For those that are making the transition from freshwater to saltwater fishing, will have to update their tackle that they use. For the most part, this is particularly important when it comes to the fishing reel. The saltwater fishing reels are made to handle the powerful salt, that will eventually cause the saltwater fishing reel to seize up and break. This is one of the reasons that freshwater fishing reels are much more cheap than those of the saltwater fishing reels, go figure.

Even if you purchase a rod and reel that is made for saltwater fishing, extra care must be taken, whether you are fishing in the bay, gulf, a pier, the beach, or deep sea fishing, you are exposing your fishing equipment to the harmful sea salt that is in the air. This is why it is so important that you rinse all of your equipment down every time you are finished fishing for the day.

If you don’t, the salt can actually start to eat away at the gears and mechanisms that are located inside of the saltwater fishing reel. Some of the effects of this will be the reel squeaking when you are winding the line in, and also you may notice that it is harder to reel in the line than it was when you first got the reel.

It doesn’ t matter what kind of reel you are using, whether it be a spinning reel, bait caster, or deep sea saltwater fishing reel, they need to be rinsed down with freshwater when they are done being used. It goes the same with just about anything that you bring on the boat, besides the electronics that is, as they are designed to withstand the harmful sea salt, to a certain extent, but you really can’t go and wash down your $2000 fish finder, well maybe you can but I wouldn’t recommend doing that any how.

By rinsing the saltwater fishing line down also, you will be keeping it nice and strong, as yes the saltwater can take effect on that too if not cared for and rinsed routinely. Take care of your equipment, and believe me it will take care of you. There is nothing more frustrating than fighting that giant tarpon or redfish, and have them break off the line because your saltwater fishing tackle was in crappy shape, and not cared for properly.

So if you have learned anything from this at all, it’s that if you are saltwater fishing, keep your tackle in good shape, it only takes a couple of minutes to give it a good rinse off.

If you have every tried to catch snook then you know that they are not an easy fish to land. Well they are not really all that difficult to land though either, the toughest part is knowing where to find them. This will all depend on your location though really, as in which state you are as snook are most commonly found in the United States in the warmer waters. They range from the middle of FLorida down, all the way over to Texas.

They stay close to shore and you will rarely find them offshore, and if you have to ask I have never seen any snook off shore. The think I love about fishing for snook is that they are one of the tastiest fish in my opinion, right next to Mahi Mahi, and in many cases I think that they taste much better than Dolphin fish do. The only thing is that the restrictions are pretty tough if you want to be able to keep them and eat them. But that should not be the only reason that you are fishing for them in the first place. The reason that you should be fishing for them is that they are fun as hell to fight, and if you really want a challenge then you should try catching one on a fly rod. You have no idea how much fun it is to real one of those bad boys in on a fly rod.

About the restrictions of catching snook they are always changing and it really differs from state to state. I know that they are less harsh when you get south of FLorida and the snook their also get much bigger than they do then in the State of Florida. I know that the regulations of keeping snook in the State of Florida give you about a 6 inch leeway, not really that much. They do not want you to keep the big ones because they are so important when it comes to the reproduction cycle, and they do not want you to keep the small ones either, you are only allowed to keep the ones that are right in the middle. And to make getting a snook dinner even more hard you cannot buy them anywhere in Florida as it is illegal to sell them, and there are also seasons when they are closed, so that also makes them a little more difficult to put one on your plate.

In most states you will also need a license if you plan on keeping snook to eat, it is usually just a couple dollars more added onto your saltwater fishing license in the first place.

Holy crap I never thought that it would be this much fun, I never even thought about fly fishing for tarpon. But these guys go above and beyond by landing some huge tarpon with a fly rod and reel. My only complaint is I wish they would have showed more video footage of the tarpon jumping out of the water than that, other than that this has got me motivated to grab a fly rod (one that can handle giant boca grande tarpon) and hook up with one

Snook are among some of the favorite game fish for a handful of saltwater anglers, me being one of those saltwater anglers. They are my favorite kind of fish to catch, and more than that they are my favorite kind of fish to eat at the dinner table. Not too long ago, down here in Florida they put a bigger restriction on how many you can keep per day. I know now that in Florida you are only allow to keep one snook per person, and just to be able to keep the snook you must have a Florida saltwater fishing license along with a snook stamp if you plan on Florida snook fishing.

That is just fine by me as we need to conserve this species of fish as they are just wonderful. Not only can you only keep one snook a day per person, there is also a very thin line of how big and small the snook must be for you to be able to keep it, I believe it is a margin of 8 inches or so. To be exactly sure you will have to check in with the FWC, as the rules and the regulations on snook are always changing every season.

Now when it comes to snook, they are pretty easy to get on the hook in most cases, meaning that they will attack a variety of baits. If you have live bait I would use that, live shrimp and finger mullet work great. If you are using artificial bait there are many lures that are out there that work well to hook up with snook also. Jigs will also work, I like to use the Gulp shrimp bait if I am using a jig.

Where you can find snook, is mostly in warm waters. They love to hang around mangroves, and believe it or not they also love to hang around docks, especially if they have a light and it is at night time. Although they will attack just about anything, they are not always hungry, which can be very frustrating. They are very picky on when they want to eat, and it is not common to throw a live shrimp in front of one and have the snook just sit there and look at it while not hitting it.

