I made a run from the south to the Bend for some shallow water fishing. We hit the ramp at just after 6:30 am and I finely new why I have been spoiled by fishing weekdays, and staying away on the weekends! With that being said, we were out front Homosassa around 7:45 and in search of a bite There was no shortage of boats and people. It makes it tough fishing the skinny stuff with people constantly running by checking you out. The fish were there but very spooky and most times would fail to engage, even though you put the plug where it needed to be. We did manage a nice red and 7 big trout for our efforts with the red a hair under 27 inches, trout of 24 & 23 inches and five more from 18 to 20 inches. Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Inshore Slam Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed Went out for what I thought was a couple hours topwater. Tide was high incoming, light wind and blue sky. First place- nothing. Second place, the bar was covered, but I fished it thoroughly, getting a few small Jacks and a lady fish and finally a small trout, but a trout none the less that would become important later. With the water higher than I expected, I decided to head way inshore. Even though it was getting late and the sun was high I pressed on with my trusty Skitterwalk. This 25 inch Red rewarded my perseverance with a great battle. It was one of those fish that would not give up[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Trout Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286 Jake and I headed towards the channel out of Ozcello this morning looking for trout. Saw overcast skies so we thought it would be a good day for topwater! Started off with some nice trout on the spooks, the bites were a bit spread out and the tide was moving out so I didn’t want to get stuck so we moved out a bit. We started thinking when we hit 5 keepers we would limit easy so we were letting go anything in the 15 inch range and not bother measure anything unless it looked pretty big. Got a couple 20 inchers to add to the cooler and limit around 12. Jake’s went 22 inches and mine went 20 inches. Then came the tide change an wanted to get in the water and dive to change pace. Feels good to jump in once in a while to look at the inshore rocks and see all the spade fish, snapper, small sheephead and the ocassional gag in 3-8 feet of water. Caught and released some more trout, not many more keepers but we released a good 5-10 keeper trout and several under sized trout on the lil johns. Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Reds and Trout Florida Sportsman member: Dogdoc2011 Went with two buddies of mine out of crystal river and ran south at first light. Got on a school of nice slot reds at first spot and had a double and triple hook ups on topwater. Limited out on reds in about 20 minutes and turned a few back before moving onto trout. Found the trout in 2-3 feet spotted bottom and all they wanted was topwater as well. Caught 3 limits of nice trout with the biggest being 24 inches by 11:30 and called it a day. Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Trout Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286 Jake and I headed towards the channel out of Ozcello this morning looking for trout. Saw overcast skies so we thought it would be a good day for topwater! Started off with some nice trout on the spooks, the bites were a bit spread out and the tide was moving out so I didn’t want to get stuck so we moved out a bit. We started thinking when we hit 5 keepers we would limit easy so we were letting go anything in the 15 inch range and not bother measure anything unless it looked pretty big. Got a couple 20 inchers to add to the cooler and limit around 12. Jake’s went 22 inches and mine went 20 inches. Then came the tide change an wanted to get in the water and dive to change pace. Feels good to jump in once in a while to look at the inshore rocks and see all the spade fish, snapper, small sheephead and the ocassional gag in 3-8 feet of water. Caught and released some more trout, not many more keepers but we released a good 5-10 keeper trout and several under sized trout on the lil johns. Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Reds and Trout Florida Sportsman member: Dogdoc2011 Went with two buddies of mine out of crystal river and ran south at first light. Got on a school of nice slot reds at first spot and had a double and triple hook ups on topwater. Limited out on reds in about 20 minutes and turned a few back before moving onto trout. Found the trout in 2-3 feet spotted bottom and all they wanted was topwater as well. Caught 3 limits of nice trout with the biggest being 24 inches by 11:30 and called it a day. Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Nearshore Cobia Florida Sportsman member: Clay G. Shidler With reports of Cobia moving north and the hot tripletail bite that has being going on out of Crystal River me and my brother headed out in search of some nearshore pelagics. We started our search at the scallop rack where we promptly caught a well full of live pinfish and a few small spanish mackerel. After loading up on live bait we headed west under cloudy skies in search of brown bombers on a series of small limestone ledges in 12 feet of water and we were not disappointed. As we pulled up on the first spot, my younger brother threw a 2 ounce Spro jig towards the spot and his jig was immediately crushed by a spunky 25 pound Cobia. As he landed his fish I pinned a live bait on a 5/0 circle hook and dropped it over the side and before I could put the rod in the holder my pinfish was eaten. I reeled down tight and the fish took off like a rocket towards the south and the fight was on. Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Nearshore Trout Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 We took off at 7:15 and headed out about 6 miles to a 5 foot flat I call the bombing range. Nothing military just the area we break out the bombers and pitch them at anything that would bite. This being my 1st trip there this season I really didn’t know what to expect. Ladyfish, blue runners seabass mackerel shark and of course trout. Lots of everything but plenty of trout to fill our limit with 16 to 22 inchers. The only slow period was on the tide change for about a half hour. Had a live pinfish out for any big guys that wanted to play but only shark today. The trout pushing offshore right on time and seemed to really like chartruse in the morning and green backs in the late morning and afternoon. Click here for full forum report.

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Waccasassa Reds Florida Sportsman member: G8trbait When the wife is away the men will FISH! Wife headed to California for her spring break so I took a planned mental health day this Monday with a coworker of mine. Hit the water around 8:30 in the morning to high cold winds The bite was too quick, caught two nice ones at 24 inches and 25.5 inches, and that was it. The water was coming out of the creeks so fast it reminded me of trout fishing in N.C. I was actually trying to get hung on the bottom. Once hung the fish would come by and pick up my shrimp. This did make for two very good fights. They would turn sideways and just pull drag! Unfortunately the catching was done within the first hour. The wind pushed the tide in so fast I don’t even think the fish noticed it. Click here for full forum report.

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Warming Weather and Hot Fishing Florida Sportsman member: Clay G. Shidler This past week has been great for inshore fishing; guides from both Crystal River and Homosassa have had successful days with good catches of both trout and redfish not being uncommon. Rising water temperatures has been the driving force behind the great fishing this week. Anglers should look for the trout to be active in water temperatures above 65 degrees and redfish to become active in temperatures of 63 degrees and higher. The kelp grass flats and oyster bars in the Crystal River and Homosassa areas are holding good numbers of trout because those are the areas that warm up the fastest. The redfish are beginning to school up on the hard bottom flats and oysters bars in the Ozello area and they can normally be found patrolling the backside of most islands that are in the sun and out of the wind. The best way to target these fish is to fish live baits in the morning when the fish are colder and less active, as the sun warms the water artificial lures become the best way to cover the most water. Click here for full forum report.

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Windy Post Front Trout Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Forum member Roger was heaqding to Homosassa for a visit and asked me if I would take them out fishing for a day during thier visit. I rarely say no to a forum brother and we chose Wednesday to chase some trou. We took off at 11 and found scasttered slot trout while we waited for the tide to get right. There were pockets of small trout to be caught on every cast but we avoided those to find larger fish. As the tide turned to incoming the wind picked up to 20 from the NW making our drifts faster than ideal. Racheal had the hot stick this day catching several overslot trout. They took a dozen trout for a fish fry and released the rest. The water was clear and 62 degrees with small pockets of 64 degrees. Click here for full forum report.

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Red Hot Crystal River Florida Sportsman member: jbehnen Weather was not promising, but Dan said lets give it a try, and I was glad we did. We hit some rock bars, oysterbars and shorelines off Crystal River and it was one fish after the next in the boat. The trout bite was so good we ended up throwing back a ton of fish because they were too big and we already had our three over twenty on board. We started hoping for some shorter fish. We hit it all, trout, reds, pompano, spanish mackerel, and sheepshead[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Rainy and Cold with a Hot Bite Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Kevin Joined me again today to see if we coulld get some big trout to pose for the camera (I lost the shots Monday). His brother Tom joined us as well. The forecast said light breeze and 30 percent chance of showers. Well it rained from the time we tossed our first lure till I was finished cleaning fish. Kevin used to -fish with me up in Rochester NY trolling for salmon but his brother has not spent that much time on the water. Despite the conditions the trout were really chewing. Another 50+ fish day with several solid 3 and 4 pounders. Click here for full forum report.

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Short Day on the Bay Florida Sportsman member: huntentails Linda and I did the ten to two today despite the wind? All I can say is the fish are there even though today most were just a little shy of the slot? Its always fun having the action but we kinda picked our way around the sub slots to end up catching a few nice ones? Linda had fish of the day today at 22 inches most were returned to fight again, but we headed home with three for the grill! Click here for full forum report.

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Waccasassa Bay Shalow Creeks Florida Sportsman member: PONCE We went up the West side to a nice productive hole last year but things were tough. The beginning of a new moon and nice winds did not go well for the hunt for Reds today. Lots of mullet but no signs of reds at all. Brandon got out and walked some creek bars and caught a couple smaller slot reds with me landing a nice 19 and 21-inch trout all on soft plastics. Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Trout’n Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Don and I spent a few hours on the flats today doing what we love to do. The day started off a bit slow while we killed time waiting for the tide to shift to incoming. Working the edges of cuts with Mirrolures we picked away at mid to under slot trout. When the tide got right we started picking up quality trout on a regular basis. We released several over slot fish and kept a limit of smaller 17-20 inch trout for the table. Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Gator Trout Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Don and I chose today to jead out for the day on the bay. It looked like Thursday was to be the best day for us so off we went. The water temp started out at a chilly 58 degrees and very low tide. We worked the shallow stuff exclusively looking for some big girls. Today they were on but not in any real big numbers. The quality more than made up for it. We picked away for 4 hours and bagged 4 over slot trout from 21 to 26 inches. the 26 incher was my best in a year and she was fat and fought like a redfish despite the cool water temps[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Playing Around in the Backcountry Florida Sportsman member: river1 My wife and I fished up around the Salt River today. What a great day in the back country. We casted plastic on 1/8 oz jigs. My wife does not like treble hooks so that was an easy fix. We only got one under size trout but oh boy we landed some nice trout over slot and a Spanish mackerel all in the skinny water. We did have to bring a couple fish home for dinner only because they were eating so hard they swallowed the bait deep. [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Reds & Trout Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips The day started at around 9am with one of my friends from work Will and my son Jeremy. Launched at F.I.T. and went to the mangrove covered shorelines of the Salt River to sight fish some reds and trout. We saw a bunch of reds from the tower but soon realized that they can see me just as good as I can see them. We found some shorelines that the sun was at the correct angle to camouflage the boat. We got into a ton of rat reds next to a sandbar that appeared to have fiddler crab holes all over it. After getting our fill of rat reds we drifted some flats that had a good amount of kelp grass. That was the ticket today for the trout [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Reds & Trout Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 We started in an area along a series of islands casting spoons for reds with no luck. We saw very little life there so we decided to head inside to look for trout. With the 68 degree clear water we were unsure where the larger trout might be. We tossed mirrodines from the barrier islands out to about a half mile onto the flats with some success but nothing fast. I decided that we should move inside a good bit and that did the trick with trout coming to the boat often. Don hooked a nice red and landed it for a quick photo and back it went. Then we hit a deeper cut that put a trout on our lines on almost every cast. when that bite slowed we started drifting along a shoreline and I hooked and landed a 27 inch red that we took a photo and released [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Still Catching  Fish on a Rough Day Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286 We couldn’t wait to even put the fish away we were tossing them on the floor trying to get a bait in the water asap! After about 15-20 minutes of this bite we brought in 5 nice sea bass with two around 12 inches and a nice sheepshead a little short of 16 inches. Bite slowed down we looked at the floor and was like I guess we can put the fish away now . Moved around a bit in this nice hole, picked up a keeper here and there and then I got another sheepshead pushing 17 inches [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Great Weather, Great Bite Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Put the boat in around noon to flat calm overcast conditions. I was thinking topwater all afternoon. Got to the first spot and within 5 cast had a nice trout in the box. 5 more cast and Bruce adds a 24 inch red to the party in the cooler. But then the clouds parted and the sun came out. Had to switch over to soft plastics and the bite slowed a bit but was steady and we had our limit of trout and reds with in just over 4 hours. I also took my fishing bow to shot the sheephead we have been seeing but had a very high tide that put 3 foot of water over most of the bars. Now the black drum are in full force and were running down soft plastics[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Good Day in King’s Bay/Crystal River/Salt River Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Got out today with Adam (LineDrive) and my son Jeremy for a day of fishing. Got out to Kings Bay early this morning to see if we could jump some tarpon before the dive boats show up. Got a bunch of ladyfish early on. Fun to catch but we wanted to see the pooners. Each of us ended up with one hitting our baits but no connection. The dive boats show up in full force and put the pooners on edge so we decide to hit the salt river for some trout and redfish action[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa; Staying Busy. Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Today’s forecast was looking like a winner so we shoved off at around 11AM. The sun was shining bright but the wind was blowing a bit stiff from the north. As we hit the rivermouth well into the long outgoing tide, we picked an area that would allow us to cover productive areas casting with the wind. We worked the edges of cuts adjacent to the shallow flats with slow sinking twitchbaits and shallow diving crankbaits. The action wasn’t fast and furious but I managed half a dozen trout all right at 20 inches with one being 22 inches[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Trout Florida Sportsman member: angler18 Since I was there and had a few hours to play Sunday morning, me and Mitchell left the dock at 8 am to see if we could find him a few trout to take home for dinner. The water was 64-65 everywhere we went, and the wind was lighter than forecasted for a change. We threw mirrodines and soft jerk baits for about 3 hours and picked up about a dozen trout with 2 just over 18″ and 6 keepers in all. Also had about a dozen ladyfish to keep us busy between the tide change. A better than expected quick trip and a good time[...] Click here for full forum report.

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Foggy Day Trout Florida Sportsman member: Scott Crown Wanted to see if the trout have showed up yet. I Have not been to my old stomping grounds in months and my buddy Mike bought a new (to him) flats boat last week, so I had an excuse. Hit the water at daylight, if that’s what you want to call it. It was flat calm, very foggy conditions. Went to some of my shallow spots first and they were[...] Click here for full forum report.

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34 Inch Snook caught at Blind Pass Florida Sportsman member: PONCE The fish were more active down there with average size 20-to 24-inch snook being caught along with some black drum off the bridge along with a assortment of other fish. There were a ton of mullet and white bait running the shoreline at Blind Pass so the cast net came in very handy [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Waccasassa Bay Reds Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz Well what do you do when it’s going to be windy, tides are wrong, and the Gators are playing in the evening. Go fishing of course. I knew it was calling for some wind and they were right. It did make for some tough fishing but me and Capt. Mullet still got a good mess of trout while waiting for the afternoon high tide. Bright skies and a pretty good breeze made topwaters a no-go. So go to back up plan of traps and spoons and we were able to put a few reds in the boat [...] Click here for full forum report.

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A Good Morning on the Crystal River Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips After nearly a month off the water I was finally able to spend a couple of hours harassing some fish today. The day started out with a beautiful sunrise on the Salt River. We made our first stop at a few mangrove shorelines at high tide and my Uncle Roger was the first to hook up. A fat 23 inch redfish. We got on a few rats but this was the one that was coming home for dinner [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Trout, Reds, and Flounder Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Don and I took a short trip today to work the inshore flats with plugs. I packed a light tackle bag with just (what I thought) I needed. The trout were taking Rapala Flat Raps but right off the surface. With my topwater plugs at home I made it work twitching that flat rap along the surface. Before long we had a couple trout each in the box for dinner and released a few more most pushing 19 inches [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Hot Homosassa Redfishing Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 So, when the bite is good, it’s hard to stay home. Plus, it’s always fun to put some friends on the hot bite, so I had Don and Lee join me today. We finally found a few ladyfish and some decent trout so the bait was in the box by noon and it was off to the islands. A strong high tide along with overcast skys and rain on the way put the reds on the bite even better than yesterday [...] Click here for full forum report.

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CR Reds and Rain Florida Sportsman member: HammerheadTed Woke up early for some topwater and was greeted with some rain just offshore, SHOCKER. Actually, it worked out well since there was a good cloud cover, just what I like. Decided to stay in the Salt River area since it is a shorter run when the %#&@* hits. Caught a 21 inch red in the first area, but the Jacks were so thick it was hard to get an undisturbed retrieve, but fun! [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Scalloping Day Florida Sportsman member: wmflyfisher First of all I would like to thank windysurfer and troutman for helping me over these past few weeks. It’s been YEARS since I’ve been scalloping and yesterday didn’t disappoint. We put in at Yankeetown and traveled south to CR for scallops. Water was clear and the tide was high. My wife, mother, and sister had never scalloped before. Once I figured out what I was doing we had our limit in a couple of hours. Had to move around a few times but no biggie. Had a BLAST! Click here for full forum report.

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Spoon Fed Reds Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Both reds were in the mid-slot and returned to fight another day. A first for me was seeing two reds casting at both and actually catching both. I usually blind cast to areas that I know hold fish but this time was a bit different tossing spoons past and infront of fish I spotted. It certainly is a ton of fun to see a the fish smash a spoon (or any other bait). A short but sweet trip with my neighbor and friend Don. Click here for full forum report.

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Nature Coast Reds and Trout Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Don and I got up early this morning to hit the daybreak tide to get after some reds with spoons and then head out to drift for some trout. We hit the 1st half of the outgoing and the reds had started moving out off the banks a bit. But for an hour the bite was hot with 3 reds boated all in the upper and over slot [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Scalloping Report Florida Sportsman member: Catalyst We headed to the Camp and Water Outdoor Resort for our first family scalloping adventure. I have always wanted to give scalloping a try and finally got a chance to make it over to Homosassa. We started our trip with very little knowledge of the area other than head out the river and look for boats. We quickly found the boats and also got a few scallops. We started kind of deep in 6-8 feet and didn’t really know what to look for but we still got a few dozen [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Inshore with New Neighbors Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Mike contacted me from Coneticut by reading our fishing reports. His Mom and dad bought a place in my neighborhood and love to fish but are new to saltwater fishing. Mike and his wife are here on a visit and asked if I would take His wife Laura, his Mom Patty, His dad Eric and himself out and show them the ropes [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Trout Bite Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Had to shake the cobb webs off after the storm so I decided to head out and work the shoreline for ladyfish with Pete. The water temp was a comfy 80 degrees and stained. We worked the cut infront of the Homosassa River and picked away at ladyfish and trout all morning. The trout came near structure at the ends of the tides and the ladyfish were everywhere. I believe I limited on slot trout, keeping only one for dinner [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Father’s Day Trout Driftin’ Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips We decided to give the redfish a break today and do a little Carolina drifting for trout. We first started the day around the oyster bars and the mangrove shorelines for a little top water action. Got a few to cooperate [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Fishing with the Reel McCoy’s Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Forum Member Brent (Reel McCoy) has fished with me a few times before this trip and it is always fun to have him and his family aboard. Today both of his sons Colby (the younger guy) and Dallas joined dad for a day drifting up some trout. We hit the water at 7:45 and ran out to 9′ to begin our drift with the outgoing tide [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Fishing the Waccasassa Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz You know the weather man never gets the forecast right. So they predicted rain and since they are usually wrong it going to be a good day. With a early morning high tide we get to the ramp at first light.. A perfect morning for top-waters. I get this big blowup and don’t connect so Ponce comes back and scores a slot red. Click here for full forum report.

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Nature Coast Weekend Florida Sportsman member: jaeforceone Had a chance to sneak out and do some fishing over on the Nature Coast with A2OZ. Working a certain cove I hooked a ladyfish and she spit the spook in the air. oh well…I twitched the lure three more times to have this fat snook smash it. Probably the most epic topwater bite I have ever experienced. With such a wide back I was hoping she measured over 35 but was 5 inches short. Either way it was a good fight and a great way to test out the new eyecon 6’8 MXF. Click here for full forum report.

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Wacasassa Fishing Florida Sportsman member: Redbonz Friday the 11th we hit Wacasassa knowing there was a little bit of a high in the morning but not a lot of water moving. Caught a few redfish on topwater, gotta’ love the blowups on topwater and quite a few blowups and short strikes. Not going to tell what color was happening- ha, ha. Trout were hitting Gulps and dines and got a good Georgia limit. Water was pretty clean for the WB [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Spoon Fed Reds Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Mike and Rye wanted to get on some redfish on artificials. Like myself that means no bait no gulp just spoons, spinnerbaits and plugs. we took off at 3:30 to catch the late afternoon high tide. The skys were high so I concentrsated in areas that I knew would have some colored water. The reds were fiesty right from the start. They were chasing the spoons and we could see them miss often. A few found thier mark and inhaled the spoon. We moved around points with good flow and deep water near by and picked away finding a great late afternoon redfish bite. All the reds we caught were in the slot. Click here for full forum report.

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Super Moon Slammin’ Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 The CCBA tourney is a family fishing tournament that I have fish the past 5 years.The format is simple and fun for all. It’s main prize money is for trout and redfish and includes cobia and catfish as secondary categories. The past couple years Joe and Billy joined me as the team on my boat. It seems to be a rare thing when 3 guys can spend 3 days aboard a boat and not get on each others needs. It’s even better when my two guests are superb fisherman with the drive necessary to fish hard all day while keeping it fun and focused [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Crystal River Reds Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips I finally got back on the water after 2 weeks. I end up getting a chance to fish with my old friends Dennis and Mike. We haven’t fished together since Christmas because our work schedules do not match but he took off today to fish with me [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Inshore Red Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Don and I hit the water for a short afternoon trip on the inshore flats. The water temp was 69 degrees out near Marker 22 and clear. We drifted over the skinny flats on the incoming tide and the large trout and redfish were hungry! Mirrodines fished slow over the flats and along the shorelines produced lots of trout most over slot to 24″ and four reds to 32″. The fish are scattered all around the flats including some out to 6′ that I heard of today. Another fine productive day on the bay here in the Big Bend. Click here for full forum report.

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Lesson One and Nice Snook Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Mike, A neighbor on our street had moved here a few months ago and is getting into the swing of saltwater fishing. He has spent lots of time here in Florida mostly bass fishing and has chartered a few times on the flats. He hooked up with a guide here and also a few neighbors that to him over complicated the flats fishing here and wouldn’t really show him the here and why of Homosassa. His friend who rewards our forum talked him into approaching me to teach him the ins and outs of Homosassa. Of course i agreed ’cause it’s what I truly enjoy doing. Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Inshore with Don Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Well the family is all back to work and home now so it’s time to get back into my routine. Well the same game but the names have changed to protect! Don and I hit the water at a leisurely 9:00 and headed out onto the flats looking for some trout for dinner. We took a few in tight on mirrodines but decided to look around for some other areas. We did find some trout around the outer St. Martins Keys and once we had enough for 3 households dinner we moved inside looking for reds [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Fish Were Hungry Florida Sportsman member: Fishin Rod Lightnin’ and I headed for HSB again this morning to see what we could get to come out and play. We dropped the boat in the water at a little after 6:00am and sat there in the howling wind waiting on daylight. As soon as it got light enough to see we headed for our favorite redfish hole and it was way to rough to hit the flats or even fish the outside today. We hit one of the creeks and it was nice fishing with the wind being blocked but then came the rain. Click here for full forum report.

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HSB Florida Sportsman member: tekmunki The inshore seas were super-calm this morning and remained as such all day, the breeze was just enough to keep the heat from getting to you, and kept the bimini top down all day in spite of equipping it expecting a 90+ degree scorcher… When it got too toasty, we got up on plane and cooled off with some ice-cold dye-free Gatorades that really hit the spot. Now this was a great day to take kids fishing [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Every Other Day Florida Sportsman member: jaeforceone Took some of my nursing classmates to the Homosassa area for a late morning launch. Started off landing 20″ Seatrout and some lower slot reds. Soon after a short instruction I had them working the spook jr trying to get the rhythmic motion down. Each of them caught only one fish each but they were big fish. One Trout at 20″ and One Red at 27.25″ [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Reds with Joe and Billy Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 There are always a few guys that just seem to click when together on the water and today I had the pleasure of fishing with two of the best. Joe and Billy (both forum members) joined me this afternoon for a day pounding the banks for reds. With the strong high pressure and strong winds I figured we would go through the motions but really didn’t expect too much. We hit the incoming tide for it’s duration and found what shelter from the wind we could manage. Click here for full forum report.

