| Doug Sease's Blog Archive |
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| Tarpon on the Greens |
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| June 24, 2008 |
| I took a different route home yesterday on my bike ride that took me past the Moorings Club, the local golf/yacht/social club. Next to the clubhouse was a pretty little pond, much longer than it was wide.
As I always do when I see a new body of water, I wondered what might be lurking under the surface.... more |
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| Lures Catch More Fishermen Than Fish |
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| June 17, 2008 |
Well, the time has come, as it does every year, to stock up on new top-water lures. The water temps are hot and the trout are most ready to eat at sunup when they stalk the shallows looking for breakfast.
When I’m fishing in thick weed beds, I much prefer a top-water lure.... more |
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| Mighty Mangrove Under the Dock |
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| June 12, 2008 |
I posted back in January about my “insurance policy,” a dilapidated old dock and boat lift near where I keep my flats boat. I explained back then that if things hadn’t gone well out on the flats, I would swing by that old dock and toss a bait under it to see what turned up. Quite often I would pull a fat trout or snook from under the dock and occasionally a big redfish or black drum.... more |
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| Expert Advice on Taking Kids Fishing |
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| June 09, 2008 |
| Kids and fishing is a topic I don’t know a lot about, mainly because I don’t have kids. I can, however, remember what it was like for me as a kid when my dad took me fishing. As long as there was action, I was interested.... more |
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| The Tarpon Have Arrived |
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| June 09, 2008 |
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| Sunday afternoon, my neighbor Bob and I were working on our boats and got to talking to about fishing. We both noted that we were surprised we hadn’t seen any tarpon rolling in our cove. The water temperature is in the mid-80s, very comfortable for these monsters, and bait seemed plentiful.... more |
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| Trash Fish Rock! |
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| June 03, 2008 |
| I’m a meat fisherman. I want to eat what I catch. But not everything I catch makes a great dinner.... more |
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| DIY Bait |
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| May 27, 2008 |
It’s trap time on the Indian River.
Water temperatures are well into the 70s now, signaling that my efforts to catch my own bait rather than purchase it from the local bait and tackle store, should be fruitful. During the winter I use a lot of live shrimp for bait.... more |
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| Proppin' Up my Flats Boat |
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| May 12, 2008 |
| I keep adding things to my flats boat. A few months ago it was a Power Pole. Last week it was a new propeller.... more |
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| Cruising the Backside of the Keys |
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| May 02, 2008 |
| I love the Florida Keys. The chain of islands extending off the southern end of the peninsula is one of the unique cruising grounds in the world and I’ve spent many happy days in those waters aboard Galaxie, our 46-foot ketch.... more |
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| Ding Hao Delivery |
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| April 28, 2008 |
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| There’s no better way to learn about a new boat than to take a long cruise on her.
There’s no worse way to learn about a new boat than to take a long cruise on her.
I realize that sounds contradictory, but there’s an elemental truth about that contradiction.... more |
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| Are You 'Cool' or Are You Cool? |
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| April 17, 2008 |
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| It won’t be long now before the sultry summer weather sets in. I know that because all the fishing and boating summer catalogs that are flooding my mailbox contain one advertisement after another proclaiming the virtues of so-called technical fabrics that “wick perspiration away to keep you cool.”
Here’s the skinny: tech fabrics don’t make the grade.... more |
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| Getting Excited Again About Sailing |
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| April 08, 2008 |
| You don’t realize after more than 20 years of sailing how jaded you can become. I don’t even read Sail or Cruising World any longer. The articles have become repetitious and boring.... more |
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| Gropin' Grouper in the Indian River |
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| April 01, 2008 |
| Whenever I get tired of fishing for trout and redfish in the Indian River—which isn’t often—I break the monotony and go grouper groping. Most anglers think that to catch a good size grouper you’ve got to go offshore, finding a reef or wreck that hasn’t been overfished by every other angler within 100 miles, and try to lure a fish out of its hidey-hole. All true.... more |
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| Charter Captains and Clients Duke It Out |
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| March 25, 2008 |
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| It’s always fun to take a little break from working and just troll the Florida Sportsman Forum website. You never know what you’re going to find. You can check fishing reports for wherever you happen to be in Florida and pick up some useful tips about fishing techniques and tackle.... more |
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| Wilnd, Wind, Go Away |
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| March 19, 2008 |
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When will the wind stop?
