To Fish or not To Fish?
That is the question. Lately it seems I’m getting a lot of emails on how the Government wants to curtail our fishing. Let me explain; The NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Services) who has already put the clamps on red snapper, grouper, black sea bass and other species is now looking to put drastic changes on the bag limits for cobia in our state waters. Right now the bag limit stands at 1 per person or 6 per boat per day. The new legislation would cut the number to 1 cobia per boat per day. You wonder why they, the government, would want to do this when fishermen say the cobia stocks are the strongest they’ve seen in 25 years. You can read more about this in this months issue of the Florida Sportsman or www.floridasportsman.com.
You may ask yourself who is really pushing the Government to make all these changes to our fishing regulations? In this writers “opinion” it’s the environmental group known as PEW Charitable Trusts. For the sake of losing my cool here and going off on my soap box I urge you to go to their website www.pewcharitabletrusts.org and find Protecting Ocean Life and see what there up to. Again, “in my opinion,” they would like to see fishing shut down altogether.
Here’s another good email I received; Florida State Senator Joe Negron (R-Stuart) introduced a bill, S.B.744, which would eliminate resident and non-resident fishing licenses. If this bill passes, Florida’s fisheries management system and the recreational fishing economy would be devastated. You can learn more about this ridiculous bill, and I strongly urge you to do so because this will affect not only fisherman but business’s and jobs, by going to:
www.keepamericafishing.org
I read all this stuff and I ask myself why? Why would people or organizations want to affect the lives of millions of people? Before I get into politics, which I really don’t want to do in a fishing column, let me just say this; “can’t we all just get along”.
Enough depressing news, let’s talk about fishing. The inshore fishing this past week has been on the slow side overall. High tides and the full moon both had an affect on the bite. Look for this to change with the advent of the new moon and warming water temperatures. It’s been beautiful lately so do yourself a favor and get out and enjoy these days before the real heat sets in. Looking at the national weather I feel very lucky to be living in Florida.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday, February 07, 2011
Trout Fishing Closed For February
Trout fishing is closed for the month of February in the northeast zone. The northeast zone starts at the Volusia/ Flagler county line and extends north to the Florida/ Georgia border. All trout that are caught inside the northeast zone must be released no matter of their condition. If you launch your boat in Flagler County, go into Volusia County and catch trout you can’t bring them back into Flagler County. If you launch in Volusia you can’t go into Flagler and bring trout back to that county. Your best bet if your looking to keep trout this month is to launch in Volusia and stay in Volusia. Trout fishing will reopen in the northeast zone March 1st.
In my last article I wrote about the benefits of the color gold in clear water. Now that we are getting rain and the water temperature rises you’ll notice the clarity of the water start to change, it will become darker. Once the hue changes it’s time to start looking at trying different colors when it comes to artifical baits and flies. Don’t get me wrong here, gold will still work especially when the sun is the brightest during the day, it’s just time to start thinking about the use of different colors in stained water.
A lot of fishermen have a saying when it comes to fishing dark water; If it ain’t chartreuse it ain’t no use. I have to admit that there’s a lot to be said about that statement. Chartreuse is one of my favorite colors in dark water especially if the color gold is incorporated somewhere in the mix. My favorite lure, the Mirrolure M17, is a combination of chartreuse and gold. This lure, because of the flash it puts off, seems to draw fish from out of the dark depths on bright sunny days. Even when it comes to my flies I’ll use a chartreuse/gold color combination during the daylight hours.
When fishing deeper water, where it’s always darker, I like lean towards dark colors such as black, green or purple. I’ll use these colors or a combination of them weather I’m using a deep running plug, jig or a fly. The darker colors put out more of a silhouette than lighter colors making it easier for the fish to see. They actually make a product that will select a color to use when it is placed in the water. Add to the color a lure that wabbles and puts out vibration or a jig or fly that pulsates when moved through the water and you have a deadly combination for catching fish.
Trout fishing is closed for the month of February in the northeast zone. The northeast zone starts at the Volusia/ Flagler county line and extends north to the Florida/ Georgia border. All trout that are caught inside the northeast zone must be released no matter of their condition. If you launch your boat in Flagler County, go into Volusia County and catch trout you can’t bring them back into Flagler County. If you launch in Volusia you can’t go into Flagler and bring trout back to that county. Your best bet if your looking to keep trout this month is to launch in Volusia and stay in Volusia. Trout fishing will reopen in the northeast zone March 1st.
In my last article I wrote about the benefits of the color gold in clear water. Now that we are getting rain and the water temperature rises you’ll notice the clarity of the water start to change, it will become darker. Once the hue changes it’s time to start looking at trying different colors when it comes to artifical baits and flies. Don’t get me wrong here, gold will still work especially when the sun is the brightest during the day, it’s just time to start thinking about the use of different colors in stained water.
A lot of fishermen have a saying when it comes to fishing dark water; If it ain’t chartreuse it ain’t no use. I have to admit that there’s a lot to be said about that statement. Chartreuse is one of my favorite colors in dark water especially if the color gold is incorporated somewhere in the mix. My favorite lure, the Mirrolure M17, is a combination of chartreuse and gold. This lure, because of the flash it puts off, seems to draw fish from out of the dark depths on bright sunny days. Even when it comes to my flies I’ll use a chartreuse/gold color combination during the daylight hours.
When fishing deeper water, where it’s always darker, I like lean towards dark colors such as black, green or purple. I’ll use these colors or a combination of them weather I’m using a deep running plug, jig or a fly. The darker colors put out more of a silhouette than lighter colors making it easier for the fish to see. They actually make a product that will select a color to use when it is placed in the water. Add to the color a lure that wabbles and puts out vibration or a jig or fly that pulsates when moved through the water and you have a deadly combination for catching fish.
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