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Lovin’ Spring Time Florida Sportsman member: jimsfishingobsession I did a few fishing trips over the past couple weeks and of course got a dive in too. We got a ton of snook in the river one afternoon. The snook came in at all different sizes anywhere from a foot long to almost 40 inches. we mainly fished with the D.O.A. terror eyzs for the snook. We also managed to catch about a half dozen reds and 3 mangrove snapper that same afternoon in the river but most were small even though we did get 3 slot reds, all after the sun went down [...] Click here for full forum report.

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FS TV Nature Coast Shoot Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Blair contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I would help out by doing an inshore segment for thier television series “Destinations” Our part was the Nature coast area. I agreed figuring it would be relatively easy to put together some inshore action this time of year. Well a couple of curve balls were toosed my way. Mother nature decided to blow 20 out of the east for a solid week having me worried about having enough water to even get near my fish. The other part was a real challenge [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Windy River Fishing Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Me, my son Jeremy, and my friend John decide to hit the creeks of Crystal River today no matter what the weatherman said about the SW winds. We end up hitting the river early so we can catch the incoming tide. We hit the water at about 7 am with the winds blowing at a 10 to 15 from the west. The winds got worse and worse the rest of the day. Turned 20 to 25 real quickly [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Big Big Snook Florida Sportsman member: Indianoutlaw I got to fish a little bit with SnookMagnet two weekends ago, but we didn’t have much to report. Simply had a great day on the water, did well with the trout, but only managed three reds. Captain Jerry Kernan sent me pictures of a great snook he caught last week. Fish was hooked in 18 inches of water on a falling tide down South, made three blistering runs of 50-75 yards, and then [...] Click here for full forum report.

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Homosassa Trout and Reds Florida Sportsman member: troutman57 Mark contacted me and asked if I would take him and a couple friends out on the flats fishing during thier stay here in Homosassa. I offered to show them around at the begining of thier trip so they would have an idea where to start when they set out on thier own. We settled on a Friday afternoon trip with Bob and his friends Steve and Craig. They met me dockside at 12:30 ready to fish. All of them were able fisherman so I planed a day of chasing trout with artificials (mirrodines) and maybe a redfish or two Click here for full forum report.

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Sheepshead Beat Down Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips Today’s plan was to hit the near shore rock piles and see if we could get the sheepshead to bite. The day started out beautiful with light winds from the west and air temps in the low 50’s. With the baitwell filled with 200 shrimp we set off to some rock piles that shutterkng and I hit a few weeks back and also some that I have not been to in nearly 15 years. Click here for full forum report.

 

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STA Teal

Florida Sportsman member: boneheadhunting

The key for us was the 2 mojos we had out. The guys to our right didn’t have any and another group of guys 100 yards to our left didn’t either and neither of them shot any. We didn’t take a shot more than 15 yards, all decoying ducks.

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A Great Start

Florida Sportsman member: dilligaf84

My first sit of the season was very uneventful until this guy showed up last minute. He isn’t a monster but great way to start the season!

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Public Land Stud

Florida Sportsman member:dolfan450r

Finally was able to get a quota for a place I’ve tried several years in a row and it paid off. I got this guy this morning, it was nice after having a no buck year last year.

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First of the Season

Florida Sportsman member:down4dacount

At 8:20 heard a deer coming from in front. I could see a nose and a rack. Oh yeah, right at 20 yards too. As soon as he turned, I drew back, put the 20 yard pin on him and squeezed trigger.

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Filling Tags

Florida Sportsman member: bswiv

To make it harder there was a good bit of wind which relegated our efforts to a very small area. Fortunately everybody else was to smart to go gator hunting in such weather so we were unmolested.

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Pork for Dinner

Florida Sportsman member: BAJAOKLA

We got in the stand about 4:30 pm and soon saw three “scout pigs” come to the edge of the feeder area. The real activity started about 7:30 pm we watched two separate sounders of hogs come to the feeder. One sounder had sixteen hogs and the other had over a dozen. They weren’t big hogs but just the right size for the smoker.

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Summertime Hogs

Florida Sportsman member: BAJAOKLA

The hogs were right on time and came into the new feeder at 8:18 pm. We watched them feed for about ten minutes and then picked out one that looked like it would make a nice batch of bratwurst. Andy nailed his hog right behind the ear with the .270 and it went down like a rock.

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Frog Gigging Fun

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

This past Friday my 15 yr old daughter & I were fortunate enough to have a good friend named Winfield who took us frog gigging on one of his local lakes.

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Big Pig

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Facing away from us the whole time it never did turn sideways but it did turn its head to look in our direction two times. On the second time Kaitlyn took the shot at the base of the ear with the lil’ 5.56/223 black rifle and the big pig just dropped.

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A Trip out West

Florida Sportsman member: gottheitch22

The first one took about 15 minutes to kill, we knew where the bird would be. We heard him when we got to the spot, ended up setting up in a cattle pen and called him in from about 400 yards. The bird came in on a dead run and was killed at 30 yards.

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Orange County Turkeys

Florida Sportsman member: BCSAILS

The gobbler gets to the same decoy set as I had and jumps on the jake. No shot yet and I’m thinking what the hell? Then boom, a miss! The boy loads another shell in his pump gun, bird jumps up, but stays and re-attacks, then boom again and he jelly heads him!

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Tagged Out

Florida Sportsman member: Glenn

The next couple of minutes go by quickly as he is looking for a hen and moving around in the tall grass. He finally stops and gives me a clean shot and I laid him out with the Stevens 20 gauge with Federal Heavyweight #6′s.

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Good Season so Far

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

It’s been a good season with lot’s of encounters. Youth hunt with my daughter,friend and his son the birds never got closer than 50 yards, but the kids had fun. Also they got the privilege to see four panthers, a big female with three big kitties.

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Playing Guide for the Day

Florida Sportsman member: DUCKWHACKER

At 7:30, he spots two hens followed by a gobbler 80 to 100 yards out, but he shows no interest in leaving the girls. At 8:25 I hear a gobbler cluck to our right followed by a bird walking off the end of the tram and slipping through the hardwoods. Dad says he can make the shot and flips the bird onto his back, graveyard dead at 44 yards.

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Dad Bags a Good One

Florida Sportsman member: Glenn

My dad said he was able to set up about 70 yards from him on the roost and the bird stayed in the tree till 8:00am. Once he dropped out of the tree like batman it took him about 20 minutes to get within range of my dad.

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Bird Down

Florida Sportsman member: surfman

Frustrated we decided to go to another spot we had luck at in the past and finally we hear a turkey gobble. Yippie that is great. Finally a single gobbler comes in and my buddy gets to take the shot. Success!

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Opening Day Success

Florida Sportsman member: FloridaHunter1

We got set up and the first call I did on the box a bird gobbled, we couldn’t believe it! and for the next half hour before legal light we had about five birds on the roost gobbling their heads off. Then for two hours straight I had them gobbling all around us, not five minutes went by that four or five didn’t gobble.

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Weekend Quail Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Two weekends ago, I and five other adult Boy Scout leaders (from Geezer Patrol) got together to share a little bonding time at the Broomsage Quail Plantation in Callahan. Here’s our trip as seen through the eyes of a lens.

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Hogs at the Camp

Florida Sportsman member: swamp munky

We went out yesterday late afternoon and had some good daylight success. My lease is located in central Florida. They were on a feeder when we pulled up to fill it and the picture kind of says the rest.

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Birthday Quail Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Last weekend for my son Casey’s 17th birthday I took him and his good friend Harrison out for a quail hunt at Broomsage Quail Plantation in Callahan FL. Casey graciously allowed his sister to come too. Having hunted quail, partridge, woodcock and pheasants with my Brittany as a child I wanted to pass on the joy of watching bird dogs work.

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Youth Hunt Fun

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

There was no way we were gonna get back to the ramp if we hit open water to make it to a favorite spot. So we stayed close and stayed in the interior. Ended up with quite a few ducks in the dekes. There was teal, coots, tons of scaup (bluebills), had a pintail work us plus a shoveler and a pair of big ducks I didn’t identify.

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Ending the Season Right

Florida Sportsman member: Cast&Blast

We put out about 50 decoys and got into the blind and within minutes we had a beautiful drake redhead lit up in the setting sun drop in with his landing gear down right in front of me. Instant success!

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Meat in the Freezer

Florida Sportsman member: BAJAOKLA

The weather didn’t look good Friday morning but it looked like there might be a break for a few hours Friday afternoon so my friend Chip and I decided to go hog hunting, i’m glad we did. Chip saw three doe under his tree stand about 4:30pm and about thirty minutes later four hogs showed up at the feeder in front of the box blind where I was sitting.

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First of the Year

Florida Sportsman member: 22donk

Got it done Sunday night with the Mathews! Just got onto a new area in town. People called me in cause they’re getting over run. Anyways, set a feeder last Thursday, hogs showed up instantly. This guy showed up at last light and I sent the Rage Hypodermic right through both lungs, and went 40 yards with decent blood.

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Weekend Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: Blue Thunder

Forum member Blue Thunder got into some ducks this weekend. With the fronts pushing through, he believes this has more ducks moving south. He was able to put his nephew on a limit this past Saturday. Nice work!

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A Lucky Day

Florida Sportsman member: omegafoo

I spent the evening reading until 5:30 and I lost too much light. At 6 I looked down the pine row and there was movement. I picked up the binos and when he picked his head up all I could see was the beams outside the ears swinging every time he turned his head. I took my time and took the shot to drop him in his tracks.

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Successful Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: swamp munky

I spent last weekend at camp with my wife and nephew, it was his first time ever camping. The weekend concluded with this nine point on the ground. I’d been hunting him specifically since bow season, I could never get his pattern but saw him on camera regularly enough to get lucky.

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Striking Luck

Florida Sportsman member: relicshunter

The whole area is mixed palms and inkberry or gallberry. I thought maybe a pig was feeding out of sight. Then a long stretch of no noise, so I pulled out the grunt tube and did a few. A short time later I saw his face looking my way a good 50 yards away by the sweetgums. Had I not been studying the area so thoroughly I would have missed his face in the shrubs.

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Good Season so Far

Florida Sportsman member: Flredbones

So far have had a pretty good season, can’t kill anything with hooves and fur but thankfully the wing hunts have been different. Our first hunt was almost TV perfect with three of us.

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Solo Hunt Success

Florida Sportsman member: micci_man

Five minutes later I get home and before I pulled in the drive the front door was opening. She was ready to look for her deer. We go to the plot and she shows me where he exited the plot. We take up the blood trail that she showed me and 45 yards later we found her deer.

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Ga Bucks

Florida Sportsman member: etohprn

The deer were moving good two weeks ago and then started to shut down again. They were coming out during the daylight following does and the switched right back to coming out just before dark.

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Central Florida Eight

Florida Sportsman member: ROGERSANCHEZ

I killed this buck on my lease in Hillsborough County yesterday. He was chasing a doe throughout the swamp I was hunting. A few grunt calls got his attention for a second and I dropped him with my 20 gauge slug gun.

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WMA Ten

Florida Sportsman member: tarpontamer2007

While I’m scanning all the open areas 100 to 200 yards out I catch movement. The buck is at 40 yards and I have no clue where he came from. I instantly noticed he is a shooter and focus on the shot. He is quartering too me so I take to shot right through the front shoulder. buck runs off 40 yards and piles up.

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A Great Season

Florida Sportsman member: Catalina26

Neither me or the wife were able to pull permits but i did have some very lucky family and friends. With a total of 5 permits all for the same area i really had my work cut out for me.

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Idaho Mulees

Florida Sportsman member: shallowexpectations

A lot of hunters joined us on the first two days of a 7 day hunt. On day 4 though I was able to place my dad in front of a quality 3 point with great mass.

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Making Memories

Florida Sportsman member: bottomtime

I said a little prayer that he might be rewarded with a deer sighting for being so patient. About 2 minutes later, I looked to our left and saw a deer headed our way. Turned out to be a little (165 pound) six point buck. I whispered for him to sit very still and he whispered back,”are you going to shoot it?” I whispered, “do you want me to?” He said yes and I made thunder again.

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First Buck

Florida Sportsman member: publiclandhunter12

My buddy could not make with me on Sunday so I went solo. With the wind blowing perfect, and conditions to be perfect I went for it. I set up on the edge of the swamp in my climber, as soon as the sun came up the monster stood up at 100 yards!

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Bear Hunt Success

Florida Sportsman member: Mackokid

As we hit the first side trail we heard what sounded like something falling out of a tree? We stopped and listened to see which direction it came from. After a minute or so we saw some movement roughly 30 yards off the trails into the brush and it was headed our way!

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The Best Birthday Present

Florida Sportsman member: floridacrackr

My two boys, who are 3 and 4 were extremely upset because I couldn’t take them and I promised them i would take them before the season was over. Well, my 3 yr old didn’t let me forget about that promise. He told me that’s all he wanted for his birthday was to go alligator hunting. Since I work 3 Saturdays a month this past weekend was going to be our best opportunity.

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Dream Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: maq attaq

We spent all of the next two days searching high and low for Danny’s bull. We rode 40 to 50 miles each day on the four wheelers all over the mountain to no avail. Finally,on the last morning, at first light, the stars aligned and Danny had a bull moose dead in his sights at 115 yards. He took it down with one shot from his .308.

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First of Many

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

Forum member down4dacount‘s son recently took his first buck. As you can tell from the picture, it was big smiles all around! Nice work!

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Great Start to the Season

Florida Sportsman member: dilligaf84

Forum member dilligaf84 has recently taken two nice bucks on private land. He was able to harvest these animals with a rifle thanks to FWC’s weapon of choice program. Nice work!

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Finishing Strong

Florida Sportsman member: grennie-slayer

He went down and right next to where he went down a big gator popped up. I wasn’t gonna miss twice in a row and snagged him. Two hours later we got him to the boat. He wouldn’t give up and managed to bend my spear when the tape wouldn’t break.

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Great Start to the Season

Florida Sportsman member: tarpontamer2007

About 150 yards out I see movement and it is a buck jumping through the grass straight at me. The deer eventually gets to 30 yards and I make a perfect shot on him. He makes it about 150 yards and piles up, perfectly symmetrical 10 point.

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Lake Okeechobee Lizards

Florida Sportsman member: bobert421

With one night left before I had to return to work and my dad had to fly home we decided to call in pro and went with a guide. We called up Alligator Inc. and they had Phil and his wife Tammy available to take us out. Phil did a great job and we ended putting a pair of nice size gators on the boat filling our tags before dark.

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Glades Buck

Florida Sportsman member: hooksetter

Forum member hooksetter took this good buck out in the Glades, opening weekend of season. The arrow connected at 45 yards, to have the deer down only 70 yards away. Nice work!

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Father and Son Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: bgeorge

Took my son out to fill his tags. Rain made it tough to hunt daylight last night, so we left the water and went back this morning. Two done by 8:30. Much easier to sort through them in the daylight. 10′ 5″ and 8′ 3″.

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Filling the Tags

Florida Sportsman member: bgeorge

Put the boat up on plane and made a run at him. Visually marked him with a wind shear line on the water and he went down with 150 yards to go. Shut the boat down as we got close and with a few casts from the crew we had him on the 12/0. Worked him for a little while and got another rod on him. My dad who is 72 shot him with our double trouble dart mounted to the spear gun.

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The Girls Bag a Good One

Florida Sportsman member: trg03

The treble quickly sank and was stuck in the mud so I passed off the rod and grabbed another. After three more failed attempts with the second rod, the passed off rod started peeling off drag and our 5’2″ 90 pound permit holder was fighting a 10’9″ 270 pound dinosaur.

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An Adventure to Canada

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

After a bit it stands and turns to sniff Kaitlyn’s bolt in the ground and gives me a broadside shot. The shot looks good and about ten seconds later and real close, it gives a death moan, followed by 2 others.

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Chasing Trophies

Florida Sportsman member: harbison

Off at a distance we spot three real trophy boars, but they give us absolutely no chance at a shot; they are on the run. Looks like they did not get that big by mistake, they have us patterned. Finally one monster stops and looks back, big, really big, mistake. The Marlin 45-70 put him down.

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Last Day Luck

Florida Sportsman member: omegafoo

He’s quartering away from me and I made up my mind the first clean shot I was going to stop him. He got 30-35 yards, I clucked, he stopped and picked that white noggin’ up high, BOOM!

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Private Land Success

Florida Sportsman member: Mackokid

He was able to get them to about 50 yards when the first one started strutting towards his decoys. Shortly after he had all 6 birds walking pretty towards him. The largest of the group started walking up and he nailed him at 30 yards.

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Ending the Season Right

Florida Sportsman member: floridacrackr

I closed the distance to about 50 yards and the ol Tom had enough, his head turned blue and his posture changed. He puffed up and started walking towards me. I knew it was about to go down! This bird got to about 20 yards and charged me and Butch at full speed ahead. He got to about 2 feet before he realized something wasn’t right and turned away and I let him have it at literally 5 feet!

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First Birds

Florida Sportsman member: duckhunter305

I quickly learned that turkey hunting and duck hunting are a completely different ball game and like most people I struck out my first season. After this duck season my friends and I decided that this season we would put the time in and get our birds.

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Making Memories

Florida Sportsman member: floridacrackr

We only had Saturday morning to get it done as I had church and Easter plans with the in laws. Well, it didn’t take long to get on a couple of gobbling birds and we had one down by 7:30. I can’t even explain the feeling of sharing this moment with my grandfather.

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Central Florida Success

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

Had a great week long hunt in central zone with family and friends. Hunted with an old buddy and took his kids out and got them on their first birds . Nothing like getting kids or new hunters on game.

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Spurless Gobbler

Florida Sportsman member: Florida Bullfrog

I was able to help my buddy get his first Florida gobbler this morning. The bird worked in all the way to 70 yards away and then ducked into some planted pines. I told my buddy that the bird was probably going to come out to our left and pop out right in front of us. That’s exactly what he did, but he hugged the line of palmettos the blind was in all the way to the blind’s window.

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Redemption

Florida Sportsman member: hoggator

When they got parallel to us, I ranged them at 65 yards. Every step after that, they were going to get further away. I called again, and they answered, but kept walking. Too far for my son to shoot! Some would argue that maybe too far for me as well! I leaned across my son, rested my elbow on his thigh, told him to cover his ears, and let the Mossberg 835 with 3.5” Longbeard XRs sing.

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Northwest Turkey

Florida Sportsman member: featherfanatic

Set up on a bird that was across a creek. Didn’t figure I could do anything with him and I was right. He flew down the other way. Next think I know 2 birds gobbling behind me. Get turned around and after 4 more gobbles here they are. My hevi-shot connected and my buddy that was with me missed.

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Layin’ em Down

Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One

No hen talk, but I did hear one gobble so I knew he was there. The hens started flying down with 12 finally settled in out in front of my blind. I yelp and he gobbles, so I just knew he was headed my way. I hear the drumming and he’s there, but guess what? He heading out to the hens in the field until he sees “Pretty Boy”. He changes direction and he on his way to the decoy where he runs into a load of number 5′s.

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Youth Turkey Success

Florida Sportsman member: hoggator

At 8am my friend had 8 hens walk by through the ferns on the edge on the cypress. All they could see, were just necks and heads sticking up past the ferns. At 8:10 here comes a second set in the same direction with 7 birds. Except this time, the last bird has some red on his head.

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Hogs in the Offseason

Florida Sportsman member: CaneDiver65

Been able to hunt some good hogs over in Chiefland this offseason. Trying to get these hogs thinned out on our property but it has been tough.

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Turkey Down

Florida Sportsman member: dilligaf84

With a gobble at about 40 yards my son turns around and says nature’s calling and he can’t hold it. When he turned back around the gobbler was 20 yards lined up perfect but caught the movement and took off. Realizing it was probably game over we answered nature’s call and set back up on the same spot. No more than a minute later this jake pitched down right where the previous bird spotted us and saved the day.

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Down South Success

Florida Sportsman member: floridacrackr

Forum member floridacrackr and friends had success with the turkeys opening weekend, going 3 for 3 on birds.

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Youth Gator Hunt Success

Florida Sportsman member: Gone_Fishing

My son took his first Alligator in the a YHPF Youth Hunt Saturday at Dupuis WMA. He lost two 8 footers and then harvested this 6’5″ gator. Those South Florida canals have some bad rock ledges. All 3 kids took gators and the kids did all of the casting and rod work and hit them with the bang stick.

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Wife’s First Pig

Florida Sportsman member: bgeorge

We slipped into the stand and she was enjoying the woods. Little cool and windy but just after six 3 pigs came down the swamp edge and she dropped one in its tracks. It was her first time that she shot at an animal and I think she is hooked.

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Taking Care of the Coyotes

Florida Sportsman member: ROGERSANCHEZ

Killed a female in the morning and a big male in the afternoon. I’ve killed lots of coyotes, but never two in one day!

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Coming Down to the End

Florida Sportsman member: FowlMouth824

We hunted till 11:45, and finished up with 14 birds for 3 hunters. A nice mixed bag with teal, shovelers, ring necks, scaup, and yes, a drake red head for my buddy. The drake was the last bird killed so it was a heck of a way to finish up the day.

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Good Dose of Ducks

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

forum member down4dacount shared some photos of some this seasons hunts. Nice!

After being in the stand just about an hour I stand up to stretch real slow and I look behind be and in about a 3 foot gap in to palms I see this buck standing there eating. I didn’t have much time to shoot but I knew he was a shooter so I pulled up the 30-30 and let it do the work.

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Great Ending to the Season

Florida Sportsman member: dolfan450r

After being in the stand just about an hour I stand up to stretch real slow and I look behind be and in about a 3 foot gap in to palms I see this buck standing there eating. I didn’t have much time to shoot but I knew he was a shooter so I pulled up the 30-30 and let it do the work.

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Flintlock Buck

Florida Sportsman member: bgeorge

Had made a quick trip to PA and came back with the Flintlock still loaded. Decided to take it out today and see what I could drum up. This guy came slipping by and stopped just perfect. Pulled the hammer back and squeezed it off. When the smoke cleared he had just dropped in his tracks.

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Persistence Pays

Florida Sportsman member: omegafoo

I saw one shooter on a lease in 2012. Biggest buck I saw was a small spike on public land during the 2013 season. Saw 11 different bucks hunting with a friend at his place in central ga this year, but nothing that met my age requirements. Finally, the day after Christmas one presents me with a shot!

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Weekend of Ducks

Florida Sportsman member: micci_man

Sunday afternoon was a different story. Pretty steady action from the git go. We knocked down 12 but lost 2 that dove and never came back up.

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8 Point Bow Buck

Florida Sportsman member: dolfan450r

I get off the phone with her and I’m texting my hunting partner to tell him, i thought to myself “I need to nock an arrow incase a big one is following her”, not 2 minutes later I see this buck coming down the same trail she was on and he’s at 30 yards. Luckily I just happened to still be in shooting position, I let him get to the 20 yard mark I pre-ranged, stopped him with a mouth grunt and let it fly…whack!

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Boar Down

Florida Sportsman member: Oakley

I started to feel discouraged since I didn’t get a shot off but I kept heading in and next thing I know I was 15 yards from a little boar. Needless to say I pulled the trigger on my old .410 and he instantly dropped.

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Hard to Get Hogs

Florida Sportsman member: Harbison

Suddenly a very respectable gray boar stops an looks back to check on us. He is so far away. Is a humane shot possible at that distance? Our especially equipped cart provides a very stable platform from which to shoot. Let’s try it; Brian agrees! I hold my breath and put the cross hairs just under the monster’s ear. Ever so slowly I gently touch the trigger. Bam! To my amazement the large boar falls.

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On the Retrieve

Florida Sportsman member: eorlando

Forum member eorlando posted some excellent retrieving photos from previous duck hunts. It looks like a good time was had by all, hunter and retriever.

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Doe Down

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-Hunter86

Forum member Lc-Hunter86 wife dropped a nice doe last week. That’s some good eats!

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Ducks for All

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

After some coaching he got the hang of it . He had an awesome day . Getting a new shotty and killing a Hen Canvasback . All of us got to kill at least one trophy bird .

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Duck Hunting with the Boys

Florida Sportsman member: ecueagle

I had a great morning hunt Saturday with a friend and our youngins. We ended up taking 1 Gadwall, 1 Shoveler, 5 GWT, 4 BWT.

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Opening Day

Florida Sportsman member: Cast&Blast

Well that was fun! Had my limit in 20 minutes. Could have had it in 5 but i was being “patient” waiting on something other than teal.