I don’t mean for good, I mean just long enough for me to get in some relaxing fishing. I haven’t gone back and researched the climatological data, but March seems regularly to be windy time on Florida’s east coast. How windy? Well, right now the anemometer on my sailboat’s mast is showing fairly steady winds of close to 20 knots with a few gusts to the higher 20s, and I haven’t been watching it that closely, so we may have had a few blasts of 30 knots or more.... more |
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| From Reef to Grill |
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| March 11, 2008 |
| I came home from a little bottom-fishing expedition a few days ago with a few yellowtail and mangrove snapper, some of the tastiest fish that swim the reefs. They’re especially great on the grill. They aren’t as strongly flavored as traditional grilling fish like salmon, tuna or mackerel, but their flesh is firm enough that they don’t tend to fall apart.... more |
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| A Fishy Art Form |
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| March 05, 2008 |
| You may have seen them art shows or at upscale fishing tackle shops: prints of real fish matted and framed as art. They’re very attractive, not at all like the splashy art of sailfish ripping up schools of bait fish that are suitable only for a basement or den. This is subtle, sophisticated art.... more |
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| Snook Under the Docks |
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| February 26, 2008 |
| Targeting snook for the dinner table is an exercise in frustration. Sure, they’re one of the tastiest fish that swims in Florida waters, with a firm white flesh that flakes beautifully. The problem is catching one that you can keep.... more |
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| An Expert's View of the Boating Industry |
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| February 19, 2008 |
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| While making my annual pilgrimage to the Miami Boat Show last week, I managed to grab a few minutes with Thom Dammrich, the president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association. The great thing about folks like Thom is that they can put some hard numbers to perceptions we have about things like the health of the boating industry.
While the Miami show is always glittering and glamorous, the impressions I had before strolling through the Miami Convention Center were mostly that boating was taking a whack from the souring economy.... more |
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| Sailing on a Microbudget |
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| February 10, 2008 |
| Anybody who does much sailing knows how expensive the sport is. Never has so much been spent to go anywhere so slowly. But my friend George has solved the expense problem.... more |
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| Predawn Pompano Patrol |
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| February 10, 2008 |
| A west wind makes for calm seas on Florida’s east coast. In the middle of what passes for winter in the state that means pompano patrol!
Jack and I hit the beach before dawn, mostly because Jack has a theory that fish don’t bite during the day. Never mind the thousands of fish I’ve caught in the middle of the day.... more |
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| Testing the Water for Boat Sales |
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| February 06, 2008 |
| So both I and my friend Bill have our boats up for sale. He’s serious, I’m sorta not. If Bill sells his boat, he’ll buy another, bigger one.... more |
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| Fuel Prices Affect Boating and Fishing |
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| January 30, 2008 |
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| Have fuel prices affected your fishing or boating plans?
It stands to reason that higher fuel prices combined with an economic slump would take a toll on fishing and boating and there’s growing evidence of that, almost all anecdotal. I’ve seen reports from areas of concentrated fishing—the lower Keys, for instance—that there are fewer boats on the water this year than last. The head boats aren’t going out every day like they used to.... more |
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| Making the Last Cast Count |
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| January 25, 2008 |
| Tenacity—the willingness and fortitude to stay with a task until it is completed—is both a blessing and a curse of the fisherman. I suppose that’s why we keep going back again and again, whether it’s trolling all day offshore in hopes of connecting up with a dolphin, tuna or sailfish, or why we spend hour after countless hour casting lures for trout, snook and redfish. When do you just call it quits and go home?
As I get older I find that, while I still have the willingness to stay on the water until I catch something, I don’t have as much fortitude as I once did.... more |
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| Don't Blame the Weatherman |
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| January 22, 2008 |
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| Frustrating, isn’t it, when you’re counting on a day on the water and the weather doesn’t cooperate? How many times have you planned a weekend boating or fishing trip at midweek, when the weather forecast for the weekend looked great, only to have that trip ruined by high winds or rain or both when the weekend rolls around?
Don’t blame the weather service. The meteorologists who make those forecasts are doing the best they can to solve an immensely complex riddle that is the weather. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong.... more |
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| Disk Brakes For My Flats Boat |
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| January 18, 2008 |
| I finally got some brakes for my flats boat.
Not having good brakes on a flats boat is a real aggravation. You’re drifting across the flats and hook a big redfish that takes you four or five minutes to land.... more |
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| Master Repair Joins My List of The Best |
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| January 14, 2008 |
| Don’t you love to find someone who loves his work, takes great pride in it and doesn’t just give lip service to the notion of customer service?