Just remember if the snook is too big, meaning it is over the limit to where you can keep it, please release it, that snook will probably give birth to hundreds of other snook and maybe some day the regulations will change to where we can keep more in a days limit.

Now I have talked a little bit about catching and fishing for redfish in Florida, but this is by far not the only popular hot state to where you can land some redfish. Another great state where redfish are very popular, so popular that they have their own redfish grilles and resteraunts are in southern Louisiana. But I saw this video the other day and nothing looked more fun than this, if you want to take catching redfish up to another level then try fly fishing for redfish. And let me tell you that these aint no puppies these guys are reeling up on the fly rod, they hvae some size to them, even makes me think that the redfish that are in Louisiana get bigger than the ones that are in Florida.

The thing about redfish is that they are not very picky about the water temperature, unlike other types of Florida fish like snook. They can be found all around Florida, from water temperatures ranging from 68 degrees to about 90 degrees. As most of you know they love to hang around mangroves, and it is not rare for them to travel in schools, although the larger ones will tend to travel alone alot like other types of saltwater fish that are found in Florida.

My number one choice for catching redfish in Florida would be to start at the mangroves, to do this you will either need access to a boat, or you will have to wade, which is standing in the water and hoping that you pick a spot where there are some redfish that are present. If you have a boat with a GPS fish finder, then you will have a great advantage over many anglers that are also fishing for redfish, you will want to look for sudden drops of depth in the water that are close to the mangroves. These are known as fish holes and because of the water temperature change there is a good chance that there will be some redfish around close by.

From my experience the best places in Florida to fish for redfish are the everglades, or the thousand islands, also along around the Tampa Bay mouth is another good spot to fish for redfish all year round. Okay so this is MY method of catching Redfish in Florida, I do not care who you are you can ask 10 saltwater fishing experts how to catch redfish, and they will all give you a different answer and different technique, so if you want to catch redfish take in my advice and apply it with your own or whoever else you have learned from, just keep applying until you start landing some dang reddrum.

As I said I prefer to be in a flats boat with a trolling motor, or a stick to push the boat silently, if you roll up on a good spot along the mangroves that looks like it might be a spot for some redfish, the sound and vibration of the motor could spook them and you will be left with nothing there to catch.

What I use as a set up is a medium sized spinning rod and reel set up, I am not primarily concerned with what type of fishing line to use, because they do not peel line off of the fishing reel fast like other fish. But if you must ask for my opinion on what type of fishing line to use I would say 15 pound test braided line with a clear monofilament leader line at about 30 pound test, you can go lighter if you want, this is just the set up I am used to and it has always worked for me.

I use a size 2 hook, and I keep the leader line at about a foot and a half long. I also use a popping cork or bobber, and I have a small weight about 6 inches above the hook to keep the bait at the bottom. When fishing next to mangroves you will want to pop the cork about once a minute, if you are fishing in the open water you will want to pop the cork a little bit more often.

The reason you do not want to pop the cork when next to mangroves that often, is because sometimes it can be difficult to cast into the spot you want, closest to the mangroves where redfish swim along all day long, along with snook. So when you pop the cork you are pushing away the position, just once will be enough to get a redfishes attention if you are right next to some mangroves.

Once you see the cork go under water, wait about 2 seconds and then set the hook, reel the line in normally. It will help landing the fish if you have a net to scoop it out of the water, although if you have a buddy that is on board the boat with you they can be retrieved by hand. If you are fishing in Florida for redfish along mangroves, especially in the southern parts of Florida you can also expect to catch some snook as the two types of fish like to hang around the same area.

If you live in Florida and are fishing for redfish in the Florida state area there is currently a 1 bag limit per person. Meaning you can only catch one per person if you plan on keeping the fish, and they have to be a minimum of 18 inches overall and a maximum of 27 inches. Please keep in mind that regualations are constantly changing so when you read this they might not be completely accurate.

Redfish are not among the most popular saltwater fish that there are, but they are definitly up there. The thing about redfish is that they are fairly good to eat, not the best, but by far not the worst. Since I am from Florida and have been fishing here all of my life, I will tell you what I know about redfish from my geographic area. The biggest redfish that has ever been caught weighs in at 94 pounds, so as you can see they can get very big for a type of fish that primarily likes to swim around inshore only.

Some other names they are recognized by are the channel bass, or the red drum. The scientific name for them is Sciaenops ocellatus.The coloring of redfish is that they have a bronze color to their scales and thier body, and on there tail you will find anywhere from one, two, or even more black circular spots. They have become more and more popular over the years, they are not the most popular like I said in the beginning of this article but they are enough to have their own tournements hosted to catch them. Most of these tournements are hosted in Florida, I know of one annually that is held in Punta Gorda.

Redfish are rarely found offshore, although it is not impossible. There favorite spots to hang out are along mangroves and beach surfs. You can find them just about anywhere in Florida, along the west cost from Florida to Louisiana. There is no closed season for catching redfish, but there are regulations on how many you are alowwed to keep, and in most cases there are size limits also. For more information about the rules and regulations of catching redfish you will have to check with your local wildlife conservation team depending on what state you are in.