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Last Minute Success

Florida Sportsman member: If_it_flies_it_dies

He’s standing behind some grapevines so I still cant see the headgear real well, but at this point I don’t care. I have a clear shot at his chest and it’s a legal buck on my last hunt. Bad day to be him. I take aim at his chest, take my time and BOOM goes the slug gun.

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Neighborhood Pests

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Five minutes later the one that walked past me appeared right in front of me and I turned the green light on, covering the beam to diminish the light beam, I estimated it was at 20 yards and brought the crossbow up holding the green light under the crossbow. As the illuminated red reticle sight got right behind the hog’s shoulder I opened my hand to make the beam stronger and let er rip.

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Another One Down

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

He appeared to have a little better head gear so I told her to hit her grunt call and estrus bleat to see if he will come in…what do ya know? He starts making a beeline for us! He presented me with a perfect 22 yard broadside shot and the rest is history!

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Awesome Youth Deer Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

one girl had deer hunted with her father for 3 years but had yet to get a deer and also Aliyah, who had never hunted before but was so proud of taking her first deer. Of the eleven youth hunters that participated, nine of them got a deer!

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South Georgia Fun

Florida Sportsman member: rrbgtt

Tori’s boyfriend, Dean took out one the cull bucks we have on the “to be disposed of” wall and Toni shot, what she thought was a doe at about 200 yards. It ended up being a button buck, but that happens to the best of us.

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Muzzleloader Buck

Florida Sportsman member: relicshunter

The smoke cleared the opposite way he ran so I saw most of the exit and heard a great big crash. Upon retrieval I found him to be a nice 7 point, 132 pounds, check station estimated him at 3.5 years old.

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Season in Review

Florida Sportsman member: creekgeek

The big buck left a good blood trail and was pretty easy to find even in water but he only went about 15 yards. The two smaller bucks left no blood at all in the first few yards. The first of the smaller ones was also in a swamp and completely covered himself with mud.

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Vacation Buck

Florida Sportsman member: HuntnFL

He finally stopped 200 yards away and I was able to get a shot and put him down. I thought he was just a nice 8 but when I walked up I realized he was a 13 pointer. Needless to say, it made up for my unsuccessful bow hunt.

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A Couple Nice Bucks on a Windy Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

The second morning she managed to whack a very nice 7 point about 45 minutes after daylight. He was very run down, probably from chasing does. Even so he still weighed in at 136 pounds.

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Youngest’s First Deer

Florida Sportsman member: huntmstr

“Emma, get the gun. It’s a buck for sure,” I whispered. I stuck the barrel out the window and Emma laid across my lap as she trained the scope on the deer’s torso.

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A Great Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

He was only able to hunt one day of the permit so we had to make something happen from one evening of scouting and one day of sitting. Well we got it done opening morning!

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Public Land Stud

Florida Sportsman member: FloridaBoy

I let my buddy decide where to hunt the first afternoon and he decided to make a clutch move and try the area one more time and guess what? It worked out!

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New Personal Best

Florida Sportsman member: HookandStick

I took my best bow buck Friday evening. He is a typical 10 point, I believe he’s pretty old as well. At last light he appeared and gave me a 25 yard forward quartering shot.

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Making it Happen

Florida Sportsman member: Git-R-Dunn

I watched the does and Turkey,which were only 20 yards away,and I just happened to look to my left. Here comes a nice 8 point. I wake up quickly,as I was running on 4 hours of sleep.

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Big Eight Down

Florida Sportsman member: dilligaf84

This buck had been cruising roughly 700 acres based on trail pics so it was anyone’s guess where he would show up. He came in checking for does at last light. Haven’t put a tape on him yet but looks like he may break 100 inches.

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Buck in the Swamp

Florida Sportsman member: away

Around 6:15 I hear what sounds like a deer creeping through the water and can barely make out feet in the distance before he makes a turn and starts angling toward me. Stopped him at about 28 yards quartering to me. Passed right through and he piled up 30 yards away.

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Buck Down

Florida Sportsman member: roachbuster

With the woods being wet from rain overnight this deer snuck up on me, looked over and he was 15 yards away. when he got behind a tree I stood up pulled back and shot him. I hit him perfect but arrow didn’t come out other shoulder.

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Filling the Freezer

Florida Sportsman member: rrbgtt

I dropped her off and turned the tractor around headed back to the clubhouse. Before I made it back, she called and said to turn around. She had shot a doe. She said they came out into the plot just as the tractor pulled away. This time one made the mistake of getting within range.

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Quick Kill

Florida Sportsman member: jhandyman

We launched the boat and had a gator on the line in 5 minutes. 30 minutes later, the boats back on the trailer and we’re headed home. 7’5″ and about 2 inches missing from the tail.

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Central Florida Nine Point

Florida Sportsman member: Gone_Fishing

Took this 9 pt Wednesday morning at 7:20am following a doe. No official weight, estimated at 135 to 140 pounds. 47 yard shot with a 100 grain RamCat. This buck didn’t have much width but he had some nice mass and interesting character to the rack.

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Bucks and Bacon

Florida Sportsman member: jnicholson1437

Finally this archery season I told him I am sitting with him in his blind, and bringing all my gear and making this thing happen. And happen it did!

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Public Land Buck

Florida Sportsman member: zack&drake

My plan was to let anything walk until the last evening unless it was a monster. I get a text at 7:35 that says 6 point, down come get me! I call my buddy and he was so excited he could barely talk.

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First Bow Kill

Florida Sportsman member: Rebel998

I see the path hes going and set up a shot as he walks into my shooting lane. 20 yards out I release my arrow with a toxic broadhead and I hear that sound for the first time “thwack”! He’s hit! I watch him
run and crash and continue running.

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Double Does Down

Florida Sportsman member: maq attaq

Danny dropped his first doe on Saturday at 130 yds and his second on Sunday at around 120 yds. They both dropped in their tracks. We had a great time hanging out, exploring and enjoying our pup Gunner. He got his first taste of deer blood. Watching Danny hunt is so much more rewarding than squeezing the trigger myself.

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Rainy Day 10 Point

Florida Sportsman member: Killingtime1

At about 8 I caught this guy trying to slip through one of my shooting lanes at 35 yards, so I gave him a grunt to stop him and I sent a slick trick on its way, the shot was farther back than I hoped for. After a sparse blood trail of 50 yards I backed out and called a buddy with best tracking dog (Rascal) that I have ever seen. It only took Rascal 10 minutes to retrieve my kill.

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Buck Down

Florida Sportsman member: FloridaBoy

After a soggy sit Saturday, I was happy to see clear skies Sunday. Had deer out all day in the fields Saturday, Sunday morning I had a buck walk by my stand before shooting light. About 8am I saw this buck out in the field and grunted him in to 30 yards. Close enough. Thwack. Smoked em.

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Opening Day Deer

Florida Sportsman member: BowtechGen3

We got quite a surprise when arrived at our tree that morning as turkey’s were roosted in our tree despite not having any pictures of them in the preceding weeks they scared the crap out of us when they flushed. But we were able to get set up and ready with plenty of time to wait for daylight.

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First Bow Buck

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

Well my girl and I decided to try hunting a romp n stomp WMA I’ve never hunted before this year. After a lot of scouting and a rough opening day, she was able to score her first ever archery buck. It’s not her largest buck she’s ever killed, but I’d say it’s probably her biggest hunting accomplishment to date! A nice little 4 point to start the season off right!

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Taggin’ Out

Florida Sportsman member: mr300s

We had a ball we and ended up tagging out, four heroes took four gators, mine was 10 feet 2 inches as well another and two smaller ones. We hunted area 540 in Melbourne out of air boats.

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Trophy Gator

Florida Sportsman member: mike923

We got a good one we last Friday night. Measured and weighed at central florida trophy hunts at 13′ 1″ and weighed 836 pounds.

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Patience Pays Off

Florida Sportsman member: trg03

Within 20 minutes he had snapped my rod in two places. I grabbed my baitcaster, set another hook in him and he proceeded to blow out the anti reverse and release the treble. At this point he was sitting on the bottom and not moving so I was able to cut the braid on the broken rod and transfer the line to the 6500 with no anti reverse.

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STA Gators

Florida Sportsman member: floridacrackr

Forum member floridacrackr got into some big gators this weekend. Hunting out at STA 5, the gators measured 11’9″ and 9’8″. Nice lizards!

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Filling Tags

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Unlike my gator hunting where I’ve baited gators using “well-fermented” (rancid) sheep lungs we would be using rod and reels and snatch hooks adorned with a small cyalume chemlight so you can see where you’re casting. Gear would be strong spinning reels with stout rods, 60 pound braid, two feet of 80 pound leader on which the cyalume is attached and a weighted treble hook.

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Getting the Gators

Florida Sportsman member: BowtechGen3

Well this year I was not fortunate enough to be drawn for a gator tag but luckily I have a couple of friends that drew a few Tags. We filled 2 of the 4 tags we had for the first phase this weekend and with a little luck hopefully we will fill the other 2 this week!

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Opening Day Success

Florida Sportsman member: conchobrady

Forum member conchobrady got out on opening morning of bow season and took a respectable buck. Congrats!

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Turkey Down

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

Forum member down4dacount put together a great video of his son taking a turkey this season. That’s the way to do it! Nice Bird.

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Big Hog Down

Florida Sportsman member: CatchDog

Forum member CatchDog got ahold of a big barred hog recently, with 3 inch cutters on him!The video shows how it went down. Nice Pig!

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Giggin’ For Dinner

Florida Sportsman member: roachbuster

Forum member roachbuster got a chance to get out and do some gigging recently, loading up on some big frogs. Great fun and a good meal! Nice work.

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Team “Spur Me” in Missouri

Florida Sportsman member: Ruff One

Opening morning found me sitting in a small food plot down from the ridge. No gobbling! No sounds any where. Really an unusual morning. Decided to just sit back, make a yelp here and there. Just enjoy the morning. Right at seven o’clock I hear that familiar sound that you just love to hear. A drumming gobbler!! He’s behind me and working his way right by me headed to my brand new Avain decoy. He didn’t make it.

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Night Time Pig and Recipe

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

After sunset I heard a deer snorting in the distance and about 30 minutes later I heard a pig “woof”. Ten minutes and a few hog grunts later, a single black hog works through the palmettoes. Turning on the green hog light I see her moving through the palmettoes and with a clear shot she drops. It’s more pork chops to play with!

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Like Father, Like Son

Florida Sportsman member: cetchdawg

Forum member cetchdawg shared some great photos of him and his son with some nice hogs. There’s nothing better than being in the outdoors and making memories that will last a lifetime!

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A Turkey Surprise

Florida Sportsman member: Iggy7

I was out hog hunting right near the end of turkey season. I knew the property I was hunting had a good number of turkeys but I was simply trying to get some hog sausage for the freezer.

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Pork Chops, it’s what’s for Dinner

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

We sat for almost 3 hours in light rain when four piggies came out of the palmettos. By then we couldn’t really see them well enough for a good shot so Casey turned on the hog light. The green light didn’t even phase them. While Casey was turning on the lighted red reticle on the red dot I asked him not to shoot the largest one, as I was pretty certain it was a boar hog. One shot and the second largest hog dropped and the three others tore out of there.

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A Solid Season

Florida Sportsman member: hooksetter

Forum member hooksetter has had a great turkey season this year. Not only hunting in Florida, But throughout Georgia and South Carolina as well. Great Work!

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Laying Down Her First Bird

Florida Sportsman member: Longhaul

Forum member Longhaul put his 8 year old daughter on this beautiful bird the opening weekend of youth turkey season. She took the bird with her 410, Congrats to both of you!

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Turkey Season Recap

Florida Sportsman member: triplehelix

A week later after two more unsuccessful hunts in this area I had an exciting day. Spooked two gobblers off the roost walking in, and sat down immediately. Heard hens fly down minutes later and talked with them for an hour. Cackling back and forth, yelping, cutting…it was pretty awesome and lent me some confidence in my calling. But I never saw a bird.

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Central Florida Osceola Down

Florida Sportsman member: huntentails

Five minutes later Linda let the air out of the gobble bag and sent the ole boy into a final dirt nap. Some how its not just about a dead bird, its spending time with good friends and people you love chasing birds in fields and woods all over this beautiful country!

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Wrapping Up the Season

Florida Sportsman member: Larry Mac

It is an area where because of neighboring fences, you are forced to walk very close to roosted birds. Fortunately it was dark, especially with tree cover, very dark. We walked in again trying to simulate a cow under the birds. As we set up the decoys we could hear some very quiet clucks and tree yelps so we knew turkeys were nearby. Once we were seated , it didn’t take long to hear gobbling in response to coyotes yipping.

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First Bird Down

Florida Sportsman member: anglingarchitect

I kill deer and pigs, regularly but though I have been Turkey hunting each spring for at least a couple of hunts, I had never been close enough to a Gobbler to bag one. Last year I even went with a professional guide at the invitation of a Turkey Hunting Client. Of course I have seen birds, especially out of season, and had birds respond to calls, but never in range.

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Great Turkey Season

Florida Sportsman member: chainsawcity

Single bird is 11.5 inch beard with 1.5 inch spurs taken on a WMA hunt and the double birds both have 13 inch beards one has 1.2 inch spurs the other has 1.35 inch spurs.

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Working for Your Bird

Florida Sportsman member: james 14

It’s at this point where it gets blurry because I had him in range but needed his head up and over the palmettos as he started to walk straight away. Finally he stops with his head up but it’s behind a dead palm frond, oh well, BOOM! He rolled, I ran up a few steps and, having already resolved myself to the action, shot him again.

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Nice Bird Down

Florida Sportsman member: redfishrob

Forum member redfishrob scored his personal best bird coming in at 20 pounds with a 9.75 inch beard. Congrats!

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Doubling Up, Turkey Style

Florida Sportsman member: wildrooter

For thirty minutes we were calling back and forth and they would respond right away. Finally one of the birds began closing the distance and got within 20 yards and stopped to see what we were. Eric shot the first bird and rolled him right there and right away the next one came running at the dead bird and jumped on it like you see on tv. Quickly I shot the second one and down he went.

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Big Barred Hog

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Walking up to it I couldn’t believe how large it was. It had to be between 275 and 300 pounds. With my time running out I put a rope on it and tried moving it. It barely budged and there was no way in heck I was getting it back to the truck.

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Night Hunting, Pig Down

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

By now it’s getting light and they stayed bedded down for about 30 minutes until a shot off in the distance startled them and they stood up. The largest one walked away with the second following it and I thought I had blown it but the smaller one worked its way out of the palmettoes. This time I didn’t wait and took the shot as soon as it presented a chance. At the shot it dropped.

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Recapping the Season

Florida Sportsman member: DropTine797

I was then invited to hunt with my buddy and his dad and brother on a management area I’ve never been to. They gave me one rule. If it’s legal, shoot it. So when two sows busted out of the palmettos in front of us, I greeted them with 3 volleys of 00 buck.

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Big Buck With the Bow

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

Forum member Lc-hunter86 took this beautiful buck with his bow recently, this deer weighed 150 pounds and scored 105 and 3/8th.

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Buck Down

Florida Sportsman member: Panhandler80

Woke up at 4 am this morning and it was pouring down rain. Really wanted to roll back over, but I showered up and figured I’d sit in truck until it eased a little bit. With a little light in the sky the rain eased, so I a silently made my way over wet leaves to a lane that essentially parallels my food plot; the two actually almost come together where I was sitting and then diverge at about a 30 degree angle.

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Snipin’ While the Water’s High

Florida Sportsman member: rrbgtt

Forum member rrbgtt used the recent downpour to his advantage, Limiting out on these awesome birds. Despite the lack of meat due to small size, the snipe makes up for it in taste! Not to forget how much fun targeting these guys are.

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Running Dogs and Catching Hogs

Florida Sportsman member: dukhuntr1991

Hit the marsh hard for the short season since it was open for dog hunting. Went 8 times in the 14 days it was open. Ended up catching 8 with my 2 dogs. No big ones but still had a good time.

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Polk County 11 Point

Florida Sportsman member: jbeam863

Forum member jbeam863 took this beautiful 11 point buck with his 30-30 in Fort Meade.

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Fine Swine

Florida Sportsman member: UCF HUNTER

I get about 50 yards from the stand and hear a faint splash behind me. As I turn around dead in the middle of the trail there are four pigs following me looking dead at me and continuing to walk straight at me just loafing along at about 80 yards. So I got down on a knee picked out the biggest Sow and laid the hammer down. She went 190 pounds on the scale.

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The Wife’s First Buck

Florida Sportsman member: Catalina26

Getting nearly dark and on the verge of being too dark for camera light. She squeezed the trigger and a solid hit. In the camera I watched it go down about 30 yards into the thick brush. I didn’t say anything and watched her squirm in her seat still wondering if she hit it or not. I played the I don’t know if you did I couldn’t tell in the camera. Made her wait patiently for a half hour and we got down.

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When You’re On You’re On

Florida Sportsman member: flydown

Forum member Snookslayer has been on the deer, with this beautiful buck being the most recent.

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Bucks And Ducks

Florida Sportsman member: Git-R-Dunn

We spotted some bucks cruising but had no shot. Ended up getting down and making a beeline towards them. Cut the distance down to 150-200 yards and picked out what I thought was the biggest. I was wrong, but it was still a doozy. Put the crosshairs on him and let my super six bark.

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Nice 9 Point Hernando County Buck

Florida Sportsman member: drgibby

The last picture I had of him was from the first week in October. Having not seen him in almost two months I had assumed he had been killed. This being said I was surprised to see him trotting across a hay field at about 180 yards last Friday shortly after first light. After my third grunt he finally stopped and the Hornady .270 Super Performance did the rest.

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Slingin’ Steel, Ducks Downs

Florida Sportsman member: slayer 52

Florida Sportsman member slayer 52 has been on the ducks his past few times out and decided share.

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Solid WMA Buck

Florida Sportsman member: luv2kildeer

I grunted twice and he started coming. He got inside 200 yards and I pulled the trigger. Oops. I forgot to take the safety off. I tried to calm myself and lined up for a shot again. He stopped broad side 180 yards out and I shot. I could see that I hit him.

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For The Love Of The Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: PalmettoKid

My boots sunk deep into the ancient peat soil. For a moment, there came a sudden realization of the perceived futility of what it was that I was attempting to do. I began tugging on my legs to break the grip of the swamp. The only branch within arms reach was lifeless, suspended in the air only by the strength of some small vines. A few small vines which my right arm, seemingly by its own volition, had become entangled with. So there I am with a heavy slug gun in my left hand, a right arm elbow deep into a knot of vines and both feet held snug in the muck.

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Little Guy, Big Hog

Florida Sportsman member: Mojito

Friday afternoon started slowly in the blind, until a couple of coons showed up to entertain him till the feeder went off. The dinner bell rang and we had only one guest show up. This bad boy turned broadside at 30 yards. and my son aimed his shooter and proclaimed he was ready. As a precaution I drew down on him with my .308 to make certain of a clean, humane kill. It turned out my rifle would not be needed. My boy dropped the hammer and I watched in awe as the pig stumbled spraying blood for about 25 yds. till he fell dead.

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Hungryland Buck

Florida Sportsman member: Marx Man

He slowly turned to leave and gave me the front quarter shot and I took it. He made it about 5 yards and was down dead. Perfect heart shot. There was absolutely no blood so he would have been real hard to track. When my buddy came over he said “There’s no hole. He’s not dead”. Funny thing is the day before We sat for 13 hours straight and didn’t see squat.

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Solid Central Florida Buck

Florida Sportsman member: PinkIndian321

We backed out with our climbers and tried a different approach to the same area. First sit after the adjustment yesterday evening and this bad boy popped out. Filled our tag nicely. Took this picture of him with his buck right where we found him. 113 2/8 10 point. His first good buck and our first public land registry buck hunting together.

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Great Gun Season So Far

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

Well I have already started things off with a bang, managed to harvest this 4 point while dog hunting with some buddies in Ocala and I was also able to harvest a nice 8 point as well.

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Georgia Buck

Florida Sportsman member: bone

Finally after passing numerous 2 and a half and a couple nice 3 and a half year olds I watched this guy follow a doe on to a food plot . Never been seen before and never on any of our cams. And I never had to think about shooting him.

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Big Buck in The Swamp

Florida Sportsman member: flydown

Well, I managed to weed one of the dumb ones out of the shallow end of the gene pool. Not much to the story, early Saturday morning he came in through the swamp eating submerged acorns. The .50 caliber did it’s job.

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Something You Don’t See Everyday

Florida Sportsman member: Gone_Fishing

My son took this piebald 5 point this morning during a youth hunt. Could not believe what I was seeing when he shot it. I have only ever seen 1 piebald deer and that was at the Joe Budd check station. Really cool deer. We are having the whole hide tanned.

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Nice Quota Buck

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

Busted this buck this morning at first light running the heck out of a doe! Unique looking buck! My dad and I were sitting together so he got to watch the whole thing unfold.

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First Buck

Florida Sportsman member: if_it_flies_it_dies

So after sitting for about an hour at 7:30 I see a big bodied deer crossing a shooting lane at 50 yards. Antlers! I was just a little too high to have a perfectly clear shot so I made an awful noise that was supposed to sound like a grunt and stopped him in his tracks. I had a shot at the rear part of his vitals so I took it quickly and in a weird position. When the smoke cleared I saw no deer.

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Tracking Down the First Buck of the Season

Florida Sportsman member: tarpontamer2007

Sunday morning I almost slept in, but finally got motivated to go. Really nice morning but no activity for a while. At 7:45 a.m. I look to my right and spot a deer at 30 yards that had just came out from behind a bush. He ate for a few minutes and finally gave me a 27 yd shot.The hit was a hair back but it still got his lungs. The deer took off around a corner and out of sight. I decide to trail immediately because of approaching rain. I Got on a decent blood trail and made it 150 yards then the rain started to hit hard. I lost all the blood in the middle of a ankle high grass field. I decided to walk in a grid to search the field. I finally found him after a 45 minute search and walking right by him 2 times. So happy I found him.

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Gator Hunting with a First Timer

Florida Sportsman member: bswiv

Made a trip to the lake this morning with the wife, daughter and her boy friend ( His first time on a gator hunt. ). Caught this guy ( 11′ 8″ ). Kind of odd in that we heard them bellowing just like in the spring and then this guys swims out all bowed up a few hundred yards away.

Got lucky in that he was in some thick stuff when he went down. He settled instead of swimming off as they usually do. Gently set a big hook in him and slowly raised him to the surface, rod in one hand and harpoon in the other. Soon as he came into sight hurled the harpoon and from there it got wild as he was green. Pulled the boat all over for a while before we could get another harpoon in him.

Where we got lucky was in that if he had bolted when the hook was the only thing in him we’d of lost him.

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Big 9-Point Down

Florida Sportsman member: floridacrackr

Well after watching this buck all summer and following his every move around the ranch I finally caught up to him. A long story short the hunt Saturday night in the pouring rain, on the ground because my wife wanted to go, and a panther at 10 yds was my most memorable hunt ever. With the lightening cracking all around us I never thought we would have much action. Well at about 7:30 the rain let up and this guy decided to show up…very cautiously. He came in at 110 & 3/8 pounds.

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First Buck of the Season

Florida Sportsman member: eorlando

Well deer season officially kicked off for us this morning here in FL. It started off a little rocky but ended with sweet success. My Alarm went off at 4 o’clock this morning. I was out of the house by 4:30 and out to my hunting spot by 5:15. I got to the tree I was going to climb and put my climber up against it and realized something wasn’t right with my new hazamore seat. I fiddled around with it for about 15 minutes and couldn’t get it figured out and decided it was time to climb the tree and that I would just have to stand for the morning. I was all ready and set up when the sun came up, except I had no where to sit. Right at daylight I catch movement… it’s 2 does. They were at 25 yards and stopped. They knew something was up and kind of wandered off in the other direction.

