Fall Fishing on Natural North Florida’s Big Bend Flats

  The term, ‘flats’, means lots of things to lots of different anglers. Bonefishers love to sight fish over stretches of shin-deep, pure white sand or marl. Tarpon enthusiasts often find their prey on ‘flats’ that are six to eight feet deep, and everyone knows that redfish prefer shallows where the rough, rocky bottom holds …

Sizzlin’ Summertime Fishing at Cedar Key

The town of Cedar Key has two distinct personalities. One, it’s a fun place to visit, walk the streets, sight-see, shop in small galleries and eat at better-than-average restaurants. Second, and certainly more important to fishermen, it’s a great place to do some excellent inshore and offshore fishing, especially during the hot summer months when …

Fishing Feature: The Often Overlooked Waccasassa Bay, Levy County

  According to Dunnellon resident Buzz Phillips, who’s been fishing Waccasassa Bay his entire lifetime, the fishing’s not as good there as it was twenty or thirty years ago. That may be true, but the unspoiled waters reached by leaving the Waccasassa River are hard to beat when many other Big Bend ports are crowded …

Fishing Feature: Cedar Key’s Main Ship Channel

Cedar Key In the 1880’s, steamships plied the waters between New Orleans, Havana, and Cedar Key. Yet after the hurricane of 1896 and the depletion of the cedar trees by pencil manufacturers, Cedar Key became a sleepy fishing village on Florida’s Big Bend. But in spite of the town’s loss of commerce and population, its …

10 Wonderful Waters For Summer Heat in Natural North Florida

For folks looking to escape the summer heat, Natural North Florida provides countless opportunities to cool down with its extensive collection of springs, rivers, lakes, and coastline. Most of Florida’s 700 identified freshwater springs are located in North Florida or along the Gulf Coast, and more than 40 are open to the public. Our section …

Too Windy To Fish The Gulf? Head Up A Big Bend Coastal Creek

    Springtime often means that the winds howl on Natural North Florida’s Gulf Coast.  It’s not unusual for winds to be light and variable, 3 to 7-knots, in the morning hours, but turn to a 20-knot westerly sea breeze by noon.  The land heats up faster than the water, and that convection causes rough …

52nd Annual Cedar Key Arts Festival, April 9 & 10, 2016

  2016 marks the 52nd year of the Cedar Key Arts Festival.  The town of Cedar Key comes alive with fun for the entire family during the event.  Expect great food, professional arts and crafts and a chance to see one of Florida’s best-kept secrets–the town of Cedar Key.  Located just an hour west of …

Small Town Escape: Follow That Dream Down Highway 40 to Yankeetown, Florida

If you’re driving north or south on US19/98 and find yourself in the village of Inglis, near the highway’s intersection with the Withlacoochee River, be sure to turn west on SR40, locally known as “Follow That Dream Parkway”.    Yes, Elvis was there in 1961 filming Follow That Dream, one of his most successful movies, putting …

Tour Cedar Key’s Lighthouse, February 20, 2016

It’s Open House time! February 20th from 9am-3pm the Cedar Keys Lighthouse will be open to the public. Seahorse Key Marine Lab will be doing marine ecology interpretations. You can come in your own boat or for a fee, take one of the tour boats from the Cedar Key Marina.

Trolling For Trout–A Favorite Big Bend Wintertime Fishing Technique

Many of the Gulf-facing creeks along our Big Bend coastline are as wide and deep as our smaller rivers.  Three good examples are Barnett and Dan May creeks, in Levy County near Suwannee, and Dallus Creek, in Taylor County.  And slow-trolling lures, especially MirrOlures, is a time-tested method used by local anglers to catch fat …