Florida Sportsman Magazine

2 weeks ago | floridasportsman.com | Blair Wickstrom

Not long after my father passed away in 2018, I found an unopened letter he’d written 20 years earlier. At the time of writing, Karl was facing major, high-risk heart surgery. In the letter were instructions that if he didn’t make it out of surgery, he wanted his ashes scattered in Whitewater Bay, deep in the Florida Everglades. Because I’d fished with my dad out of Flamingo many times while growing up, I knew it was a special place for him and wasn’t surprised to read his request.

1 month ago | floridasportsman.com | Mike Conner

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases. The farther you can cast, the more water you can cover. And sometimes that will lead to catching more fish. Sometimes. The fish have to be there in the first place. Long casts are the Holy Grail when you are fishing afoot on Florida beaches—from jetties, piers and even when blind-fishing on shallow flats, when you need to cover water.

1 month ago | floridasportsman.com | Brenton Roberts

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases. For me these days, opportunities at sunup-to-sundown fishing trips have lessened. Life, kids; you know the deal. But sometimes the itch just needs to be scratched! Smaller windows of opportunity, like early morning pond-hopping, or a sunset wade are more plausible. Maybe you can relate? Emptying the boat of all our lures and trying to lug around that big tackle box is just plain inconvenient.

2 months ago | floridasportsman.com | Jeff Weakley

Yeah, yeah, tell me about another online fishing education course. Go chop mullet, dude. I’ve waded through FWC’s Shore-Based Shark fishing module, the Skyway Fishing Pier bird tutorials, and the Everglades Boater Education permit. I was born long before 1988, but voluntarily went through a boating safety course to get my FWC Boater Safety ID card. I’m filled to the gills with requisite learning. So it was with some reluctance that I clicked through the Florida Friendly Angler course.

2 months ago | floridasportsman.com | Ed Killer

Forces of nature, hurricanes are one of mankind’s most ferocious threats. They often create a world of trouble for everyone in their path. Sometimes, however, hurricanes surprise us. These giant storms alter coastlines in good ways as well as bad. One phenomenon called by some is the “wild pass.” Simply put, it’s when a storm creates a natural pass or inlet in a barrier island linking a land-locked waterway with a gulf or ocean.