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Last Bird of the Season

Florida Sportsman member: Fish Addict

Last day of the hunt decided to leave them alone and hunt another bird we thought would cooperate. Well that didn’t pan out either. Right at daylight he gobbled and gobbled his head off but quickly flew down to a group of hens. Around 7:45am we decided to move over to the pasture again where we knew those birds were working through. Thought what the heck.. last day of hunt dont have anything to lose. Get setup around 8 in this cow pen on the edge of the field and put out the Dave Smith gobbler with a hen decoy. Waited about 20 minutes and made a few light calls. All of sudden we see hens working to the right of us. They don’t seem interested at all in calls or decoys, but all of sudden things changed. A gobbler was tailing the hens and once he saw the decoys it was full strut mode. He ran to the gobbler decoy and preceded to beat the living crap out of it. Man i wish i had the camera with me because for the next few minutes (which felt like eternity) he put on quite the show. He jumped on top of the decoy, ripped the tail off.. spitting, drumming, mad as hell trying to kill the decoy. Waited until he broke strut and got a few feet away from the decoy and let the lead fly. What a hunt. What a decoy. What a way to end the season.

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Gobbler Down

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

Well, after guiding for my boy and a friends wife and (3 for 3), It’s my turn now. Got setup at dark in a spot I usually see turkeys work the area. I started moving further in , called a couple of times in one spot. Nothing. Moved a 100 yards away a made a few hard cuts and a few yelps. Bam! A hen fired off 60 yards away. I quickly scrambled to find where to sit. Got settled and 2 minutes later she showed up. Yelping,purring,cuttin’, and looking for me. She passed 12 yards by me and went in the woods still calling non stop[...]

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Doubling Up

Florida Sportsman member: BnT

Saturday and Sunday Chief Osceola and I got worked over pretty good by this one bird we called “long gobble” He had the longest gobble we have ever heard. Anyway he was a smart one. Saturday morning we set out the decoy and he gobbled at least 40 times off the roost and flew down and was on a beeline to our decoy. We both thought well, this is gonna be easy. That was until he stopped at about 65 yards and stayed that distance for about an hour til his hens came and then they dragged him to the other side of the field.

[...]Well after 15 minutes of watching I catch something out of the corner of my eye and its a gobbler only 30 yards away walking towards them! I wait for Joe to get the camera on him and Joe clucks to get his head up and boom..I missed! he started running and I popped him on the run… My bird is there flopping and i hear Joe say “dont go get him yet and hand me the gun” the other bird “long gobble” sprinted from 200 yards across the field to spur my bird.Once he got a lick in Joe nailed him.

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Great Weekend of Hunting

Florida Sportsman member: BCSAILS

Made camp too late to Turkey hunt Saturday afternoon so I set out to roost a bird while walking with my rifle for a hog. Had a nice Boar pop up and used my new VXR red dot scope on my old Browning 30-06 A-Bolt to drop him. Great scope for low light hog hunting as I always had problems with low light and a black cross hair on a black hog. Got a couple pics then had to clean him on the ground as best I could in the Jeeps headlights as I could not lift him alone. About half way through cleaning had Yotes all around me howling. Kinda cool but also makes the hair on the back of your neck rase. Sunday am heard gobbling way off and made some calls but then had two barking dogs running all over! That killed that hunt. Sunday afternoon set up on a dry slew and had a hen and her boyfriend come in. I let him do his dance with her then I cut in. Boom, nice bird. Great weekend of hunting.

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First Turkey

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

We got to our spot and went in with 45 minutes left of daylight. On the way I heard a gobble bout 200 yards out, then 3 more. I knew where he was going so we circled him. We got 150 yards from where I thought he would be and yep ,there he was. Big longbeard hanging down . It was a long night that’s all can say. We setup on him 80 yards from him. I could see him through the branches. Sunwas coming up and hawks and crows calling. First gobble from him sparked 4 other birds in the area. Christopher was getting excited and shaking. I made some soft purrs and clucks, and that bird gobbled at everything I threw at him. The only thing I overlooked was a old trail in between the pines. I kinda knew he would flydown and maybe go down that trail. He flew down and landed 65 yards from the hen decoy. Then right from above us, 2 other birds flew behind us[...]

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Youth Waterfowl Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

I want to give thanks to all the guys in UWF for doing 2013 Jack Bylsma III Youth Hunt at STA 1 and everyone who helped and donated . Every kid won something in the raffle and the food was awesome. Thanks to both Bill’s for cooking , Big Thanks to Milan , Ryan , Newton and everybody else who made this event possible . This is Christopher’s 3rd Youth Waterfowl Hunt , but this one he was doing all the loading and aiming on his own . Still waterwhacking but doing the job . I told him next season it’s time to shoot flying ducks .

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Another Buck Down

Florida Sportsman member: huntmstr

Spent the weekend with some buddies hunting their club on the Bama border near Blackwater and busted this 175 pound 11-point buck chasing a doe across a cut bean field. Shot him trotting at 350 yards. Have yet to score him.

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Alabama First Buck

Florida Sportsman member: maq attaq

We extended our deer season this year and hunted in Alabama this past weekend. My oldest son Michael killed his first buck. The rut was supposed to be in full swing there, it wasn’t quite on yet, there were definitely signs though. We put in some serious hours in the stand and he was able to kill a 7 point. Both my boys got there first bucks this year.

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Last Chance Buck

Florida Sportsman member: ScreaminSeamen

I wanted to share this with you guys, an east central Florida public land buck! My brother saw this buck as we were walking around but could only see horns over the tail grass. We got within 60 yards, the wind was good and the buck made two steps my way. I had a clear shot! By far my biggest buck! What do you guys think he will score?

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Scoters in South Florida

Florida Sportsman member: dukhuntr1991

Haven’t posted any duck reports from this year so far but we’ve been having a pretty good season. Quite a few limits of ringers/teal, a couple redheads, a few pintails, ruddys, mottled ducks, blue bills, etc.
I shot something this morning I never would have imagined could make it this far south, a pair of black scoters. We were hunting blue bills when I had a group of 20 large divers come in, I peeled out 2, a drake and a hen [...]

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Tennessee Christmas

Florida Sportsman member: KBG

The wife and I made the Christmas trip to Tennessee to visit Mom and Dad this year. They usally come down here. It was definatly the right choice. Got there Friday night (21st) and temp was already 25 degrees. While unpacking I realized I forgot extra ammo for the rifle! I only had three rounds for the trip. Woke up Saturday morning to 18* on the top of the mountain the bottom was even colder. Yeah, ummm I think I’ll go back to bed and scout later. So later that day I’m sitting in a old barn in a “holler” where I had seen a huge buck about 5 years ago. Right before dark two little wrens fly in the barn and start taking a dust bath two feet from me. “Pretty cool” [...]

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A Ocala Buck

Florida Sportsman member: snowman

Shot this one today ahead of dogs in Ocala. He was trying to slip across the road when the 30-06 bar caught him. He weighed 114 pounds. Dogs trailed him for over an hour and a half before they jumped him.

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A Look Back at 2012

Florida Sportsman member: bluefieldbowhunter

My season has been pretty slow until a few weeks ago when things started to take a turn for the better. Up until early Dec I had only seen one good shooter buck, probably a 120-inch 10 point that came into a food plot at 1 p.m. on a full moon on Sept 29th and stayed behind a pile of grapevine and some palmettos until he was 12 yards away. I was drawn on him for a minute but could not find a window to shoot before the wind swirled and he got nervous and trotted off. I was pretty down after that because I usually only get one or two chances a year at a good mature deer with the bow and for the remainder of the first part of our chopped up season I hardly saw a thing. Meanwhile 3 friends came out and each killed an 8 point on their first sits of the year [...]

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Unbelievable Hunting Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: Iggy7

First morning out last week and within a minute of being in my stand (and with my gun still on the ground at the end of my pull rope) two deer walk in. I am somehow able to pull the gun up without spooking them and the buck walks into a clearing and stops with just enough of his body showing for me to get a 60 yard broadside shot. Just under 20 minutes later, another buck walks in and gives me a quartering to shot at 25 yards. And with that, I have 2 bucks on the ground less than 30 minutes after getting in my stand. Three days later, I’m sitting with my 16 year old son who has been shutout for 4 hunting seasons straight. We see a couple deer and he finally is able to put his first deer on the ground! [...]

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Thanksgiving Weekend Doe

Florida Sportsman member: Gone_Fishing

My son and I were invited to hunt some private land outside of Tallahassee. He took a 80 pound doe at 80 yards through both shoulders with his .243 Rem 700 Youth. Actually, Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. We saw 8 deer including a buck harassing does. It was a beautiful morning.

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Dawson’s First Buck

Florida Sportsman member: rrbgtt

If you’ve followed any of my threads, you’ve probably seen pictures of Dawson (my friends 12 year old son). Whenever I go to GA to hunt, I sit in the stand with him so his Dad can sit with his little brother. I hunted with him this past weekend when my daughter, Toni, killed her first buck. Dawson didn’t get to hunt again until this morning. He just called me as excited as he could be. He said, “Mr. Rusty, I got him!”

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Successful Weekend; Hogs, Deer

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

This was another successful weekend, even if I hadn’t killed anything . I managed to pickup a return on Wednesday. I Called my buddy he couldn’t make so I called another friend . Friday we left and got there 3:00pm . Had several options on where I had seen bucks, so we did a little stalk hunting / scouting. Wind was blowing 15-20 mph which was good for stalking . Walked up to 2 does within 25 yards . Saw very little sign of deer , lot’s of rottin , and none of who made them . On the way out decided to check out several oaks and saw a hog that was easily 250+[...]

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Georgia No Longer On My Mind!

Florida Sportsman member: hooksetter

My dad and I made it to our place in Georgia for our yearly deer hunting trip. Had a great time. Checked the cameras the night we got there and we did not have any monsters or anything. Had one decent buck that had some pretty good browtines. Everyone around us had pictures of him and I tried thinking of what stand I could catch him at the next morning. I decided that I might be able to catch him a few hundred yards from the water hole as he was going back to bed. I was right [...]

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Turkey Season; Deer Scouting Pays Off

Florida Sportsman member: huntmstr

While glassing the edge of the island at 9:30, I caught a little movement and lifted the glasses to see the 3 gobblers feeding about 90 yards away. Just then, out of the corner of my left eye, I saw a streak of brown. I dropped the glasses and saw a doe coming right down the logging trail with a buck on her butt. He was grunting and had his head down to where I could only see he was tall but not count points. I picked an opening in brush about 60 yards in front of me and trained my scope on it, keeping both eyes open to make a quick judgement on the buck. As the doe entered the opening, the buck slowed and I could tell he was legal by club standards. As soon as his chest hit the edge of the scope, I centered and pulled the trigger. He didn’t even twitch. I figured he was an 8 and was pretty tickled to get him.[...]

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Muzzleloader Buck, Big Buck Contest Continues

Florida Sportsman member: Lc-hunter86

As you guys know, it has been windy as heck, but I couldn’t resist swaying back and forth for a few hours! Right about 7:30 a.m. this morning after hitting the grunt call a few times, this bad boy slipped in behind me in the nasty cypress swamp I was sitting in. One shot to the neck was all she wrote. The good thing about the wind was that the smoke cleared pretty quick and I could see him hit the dirt! Quick hunt!

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Enter your big buck for the Florida Sportsman Forum Big Buck Contest here!

 

 

 

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Successful Weekend of Hog Hunting

Florida Sportsman member: FloridaBoy

I knew it was going to be an action packed weekend so I waited until today to post it all in one report, so here it goes. Thursday I went out with a buddy to my favorite WMA to set up my tree stand and check my camera for the last time. I have been getting some good bucks on my camera but it was only taking a few pics of them so I decided to set it to the most sensitive setting. So when we checked the cam there was 2,700 plus pics [...]

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Great Buck, Great Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: down4dacount

Another great weekend, but this one had lots of events from the start. A few miles from the entrance to the WMA, in the middle of my lane were two big hogs, luckily I saw them and swerved and avoided ramming and damaging my truck. We checked in a headed to our spot. The plan was to wait until daylight in an area we were last weekend where I had seen a big buck with a doe right at daylight. We waited for an hour and nothing. Well, since in my usual spot I hunt not much action happened the weekend before, it was time for a new game plan [...]

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Awesome Archery Buck with Grandpa

Florida Sportsman member: BowtechGen3

Well this year I had the fortune of picking a quality Archery Quote Permit in the 2nd Phase of the redraws. We did manage to get out and get a little scouting done and set some trail cameras out. My guest for the hunt was my Grandpa, who turned 83 this year, but still gets around remarkably well for his age. Once the hunt started it was extremely slow compared to our prior outings in this area. But we hung with it and were seeing a few deer here and there [...]

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Great Archery Buck

Florida Sportsman member: ReelAffair23

I shot this buck on Saturday morning at 7:40 a.m. on my lease in Fargo, Georgia near the Okeefenokee. I had one those mornings you dream about. I had a nice 8 come in from an overgrown clear cut with dog fennels head high. He caught me in my stand, and after a 5 minute stare down, he finally relaxed and when he went behind a bush, I was able to stand and get my bow. At that point he started to stare down an abandoned road, and here comes a 6, a smaller 8 and this deer [...]

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A “Florida Sportsman” Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: onICE

I was lucky to have pulled a gator permit for STA 1 phase 2 and my buddy Jeremy (fishaddict) knew a few honey holes so we (me, jeremy, my dad) headed out saturday and Sunday mornings to try to fill our tags. Got an 8 foot right off the bat Saturday, a good eater, and cleaned him. Had a blast. Wanted to head back out Sunday morning and be “picky”, only going for a 10 foot plus [...]

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8 Point Down

Florida Sportsman member: gator4ever

Last year I shot an 8 point on the last day. Fast forward to ml opener this year. Here is my story:

Finally I used the new hunting season dates to my advantage and was able to kill me a rutting South Florida buck.

Saturday was opening day for our black powder season down south. First morning was beautiful, not a lick of wind. One of them mornings you dream about during the off season. Only problem was you didn’t need a flashlight to get to your stand the dang moon as bright as can be. I sat at my favorite for sure thing stand and didnt see a thing. Was I surprised, NO, been there done that too many times [...]

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Opening Weekend Success

Florida Sportsman member: BCSAILS

The plan was to get my older brother his first deer/Buck this opening weekend. He can’t shoot a traditional bow due to his Rotator Cuff tears in his shoulder so he would be using his cross bow which he had yet to take any game with. His son, my nephew, always comes out to the lease with me and helps me so I always give him one of my two allotted Bucks, which he decided to give to his dad this year. So, the mission was on [...]

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Deep Camp Photos

Florida Sportsman member: jrb651

With a lull in-between seasons, Florida Sportsman member jrb651 thought it would be a fun idea for everyone to share some photos of their deer camps made while the season was in full swing. Check em’ out, you may get some great ideas for when it’s time to set up camp once again this year!

“Hey everyone, I saw a post like this on another forum recently Im not sure if a simliar thread has been started on FS but I had a great time scrolling through the picutures of every one’s hunting camps. It’s kind of a “lull” time of year so its fun to at least see photos of deer camp. Could be old or new, matter of fact the old time camp pics are fun to look at.”

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Hunting Collaboration Video

Florida Sportsman member: eorlando

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Nebraska Spring Turkey Trip

Florida Sportsman member: BCSAILS

As a “Florida Sportsman” sometimes you need to prolong your season so a trip out of state is required. This was our third year going to Nebraska to chase big Eastern Gobbler’s. My brother, his two sons and I hunted west and south of Lincoln on public WMA’s and private farms. We stayed at my nephews friends little hunting “shack” as you can see and had to rough it [...]

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Missouri Hunt

Florida Sportsman member: flydown

Well, my good string of bad luck continues, as I went birdless for 2012, but I won’t complain too much after getting 6 days of great hunting weather, while chasing turkeys in my favorite part of the country.

Pictured are a few of the birds taken, as well as a 174″ gross buck shot in Iowa last fall, by a friend.

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A Great Bird

Florida Sportsman member: trotsky

Headed up to my buddies lease for some fun on the last weekend. The plan was to do some calling for 1 of my buddies since I had already limited out. Well the boys stayed up to late, and enjoyed themselves a tad to much. When I got out of bed it was already light, and over cast with rain threatening. My friend who was supposed to go was sawing logs so well I opted out, and took my other buddy. I was not real optimistic. Since I killed my bird on opening weekend at his place the birds had been scare I think mainly do to a dog problem [...]

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Bird Down! Bird Down!

Florida Sportsman member: relicshunter

My first Osceola turkey, a 12 lb, 9in bearded, 3/4&7/8 in. spurred turkey. I have been pursuing the elusive wild turkey for two seasons now, and today it finally work out. I have had many sits with Jay calling and toms responding but just could not bring them into the decoys or gun range. Some of my closer calls were ended by someone else’s gun shot. This season started out promising, I saw lots of birds just could not get them in range. I was hunting a local WMA with 30-40 other hunters and they were just too stirred up. This place has too many roads and drive by callers [...]

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“Hog of my Dreams”

Florida Sportsman member: harbison

One of my all time favorite sports is the challenge of hog hunting. The wild hog, recognized as one of the smartest animals in the woods, is also a gourmet’s delight. No wonder hogs are one of the most sought after animals in the woods. Florida is a tropical paradise. A paradise offering some of the most exciting hunting this great country has to offer. At the top of the list is the big bad Florida wild boar. The Florida wild boar, a cunning, dangerous, adversary, the beast with an attitude, all bad. Who could ask for anything more? [...]

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Big Central Florida Buck

Florida Sportsman member: catchusifyoucan

Great shot of a big buck taken in Central Florida. “Finally killed him,” he reported. “I have 15 pictures of him on game camera since bow season. He finally made a mistake. 106 5/8 gross score and 104 3/8. Another Florida Registry buck.”

See the thread here.

An east coast skiff guide divulges his secrets for locating and catching beach-run tarpon.

“Lob it softly,” Nathaniel Lemmon instructed. He didn’t want me to sling the baitfish off the hook and then have to get another out of the baitwell and re-rig. Time was of the essence as we were surrounded by baitfish and feeding tarpon… and both were moving. We were beach fishing, just off the beach, for tarpon.

Captain Lemmon had moved ahead of a pod of pogies and turned off the motor of his 18-foot flats boat. In short order, they had moved to where we were bobbing just a few hundred yards off the beach. The pogies, however, had little concern for our presence. They feared the dozen or so tarpon we could see rolling on the perimeter of their ever-tightening ball and who knows how many more hungry tarpon waited below.

Another loud splash signaled that a tarpon had raced into the pod and seized a pogy near the surface. Because splashes were all around us, we knew we were at the epicenter of the feast. The water we were in appeared to be light-brown in color because the baitfish were so tightly compacted. Beyond the clearly defined edge of the bait pod, the water was a more typical bluish-green. It was to this edge, less than 20 yards from the boat and where one tarpon after another continually rolled, that I made my lob cast. I hoped my bait would appear to have moved just slightly away from the pod. Injured and now weakened, perhaps disoriented and struggling, but very much in harm’s way. It didn’t matter to me how a predator tarpon perceived it as long as one of them grabbed it, and the fight would be on.

Late-summer beach tarpon are often found with pelicans.

We were using 6-foot heavy-action spinning rods rated for 15- to 30-pound line. These rods hardly flexed at all on the lob cast, but getting great distance was not our objective. We wanted rods with plenty of backbone for lifting stubborn tarpon that had sought refuge near the bottom in 40 feet of water. Six thousand-series spinning reels with a quality drag (Lemmon prefers models with at least 24 pounds of drag) were mounted on the rods. Their spools were fully loaded with more than 200 yards of 30-pound braided Spectra line. Lemmon first tied a Bimini twist in the braid. Using a Bristol knot, he then connected a 5-foot piece of 30-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. Last, he added a 2-foot piece of 80-pound fluorocarbon leader using a double uni-knot and to this secured a 5/0 Kahle hook. Although most anglers use large circle hooks when fishing for tarpon with live bait, Lemmon prefers a Kahle hook. He likes the ability to make a firm hook-set after the bite and believes he has a higher hook-up rate with the smaller Kahle hook he is using.

We wanted to have both mullet and pogies available to use as bait. I’d use one and the captain would use the other. On the way to Ponce Inlet as the sun was about to rise, we eased the boat over to the shoreline and cast-netted several mullet. After clearing the inlet, we netted our pogies from a good-sized pod of baitfish not being harassed by tarpon. We hooked our mullet behind the dorsal fin and the pogies were hooked just ahead of the eye socket. If we later found the tarpon had a preference, we could double up on the same bait. Every hour or so, we netted a few fresh pogies and liberally chummed with weak ones from the livewell.

Open up and say “Ah.”

As backup for our live bait should we run out and not be able to net more, we had a couple of soft-plastic lures. A swim-bait closely resembled a mullet and a glow-colored DOA Baitbuster was our pogy substitute. These lures are basically ½- to ¾-ounce jigs with soft-plastic bodies that resemble the baitfish we hoped to imitate. The artificial lures were rigged on 7-foot medium/fast-action spinning rods with 5000-series spinning reels filled with 20-pound Spectra braid. The leader was 5 feet of 20-pound fluorocarbon followed by a 2-foot piece of 60-pound fluorocarbon. Rigged in this manner, the soft-plastic lures could be cast long distances.

Good numbers of tarpon are off the beaches in east/central Florida from late-May through October, as they are along Florida’s Gulf of Mexico shores. As long as water temperatures remain 75 degrees or more, they will stay in the area and search for food. An unusual wrinkle to the Atlantic-side fishing, however: If a cold-water upwelling occurs, the tarpon fishery on the beach shuts down and they move to find warmer water. Along Volusia County beaches, for instance, it’s common for hundreds of tarpon to move through Ponce Inlet into the backwaters where water temps remain at 80 to 85 degrees. Tarpon fishing will be hot for a week or so inshore until the upwelling subsides and then the tarpon return beachside to their preferred habitat.

Shrimper by-catch a few miles out is sure to hold tarpon.

When asked what his favorite month was to fish off the beach for tarpon, Lemmon didn’t have a preference.

“In early-summer we often get days with a light west wind and the surface will be glassy off the beach. It is easy to find a school of a hundred or more tarpon lounging on the surface with their fins exposed waiting for the next pod of baitfish to move northward up the coast. In late-summer, shrimp boats drag their nets in the area and big schools of tarpon gather behind them feeding on the bycatch they dump overboard. Again, it’s easy to find the shrimp boats, and in turn, the tarpon. In early fall, we have a strong run of mullet down the east coast. Winds will typically be higher than in summer months and you have to pick your days if you’re fishing from a small boat, but tarpon will definitely be feeding on passing pods of baitfish.”

I next asked him how he picked which days he would go offshore in his flats boat to fish for tarpon.

“I prefer seas in the 1- to 2-foot range for an 18-foot flats boat like mine. I will sometimes do two to threes, if the winds are light. I don’t go out in anything more than that. It’s fishable to about the 4-foot range for larger boats, but after that it’s a no go even for them.” He continued, “If we get a few days of extremely high seas, such as those caused by a tropical storm, it will push the baitfish in close to the beach and the tarpon will follow in big numbers. Fishing can be epic as soon as it gets down into the 2- to 4-foot range and boats can safely get out to find them.”

And how do go about finding them? A lot of coastline stretches north and south of the Inlet that needs to be searched.

“The key thing to remember is you have to have something that will hold tarpon in an area so you can have a chance to fish for them. In east/central Florida, it will either be shrimp boats or bait pods. Tarpon move up and down the coast in the 30- to 70-foot range searching for food. They can range for many miles and finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack. If bait pods are in close to the beach, the tarpon will be following them. Look for birds diving or sitting on the water and you’ll know baitfish are nearby. If shrimp boats are congregated a little further out dumping their bycatch, you’ll see birds in the air diving to pick up floating baitfish. Tarpon also take advantage of the easy meal and will be feeding on the drifting bycatch, too. Regardless, you need one or the other. If not, you can scour for hours and never find anything.”

“And what about getting through the Inlet?” I asked. I was pretty sure he couldn’t safely get his flats boat offshore except under the best of conditions.

“You must check the tide tables to find out in which direction water will be flowing when you want to go through the inlet. I typically go out when the tide turns and just starts to flow back in. When that happens the inlet will have a minor swell but it will be very easy to run in a small boat.” He went on to add, “Equally important, I always make sure I return no later than halfway through the outgoing tide. Ponce Inlet gets too rough for small boats to come back in on the last half of the outgoing tide. It will stack up with 4- to 6-foot rollers that are close together and it is extremely dangerous to play around in that.”

My mullet, which had been swimming around with seeming indifference, was now starting to tug and pull erratically. It seemed in a hurry to get somewhere other than where it was. And then the line tightened and the rod tip was nearly pulled into the water. I cranked the handle of the spinning reel several turns and set the hook hard. I kept the rodtip raised so I would be able to lower it when the tarpon jumped… which it did several times in short order.

