Bonefish & Tarpon Trust News

More than 9,000 representatives from the global sportfishing community, exhibitors, buyers and outdoor media, converged on the Orange County Convention Center  Wednesday through Friday last week, for the world’s largest sportfishing trade show. The 55th International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades, better known as ICAST, represents the cornerstone of the sportfishing industry, driving sportfishing companies’ […]

Covered in small, butter-yellow flowers and thick green leaves, an unusual bush looks out of place amidst the surrounding sea of black needlerush marsh grass. It is a black mangrove, a plant typically associated with the coastlines of south Florida and the Caribbean. This particular bush is believed to be growing farther north than any […]

In the 1950s, tarpon fishing on Florida Bay was a lonely game, with few players.Spring is here and giant tarpon are returning to the fishing flats of Florida. Facing off against this annual invasion are great picket lines of flyfisher-men, by now a familiar sight on the shallow banks of the  Florida Keys, South Dade and (a […]

Bonefish eat whenever they can and on all phases of the tide and moon. It is also axiomatic that if you aren’t there, you sure as hell can’t catch them…. so anytime is better than none. Having said that, there are better tides than others. I often tell anglers that it can be tough to […]

Captain Rupert Leadon of Andros Island, Bahamas passed away last week. He helped pioneer bonefishing on Andros Island and in 1984 purhchased the property of a former sisal plantation from the Bahamian government with a dream to build a bonefish lodge. Shortly thererafter, he erected Andros Island Bonefish Club which has been around the longest […]

Tarpon Take Center Stage, as published recently in Sport Fishing Magazine, by Jerald S. Ault, PH. D., “A Compelling Need for Conservation Brings Together Science and Fishing Communities to Support Sustainable Coastal Sport Fisheries”. Tarpon offer a challenge to biologist and angler alike.  Hooked up, one senses the unbridled survival instincts of one of Earth’s […]

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted to keep the snook season closed for another year in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Keys and Everglades National Park.  The closure, which will run through Aug. 31, 2013, provides additional  protection to snook after a 2010 cold spell killed thousands of the […]

FORT MYERS, Fla. – West Marine recently announced the grand opening of its Fort Myers flagship store, the fifth flagship store in the state. Located at 7070 College Parkway, Suite 102 at the intersection of College Parkway and U.S. 41 / Tamiami Trail, this will be the biggest West Marine store in Southwest Florida. A weekend […]

Aside from making it a whole lot easier to remove a hook from the mouth of a fish, there are other reasons to avoid fishing with barbed hooks as Kirk Deeter points out on Fly Talk.

Life in the vast interior Everglades, from tree islands to endangered snail kites, continues to decline for a lack of water, and restoration could stall again in the near future unless Congress signs off on pending projects and steps up with more money. The report finds that too much early work has focused on the […]