Saltwater

Since the distant climes and times of my teenage years, New England's stripers and bluefish had always nibbled their way into the borders of my angling dreams. After what seemed like forever, the vacancies left by the attainment of other game fish and their respective pockets of the world allowed these two species to swim dead center into the bull's-eye of old aspirations now turned bucket list.

OutdoorsFIRST Media received this press release from the National Professional Anglers Association today. We feel it is noteworthy for a number of reasons especially  If you fish Tarpon or Bonefish in Florida. Please read this press release carefully, and comment as to what you think the impact will be, positive or negative, on the fishery and local economies.

Cantey Smith of Mount Pleasant joined up with some friends to go bottom fishing offshore and reeled in a fish that ties a South Carolina state record. Smith is in his 50s and has fished all over North America and in several foreign countries but it took an Aug. 3 trip out of his home port to tame the 48.5-pound gag grouper and reel in the fish of a lifetime.

By Tom Keer for Take Me Fishing

Dropper rigs are standard operating procedures for trout bums, but they are relatively uncommon in the salt. That fact always surprises me, particularly because there are so many different types of bait in the water at all times. That point was illustrated last fall when a pod of big bluefish and striped bass pushed nine different types of bait on shore. Using a dropper rig helps anglers find what bait the fish want so they can get on with the catching.

Anglers new to snook fishing should realize that the "linesider" is a tropical species, more often found in the mangrove estuaries of central and northern South America. Over thousands of years, snook have migrated to Florida as their northernmost region, although few snook exist in north Florida compared to the central and southern part of the Sunshine State.  

It seemed like ages since I'd been to Bud N' Mary's.

Though permit on the flats can be found outside the United States in such places as Roatan, Cuba, parts of the Bahamas, the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Quintana Roo province and certainly Belize, the stretch of Florida's shallows from Miami to Key West to the Marquesas invariably has the largest size permit on the planet. I've called this magic portion of Florida the Permit Coast.  The Sunshine State is the only place to catch permit on the flats in the USA.  

As Captain Ken Collette and I made our way westward across the state, we were stoked to get to Sanibel Island. We'd made plans to fish with Captain Mike Smith for snook.