Hooked up and hanging on, with a buddy at the helm to keep from losing all the line.

We landed this tarpon and two others before dashing back to the inlet so we could safely make our passage. We managed to jump half a dozen silver kings, all on live bait, over the course of the morning and estimated their weights to range from 40 to 75 pounds. Although anyone with a boat seaworthy enough to get out and back through an inlet can fish the bait pods along the beach and behind the shrimp boats for tarpon, we saw only one other boat doing so.

Before you decide to join us, however, a few words of caution are in order. Check the tide charts before you leave and don’t try running through an inlet in a small boat except when it is safe to do so. It goes without saying that you need to have the necessary life jackets and safety gear. You’ll need some way to signal if you need help because you will not likely have left a trip plan with anyone. You don’t know whether you’ll be going north or south along the beach or out to the shrimp boats after clearing the inlet… and if you don’t know where you are going to be fishing, nobody else does, either. So make sure your signal flares are up to date. You’ll also want to take along a cell phone because reception will likely be good as close as you will be to the beach. But just in case, take a radio, too.

After we cleared Ponce Inlet, we saw birds working hard to our south. As we moved toward them, we were close enough to see cars and people moving along the beach. We knew, however, that tarpon were clearly the “king of the beach.”

FS

First published in Florida Sportsman Magazine, August, 2011.

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With these useful devices, stopping the boat is just the start.

I first got a look at what is now generally known as the power anchor many years ago on the flats of Tampa Bay, where a young engineer by the name of John Oliverio invited me on a fishing trip to view an invention he had come up with. He called it the Power Pole.

It was easy to see the advantage of the device immediately, but I’d guess even Oliverio at that time had no idea just how successful the product would become. Not only are power anchors now standard equipment on all well-equipped flats boats, but most tournament bass boats sport a pair of them on the transom. For shallow water fishing, most anglers readily admit they’d be lost without their “sticks.” Today, Minn Kota’s Talon competes with the Power Pole, and there are thousands and thousands of both on the waterways all across the nation.

The obvious purpose is to anchor the boat, and in depths to 10 feet—or 12 on the Minn Kota—they do this very well indeed.
With the touch of a remote, you can stop the boat quickly and quietly, with no rattle of chains, and no load of mud and grass hauled aboard when you’re ready to move. But the anchors have some other useful purposes as well.

First is simply to replace the dock line—rather than tying up at most docks, anglers can now simply drop the pole or poles and secure the boat instantly. The advantage of using two poles is that the boat can be suspended a few inches away from the dock—unlike with a line, it won’t hammer against the structure if hit by boat wakes. Very handy at the launch ramp.

Second, the poles can be used to slow a drift in areas where blind casting is effective, as in a broad sand hole with no obvious target. By dropping the poles just enough to scrape bottom, the effects of wind or tide can be reduced considerably. (This is not a good plan on rock or coral, because the pole makes quite a bit of noise dragging over hard surfaces, nor on grass, where the spike jerks a narrow trail of grass out of the bottom.)

With two poles, it’s possible to control the drift of the boat. Drop the right pole and the bow will swing right. Drop the left and the bow goes left. Combined with the steering effect of the lower unit of the outboard, this allows completely silent control of the drift of the boat, handy when you’re in areas where the fish are so spooky that even the trolling motor may put them off their feed. Or you can drift the boat sideways, allowing the angler on the back deck a good shot at fish ahead. (Some boats drift this way with motor and poles tilted up, some don’t.)

Power Pole also offers a “drift sock” that can be attached to the composite shaft, allowing the boat to be slowed in water too deep for the poles to reach bottom.

Many expert flats anglers drift with their poles lowered to just a few inches off bottom. This way, when they spot a fish, the pole has a very short travel before it sticks and stops the boat—much faster and quieter than from the full-up position.

Power Pole offers a downrigger attachment, built on AFTCO’s Roller-Troller Outrigger Clip, which lets you drop a trolling lure down the length of the pole to pull a bait or lure deep—a useful setup when you take your flats boat off the beach to look for a few kings or Spanish, among other species.

There’s even a lightweight “Micro” model these days, designed for kayaks and light jon boats, with a removable spike for easy transport. For more info, visit www.power-pole.com or www.minnkotamotors.com. FS

First published Florida Sportsman November 2015

 

Recent offshore fishing reports from the Southeast region.

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Personal Best Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: GRSC

I have my brother in town and went out this afternoon to attempt a repeat of yesterday’s magical day. Well, fell short by 30 pounds but 48 is still respectable and his personal best.

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Tournament Fun

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeadjustment

We decided to try a rattle jet for the shotgun and a few ballys and bonita strip. In about 240 feet a few small mahi hit the spread and was really cool to see some jumps with 2 fish on, a bit frantic but landed them both and kept one, nothing major but thankful once again for some mahi action and meat for our table.

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Boca Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: MGD

We had two doubles and caught one of those, also had a triple and got all three. All fish hit ballyhoos with either a sail lure or a small notcho or rattle jet.

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Finding the Phins

Florida Sportsman member: CAPTAIN KABUK

I took the wife out dolphin fishing, found nice line in about 1000 feet of water, and got five nice dolphin from 8 to 13 pounds.

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A Wahoo Surprise

Florida Sportsman member: Mike Butcher

I get Jody baited up with a live Sardine and she flips it out 20 feet from the side of the boat. A Wahoo skyrockets 5 feet out of the water next to the boat and it was game on. I’m waiting any minute for the line to go slack since we are using 40 pound fluorocarbon leader. After 45 minutes the fish is within gaffing range and I get a great head shot.

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Fort Pierce Offshore Bite

Florida Sportsman member:BacDoc

Grunt chunks and sardines have been my bait of choice, live goggle eye caught some nice ones too. I use a long leader, 15 feet of 40 pound fluorocarbon and a circle hook for the snapper. The best bite has been when tide is running the right direction from the south with lite ESE wind. The bite has been the best when tide has us using 4 to 8 ounces to hold bottom.

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Full Moon Snapper Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: FISHHUNTR

Headed to a spot in 25 feet I hadn’t fished since last year; marks on the machine indicate some life so lines in around 1:30am. Depsite not having any chum the fishing was good, baits were getting thumped not long after hitting bottom. I caught a 28 & 26 inch mutton right off the bat and a few legal mangos and some short muttons.

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Working for the Bite

Florida Sportsman member: lunkerman

There were a lot of nice fish (including a 25 pound bull) hanging around the boat for another 3 to 5 minutes but they were the smart ones and wouldn’t eat.

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Day Saver

Florida Sportsman member: Del Mar

We started on the hill, with the current ripping at seven MPH, tuna were deep at 200 plus feet. Trolled the 80 foot line. Nice weed line but no bites. Bottom fished by black condo when a cobia came up to boat. The fish ate a bucktail jig and 25 minutes later we landed a 30 pound cobia.

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Money in the Bank

Florida Sportsman member: Ryanmc6884

Started trolling off of Boynton heading North. Got a king early on to get the team fired up and in gear. Next up was the grown man as buddy buddy calls the wahoo. Started screaming on the planer. After lines all cleared she popped up on the surface to make life a little easier.

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Yellowfin for the Kids

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

Went over to the channel this past weekend. Joseph wanted to put one of his little buddies on the tuna.The bite was tough in the channel as you’ve seen from several reports but we did manage to bend some rods and bring home three 60 to 70 pounders and a couple of smaller fish.

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Jupiter Phins

Florida Sportsman member: SonarSup

After that I decided since the bite seemed to be in the 400 to 500 foot range we should stay there. I turned back out to 500 feet. Got to 500 turned around and started heading back to 400 and saw a large green turtle with about four dolphin under him.

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Wife’s Biggest

Florida Sportsman member: Barrell

I had my fingers crossed but I had a feeling the wind would be more then predicted. Anyway lines in ,fish on ,and she reels in her biggest mahi to date. She was thrilled and the winds were picking up so I turned back toward the inlet and called it a day.

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Solo Bull

Florida Sportsman member: Aftershock

It’s been a month since my last trip and was well rewarded for the long wait. It was kinda ugly in the am but the phone radar showed it was going to clear. Trolled all morning to no avail between 280 and 420 feet, strong current and blue water. Found a slight rip in 300 feet off Jupiter and at high noon the flatline goes off.

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The Maiden Voyage

Florida Sportsman member: CNTDR

Within about 10 minutes of trolling the long starboard reel starts screaming, rod is bent over double, and all the wire is off the reel leaving only about 50 yards of the backing. I was worried that the wire to mono connection would break, fortunately we remained tight and after about 15 minutes we slid that wahoo thru the transom door and the congratulations began.

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Bahamian Hoo’s

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

We checked in, topped off and got out hunting. Looking for the right conditions led us north of Memory. Pounded that area between 100 and 400 feet, running big lures at 15 knots. We steadily picked at them and put eight fish in the box (seven hoos and one fat king).

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Patterning Them

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

I think the fishing is in a good pattern right now, the steady dose of light north winds have finally allowed us to develop a pattern. The sails are moving in nice packs from 110 to 130 and 180 to 210 feet. Mixed in are the usual kingfish, Mahi and some cobias on the flat (deep) rods.

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Port Everglades Action

Florida Sportsman member: brianuf5220

We pull up and my wife snags a wahoo on a vertical jig under the mouth. Bar jacks were everywhere and could not keep baits away. I decided to jump in, saw about 25 to 30 wahoo under the water that would stay deep, but come up to the surface every now and then. I shot a dolphin, rainbow runner and a triple tail (Federal Waters).

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Palm Beach Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

The beach has spinner sharks migrating down it so its a great way to hear action. 10 to 20 feet from breakers to dodge wall is holding large schools of sharks. 20 pound spinning gear makes it a blast. In the mix we managed a 39 pound cobia and lots and lots of sails.

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PBI Sailfish Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Capt Tommy

A little while later another fish came up on the same short kite. Also aggressive he ate in one bite and headed for the long bait. This one I was ready for and came tight quickly. He didn’t even skip a beat. Despite me pulling on him he took drag right to the long kite bait. I tried winding it out of the way but he inhaled it. Holy cow!

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Breaking Marina Records

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

Action was off the condos in 130 to 150 feet, with 143 being the hot number. Goggle eyes were getting pounded all day and we broke off a few and had some 30 plus pound fish sharked, but managed a 42 and 45 pounder on the marina scale and broke our current record.

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Making it Happen

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

I had a chance to get on a 306 Grady white,just like my old boat, with long time friends Deep Dropper and Jim. The forecast was sporty, but we decided to try to get across for a half day.

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SLI Action

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Two minutes later we had a HOT sail lit up behind our daisy chain. It was lit up and going back and forth between dredge, chain and pitch. I pulled chain away, Fred expertly dropped back, sail ate, was in air, jumped twice and we were tight!

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Dinner Guests

Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer

Saw some reports recently of some nice tripletail being caught and thought I wouldn’t mind inviting a few home for dinner. Sunday we headed out with my dad and brother and the first spot we pull up too yields a nice seven pound tripletail.

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New Years Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Lazy Bones

Pretty good swell with chop on top for the ride home, luckily we were cruising in the troughs. Lucky enough to see the first two sunrise and sunsets of 2016 from the boat and catch some good fish go along. Hopefully it’s a good omen for the rest of the year.

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Boynton Bull

Florida Sportsman member: Reel Retreat

I thought I saw a huge flash of mahi blue but wasn’t sure so I didn’t wanna get my hopes up. But when I saw a cow around 10 to 15 pounds hit the other line as we were clearing I knew then it was a pair and this thing put on a show.

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SLI Tunas

Florida Sportsman member: Maribella

Another pass and I’m in the process of setting a rigger bait in the clip and the line starts smoking for a few seconds then nada. It turns out it was a blue marlin that went over to our other rigger bait and popped off before we had much to say about it. It did put on a nice show on the surface as he was greyhounding away though.

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Bull in the Inflatable

Florida Sportsman member: b1gdog83

I caught and release a few more slingers. I came across some type of blue plastic 15 gallon bucket/drum. I trolled passed it and get hit (big bull) on my 12 pound test spinning rod. I was losing line fast and was afraid I was going to get spooled. I was by myself so I had to back down and fight the fish at the same time.

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Southeast Mixed Bag

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

We set up shop at about 7am, and within two minutes we had a nice gaffer in the box.
We reset and get SMOKED, this time it’s a nice king. Put em back out and a stud Wahoo misses the first time, then comes back at 50mph and gets it!

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Evening Bite off Boynton

Florida Sportsman member: bluechip

I’m on the reel and start reeling like crazy as he’s definitely eaten it by now. The clip pops, I come tight, he goes crazy. We were treated to a very nice show for 10 minutes and had him to the boat.

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Maiden Voyage Success

Florida Sportsman member: dpdash

Found great conditions in 200′ and put a couple of ballyhoo’s out. Ended up finding an incredible edge with huge mats and flyers in 600′ with nobody around. After 15 minutes we found a few dollies and a little tuna for sashimi.

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Southeast Bottom Bite

Florida Sportsman member: colossalcatch

We headed over to another spot that is known to have some big gags and blacks all over it. Set back up and threw out some flat lines and started bending rods , once again muttons and mangos were hitting the deck.

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Jupiter Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: Black Attack

Crew wanted to make a run for it, so offshore we headed to the swordfish grounds. Before we even got our full spread out, the long feather chain gets nailed and gaffer Mahi on. Landed the fish in short order and reset our spread.

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Hoos on the Other Side

Florida Sportsman member: paulboat

Long story short, we worked hard for it. Water was dirty, got one north of Sandy and the rest at the corner where we found clean fishy water.

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Inflatable Phins

Florida Sportsman member: b1gdog83

On the way back in we stopped at those same weed lines we saw on the way out and caught two 8 pound fins. We had the school around the boat a couple times but just like the fins under the wooden crate they seemed lethargic and were not hungry.

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Weekend Recap

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Managemnt

The action started in 140 and was hot all day from 70-130 feet from trump to breakers. We were able to hook lots of fish and the lady anglers did their best and we captured four nice fish over three hours. They were able to get 4th place dolphin and 4th place King however the prize money was paid only three prizes.

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First Place Hoo

Florida Sportsman member: 1974Donzi

The fish was brought to the boat quickly and we didn’t realize it was a wahoo until it was right next to the boat. Fish was landed (21.6 lbs) and total chaos broke out on the boat! Sarah knew right then and there that she got her first wahoo and possibly first ladies tournament win. She lost her voice from screaming she was so excited!

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Fish on the Weeds

Florida Sportsman member: Mike Butcher

It didn’t look like anything was on it, so we threw a weighted mullet under it and counted to 10. Both of us came tight on fins and got them in the boat. We also caught one triple tail on a live mullet.

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First Place Phin

Florida Sportsman member: Chasentailz

So we made the call to run past the fleet. Got about 12 miles out and found a slick with some decent weeds on it. Started chunking and in no time a school of nice sized dolphin were everywhere.

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Father and Son Time

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

We made it to Old Bahama Bay in under two hours, topped off the gas tank, cleared customs, got our slip, set up our lines, shore power etc. We then untied around 2pm and went out to catch dinner.

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A Bakers Dozen

Florida Sportsman member: LET’S GO

We catch two or three more and work for some time and it was either quiet or the bells are ringing as we ended up with a baker’s dozen of decent size dolphin. They are not all that big but they are easy to clean and very tasty, we threw back several that did not meet the size limit and hopefully the next trip out they will still be around and have grown considerably and put up a lot more fight.

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New Marina Record

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

110 feet just south of Juno today, 4 inch micro goggle eye on 12 pound spinning gear, customer fought it for 30 minutes. Was 54 in the boat and after 2 hours weighed 49.89 on sailfish marina tournament scale.

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Birthday Hoo’

Florida Sportsman member: 1974Donzi

Justin just turned 21 years old and wanted a big wahoo for his birthday. Started off high speed trolling at 5:30. No hits so I change it up to mullets at 6:00. I noticed there were plenty of flying fish everywhere so I put out a white and blue islander over a big split tail mullet on the shot gun line about 400 feet behind the boat. As I was setting up other lines, the shotgun line starts screaming.

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Southeast Offshore Bite

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Ran out to the deep and found SICK conditions like Bill and others saw. Thousands of baits, acres of mats and starving dolphin.We caught 10 schoolies before we found the bigger fish and boxed several nice gaffers in the 15 to 20 pound range.

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Summertime Phins

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

Nice temperature break in about 120 to 150 feet out there with a color change. There are schools of dolphin and big dolphin around it. We’re averaging about 12 fish per charter. Get out there and get you some.

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Deep Water Gold

Florida Sportsman member: catch’emall

We decided to sneak out for half-a-day between storms and try our luck on tilefish. It took us a while to find a hungry colony, but worth the effort. Ended up with my first double header and our limit of five.

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Bahamas Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Forum member e-money and friends got into a hot wahoo bite off of west end. Six bites in an hour, with four coming to the boat. Nice!

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Dodging the Storms

Florida Sportsman member: BigNiner19

We had a nice knock down but didn’t stay hooked and have no idea what it was. Then after a driver switch and turn back south the drag starts screaming. Brought up a real nice black fin tuna. This fish was not leader shy one bit.

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Fishing for a Cause

Florida Sportsman member: Jfenn10

We decided for Saturday’s Bigdog Fatcat we were gonna fish some other spots south. Well it turns out it was the right move, we killed it. We ended up with 9 kings from 11 to 26.7 pounds, a short cobia, 4 keeper muttons up to 4.5 pounds, bonita, and some other bottom dwellers.

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SLI Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: LET’S GO

We then headed East to deeper water and found some promising changes in the surface and we deployed our live bait, we did some chumming and quickly gathered some large sharks behind the boat with a few good size cobia.

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Stuart Sails and More

Florida Sportsman member: Captain Dave

Back out to a different edge in 135, toss one bait out, went to grab the second rod and I look back to see a sail already chasing our first bait in the water. Talk about stopping on top of one!

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First Place Phin

Florida Sportsman member: Seamanator561

I slowly bring the fish close enough for Mike to reach out and stick a perfect gaff shot right in the melon. As him and Yoan fight to bring him into the boat is when I realize how big he really is. We get him on the deck and reality sets it!

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Fish Filled Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer

We moved deeper to 200-300 feet, no bites. Well we thought no bites. As we reeled in the deep rod it had a small blackfin tuna attached to it. Weird thing was he wasn’t hooked. The circle hook just around his tail. We must have been dragging in backward for a long time because he came in dead as a door nail.

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SLI Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: LastMango

Forum member LastMango got into some cobia off Stuart in 65 feet. Bull Sharks were the ticket to success for these fish.

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Treasure Coast Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: P@t

“Lots of life in 65 feet, so we lowered the riggers and started trolling. First knock down was at 7:20, small gaffer fin. Reset and continued to work a rip, south. Second knock down shortly after, spooled us before we could get control…”

Want to catch dolphin like this? Click here for how-to videos, feature stories, and more.

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An Adventure to Costa Rica

Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer

Got the chance to venture down to Costa Rica in March to get away from work and do a little fishing. Fished with Tranquilo Charters out at the FADs. Ended up getting my first marlin and roosterfish. Got a lot of bites from marlin but being the noob that I am to marlin fishing most came unglued.

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SlI Sailfish Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Sea Monkey Too

Quickly caught 3 dozen baits and headed out to 270 feet. Wasn’t long before we had a double header sailfish. We got one and mine spit the hook. Soon after that settled down we had yet another double header sailfish hookup. This time we got both to the boat.

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SlI Marlin

Florida Sportsman member: LET’S GO

They trolled around for a bit and at the end of the day were able to score a few decent dolphin, a couple of skippies and the prize of the day, a marlin.

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Dolphin for All

Florida Sportsman member: sam50

I spot a frigate and Capt. Adam puts us in the area as 2 live gogs were sent out to slow troll along, didn’t take long and big bull is jumping behind the boat. Ian was aboard today and never caught a dolphin, so the rod was passed to him and he did a sweet job leading that fish right to the gaff.

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Southeast Phins

Florida Sportsman member: SammyT

Decided we might as well pull a spread during our beer drinking adventure. Ended up with 4 dolphin. Smaller 3 in the 28-30 inch range, and the big one went 43 pounds. There wasn’t a favorite bait among the fish today.

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Great Trip to the Other Side

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Ran about 15 miles off and I spotted a bundle of balloons and floats then Ryan spotted the right frigate!
On the third pass I look back and see 4 20 to 30 pound phins chasing the spread! All 4 rods go off, but we went 2 for 4 with a 20 plus pound cow and about a 25 pound bull!

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SLI Solo

Florida Sportsman member: Maribella

Headed out of town for a week so figured I better slip offshore this morning. Some beautiful edges with weed out there in various depths. I opted for one in 235 feet and had two sail releases on flatlined greenies within the first 90 minutes before things got quiet.

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Sushi for All

Florida Sportsman member: footankleg

The flocks were far and few but persistence paid off and we had a triple header on. Two of the fish got cutoff either by sharks or wahoo but I luckily stayed tight to my fish. The battle was outstanding and made me promise to start doing lower back exercises.

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Southeast Bull

Florida Sportsman member: Pensacola

The day started off slow only had one phin in the box by 1pm. We then found a sweet edge with some grass and it was on! We went 8 for 10 on dolphin in 2 hours then the edge dissolved.

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Big Tuna off Palm Beach

Florida Sportsman member: frigategetsfish

After practically stopping the boat and locking the drag on this fish otherwise he would have spooled my 50 wide tiagra I start cranking the fish in which took about 30 minutes of pain and agony to get to the shock cord. The fish was almost directly straight down when I noticed the wings of the yellowfin tuna.

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Hillsboro Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: jtluongo

Two for 4 on sails just south of Hillsboro inlet in about 150 feet of water. They were hitting everything, pilchards, flying gogs, weighted gogs, you name it.

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Palm Beach Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

The wind overpowered the current so it kept us moving south and we fished our majority of the time just south of the breakers. We seem to float between 180 and 350 feet of water, although we really weren’t paying attention because it was really nonstop action.

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Birthday Fishin’

Florida Sportsman member: Lori Jo Fishing

Today was Cayden’s birthday so were looking for a birthday phin or hoo. We cleared the inlet to nice flat seas. About an hour in the planer pops and Cayden starts reeling gets tight and bring it to the boat. That was his first fish on the wire line. It was a nice one the biggest of the day.

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Southeast Bull

Florida Sportsman member: Bow Movement

Forum member Bow movement reported a slow weekend of fishing, but the few bites they had were good ones.

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Hillsboro Bite

Florida Sportsman member: dpdash

There were several very nice triple tails but we couldn’t get a bait to them though the hundreds of jacks and triggerfish. After 30 minutes of trying I finally was able to get a bait to the biggest one. Two jumps and he threw the hook, bummer for sure. Trolled a bit more and made several drops with only some very large Rosie’s to show, no love from the tiles.

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Boynton Beach Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: First Born

Nothing on the troll, but after a few drops at the tile grounds we got a 17 pounder, headed shallow and picked up a grey tile as well. We trolled home, seeing a lot of flyers and birds and ended up with 10 footballs and 3 average phins. Good times! Phins and tuna were landed around 200 to 350 feet.

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Harbour Island Trip

Florida Sportsman member: Off The Wall

After slowing the boat and pushing the drag way up the rod was bowed way over and we all thought we were going to have a really nice wahoo. Well on the leader that wahoo turned into a 70 pound class yellowfin. The tunas around Harbour Island are known for eating only live bait, but this one wanted a blue and white islander on cable going 18mph.

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Offshore Slammin’

Florida Sportsman member: ScottR

Got to 120 foot and the right long goes off like a firecracker, but no run. As we are discussing whether we wanted to keep this ‘bonito’ for strip baits, and the angler is cranking like a banshee, we see stripes! Here comes the hoo!

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Jupiter Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: Roc N Rol

We headed out to the bait grounds and managed to get a couple dozen goggle eyes. After the sun came up we headed south to the kingfish fleet in 70 feet off of Juno pier and joined the masses. We got our limit of Kings from 30 to 36 inches and then headed out to try our luck deep dropping for golden tilefish.

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Southeast Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: snapahead

We started drifting in 110 feet off the breakers and dropped goggle eyes half way down. Hooked up these 2 slobs back to back.

