Search

SUDDENLY, COMPLETE DARKNESS. No, it can't be,' thought Capt. Dalan Markett, staring at a blank screen which had been displaying the route home and other essential navigational information. Making headway [...]

The swoosh, swoosh, swoosh sounded intriguingly familiar, but was I imagining? I mean, how often can you actually hear tarpon rolling next to your front porch? Well, you'll hear it [...]

Your boat is well-equipped to make the long run offshore. You've got the latest safety gear; a full tank of fuel; starter numbers in your chartplotter, showing popular trolling grounds [...]

If you have ever had your fishing line snagged by a powerboat, you know the feeling. It's the same helplessness I recently experienced when a big amberjack exploded into a [...]

Winter brings an excellent run of wahoo to Florida's southernmost fishing grounds. Here's how to score In Florida, wahoo are probably ranked just below marlin on anglers' 'what I would [...]

The early morning drive down U.S. 41 was dim and hazy. As the big city glow disappeared from my rearview, the mystique of the wild began to take over. I [...]

Stretching between the Aucilla and Steinhatchee Rivers are almost 50 miles of shallow flats which are at times covered with redfish. Captain Jay Carson of Plug and Fly Charters is [...]

The learning curve is steep, says Captain Kevin Farner of St. Petersburg. Apt words to describe deep-dropping for big bottom fish in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not talking 100,200 [...]

The Indian River Lagoon is a different place than when I began fishing there, about 25 years ago. Where seagrasses once flourished in the narrow, 155-mile-long stretch behind central Florida's [...]

Last month we uncovered Florida's hidden gems. For the Halloween season, we're digging up discoveries of a darker nature. Whispers and rumors. Secret spots and guarded charts. When things go [...]

Anchovies were pinned against dry sand, trying to escape brown pelicans strafing from above, tarpon and snook attacking from the flanks. Along the wash, plovers and ibis probed the wet [...]

The sun was just starting to rise when we spotted a bonefish tailing on a turtlegrass flat near Soldier Key. 'Let's sit and wait to see what this school is [...]

One of my best friends, Wilson Tennille, lived right on the edge of one of Northeast Florida's best redfish marshes. Wilson's backyard butted up against a wide expanse of marshlands, [...]

Summer is prime time to visit the artificial reefs around Florida. Winds are calm, waters generally clear, and most reef fish are open--including seasonal specialties like red snapper in the [...]

Looking for guaranteed rod-bending fun? Look no further than your local artificial reefs. Southwest Florida writer makes the case. Like individual jewels on a necklace, 3,300 artificial reefs surround Florida's [...]

I don't recall the exact year, but I do remember when the gorgeous, two-story Northeast Florida Marlin Association building was built at Camachee Cove Marina in Saint Augustine. As we [...]

Well, let's get this straight. I know that in many parts of Florida, there is inshore fishing and there is offshore fishing. And these two are quite different things. But [...]

Old Lady's Pond was said to lie deep within a dark, ravine-scarred wood. There was some trail you took, off a dead-end road in one of those borderline neighborhoods. This [...]

Small boat trips out of Bud N' Mary's in Islamorada are usually pretty short. The bonefish and permit flats start right outside the Teatable Key Relief channel at the lower [...]

Waves crashed into both sides of the 17-foot center console, sending jets of spray into our faces as we muscled our way through the Pensacola Pass. After months of cold, [...]

AMERICAN SHAD make an epic run from Atlantic depths to the marshes of Central Florida. Catch it! From the headwaters near Melbourne, the St. Johns Rivver snakes more than 300 [...]

Have you ever poled through, or waded in, gin-clear water for hours with nothing to show for it? Why in the world wouldn't a fish find such pristine water as [...]

From our home base in Gainesville, in north central Florida, we enjoy the flexibility to scoot over to the Gulf to fish any number of unique venues. Towing an aluminum [...]

ALONG-AWAITED WEEK IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA PROVED A GOOD BIT WINDIER THAN WE'D HAVE LIKED. BUT IN RETROSPECT, I SHOULDN'T GRIPE. A COUPLE OF WEEKS BEFORE WE ARRIVED, A MAGNITUDE [...]

Ernest Hemingway once compared the Gulf Stream to a trout stream. 'The holes, the eddies, the shallows are all there. Only you can't see them.' Marlin fishermen today might dismiss [...]

