big bend
New “User-Friendly” Dates Announced For Big Bend 2017 Recreational Bay Scallop Season
In recent years, Florida’s Recreational Bay Scallop harvest rules were fairly simple. You could “catch” your limit of these tasty morsels from the Pasco/Hernando County line to the Mexico Beach Canal from July 1 until September 24th. Some places were better than others with regards to the size and number of scallops available. But now, …
Don’t Miss Fishing Florida’s Big Bend “Halloween High Tide”!
Expect to see water flooded well into Big Bend creek during the “Halloween Tides” Fishing mid-day high tides, like the ones we’ll have the weekend of October 29 and 30 (Halloween weekend!), can be a good thing—fish move closer to shore and can’t get any farther, making it easy to catch both big reds and …
Florida’s 2016/2017 Stone Crab Season Opens October 15th–Great Eating Ahead
The result of stone crabbers’ hard work–a plate of mighty fine eatin’ There’s nothing more tasty than a Florida stone crab. And some of the best come from the ports of Natural North Florida. Florida’s stone crab population is highly regulated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Not only do regulations apply …
Fishing The Big Bend Marsh–The Closer You Get, The More Reds You’ll Catch!
In the fall, high tides flood, pushing water well into the creeks and marshes all along Levy, Dixie, Taylor, Jefferson and Wakulla Counties, on Florida’s Big Bend. We don’t have many mangroves, but we do have lots of spartina grass which offers comfort to redfish, or red drum. When the reds get back in the …
Fishing in October? Cooling Waters Heat Up The Big Bend Inshore Bite
I was pleasantly surprised last Sunday when Steinhatchee Capt. Rick Davidson told me he’d been reading water temperatures in the 70s all day. The day was cool and there were pods of bait everywhere, but I didn’t think that the temps had dropped that much in the past few weeks. That’s a good sign, and …
Warmer Water and Air Temperatures Drive Snook North Into Florida’s Nature Coast
Snook are one of Florida’s most popular gamefish Traditionally, in years past, West Florida’s snook population remained south of our Natural North Florida waters. That was largely due to cold winters, which either run snook into warm residential canals on the upper suncoast, or kill them outright. However, winters over the last ten or twelve …
Boat? What Boat? Try Wade-Fishing on Florida’s Taylor and Dixie County Coastlines
Redfish are a common catch for anglers wading the Big Bend I guess I’m guilty of assuming that everyone who fishes on the Big Bend has a boat. I’m hardly an elitist, but consider myself lucky to have had access to, or ownership of, a boat for the last 50 years. However, I’ve …
Spotted Seatrout–A Big Bend Favorite (To Catch and To Eat)!
Fall is here and all those undersized spotted seatrout that Big Bend anglers have been catching and releasing since last spring have grown up. Now, they’re mostly all in the 15 to 20-inch slot (you can keep one over 20-inches) and there should be no problem catching dinner as the waters on the Big Bend …
Florida’s Big Bend 2016 Recreational Scallop Season Ends–With A Bang!
Five of the seven counties that make up the official Florida bay scallop harvest are in Natural North Florida–Levy, Dixie, Taylor, Jefferson and Wakulla. And what a year 2016 has been! The harvest started in June, and quick boat limits (see www.myfwc.com/fishing for regulations) were taken. And even after Hurricane Hermine slammed the coast over …
Natural North Florida Overcomes Hurricane Hermine
Hurricane Hermine comes ashore on Florida’s Big Bend, September 1, 2016 with minimal hurricane force winds. We’re a tough, resilient bunch in Natural North Florida. When Hurricane Hermine hit just east of St. Marks in Wakulla and Jefferson counties on September 1, 2016 it had been a full decade since we’d had a similar event. …