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February Phins

Florida Sportsman member: Bencarr

I was able to convince the captain to go out again and we almost had to turn around at the BIG inlet. We caught another 6 phins in very sporty conditions. 5 of the 6 were in the 10 to 12 pound range.

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SLI Daytiming

Florida Sportsman member: shady business

I asked the guys if they wanted to reset or head in and drop for some tilefish and they all wanted to reset so we did and it’s good thing we did. We hooked up within minutes of dropping and then the tug of war began. The next fish finally came to the surface and we could tell it was a much larger fish. Another harpoon shot and we drug her into the boat.

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West End Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Lazy Bones

The seas were nice and we were able to put 4 in the box by 10:30 or so before heading back to Old Bahama Bay to meet some friends and have some lunch. Trolled from OBB to Sandy, nothing doing. Pulled in and reset N of Memory. The wind has swung around and it was a little bumpier and wetter, but we managed another 2.

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Cat Cay Day Trip

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

Forum member Paulboat and friends got across the the “other side” recently and put a hurting on the fish. Nice work!

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Small Boat, Big Fish

Florida Sportsman member: SkunkLife

Forum member SkunkLife didn’t need a big offshore boat to get out there and catch some sailfish recently. Drifting live baits was the technique used to catch the fish from his Carolina Skiff j16.

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Sails and Dolphin off Jupiter

Florida Sportsman member: millerlightdrinker

“I’ve been fortunate to fish the last few weekends, live baiting off of Jupiter. We have been catching sails and dolphin pretty consistently similar to other reports on this forum. I had the awesome experience of watching my daughters both catch their first sailfish…”

Want to catch dolphin & sailfish like these guys? Click here for how-to videos, feature stories, and more.

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Fun in Costa Rica

Florida Sportsman member: SLW UroCane

We went 13 for 15 on sails, with a few on fly. Lots of big mahi. A few YFTs that made for some sashimi. We also bottom fished, dropping to about 405 ft and landed a nice red snapper and a few blue-line tiles, which tasted absolutely incredible whole fried that night!

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Family Weekend in West End

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

She came up to me and wondered how come I’ve never taken her wahoo fishing… “It’s too hard for you to reel,” I said. “I’ve seen your videos and those big electric reels,” she replied. “It can get a bit boring if we’re just running around looking for a bite,” I said. “I’m patient, I’ll bring a book and some magazines.

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Girls Day Out

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

It was kind of sloppy and grew as the day went on. We put one of the girls on her first sailfish. A big one! So we ended up taking a quickie photo and then a nice slow clean release. We grabbed a mahi and then a mutton when the girls said they weren’t feeling too good. So we went in a little early.

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Limiting Out on Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Hooklesslure

Turns out we never ran out for dolphin because we were catching up wahoo all morning on the out going tide. The current was running south and a front was visible just to the north. We were fishing with two wire lines and a 80 wide with braid and a variety of trolling lead from 16 to 48 ounces.

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Jupiter Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: RockNReeler

Becky wanted to catch some tuna, so we headed northeast of the inlet and started trolling tuna lures and a cedar plug. I had been successful here about two weeks ago, and wasn’t disappointed today. 10 minutes into the troll in 250 feet of water one, then two, rods start screaming, fish on!

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Wahoo Proposal

Florida Sportsman member: gray

As I was setting up my next bait the customer asked me to stop and video him proposing. Caught me off guard at first but it turned out pretty cool. They were really excited. We packed up and reset off the condos and got hit by a nice wahoo in 120 feet.

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Catching on the Other Side

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

The first pass 1 minute after lines were in we had a nice little gaffer and a schoolie. We reset and bam 15 to 20 pound gaffer and another schoolie. 15 minutes in we were 5 for 7 . We left em biting to hunt for wahoo.

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A First for a New Friend

Florida Sportsman member: Captain Dave

About two minutes after I was just joking and saying to Rob “I promise we’re doing everything right”, I see a sailfish out of the corner of my eye pop up on the outrigger ballyhoo. He was on it like stink on a monkey, and after a quick drop-back it was GAME ON!

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Mission Accomplished

Florida Sportsman member: dpdash

Didn’t get the third line out in 225 feet when the sail took off with the deep line. After a spirited fight, sail came up tail wrapped, quick pic with Trevor’s first billfish then some resuscitation, colors came back quickly and away he went.

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A Summer to Remember

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

Forum member Jupiter Double D’s put together an awesome video of some memorable moments from this summer. With big fish caught and some great spearfishing, it was definitely a summer to remember. Nice work!

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Summer Recap

Florida Sportsman member: AFT561

Been quite busy with work and tournaments this season so I haven’t had much time, but I was finally able to put together a few videos of what we were up to this summer. Big tuna, sails, mahi, kingfish, big wahoo, the whole summer shindig wrapped up into 2 videos.

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Mahi and More

Florida Sportsman member: ScottR

Went back on the troll and all of a sudden, it went off! Singles, doubles, triples, it was a crime scene and the Mahi were on the “hit list”. We couldn’t go 10 minutes without fish pounding the spread.

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Jupiter Offshore Action

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

No wahoo in the AM so we live baited and caught a bunch of different fish till about 10:30 then the bite shut off. We had some cool sailfish action and it was the customers first! We also had some kingfish around early. Took one to the scale and it stood in 2nd place.

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Stuart Sail

Florida Sportsman member: rgambotz

We started the troll at 200 feet and kept the heading until we hit 300 feet, we saw 2 huge hammerheads cruising right past the boat and then 2 minutes later we see the left long line bounce once, twice and then bam fish on. A sail hit the black and purple bubbler and gives us a few jumps and then comes boat side.

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Hoo on the Troll

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeadjustment

I put out a tuna spread in 150 feet or so and headed deeper, just wanting to nail a decent blackfin. Trolled some known spots for tuna but we did not get any hits, saw a nice jumping sail fish which was very cool but no takers on our rigs.

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Woohoo for Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: 1974Donzi

Forum member 1974Donzi has been on the wahoo. Fishing off of Palm Beach, catching multiple big “hoo’s”. High speed trolling has been the ticket for these fish.

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Big Jupiter Hoo

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

In 150 feet of water off Jupiter the 80 wide starts screaming. A LONG RUN, which was good because it gave us time to clear the other 2 lines. Had to switch to low gear to get her in. After what seemed like eternity and my worry of the sharks biting her in half on the way in, I grab the leader and Derek sinks the gaff!

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Palm Beach Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Forum member e-money has been getting out there and putting clients on the fish! Catching kingfish, cudas and other species, the rods are always bent. Tight work.

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Costa Rica Trip

Florida Sportsman member: Dominic74

As soon as we saw it jump we couldn’t believe what was happening, we were hooked up on a Pacific Blue Marlin! and it was awesome! I fought him for an hour and a half and over two miles, all stand up, except for a few times I leaned up against the chair, my back was killing me. We leadered him 4 times before we got him close enough to take a few pictures.

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The Bahamas Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Chips Ahoy Charters

Been on other side for past few weekends. Tuna and mahi fishing is still pretty good over there in the channel. Weather has been great along with the fishing. Fished over there last weekend had some nice yellowfins, big blackfins, and some pretty good deep dropping on the way home.

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Saint Lucie Sails

Florida Sportsman member: DropBack

The fish tail walked from about 100 feet behind the boat and ended up way out in front when she finally settled back into the water. My girlfriend had no idea what she was in for, she fought it for about an hour like a pro and finally got it boat side.

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Two Weeks in Paradise

Florida Sportsman member: dpdash

One day bottom fishing, one of the boys left a rod leaning against the gunnel with a bait in the water, all of a sudden Christi shouts the rod just went over! I look over the side and it is sinking out of sight, I jumped in and swam down about 10 feet and grabbed it. Despite a good rinse, it wouldn’t work the rest of the trip.

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Harassing the Hoo’s

Florida Sportsman member: Hooklesslure

Clayton says it feels like a big fish and as soon as we see the mouth we knew we had good one. Clayton brings the fish close, Dale maneuvers the boat and I sink the gaff into this huge wahoo. I finally get this wahoo over the gunnel and we all could not believe the size of the fish.

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Setting the Bar High

Florida Sportsman member: Lobsterdb12

After a few drops and one AJ we decided to continue to trolling. Nephew reeled in his first Cuda so he was very excited. Caught and released the Cuda and continued trolling. Get a big knock down and we see a nice sail on, pops sets the hook and puts Isaac on the rod. He does a great job on the sail and we get him in the boat for a smooth catch and release.

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Dolphin Fishing with Dad

Florida Sportsman member: juliem

After scooping up about three or four balloons, we finally found what we were hoping for, a wooden pallet loaded with nice sized dolphin and triple tail. We were convinced that the reason we had such luck was because of our good deed of scooping up the balloons from the ocean.

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Stud Snapper out of Fort Pierce

Florida Sportsman member: FISHHUNTR

Great time with friends Adam and Ben last night, didn’t load the boat but we figure we hit the 50 pound mark with 8 fish.

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Monster Southeast Sail

Florida Sportsman member: kershel

After breaking our back with more reef donkeys go inside to about 70 feet. I watch my light tackle cobia rod’s bait getting slashed by a sail on top. I had no clue what I was in for the next hour and half. Released my personal best sail and on light tackle.

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Monster

Florida Sportsman member: Captain Dave

I asked John what he wanted to catch and the word “sailfish” was belted out immediately as he had never caught a sail before. Hmmm, summer time… two straight days of west winds… always love a challenge. Well alright, let’s go try and find a sailfish then!

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Southeast Night Bite

Florida Sportsman member: B Lang

Bait of choice has been a live cigar minnow or sardine. Earlier trips were a slow north current but the last two have been a steady south current, last night the ribbonfish ate us up but still managed a dozen and a half fat boys.

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Big Hoo’s Bring the Money

Florida Sportsman member: campertop

Broke the inlet and set up for our Wahoo target, about 45 minutes in to it we get the bite, short battle and number 1 in the boat. We make a circle and come back across the mark from the first and number 2 starts singing, Short while later number 2 is on the deck.

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Bruiser Blackfin out of Lake Worth

Florida Sportsman member: robgfish

The east wind pushed us inshore, so at 95 feet we decided to slow troll back out deeper keeping the kite up, at about 100 feet the long kite bait gets hit. We didn’t see the fish hit but could tell it was a solid fish. Took Scott around the boat a few laps, finally as it got closer we saw a flash of gold, sushi!

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Memorial Day Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

In around 100 feet of Jupiter a Canyon Gear skirt bally gets nailed and goes on a pretty good run. Ends up being a nice smoker king just under 30 pounds. Ok, the skunk is off. Continued trolling deep with no luck. Scattered weeds were a pain to deal with and really didn’t produce any strikes for us. So back in to the ledge when we get another hit on a swimming mullet in 150 feet off Juno.

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Taking Home the Win

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

We were immediately in 4 to 7 foot seas and stayed in shallow and it was still solid 7 to 9 with 10 to 12 footers mixed in. We kept the engines moving to keep the bow into it for a power drift with 4 live baits off the stern. 30 seconds into it in 70 feet we get the first strike.

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Big Bull and More

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Current ripping in 115 feet off lost tree, 24 pound cow eats left short and smacks the gog off hook. Wow she must be hungry because now the deep bait Is screaming! Did not know it was same fish for sure till I found 2 goggle eye in her belly at table. After a 20 minute battle and expert cooperation I Gaff her in the dome. We reset back to 200 feet and promptly jump off a 30 plus pound bull. Hold on a sec! He ate, jumped off and came back for left short! 30 minute battle and 59 inch 36.1 pound bull in the box!

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Hot Bahama Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Lazy Bones

The weather was less than favorable for radar so we fast trolled the area and picked off a 40 pound yellowfin. Found some nice weed and nabbed a 19 pound dolphin. Having caught 2 of the 3 targets, we decided to take advantage of the outgoing tide to try and pick off a wahoo. Same lure from last year came through again.

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Bahama Days and Big Fish

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

Forum member PaulBoat enjoyed a great weekend in the bahamas. Catching multiple Big yellowfins and more. Great fish! Now is the time to cross the Gulf Stream and catch some on the other side!

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Tripled Up out of Boca

Florida Sportsman member: bobert421

A big ray, with an 8 foot wing span at least swam up next to the boat to investigate. Then I hear “are those sharks with it?” No! There was a bunch of Cobia with him. I grab the closest bait and toss it over. A small one investigates first and I pull the bait away. Then one of the big ones inhales it. It was a rigged ballyhoo that he ate. After a good battle around the boat a nice Cobe joins the ice in the cooler.

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Kings and Cobes, Great Tournament Win

Florida Sportsman member: sam50

Gary grabs the rod and gets tight! We need to chase this king down, so anchor ball goes overboard as me, Justin, and Kirsten bring in kites, clear flat lines, Dalton is on the wheel and backing down. Well next thing you know we got 12 inches of water in the boat and sinking, as this whole boat is a live well. King gets close and we see a shark on it, makes a run under the boat and is wrapped up in the motors now.

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Killer Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Forum member e-money posted a solid report with a stud 58 inch, 46 pound cobia to top it off. Great fish!

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S.L.I. Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: scubadude

Forum member scubadude got into some nice dolphin out of the Saint Lucie inlet. He was trolling in 80 to 100 feet, dragging skirted ballyhoos. Nice work!

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Huge Jupiter Hoo

Florida Sportsman member: Tightlines2234

Around 10:45 the down rigger bait popped the clip and started a short run, at first we thought it was going to be a 20 pound class fish, that of course was before the fish realized it was hooked! After multiple runs and dumping hundreds of yards of 20 pound test off the Avet reel, we managed to get a glimpse of our fish, long silver and resembled that wahoo we wanted so badly. After 2 hours of an epic battle, we finally had the fish coming up, we finally had color and stripes! We sank the gaff first shot and had to use a second to hoist the wahoo over the side! What a monster!

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Smokers and Blackfins out of Palm Beach

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

About 15 minutes in the deep bait gets smacked! Get him up and it is a 35 pound class king, who was gaffed and welcomed to slush bath! The deep bait with stinger was “clutch”.

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A Good Springbreak

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

Derek wanted to head to Venice Marina for Spring Break. That place is phenomenal! Always delivers quality fishing! Can’t wait to go back this summer.

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Gaffers, Smokers and Big Blackfins

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

We ran south, and I put 3 on top and stealth break away deep. Within 3 minutes of lines in the deep bait gets smoked! We fight fish to the boat and it is a 20 something pound king! High Fives!

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Jigging Palm Beach

Florida Sportsman member: angryangler

Nice Mix of muttons, porgies, yellowtail, margate and other various undesirables on small vertical and Inchiku jigs. I love the challenge of artificial bait fishing and I spend a lot of time offshore trying to bag some of our areas live bottom species. Todays catch included several muttons, 6 but only two keepers, with one weighing in at 7.5 pounds.

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Solid Southeast Offshore Bite

Florida Sportsman member: AFT561

As we work our way into spring, so far it looks pretty promising. Our past few sessions have been loaded with big resident sailfish, nice to finally slow down a bit and fight a fish rather than working for double digits, nice Mahis, kingfish, and some blackfins in the mix too.

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“LET’S GO” Get Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: LET’S GO

In about 110 feet we deploy the lines and began our trolling to the east the the further the east we go, the bigger the waves, in about 180 feet I start a short video and we are interrupted by a fish on. At first he is a real screamer peeling off perhaps 150 yards of line. He gives up quickly and is boat side the gaff is and and he’s in the box.

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Southeast Kite Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

We ran up that way and ran out of baits both times, Had dual Boston Big game kites, each with 3 live baits and 4 flat lines. NON STOP king fish action. Kept one for the smoker and tossed the rest back, sky rocketing fish made everyone happy, we did find a few dolphin also that visited the kite baits too. Then on the way in we saw spinner sharks and hooked up the guys on 20 pound spinning tackle and had a blast with jumping sharks.

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Fort Pierce Phins

Florida Sportsman member: FISHHUNTR

I scanned to the south I saw a tern circling, so I headed over there. Once there as soon as I shut down we see a gaffer cow swim behind the boat which promptly inhaled the greenie we pitched out. Decided to just drift some livies and over the course of 35 minutes we pick up 2 more gaffers. Another 30 minutes goes by without a bite and the wind dwindled allowing seas to flatten out, feeling better about the conditions we headed back out deeper. In 150 feet we spot big mats formed up and saw a fin free jump near one, so we pitched out the baits and hook up with another gaffer and she had about a dozen (slingers) with her.

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SLI Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: Lori Jo Fishing

There was a nice edge with weeds in 200 feet but weeds made it tough working the inside. So about 9am we troll offshore. In about 800 feet the planer pops and drag starts screaming. A nice cow goes airborne 3 or 4 times. Wish the camera was rolling for that! Anyways got her to the boat and a perfect gaff shot by Chris, dolphin in the box.

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Cobias Out of Jupiter

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

I see something of color on top of the water of some pretty decent size maybe a ray, but not sure. So I stop quickly and begin the solo Chinese fire drill and deploy 2 runners and 1 dead sardine. I wanted Mr. sardine but I couldn’t catch him quick enough. Almost immediately the Penn SpinFisher V 5500 gets nailed on a blue runner and not even that small of a runner!

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“Lets Go” Get Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment

Proceed to open the bail to let him feed as it looked like he may have dropped it from his mouth, close bail and the line gets tight. I then fight the fish for several minutes trying not to horse him to the boat too quickly. He did a couple of decent runs where we saw he was a good size cobia but finally he ended up off the stern quarter and then off starboard side where Zach did a great gaff shot just as the fish began to swim away!

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Boynton Beach Bull and More

Florida Sportsman member: jokerj280

About 30 seconds later we hear the crack of the outrigger followed by that screaming drag that sends our adrenaline rushing. I look over and the rod is horizontal and dumping line fast! Grab it an give it one good hook set and the water explodes about 200 yards back. Knew it was a big dolphin but our guess was around 30 pounds. After about 25 minutes, multiple runs and aerials the fish was brought boat side. I back up to the opposite gunnel, Chris leaders the fish and hits him 1st shot right in the head. The fish that came over the rail was a lot bigger than the one in the water.

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Great Day Out of Palm Beach

Florida Sportsman member: Tori’S Toy

one of the kite baits gets nailed, sailfish! Our friend takes the rod for that one. thing is tail walking like crazy, then another kite bait gets slammed, another sail! two tail walkers. Then the ballon gog gets nailed, dolphin, triple header!

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Dolphin on the Drift

Florida Sportsman member: Salty_Cracker

Reset the drift in about 140 feet this time. Had something peel line off like crazy and break through the mono. Guessing king, but maybe a hoo seeing how fast he took the bait. Then had a dolphin double header. The cow spit the hook but we stuck this decent bull.

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Bay Boat Kings and Sails

Florida Sportsman member: Tightlines2234

The day started off slow but mid morning we found a sailfish sun bathing in 220 feet and managed to get hooked up. Worked hard all day in the sloppy conditions in my 19 key west and finally found some Kings willing to bite. First fish was a rat king caught on the downrigger and the next four were all 25 to 30 pound smokers caught on goggs. Total for the day 5 Kings and 1 Sail.

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Southeast Sheepshead and Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: bullchaser

Picked away at small snapper, seabass, and some other trash fish. Around 11 or so the flatline gets a little knock and then a nice run, captain sets the hook and its game on. Work this fish to the boat and ends his day in the kill box! First cobia of the season.

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Good Bottom Bite Out of SLI

Florida Sportsman member: Snookslayer772

Down goes a bait. It gets slammed and starts taking some good drag, I know what this is! Mr. Amberjack, I’m not complaining though. Right as the next bait his the bottom I’m on, Not pulling like an AJ either. Get him away from the rocks and up comes another gag! Bigger than the first! My biggest gag to date. Unhooked him, wiped away my tears, and let him go.

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Sails on the Troll

Florida Sportsman member: Salty_Cracker

I grabbed the big spinner and a naked ballyhoo and gave the prospecting a shot. About 10 to 15 minutes into it, the ballyhoo gets slammed. I didn’t see what hit it so I left it alone. Then the beak came back up and swatted the hoo a couple times. So I flipped the bail and let some line out. By that time he moved on to the rigger ballyhoo and popped it out of the release clip. My fiancé clicks it in free spool for a few seconds and GAME ON!

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Lake Worth Sails

Florida Sportsman member: robgfish

Drifting north in about 140 feet, I see a sail streaking across the surface, quickly to realize he has one of our flatlines! I grab that one and fight him from a dead boat on the spinner, a few circles around the boat and some good work by Scott raising the kite bait out of the water to let the fish swim under, get a quick pic and set him free.

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Putting Foreigners on the Fish

Florida Sportsman member: Angler Management

Ocean was 2-3 feet with some 4′s in there but all in all nice. We got gogs and saw 2 sails on the kite before 9AM in 90 feet and had a mess of fun fish south of the inlet from 80 to 110 feet on cut gogs and bonito. Not much pelagic action with the west wind, but the bottom bite is very good. limited out on yellowtails and had 6 mice muttons, kings, and a ton more!

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Catching Fish In The Slop

Florida Sportsman member: SnapperSlapper

Headed out this AM excited about the 5-10 knots of wind NOAA predicted. Well they were right for about 30 minutes. Made our way out quickly a little south of east and put in a spread of ballyhoo in 100 feet of water. Within minutes the wind picked up to a steady 15knots out of the Northwest. Made it a bit sloppy for the rest of the day.

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Lake Worth Bottom Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Jupiter Double D’s

Once I hit 105 feet, the bottom came alive. Remoras, the largest queen trigger I have ever seen, 5 muttons, all around 15 inches, porgies, mangroves, squirrelfish, and yellowtails. Safely returned all the undersized fish except 4 yellowtails and 1 mangrove snapper.

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Lake Worth Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

We scaled down, and quickly were in a “Bonita Fest” with football BFT’s mixed in. We hooked a nice gaffer, but he spit hook. Great people, and made the best of cards dealt. Some of the boneheads were 15 plus pounds and saved for a date with Broadbills.

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Dancing With Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: Captain Dave

We searched around for a while more and then started getting into a groove in the right area, a bit shallower to the north of there in 95 feet. Luck kept coming our way and we continued boating multiple dolphin on each shot of fish that came into our spread. Triple headers are always fun when there’s just two of us on the boat! We fished a mix of naked ballyhoo and lures and the fish ate everything we put back there.

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Boynton Beach Hoo

Florida Sportsman member: First Born

There were birds working heavy, also saw some skippies and small boneheads tearing up bait. Picked up a phin early after working the rip. Continuing north, the wire line starts to sing. While cranking it in I can feel that he had decent size too him, Chris puts the gloves on and once we got to the shock line he starts hand jacking it in. Finally we see a beak coming up to the boat and confirm our catch, I sink the gaff and we have a hoo in the box!

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Dolphin Out of Boynton

Florida Sportsman member: Dominic74

We got our first hit right out side the inlet in 120 feet, boated a nice 10 pound skipjack. We continued south of the inlet, one out rigger pops and a decent dolphin is on, Kevin brings him to the boat as I throw out a gog in hopes of a follower, within a few seconds I am hooked up. We ended up catching three more phins and a few bonita before 11am.

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S.L.I. Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: bullchaser

Around 9:30 in 140 feet we get our lone hit on the pink chug that takes a ton of line on first run so the hoping game was on. After the first run it turned to almost dead weight. Put doc on the rod and he is reeling and reeling and gets the fish 20 feet from boat still not knowing what’s on the other end. It takes 3 hard runs chaffing the leader on the boat on the last run. Get him boat side and the water lights up with stripes. I knew I only had one chance, I put the hook in his gut and and into the kill box he went!

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Southeast Offshore Action

Florida Sportsman member: rowerybo

About an hour into fishing, the short bait gets batted by a sail, but I missed it as the bait was batted off. Very quickly, a second sail is on the long bait. This one gets the hooks and takes to the air. I could see more fish around but with one angler, focused on the hooked fish while it danced around the boat. The fish was brought to the boat and released in healthy condition.

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Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

Florida Sportsman member: SammyT

So I look at this wahoo and now I know I’m dreaming. Friend calls me and makes me take his boat out without him. 5 minutes in I hook a wahoo on a snook plug, on a Penn 750, on 20lb braid with no leader. Then he almost spools me. Then my super novice gaff man makes a great first shot to seal the deal. Weighed out at 39 pounds.