Ten miles off a beach in northern Costa Rica, Frank Wilhelm struggled as a 300-pound blue marlin ripped line from his Tiagra 50W. Where I normally fish, out of Jacksonville, [...]

When Caleb Couture wades into the Atlantic waves, he recognizes the many variables beyond his control. Will a school of pompano run across the bar he's targeting? If so, is [...]

It's a Florida Keys midwinter specialty. If you've never tried it now's the time. Cold is relative, of course, but when those north-northwest winds are strafing the Florida Keys, the [...]

'Where do you start? Everything looks Good.' Tom Booth stood on the casting plat form of my skiff, looking out over the Peace River in Desoto County. He had escaped [...]

To the traditional bottom fishing approaches of anchoring and drifting, add a new one: holding the spot with a high-powered' GPS-enabled trolling motor. The technology allows you to stay-at a [...]

Teeth. That's the first thing that usually comes to mind when we think barracuda, and there's no doubt, these fish have a maw of some wicked fangs powered by a [...]

The reports I was seeing posted with large grouper being caught in shallow water got me thinking. 'Honey, I think it's time we spent Thanksgiving with your family in St. [...]

On a routine schoolie striped bass trip a few years ago, I was releasing a striper during turn-and-burn action when the 25-incher flopped and stuck a dorsal spine in my [...]

Chokoloskee Island and nearby Everglades City Are gateways to some of Florida's 'wildest, most remote waters. They are also portals where past and present meet. Deep in the heart of [...]

The 9-pound, 4-ounce bass Renee White caught to win a tournament on Lake Kissimmee last February 10th felt like destiny. As a child growing up in Ocoee, FL, she fished [...]

Some of my best walleye fishing of the past season coincided late last fall with the rapid crash in water temperature on several large Brainerd-area, Minnesota, lakes, including 130,000acre Mille [...]

Among all the seasonal blessings we anglers enjoy, I'd rank a fine fall at the top of the list, especially if you place special emphasis on bass size, fishing conditions, [...]

Fishing the channel edge On the Mississippi with a crankbait, peripheral vision caught an immense surface disturbance under a long row of overhanging hardwoods. Multiple fish. Must be carp, I [...]

What to do when red snapper closes? Keep snapper fishing. Listen! Can you hear that sound which is coming from the Gulf Coast of Florida? From Pensacola down to Venice, [...]

After a hiatus from fishing Florida's Big Bend for several years, and then recently enjoying some of the finest action on spotted seatrout in decades, I began to wonder why--and [...]

They're on the action. What can they tell us? For the avid angler, birds are an under-utilized source of clues which will improve fishing opportunities on the water. From the [...]

Northwest winds howled as Capt. Mike 'Dog' Nickerson positioned the party boat Pacific Dawn over an oceanic ridge that parallels the southern shore of Santa Rosa Island off California's Ventura [...]

My dad was blessed with two daughters and no sons. As a result, my little sister and I grew up doing everything little boys do. Some of my fondest childhood [...]

It's a good day for seeing fish. It's a better day for catching fish. The water is flat with almost no wind movement. I'm drifting in my skiff right off [...]

Departing for his morning tarpon charter, Danny Flynn scanned the Intracoastal Waterway for small flicks and splats on the surface which would indicate schooling menhaden. Menhaden are prime baits for [...]

> Green shadows reflecting off chrome-sided predators becomes stealth technology. Stalks, filaments, and leaves provide extra cover for bulging, slab-sided gluttons, and minnows wander into the kill zone unaware executioners [...]

> As summer wears on, plants flourish, fed by abundant sunshine and nutrients in water. Through photosynthesis, they harness energy from sunlight to synthesize carbohydrate foods from water and carbon [...]

Every summer, the big tarpon return to the forage-rich waters of Northeast Florida. Here's how to get 'em. Through good years and bad years of Northeast Florida saltwater fishing, one [...]

Shortly after dark on the evening of July 5,1976, those of us aboard the charter boat Sea Boots looked landward and saw multi-colored skyrockets exploding in air above the silhouetted [...]

The South Florida seas had grown into nasty 4- to 5-footers; the sky darkened. If it hadn't been the August full-moon period, Capt. Chris Fay would not have ventured offshore. [...]