I think the pros involved in fishing and boating tend to be better about fulfilling those criteria than most professions. I’ve got a personal list of “The Best” pros I’ve dealt with in decades of fishing and boating. Now I’ve got a new addition to the list: Mike Flavin, owner of Master Repair in Stuart.... more |
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| Innovation Need Not Be Complicated |
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| January 09, 2008 |
| Hard to believe that in this age of technology, one of the biggest revolutions in fresh-water fishing was brewed up in a kitchen in Akron, Ohio, more than 50 years ago. I’m talking about the plastic worm, the creation of a fellow named Nick Crème who made molds from actual earthworms, then filled the molds with molten vinyl heated up on the kitchen stove. Amazingly, you can still buy Crème’s original Wiggle Worm, although there are thousands of variants on the plastic worm on the market today.... more |
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| Perfect Pompano |
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| January 03, 2008 |
| While we were in Everglades City for a guided fishing trip in the Ten Thousand Islands, we stopped by the Oyster House, a down-home restaurant on Highway 29 just south of Everglades City on the way to Chokoloskee, the southern most town on Florida’s west coast. Fresh seafood was the selling point and that’s what we wanted for dinner. This area is the self-proclaimed “stone crab capital of the world” and has an abundance of everything else that swims that you might want to eat, including crabs, shrimp, oysters and gator.... more |
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| Ditch Fishing |
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| December 31, 2007 |
| On our way from Vero Beach to a fishing expedition out of Chokoloskee, a little fishing village on Florida’s west coast where civilization peters out into the Everglades, we decided to go slow. That meant taking U.S.... more |
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| Christmas Eve in Chokoloskee |
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| December 28, 2007 |
| When friends cancelled Christmas Eve dinner only a few days before the event my minded turned immediately to fishing. My wife, Jane, had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, so we had some time to travel a bit.
I’ve always wanted to explore the Ten Thousand Islands area, that section of the lower Florida Gulf Coast that starts at Everglades City and runs around to Cape Sable.... more |
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| My Friend, the Fuzzy Fisherman |
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| December 20, 2007 |
To meet Sam you would think he’s one of the most mild-mannered pooches around. He’s small, friendly and likes to play. But lurking behind that fuzzy face is a highly efficient fish-killing machine.... more |
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| Can You Have Too Many? |
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| December 13, 2007 |
| Whenever I want to take a break from more serious concerns I like to troll various fishing forums on the web, both to find out what’s biting where and to listen in as fishermen (and some fisherwomen) talk about their approach to the sport. Not long ago I was perusing the general forum on more |
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| Fishing Near and Far |
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| December 13, 2007 |
I admit it. I’m extremely lucky to be able to live on the water in Florida. It sure makes fishing easier when you can jump in your boat at the dock, crank up and head out.... more |
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| Fresh Trout for Dinner Out of Season |
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| December 13, 2007 |
Trout are out of season right now on Florida’s east coast, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fresh trout for dinner. It all depends on what you think the meaning of “fresh” is.
Living and fishing on the Indian River I have a pretty high standard for “fresh.... more |
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| Target: Pompano |
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| December 10, 2007 |
| Pompano are one of my favorite fish. They fight like tigers and taste great to boot. It’s about time for them to be arriving on the Treasure Coast.... more |
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| The Center of the Yachting Universe |
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| December 10, 2007 |
It isn’t hard to understand that boating is a big industry in Florida. Everywhere you look you see boats of all sizes and types. But it’s always mind boggling to spend a little time on or near the water in Fort Lauderdale to get a perspective on just how huge and important the marine business is to Florida.... more |
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| Shootout on the Beach |
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| December 08, 2007 |
Pompano should start showing up in the waters around Vero Beach soon and that will bring out the surf casters. My friend Jack is a avid surf fisherman and has been telling me for the last couple of years about how far he cast his custom-made surf fishing rig, a Penn 525 Mag revolving spool reel harnessed to a 12-foot custom surf rod. I kept wondering what was so much better about that rig than a spinning setup, so a few days ago I challenged Jack to a hurling contest.... more |
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| Who Ya Gonna Ask? |
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| December 06, 2007 |
| When business takes me to south Florida I always try to schedule a little free time to stop by Outdoor World, the sprawling big-box retailer of all things outdoorsy. The store, adjacent to Interstate 95 in Dania, a semi-suburb of Fort Lauderdale, is loaded to the gills with all sorts of stuff: clothes, knives, canoes, grills and smokers. You name it, the store has it.... more |
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| Taming Killer Lures |
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| December 03, 2007 |
Sea trout are the usual target when I go fishing on the Indian River flats south of Vero Beach. They’re fun to catch, there are plenty of them around and they make a tasty dinner. While I often use live bait, mostly shrimp this time of year, I also like the action of a top-water plug.... more |
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| Five Minutes of Fishing |
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| November 27, 2007 |
If you’re like me, you usually make a big production of going fishing. Check out the tackle, replace worn leaders, survey your inventory of lures to be sure you’ve got the variety you think you’ll need, get a thermos of coffee and a snack, load the boat, check for sunglasses, hat, sun block, make sure you have the right tackle box, etc. You can spend an hour just getting ready to fish.... more |
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| Is Bigger Better? |
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| November 27, 2007 |
| I’m starting to think about a new boat. Not ‘new’ in the sense of right off the showroom floor, just new in that it will be a new addition to my fleet. This one will be used to run out of Fort Pierce or Jupiter Inlet looking for bottom fish, dolphin and mackerel.... more |
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| Fall Is In The Air! |
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| November 01, 2007 |
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I love fishing in Florida in the fall. Of course, I also love fishing in Florida in the winter, spring and summer, but right now it's fall, so that's what I love.
What's to love, you ask? To start with, I don't have to get up as early to be fishing when the sun rises.... more |
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