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Great Palm Beach Offshore Bite

Florida Sportsman member: Ryanmc6884

then it hit and it hit like a bullet on the shotgun rigged swimming mullet. Probably the sickest run I have ever seen a fish take, it had the Trinidad 50 singing like a bird! Not to mention at the same time the wahoo hit we had a small sail hit the short rod.

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Dolphin Mania Off Palm Beach

Florida Sportsman member: dscherz

“I am scrambling to get the lines cleared as Derek and Kyle fight their fish. All good so far, so we gaff Kyle’s bull and chase down the big cow. Teamwork at its best as Derek hands the rod to Kyle while I am driving and trying to GoPro at the same time! Derek sinks the gaff in her after a few sketchy runs when she was right near the boat. HIGH FIVES! Derek’s personal best on dolphin at almost 30 pounds!”

 

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Palm Beach Inlet Producing

Florida Sportsman member: Salty_Cracker

Found a few scattered weeds but they weren’t holding fish so we headed back shallower. Were getting tired of not catching so we put the tuna chain out down the middle. Picked up some black fins quickly and kept 3 for dinner.

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Stuart Offshore Action

Florida Sportsman member: snook87

Didn’t keep all we caught but end of day we caught over 14 mahi, keeping only five and two blackfin which went for sushi at the dock. We picked up a sail but it didn’t take hold long enough for the hook set but did see it jump. Saw plenty of huge triple tail on debris, logs, doors, and buckets but hard to stop a eight wide spread.

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Wonderful West End Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: CNTDR

After breezing thru customs, we started our wahoo troll out in front of Old Bahama Bay. Within 10 minutes we boated our first hoo. Next pass we got hooked up again. They both hit the shotgun mackerel lure. Trolled another hour without any more bites. We made the decision to deep drop and caught our limit of queen snapper and yelloweyes within an hour.

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Solo Jupiter Trip Pays Off

Florida Sportsman member: dscherz

I had heard the dolphin were in shallow so straight out Jupiter Inlet I deploy the spread in 75 feet of water heading east. I only get to 80 feet and my long line gets nailed. Nice phin, he is doing the dance. I have 3 other lines out but have the fish off the side so I leave them in while maintaining a slow troll. Sure enough, double header, I get another phin on.

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Boca Blue Marlin

Florida Sportsman member: BocaCentury2900

Within 15 minutes one of my TLD25′s started screaming and didn’t stop until it was almost down to the knot. Quickly pulled all lines out of the water and turned the boat to chase and gain some line back. After a few leaps he sounded to around 500 feet right under the boat, Fight ensued for about 45 minutes and we brought him to the boat side.

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Stuart Dolphin and Sailfish

Florida Sportsman member: Captain Dave

About an hour after that in 185 feet we hooked up to a sail off the port outrigger and Kim was back at it on the rod yet again. It put on a spectacular show with plenty of jumps and some good runs. We got him to boat where I unhooked it and swam it to revive it for a couple minutes. It didn’t need much and his tail was kicking good so off he went to give another angler the same thrill in the future.

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Fort Pierce Bay Boat Snapper

Florida Sportsman member: FISHHUNTR

I let the fish take some line and set up on it and I knew I had a good fish on. Too good I thought at first because despite my heavy drag setting line was leaving the reel pretty fast on the initial run. Typically what we see from small sharks, but it was soon apparent it was fighting like the right species, after several tense minutes I was able to boat a nice 21” mutton snapper.

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Boynton Beach Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Hooklesslure

Headed out with a good friend Mike from work in hopes of catching a wahoo on his vessel, which hasn’t been done as of yet. Last month we missed a good wahoo that smoked my wire line with a 50W. Today we trolled the last little bit of out going tide. We trolled depths from 150 -400 feet. We found a good rip and weed line at 30 feet’ so we worked that for a bit with no action. Decided to head in a little and got this wahoo in 230 feet on the wire line again with a split tail mullet.

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Mutton Fest

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Caught some nice muttons to 21-inches and porgies to 5 pounds. We vent and release everything we don’t want to eat and throw NO trash in the ocean. Short but fun day with good eats. Have a good day!

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Massive Yellowfin out of Boynton Inlet

Florida Sportsman member: Chips Ahoy Charters

Got to boynton, put the spread out, but no bites for about an hour. The next thing I hear is a splash, two other guys on the boat, Nate and Jeff are doing back flips off my hard top. Its now almost 1:30, we are in 175feet of water almost straight off of boynton inlet, and they are just getting back in the boat from their swim. I hear Matt and Nick almost at the same time yell HOLY SHI** . I turn around and saw what was left of a huge explosion.

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Sailfish & Amberjacks out of the SLI

Florida Sportsman member: Alwaysforward

Hanks goal is to load up the freezer with fish and wanted to catch an AJ so our first stop this morning is the AJ spot and put two fish in the box first thing this morning.

We broke the SLI before 6:00am at high tide and headed to the red buoy out front in hopes of locating some Blue Runners. Nothing doing there so we hit the NE spot and caught a mix bag of Grunts, one large Goggle Eye and a Blue Runner. I even caught a small grouper and mutton (both tossed back)[...]

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Boynton Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Hooklesslure

Head out early today in hopes of the elusive wahoo. We trolled through different depths in front of inlet from 100-350 feet. We got this wahoo on the wire line using a split tail mullet as bait. Weighed the fish on Miller Time’s digital scale and the fish weighed 32lbs. Enjoyed lunch at Two George’s then headed home to clean the boat.

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Palm Beach Inlet Wahoo & Snapper

Florida Sportsman member: jaysil123

I took my son out snapper fishing today. We found a good mangrove bite in 110 feet just north of the inlet. We moved to reset the drift and set out a flat line, within 5 minutes the flat line goes off. My dad hands the rod to my son and he goes to work.

He had the fish to the boat in about 10 minutes we sink the gaff and high fives all around. Not sure who was happier him catching the fish or me watching him catch it. This was his first wahoo. We ended the day with 5 mangroves a yellowtail and 1 wahoo.

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Jupiter King, Muttons & More

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Brett R, Jerry, and Mark were in town, and wanted to fish the Everglades. Asked if I was game and my reply was akin to “does a bear….” (last 2 trips we killed it on Wahoos, fins, sails) Grabbed a few sardines / cigars on way out and buzzed edge for an hour w no bites. Conditions looked so so w nice rips, but dirty green water, million jelly fish etc. Had reports today that Water was 2 degrees cooler than week-end, green water out to 240′+. Current was ripping at 3.6 to 4.0 to the N with a 8-10 knot E/SE breeze.

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Fort Pierce Dolphin, Kings & Snapper

Florida Sportsman member: Pensacola

Headed out of Fort pierce really early to try and buy bait from Dave, but he wasn’t there.. I personally do not like going to the buoy at all, but I needed live bait, so we headed to 10 a.m. Crew was my wife and my buddy Jeremy. We loaded up the livewell in no time at all, but all the baits were VERY small…little sardines, little cigars, and little hornbellies.

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Wahoo Weekend

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

I’ve been reading all the greats wahoo reports (congrats to all) so I decided last minute to go wet some lines. The wife and kids had been north for about 10 days visiting family and I stayed behind to complete some projects around the house (honey-do list). Got my high speed gear on the boat, 2 bags of ice and cleared the inlet solo at 9 a.m. Ran a 4-line spread. Bite came at 10:30 am between Ritz and pier on the 300 line in 220 feet. A few minutes later, gangsta hoo #1 in the box.

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Palm Beach Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Stetson Law

With all the wahoo reports and our run in with King Kong last weekend, the crew wanted to target wahoo this morning instead of swordfish. The lures were rigged, the rods were readied, and the plan was made. Hit the inlet at 6:00 a.m. and headed north. Ten minutes into the troll our long gets smoked. Three crew members cranked in the inside three rods as the angler started to winch in the fish. Ten minutes later the hoo pooped up on the surface dragging behind the boat.

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Boynton Beach Blue Marlin Solo Trip

Florida Sportsman member: CaptKeemau

I quickly packed up the boat and headed to the boat ramp. Dropped the boat in at 12:30, 10 minuets later lines in at 150ft and headed east. Scattered weeds at 250 and 480, kept going. At 890 I see a promising rip with weeds up ahead. About 150ft from making my turn to parallel the weed line the port rigger goes off. Line’s going off the TLD30 faster than I’ve ever seen before.

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Boynton Amberjack and Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Lori Jo Fishing

Cleared the inlet at 6am with Chris, Cayden, and Billy. Lines in at 6:15 work the inlet all morning. Cayeden gets a bonita. Then when pull by the skycliff, the braid starts screaming. 15 mins later we were shocked to see a amberjack come up. Reset the spread and in about an hour the braid goes off again. This time a 22lb. wahoo comes aboard. Then about 45 mins later the braid goes off and doesn’t stop. About 900 yards off braid gone the backing is starting show.

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Monster Amberjack off Jupiter

Florida Sportsman member: beerhunter

About 5 minutes passed while we continued bottom fishing with the light spinning tackle. I then noticed that the tip of the heavy rod was slightly “twitching”. I thought that it might be some smaller bait-stealers, but wasn’t sure. I picked the rod out of the rod holder and gave it a few slow cranks. The line came tight and I set the hook. The fish didn’t make much of a run, and for 5 seconds or so, I thought I might have snagged bottom. I then handed the rod to my brother-in-law and strapped on the fighting belt.

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Team Bandit Saltwater Showdown

Florida Sportsman member: sam50

With the final leg of the Bluewater Tournaments on Saturday we needed to load the pen with bait. Headed out of Boynton early Friday and caught 8 dozen gogs in short order. I just happened to bring two rods so we could pre-fish a little before catching runners and speedos. Ran just south of the Martini in 260 feet where the water was nice and blue. I pitched out a goggle-eye on the TLD 15 with engine in gear and about 30 yards from the boat I get crushed. Fish is making a blistering run offshore and we chase it down.

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Boca Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: sailfish-007

We were launching off by 6:30AM. Catching bait was not an option today. We loaded up on goggle eyes from teh bait man and headed offshore. We setup at 380′ of water with one on the down rigger and two surface lines. Within 10 minutes, the surface line screamed and we found that the goggle eye was cut in half. We reset and 30 minutes later, as we were about to pick up and go, another surface line screamed again.

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Father Daughter Offshore Day

Florida Sportsman member:Alwaysforward

Taking my daughter Jamie out today. We arrive at the ramp a little after 5:30am to a small crowd at the ramp. We ran into the Undertaker (Chuck), my UPS man at the ramp this morning.We pick up 30 dollars worth of baits being that there is a outgoing tide this morning with Lake O water flooding all our favorite bait spots. We ran to the NE spot just to see if we can mark any baits. They were there but they were not chewing. We decided to point the bow Southeast into the rough seas and make our way as far south as we could to stay south of the inlet all day to make the ride in easier.

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2 Hour Trip Produces a Personal Record

Florida Sportsman member:Fi$h2nguyen

Windfinder was calling for 3.4 feet at 4sec on Saturday, so we decided not to go. Of course they were wrong, resulting in Paul and I missing out on a perfectly calm day offshore. We were not happy to get punk’D by Windfinder so between his daughters birthday and me having out of town visitors, we were briefly able to sneak out and fish from 11-1pm Sunday. Seas were sloppy 3-5 foot, and close together. Lots of mating turtles and flyers all over.

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Mission Accomplished : Cobia & Snook

Florida Sportsman member: Bullshark

I started off by attending a fishing seminar at White’s Tackle in Stuart which was headed by the host of Reel Time Florida Sportsman George Gozdz. It got me pumped! It was a Cobia and Tarpon seminar.

So after we got our bait we hit the beach for Tarpon. We found nothing. Cobia never crossed my mind until the class but since I had a idea now how to catch them in this area we set out. That was one of the first times in my life that on the first trip of targeting a certain fish we nailed it. We went 5 for 7 on Cobia.

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Blackfin Tuna Action & More

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Ran all the way out to 1200 feet and there were no weedlines rips or anything to fish. This summer has proven to be TOUGH on catching bait and little to no sargassum. Started heading back to the ledge when we spotted a palm frond with 2 nice tripletail. Then we put out a trolling spread with E$ at helm and worked from 160 to 115 feet at the north end of Condos to Tiara. The current was smoking at 3.5 knots to the north and water was gin clear past 100 feet. First bite ripped some drag, pulled the hook??

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Ft. Pierce Bull and Cows

Florida Sportsman member: SmittysTeam

We headed out with waves any where from 2-4 feet. The wind blowing pretty good, which meant we were getting soaked on the way out. We finally got to the dolphin grounds and started trolling in 200 feet of water. We trolled both ballyhoo and artificials but didn’t get anything. We continued to troll for a few hours and then decided to drift with live bait in hopes of sailfish or dolphin. We started drifting in 200 feet of water for about 30 minutes. We didn’t get any hits, so we decided to go a little shallower.

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Jupiter Muttons, Yellowtail & Kings

Florida Sportsman member: nearshore1

Got a super late start after having a few adult beverages at the lighthouse sand bar. While there I caught a few grunt on bits of squid and out the inlet to calm 2 foot seas by 2:15. B lined it for the edge. Got out off the pier and it was non stop. Current was strange! Felt like no current on the bottom but there were rips going all directions out there. Any squid or sardine whole or chunk got inhaled within 30 seconds. Caught some decent yellowtails, muttons, porgies and a king (on squid). Put in 2 solid hours and kept enough for dinner. The biggest mutton was caught by a first timer! Nice way to start out huh?

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FPI Blackfin Tuna, Cobia & King

Florida Sportsman member: B.Wilmot

We left the inlet bout 6:30 after stoping to get bait from Dave. Headed northeast to bottom fish a ledge. I have several good bottom spots out of SLI but since I’ve moved north I’ve yet to find any good prouductive bottom numbers out if FPI. The seas were 3 ft but far enough apart to run the 16 miles fairly quickly. We anchor up in 80-90 feet just southeast of Bethel shoal. I was expecting a fast current but was surprised at the lack of it. We get our chum and lines set up and in no time the flat line gets hit.

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Slob Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: choppy

Went out yesterday looking for that big dolphin…I have yet to get a big boy this year! Ran out and found absolutely nothing. Made the decision to come in and fish the tide change on the edge and look for wahoo and it was a good decision! Picked up this slob mid-afternoon on the tide in 130 feet just north of the inlet. She ate a horse bally…naked ! Also picked up a couple small dolphin. Really enjoying the new contender! Gonna take the weekend off from the tournaments and enjoy a little peanut island!

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SLI Blue Marlin

Florida Sportsman member: Off the Chain

Bait was hard to catch this morning, so I was glad that I bought a few dozen pilchards and some crabs. After hitting bottom spot after spot with little to no luck, we had made our way up past the peanut. 175 line. I was headed to another spot when we past a huge black mat, and what at first I thought was a sail under it. I spun the boat around and quickly tied a new leader and hook onto our spinner. As we made our way back to the fish I knew it was to big to be a sail, but didn’t want to say marlin and be wrong.

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Boca Mutton Snapper

Florida Sportsman member: ShinySide

Went out boozin on the Ocean yesterday with some lady friends and my buddies Cpt. Nick Morris and Cpt. Ryan Stang. We snagged a few baits from a friend out on the water just to have some lines out for the hell of it. Hooked up in 250 feet of water drifting a threadfin on a weight about 100 feet down. Low and behold it was a mutton. That son of b musta been hungry. Let the ladies take turns reeling it in. Summer time must be here…bikinis and snapper.

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Boynton Sails

Florida Sportsman member: Dominic74

I decided to go out last minute, considering next week is mothers day and I usually give that weekend to the wife. I met up with my buddy Kevin and hit the inlet around 7 a.m. We picked up a half dozen live sardines from Gary Jr. just in case trolling didn’t pan out. We started trolling north all the way to the pier with only one bonita to show for it. We then went off shore to around 900 feet and not much going on out there. Heading back was a little snotty with the wind blowing out of the west.

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Swords and Phins

Florida Sportsman member: schmittyfish561

I hear the swords have been chewing so I loaded up the boat and made the run down south. The ocean was nice and the storms were staying on shore! Got 2 nice size dolphin on the weigh out around 20-25 pounds. I Made 3 drops; the first drop had a couple weak hits pulled up half a bait; the 2nd drop got tight with a nice fish pulled half way up. The 3rd drop was down 10 minutes 2 hits later, the rod started to load out my hooker on full speed and got a good hook in set. The fish didn’t fight much on the way up until I got the weight off. The fish started to surface behind the boat slashing its bill. I backed up on him and he started to come right to the boat so I stuck him with the gaff! I was running low on gas so we headed in. My buddy got a 450 pounder when we went in!

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SLI Morning Gaffers

Florida Sportsman member: itsmine

Thought I would sneak offshore today before work. Me and a couple of friends left Sandsprit around 6:45 a.m. The sea was a little rough with a 3-5 foot swell and some chop, but not too bad. We started trolling in 80 feet and had a nice gaffer bull on within twenty minutes on a green stubby bubbler with a ballyhoo. We kept trolling and had 2 knock downs with nothing to show for it. Then around 9:30 we caught a gaffer cow in 140 feet on a blue and white skirted bait. The water was really warm today, about 78 degrees. Headed in around 10:30 and the inlet was definitely a little sketchy in my 18 foot pioneer.

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Busy Day off the St. Lucie Inlet

Florida Sportsman member: bullchaser

Instead of leaving at 4 we pushed it to 6 to check the stream out and if it was a go we would continue. Shoved off at 6 and made or way out SLI. Once in the stream we were hitting 5-6 feet on the chin so made the call to do it another day. Pointed west and came back into 200 feet off the powerplant. From there it was a steady flurry of action. We picked away at schoolie dolphin, cudas, and Bonita’s. I believe we were working the 160 foot area as I don’t think I had a free minute from 8-11 to even look where we were depth wise.

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Fort Pierce Wahoo, Dolphin, Tripletail

Florida Sportsman member: Pensacola

We cleared the inlet to some absolutely beautiful conditions. Glassed over ocean, literally like a lake. Made for a beautiful ride out. We set up the spread in 100 and started to work our way out. I think the winds from the past week had pushed debris in, because there were all sorts of weedlines, buoys, buckets, and bamboo floating around. We pull up to a buoy with rope in 220. No dolphin on it, but LOADED with triple tail. We get our first ever triple tail in the boat! Had another one on but he got off the hook. At that point they all swam down so we moved on.

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Bull off Boynton Beach

Florida Sportsman member: twindude3

Headed out aboard The Jim n’ Tonic Monday about 6:45am. We set up to troll in 150 feet. About 20 minutes into it, a nice cow hits port inside rod. Into the box she went.About 730 feet we see a phin looking at the port rigger,he takes it, I grab the rod as he spits the hook. I throw it into free spool to see if he’ll hit again…he just doesn’t hit…he devours and bulldogs across top of water. From a distance we know its a big bull. Fighting him to the boat, 30 minutes later, he’s whipped as he’s gaffed and welcomed aboard the Jim n’ Tonic. High fives circulated the boat, coffee replaced by Miller Light.

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PBI Smoker and Sail

Florida Sportsman member: FromDawntoDusky

Picked up some Goggs and broke the inlet (PBI) to a confused sea around 7:45am on Sunday. Wind was nearly non-existant, but it was snottier then expected and waves were fairly tight together. Decided to break out the artificials and trolled south between 100-300 feet with a purple/orange yo-zuri, two skirted lures, and a feather way back. Saw a lot of birds working what must have been small tuna/bonies crashing tiny flyers, but no strikes.

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Morning Dolphin Action

Florida Sportsman member: Off the Chain

The wind dropped off to less than 20 so off we went. The morning started off a little rough with a bad throttle cable causing a 1 hour delay. We set our baits out at 8:30 in 130 feet of water on a color change with scattered grass and lots of flying fish being shoved around by dolphin ranging from 20 inches to 20 pounds.

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Boynton Sailfish

Florida Sportsman member: pa28r200

Put two more people on their first sails yesterday! My buddy asked me at the dock if the sails where still biting and I said, think its just about over. First fish came at 8:20am in 85 feet of water off Lake Worth Pier. Second fish was in 160 feet off the Breakers. The conditions where less than comfortable (seas where not bad, wind was HOWLING). First time I used my high wind kite and it was struggling to stay in the air[...]

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Jupiter Sail, Wahoo, and Bullshark

Florida Sportsman member: dscherz

Only got around dozen mixed gogs and runnners. Decided to high speed down to Singer Island. No luck. Set up drift in around 125 feet and drifted in to 100 feet. No action. Next we set up in 150ft with live baits on the freeline and a few down as well. Now we are drifting out. At around 200 feet off Juno we get a real mild hit on the goggle eye on the flatline. Gets hit again but really didn’t eat it, or so I thought. Decide to check the bait only to realize we have a sail on the line! He goes bananas and puts on a good show.

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Fort Pierce Wahoo & Kingfish

Florida Sportsman member: JohnnyPlant

Hit the inlet in the dark, bought bait and headed out. Five line spread in before sunrise in 120 feet of water due east of the inlet. Less the 15 minutes in the troll, we see something crash the short bait and miss. Two seconds later both long lines get hit. My buddy Dan on the starboard line fights the fish to the boat as I fight the port fish/ clear lines. He gets fish to boat and its wahoo. I gaff fish after my other buddy misses with gaff twice. My fish is now in rod holder for second time. Box his fish and mine before 8 am[...]

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Sneaking Out on the “Nice” Day

Florida Sportsman member: Off the Chain

I fished a ¾ day, and because of the big swell and the turned up bottom, live bait was not to be had. I pretty much knew that would be the case, so I already had the dredge and trolling baits ready to go. We ran out to the NE and set out in 75 feet of water. I nice down sea tack while we set out brought us to an edge in 100 feet of water about 3 miles north of the inlet. We fished it for a bit with only bonita bites to show for it. I decide to push offshore to a couple hundred feet and check it out. There was another rip in 160 feet with some grass and bait in it.

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Stuart Sails & Phins

Florida Sportsman member: DayMaker

Today was a great day of Stuart Fl charter fishing. We started our day trolling on the 110 line in 90ft on an edge and before I got the dredge in the water we had hooked 4 gaffer dolphin on the troll. We ended up catching 3 of them. We picked away at the Mahi’s all day and ended the day with over 30 bites and boxing 22 of them from 7-14lbs. We also managed to have 6 sail bites on the troll with our guys hooking and landing their own sails.

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SLI Dolphin & Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: itsmine

Left SLI at 6:30 Sunday to do some trolling with my soon to be father and brother in law. We headed south out the inlet, and caught a 15 pound wahoo on mono rigged ballyhoo at 7:30 in 90 feet. After that my father in law made me aware that he brought bananas with him, and laughing knowing how I feel about having them on my boat.We were headed for push button after that and found scattered weeds and birds in 170 feet doubled up with two schoolies at 10. Around 11:30 we saw a fish going after the short line, and we are sure its a sail behind the bait. We drop it back to him, and it ended up being a 20 pound bull.

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Jupiter Mahi & Tuna

Florida Sportsman member: 1974Donzi

We went offshore at 7:00 a.m. Caught a nice tuna at 200 feet, east of Jupiter around 8:30. Noticed a little slick and continued zig zagging north on it. At 9:15 planer pops in 240′ and 10 pound mahi is in the boat. 9:30 planer pops in 280 feet and line is screaming off and then spits the hook. Thinking maybe a wahoo. Get back to trolling my new spreader bars/daisy chains and at 10:00 4 miles south of Push Button Hill my buddy Matt sees a big fish free jumping with 2 birds circling above.

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Jupiter Porgy & More

Florida Sportsman member: RockNReeler

Wanted to get out on the water before the winds started howling again. After calling everyone on my phone, finally asked my 73 year-old neighbor if he wanted to go fishing. He said “Sure”, so we headed out this morning around 7:15AM. Trolled for about 1.5 hours, no luck. Winds started picking up from the North, so we headed in to the 70 feet reef off of Juno. Got a couple of small yellowtail, then some of nice size. So we move about 1/4 mile north and pull in a Rainbow Runner. Then Fuzzy’s rod bends over and he is tugging and pulling away. Low and behold a big Fat Porgy comes to the boat. Very nice size fish

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Jupiter Inlet Snapper

Florida Sportsman member: zzzzzzsplash

Got out for a minute Saturday and caught a snapper limit. Beautiful start to the day cruising through Jupiter, but the wind and waves picked up by noon and we had a salty ride home.

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Vero Tripletail

Florida Sportsman member: sebastianshine

Wanted to share/brag on my first triple tails. One was 18 pounds and the other was 12 pounds. The picture is of the 18 pounder. Got them pretty far offshore, and that’s about all I have to say about that.

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SLI Variety

Florida Sportsman member: DayMaker

Started our day on the 4th catching a well full of bait. After the previous days fishing we had big expectations for some dolphin and sail action. Conditions changed We started where we had good action the previous 3 days for sails and mahi’s. We caught a 12 pound king and had a few others cut us off. We pushed offshore and caught some boneheads. Back inshore and we jumped a sail off and had another scissor lip us. Decided to do a little meat fishing to break up the monotony. We caught 4 amberjacks to 25 pounds, and an 18 pound Gag Grouper.

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SLI Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: bullchaser

Went out Saturday to try and bag a few phins for Superbowl Sunday! Started out north of SLI in 130/’ and worked our way out to 250 feet. Pretty blue water out in 250 feet with scattered weed and missed on a few phins. Then finally connected on a solid cow in 150 feet. Missed on double of sails. Naked ballyhoo and pink skirt/bally combo were the ticket. Sounds like we’re going out in the am so hoping for some more dinner.

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SLI Dolphin & Sails

Florida Sportsman member: DayMaker

We had a fun day and enjoyed great conditions. Plenty of bites from Kings and other critters. We caught 1 out of 2 sails today on the troll. We missed one in the dirty green water in 80 feet this morning straight out and caught 1 in the pretty blue water in 115 ft a little NE.

The highlight of the day was the dolphin action. We ended up having plenty of bites with a couple fish around 25 pounds and a bull that tipped the scales at 49 pounds. Took us for ever to catch that sucker (ironically the fight was exactly 49 minutes on the old GPS) The bull came with a 25 pound cow the second of those for the day. All fish ate trolled circle hook ballyhoo and the best mahi fishing was in the blended water between 80-120 feet. Lots of flyers and scattered grass.

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King for the Smoker

Florida Sportsman member: dscherz

Went out Friday morning with a bunch of runners and a few gogs but got beat up as seas built quickly so headed back in around 10am. Noticed the seas seems to be laying down yesterday while I was on a booze cruise up and down the ditch so decided to go out this am early. Inlet was smooth at 6 am and seas were manageable all day long, 2-3 feet. Today we cleaned up on goggle eyes at North rocks and actually had more goggles than runners! We thought we would slay it today.

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SLI Action

Florida Sportsman member: Off the Chain

Today I fished with Capt. Jimmy (Ace), Brad, Stan, and Scott for the third day in a row targeting sails. Yesterday was way slow and we only did a ¾ day with the last hour focusing on the bottom and reefs for Amber Jacks and Cobia. We caught a few AJs but no cobia that day. Today we had sails on the mind again, but after spending pretty much all day with the kites up and only jumping one sailfish off, catching a dolphin, losing a dolphin, and having a ton of kingfish and shark bites we went back to the bottom. Even though we didn’t catch the sail, we did get a few pictures of it.

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SLI Gaffer & Tripletail

Florida Sportsman member: Pairadox

We cleared the inlet to FLAT seas, picked up a handful of blue runners just outside the inlet and headed on our way. We had read the bite south was slow for the past few days, so NE we went. Attempted to bottom bounce the sandpile on the way out and sunk a few liveys to no avail. We pointed the bow NE to find some “fishy” conditions. I Decided to double back against the stream and came across about a 30 foot tree floating with its own ecosystem. Squirt some mild and drop out some runners and gaffer on! This was my friend son’s first phin!

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Jupiter Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: 1974Donzi

Went out with some friends this morning to go catch wahoo, mahi, and tuna. With only a 2 hour trip off Jupiter inlet we landed a tuna and a wahoo, and lost a dolphin at the transom. Fishing was great. I caught the wahoo deep off a planer with a white over blue flasher series islander with a horse ballyhoo. The tuna was caught on a naked ballyhoo. All fish were caught between 120-280 feet. Good day with good friends.

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Dolphin, Kings, & Snapper Off Fort Pierce

Florida Sportsman member: Pensacola

Finally got a break in the weather and we jumped on the opportunity to dust off the old grady and fish. Cleared the inlet around 7 and the seas were absolutely beautiful. We started off the powerplant in 100 and worked our way out. There was a huge fleet of sportfish boats working this area, so we joined in the mix. We troll by a big matt of weeds and outrigger pops, dolphin on. While fighting him, i see another dolphin jumping and he had the shotgun bait in his mouth. My friend got tight on him. Dad gaffs number one, then gaffs number two, and we have dinner.

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Wahoo South of Hillsboro

Florida Sportsman member: Team Tuppens

Once again it seems when least prepared, We get a nice one!! Left Boynton inlet 8 A.M. enroute to Ft. Lauderdale for a Garmin electronics seminar and training class. Before turning to the South, we do a high speed troll for a couple circles in front of Boynton inlet, Nice fish on for about 4 seconds in 180 then gone! After a couple more passes we turned South and didn’t get anything until Boca. A quick hit and gone! 280 feet just south of Hillsboro we have nice fish on and soon after it’s in the boat!

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Rough Conditions, Tight Lines

Florida Sportsman member: Lori Jo Fishing

“Cleared the inlet the around 7am with Chris and Billy. Was greeted with 3-5 footer’s at the inlet and got though them with no problems. We set up the spread and head north. Get a bonita on a strip to start the morning off. Then the planer pops and nothing. Right after that the rigger gets hit and loose that one. Later on we get a double-header. Two phins in the box. Get up to the ritz and work that for a while and then head back south.

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Bucket List: Catch a Sailfish, Check!

Mate Chris Watkins (left) and angler Paul Duwyne (right).

Kelly Johnson sent this recent fishing success in to share with the FS community. It’s a good sign of what’s to come this season as the temperatures continue to cool. Sailfish are here!

“On his personal bucket list, Paul Duwyne wanted to enjoy a day of offshore fishing in Florida and catch his very first sailfish. Well, the conditions were not ideal, but his wish became a reality aboard Reel Candy Sportfishing Charters, out of Jupiter, Florida this past weekend. In sloppy 4 to 6 foot seas, Captain Marvin Steining and mate Chris Watkins were able to grant Paul his wish by catching not only his first sailfish, but another as well! Both of the sailfish were caught and released off a kite, using goggle eyes for bait.”

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Epic Bloody Sunday

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Had a  half-day lined up on my boat Sunday AM for trip with kids. Wind was HOWLING 20 plus at dawn and I did not feel comfortable so i called them to re-schedule. I heard MD20/20 was rolling out, and they were kind enough to pick me up for the day! Man I was stoked for “work” as the recent weather has put a hurting on guides, captains, dive boats. Total last minute, I literally RAN to the dock [...]

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Tuna, Dolphin, and Sails off Stuart

Florida Sportsman member: Capt George Gozdz

I’ve been crazy busy filming “Reel Time” and I’ve been slacking on my reports. The bite offshore has been great so no better time to report then now. After loading the wells full of mullet and pilchards we headed out. Set up both days in the same exact spot. 110′ was the magic number for me. Chummed while we fished 2 kite baits and 3 flatlines.[...]

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Picture Perfect Day off Stuart

Florida Sportsman member: Stetson Law

Florida Sportsman member Stetson Law captured some fantastic images off Stuart this past weekend. Greyhounding sailfish and frisky dolphin made for the perfect subjects. “Started off sailfish season off Stuart this morning on the Three Buoys. Non-stop action all day long. Hooked 8 sailfish, 10 dolphin, 1 cobia, and 1 big mutton on live bait.”

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Offshore with the Kids

Florida Sportsman member: Lori Jo Fishing

Went out Saturday morning with Chris and Cayden. Plan was to fish ’till noon, then go anchor up at the island to let the kids play. Set up the spread around 6:40 a.m. and start working around the inlet from 140 to 380. Around 7 a.m. the down rod goes off and half way to the boat a ‘phin goes airborne. As Chris gets it closer to the boat, I was thinking maybe a gaffer, then the line in the rigger pops out and the rod doubles-over. Grab the rod and a few minutes later a nice blackfin comes up to the boat [...]

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Crushing the Hoo’s

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Was blessed to get the call from CNTDR about a Bahamas trip! We had an awesome crew with CNTDR (aka “Jiffy” Jeff), Clarke, Jim and E$. Cleared and put em’ in right away, 15 minutes in ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! STUD hoo’ pushing 50 pounds in the box. Set em’ back and it got quiet so we bottom fished, catching a variety of muttons, yellowtails, strawberries, porgies, and rocked up by at least 4 BIG groupers [...]

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Bull Dolphin on the Fly

Florida Sportsman member: Capt. Scott

Well, the water went to total crap everywhere inside of 400 feet today. Brown and nasty. Tried the spots the tuna had been, but there was no love there. Plenty of small false albacore, but that was it. So, after the sun cleared out enough to have decent visibility, wandered out to about 800 feet and poked around some loosly formed mats of weeds. Was at it for a while without seeing anything remarkable when this thing swam up!

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SLI Offshore

Florida Sportsman member: FISHHUNTR

Got an early start with Zach (FLDXT) and was at Bull Shark at sunrise, not much happening in the way of bait. Managed a few small dines & gogs not worth hanging around for. Shot out to the Shrimper and that was an improvement, managed some decent dines and cigar minnows. While bringing in a stringer full, Zach has a cobe come up and commence to help himself to the struggling baits on the sabiki, turns out 3 more were with em’.

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Blue Marlin off St. Lucie Inlet

Florida Sportsman member: unhooked

The coffee colored water got us pretty far offshore today. The water turned from green to blue in 370 feet. Tucker (from West Marine in Jupiter) and I were talking on the way out about blues, I have been wanting to finish the SLI Billfish Grand Slam (sword, sail, white and blue marlin) all I needed was to land a blue, long odds! [...]

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Boynton Beach Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Lori Jo Fishing

Headed out this morning with Chris and Billy, cleared the inlet with seas about 2-to 4-feet. We headed north and put the spread out in 80 feet. Tons of turtle grass and weeds everywhere. Kept getting weeded up from 150-to 400-feet. After a couple hours of that and getting pushed way north of the Lake Worth peir, we head back south. We go into shallower water to get away from the weeds. Going straight south into the waves was a bumpy troll but worth it [...]

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Stud Wahoo of Jupiter

Florida Sportsman member: Net 30

Spent the day fishing with our buddy Charlie Stuve out of Jupiter Inlet. Loaded the well with 200 sardines just outside the inlet and headed out in search of muttons. Charlie had a 12 pound and 17 pound mutton this week, so we had high expectations. Had my 14-year old son and his buddy on board for a trip before school begins on Monday [....]

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Dolphin and Kings off Boynton

Florida Sportsman member: Dominic74

Called my buddy Chris and Alan on Saturday and made plans to fish Sunday hoping we would not get rained out. We got to the ramp at 6:40 and went for bait in front of the inlet, it was loaded with sardines and gogs, picked up about a dozen and a half and started trolling. The idea was to troll for wahoo and possibly pick up a few kings in between. Headed north and right away planer pops in 125 feet in front of the inlet and first kingfish in the boat, he hit a strip with pink skirt [...]

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Wahoo Triplets

Florida Sportsman member: FishThis1

My buddy has been trying for a few years to catch the elusive palm beach wahoo! He has been with me in the Bahamas and caught a few but they have eluded him on his boat. I went a couple of times and we scatched out one or two bites but never got one in the boat. Well this changed this weekend! We figured it would be crowded on the water so we had lines in at 530 a.m. and put out some mullets [...]

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Swordfish in the Southeast

Florida Sportsman member: Offshore9393

When I got a call on thursday that my friends gaterzone19 and flatsfisher were coming down from FSU, the first thing that came to my mind was swordfishing, and that is exactly what we did. I loaded our pen with runners the day before and we were ready to go. We decided to get out early and make a few daytime drops [...]

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Smoking Drags in the Southeast

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Had the pleasure of hosting Mark, Aiden and Brennan for a 1/2 day. It was a celebratory trip for Aiden, who just celebrated his 9th birthday! E$ hadn’t broke out the hoo gear in a minute, but felt confident [...]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hot Tuna Bite off Stuart

Florida Sportsman member: Alwaysforward

We decided with the higher winds yesterday that we should buy some baits this morning just to be safe. Picked 20 baits up from (2) kids running Chips boat at the ramp around 5 a.m. or so then headed out insearch of some sardines. Arrived at Bullshark and loaded up on goggle eyes and sardines. When I tossed in a large blue runner into the livewell, Alie started talking fish talk [...]

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Hot Phins

Florida Sportsman member: Ocean Motion

Ken and I decide to return to bump trolling that same weed line as we followed it N/B. We get to the east side of the weed line and set out one line which gets hit immediately by a gaffer Phin. I still have bait on a down line and Ken throws out his bait which gets hit almost immediately. There were gaffer phins swimming all around the boat. Then the down line gets hit by another gaffer [...]

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On the Yellowfins

Florida Sportsman member: o-sea-d

Made a run to the east in some pretty sporty weather to say the least. Came to a flock of birds just out of the gulf stream approx. 45 miles to the east and started our chunking. Unfortunately, we only had a couple dozen gogs with us and 3 flats of sardines, no live chumming on this venture. Went through the flock with a couple 30 tiagras to try and pick up some skippies and mark the yellowfins. Successfully we marked them and caught some extra chunking bait “skipjacks” before we made a drift [...]

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Team Sargent Winning Wahoo

Florida Sportsman member: Hooklesslure

Gary, Jim , John and myself were sponsored by the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Benevolent to fish in the Fourth Annual Team Sargent KDW out of the Rybovich Marina in West Palm Beach. Getting an early start from Boynton Beach we met up with Dynamite Live Bait picked up a dozen goggle eyes and two dozen pilchards then headed to the fishing grounds. Decided to troll first with wahoo on our minds. My usual spread consisted of Islanders ranging from white/pink(mylar), purple/black, red/black(mylar) and a split tail mullet on the wire line [...]

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Solid BFT’s

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Within 15 minutes of setting up, we have a BOMB on long kite bait. Get him up, solid blackfin in the box. As this is going on the flatline gets SMOKED by a 30 pound class blackfin! He goes in the box as the other kite bait goes off! It was GREAT team was stoked. Head back out for a few hours Saturday [...]

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Dolphin and BFT’s

Florida Sportsman member: alwaysforward

Took a vacation day today to take 4 people out today for some offshore fun. Gary, his brother Dan and his son Derek along with Gary’s son AJ. Full boat today for sure. We picked up some bait from the bait guy at the ramp this morning just in case [...]

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Kingfish on the E$

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Had the pleasure of hosting a repeat trip for Kasper clan Sunday. Weather was nice, bait was tough but managed some runners and hand full of gogs pre-dawn. Water was still green inshore but instead of South current, it was ripping N at 3.5 knots (does anyone have a clue on how current can do a 180 like that)? In about 200 feet we spot some “floatsam”. Pulled some almaco jacks and SOLID triple tails! [...]

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Lady Stuart Epic Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Captain David Knight of Lady Stuart Deep Sea Fishing party boat, docked at Hutchinson Island Marriott, reported a spectacular day of fishing on Wednesday. 23 anglers caught about 3 dozen sea bass, four huge triggerfish, 3 whitebone porgies, 4 banded rudderfish, 8 mahi, 6 mangrove snapper, and a 25lb amberjack. The catch of the day was a 29.4 lb mutton snapper, which was just 1 lb shy of the world record! This moster of a fish was reeled in by Tom Kulinski of Port St. Lucie, FL using 20lb test line on a light spinning rod. Tom Kulinski took the fish to the Snook Nook, where it was officially weighed in on a digital scale.

According to Captain David Knight, the mutton and mangrove snapper bite should continue strong through the summer. We also anticipate the bite to continue strong for mahi, as well as black sea bass, triggerfish, porgies, vermillion snapper, and lane snapper.

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Port Saint Lucie Offshore Fishing Report

Florida Sportsman member: Alwaysforward

Headed out from 70ft in search of some weeds. Finally came across ouf first weeds in 700 ft north of the Hill. Put out the normal spread of livey’s, chunks and menhaden oil and one other special ingredient – Menhaden Milk. Read in Florida Sportsman about how the milk mixes better with the water than the oil does. I figured best of both worlds when using both. The oil makes the slick so you can see where to keep your bait in and the milk disperses in the water [...]

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Dolphin under the Weeds

Florida Sportsman member: Dominic74

Headed out of Boynton Inlet around 6:30am with my buddy Chris, looked for some bait in front of the inlet and only managed about six sardines . Headed off shore to look for dolphin, came across a weed line around 450ft, quick troll, nothing. Decided to head way off shore , passed 750ft with some really nice weed patches, but already two many boats around, so continued out further to find our own, we saw a buoy of some sort floating in about 1,400 ft or so we thought it was a buoy [...]

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Team Bandit- Francis Langford Tournament

Florida Sportsman member: sam50

With our success last tournament hopes were high to have a good showing for the first SKA Div. 8 battle. Team was the same except I had my cousin Dale down from Georgia for the weekend and he volunteered to be the picture and video guy. Weather was forcasted to be flat calm with the possibility of thunderstorms in the afternoon. We loaded the wells with bait just inside the inlet and waited patiently for the Bimini start at 7 a.m. [...]

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Buddy’s First Fish

Florida Sportsman member: ChadJ55

On Saturday, Ria and I took her brother out fishing, along with three of her brother’s friends from Ohio, one of whom had never fished in his life, let alone caught anything before. We broke the inlet around 8:45 to flat calm seas and a beautiful day. Ran out to around 550′ where we found the second nice looking weedline. (Passed the first after not seeing much life and wanting to start the day deeper.) Once we got the lines in, a few flying fish made an appearance and had the newbies in absolute awe that fish could indeed actually fly [...]

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SLI Offshore, Weeds Everywhere

Florida Sportsman member: Fi$h2nguyen

Water was beautiful and flat, so we were able to get to 75ft pretty quickly before setting the spread. GPS was set for PBH, but before we could get there, we ran into the Holy Grail of weedlines (there was no current today).

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SE Bash Kingfish

Florida Sportsman member: Cat_Sass

The Cat Sass fishing team was all excited about fishing this tournament for a great cause. We decided to skip live bait due to the forecasted sea conditions and opted to pull rigged bally’s. All seemed calm heading out of the pocket to the inlet until we found that ripping outgoing tide stacking up against that 15 knot onshore wind. Needless to say, we were all covered with sea spray before we made it through the inlet [...]

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King Krazy!

Florida Sportsman member: Sam50

With the weather forecast spot on, Derek and Carlos opted for a quick half day trip on the Reel Service. Loaded the wells up with some top secret baits and we were off to the spot, smack in the middle of all the chaos on the Juno ledge!! What a sight, boats stacked on top of each other and a tug and barge plowing thru the middle of it all…priceless!

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First ‘Phins!

Florida Sportsman member: Squiddly86

Captain Bryan picked me up at 3:45 p.m. We got to the house, met-up with TrimTab and loaded-up. Hit the inlet at around 4:15 and went south-and-out to about 135 feet. Capt. Bryan got a fish on and lost it, (then so did Trim) so we headed out a lil’ further to about 340 feet (saw some birds and rips). We threw the chum bag over and put the baits out. I rigged an extra line and let it in the water (really close to the boat, about 6 foot and under), in case we got a dolphin on. Out of nowhere, my line goes off…but I realize its the one right next to the boat! My FIRST phin was TOO easy. I seriously didnt expect THAT line to go off. Pretty cool though!

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Spearfishing Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: nutsmagoo

Got the call from Bluewaterspearo yesterday morning for an afternoon spearfishing trip to target mahi. With reports of big Mahi being taken recently we were hoping to score. Loaded up the boat with Kris, Kyle and Jeff and we were off. Ran due east 14 miles out of the inlet looking for weed lines or debris and came up empty handed. On to plan B – targeting cobia off of the bull sharks. Got to our spot and jumped in with the flashers and within a minute the sharks showed up – but no cobia in tow [...]

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Fins and Wahoo!

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

Another day, another fishing adventure. Cleared the inlet shortly after 9 am and was greeted by super calm seas. There were already quite a few boats out there. Put out my spread and headed East. I had found some fins in 750’ the day before, so I figured I’d head back out there. There were scattered weeds, slicks and rips along the way.

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Day-timing!

Florida Sportsman member: Chronic Obsession

Fished Saturday with Billy, had a couple bites early but didn’t get tight. Picked up and moved a bit. We downed a REEL ADRENALINE and 20 minutes later were tight. Fish is boat side within 20 minutes, Billy AKA Top Dawg hits her with a poon’ and we’ve got an estimated 250+ on the deck. Good thing the fish didn’t drink a Reel Adrenaline or we would have had a longer fight! [...]

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Epic Trip!

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Was blessed to get booked for an over-night trip to West End with Team Pairadox. We had Captain Mike, Kenny D, Gavin, and E$ “in the house”. We met up 2 days prior to departure to review gear & formulate a game plan. Mike has a gorgeous 31 Jupiter w 300 Suzuki’s. Rode like a champ! It was awesome to meet and fish with such a cool group of guys & we were AMPED to get them on some fish. Shoved off about 7:00 AM from SLI, got checked in and magic and comedy started happening [...]

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Slob Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: PBG POOLGUY

Fished North of the inlet in 115 feet and caught 2 cobia. One was 22 pounds and then I caught this one and it went 58! Very sloppy on the ride home but worth it. Both fish were caught on dead sardines on the bottom.

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First Report a Success

Florida Sportsman member: djjohnj

We headed out a little late on Saturday. We had to finish installing the tackle station in the boat. I am glad we did it before this trip. I knew it would clean up the tackle bags on the deck but never thought it would be that good. So we stopped off and got some live bait and broke the inlet about 10am. Beautiful day! We took off south. Ran to about 185ft and set out a spread of gogs and pilchards. We didn’t bring the helium, so no kite [...]

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SLI Report

Florida Sportsman member: Dolfan

Went out fishing this morning with my friend Art and his two sons Brian and Bill on Art’s 320 Sea Vee. We caught a Sailfish, 2 Mahi, and an AJ. Lost a third smaller Mahi at the boat. The big Mahi weighed 32lbs and the smaller one 13lbs. Another calmer than forecast day.

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Live Bait Action

Florida Sportsman member: schmittyfish561

It looked like we had a window opportunity Saturday, talked to a buddy and he had his first fishing charter and needed some help! Me looking for any opportunity to go fish i was like you bet i got about a dozen gogs penned up i had left over from a day that was cut short. we left the dock at 6:30 made a short run picked up our live bait [...]

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TUNA, DOLPHIN, and WAHOO SLAM

Florida Sportsman member: PaulBoat

I’m sure everyone still remembers the very sad news of the passing of Capt. Dan (Reel C’s). I didn’t know what was going on except I noticed that the “crew” had not posted at all for a while. Upon digging around a bit, I found the news and spoke with Eric (Plan Fish N) and invited the crew for a fishing outing on the Checked~Out [...]

 

 

 

 

 

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SLI Offshore Wahoo and Dolphin

Florida Sportsman member: Cat_Sass

We got a late start and cleared the inlet at 7:30 with overcast skies. Since it was just my wife and I, we decided to skip the livies and just troll some bally’s. We dropped the riggers at 80′ and started to set the spread. First out was a feather lure on the shotgun which was immediately hit by a small bonita. Then as soon as all the lines were set, the long goes off and my wife reels in a really small peanut [...]

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Valentines Day Treat

Florida Sportsman Member: Hooklesslure

Got an early start, met up with Gary Sr. with Dynamite Live Bait for some goggle eyes then headed for the inlet. Lines in by 7 a.m. we headed northward, not a half hour goes by we have two dolphin in the boat. Continuing northward in and out from 100′ – 300′ we continue to pick up more dolphin. Finally making it up towards the Sloans Curve area in the 200′ range the wire line begins clicking , could it be? Yes, hand jack the line to the boat and its a small wahoo.

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Red Hot Fishin’

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Ended up 4 for 6 on sails, (2 were tagged) and about 10 fins. (8 gaffers and a couple flippers.) We also released several 5-10 lb fins for good karma!! We also got 2 kings in the 20-30 class.

All in all a FANTASTIC day on the water, where we went thru 4 dozen gogs+ Got a couple pics, and also a brief video [...]

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