The Florida Paddlesports Blog

WhaSUP - Sept 2011

Wed, 7 Sep 2011 18:05:18 -0400

We are very active in the local SUP scene. Here is where we will keep you in touch with what's going on in the area. SUP Races, events, and new product.

We are getting ready for the upcoming SUP Race in November, which is part of the Calusa Blueway Festival November 3rd through the 6th. Stay tuned for more details! We will have a huge display and demo for the festival. Tahoe SUP, and C4 Waterman have confirmed their participation. See and demo the 2012 models, and learn why Florida Paddlesports has the SUP’s in the market.

Next Month we will begin posting all of the local and regional SUP races. Stay tuned!

What is New - Sept 2011

Wed, 7 Sep 2011 17:59:44 -0400

What’s New – Sept 2011

A new Store Manager, New Fly Shop, New Kayak Brands, New SUP Brands, New E-Commerce site and tons of New Accessories. We have a lot going on around here! You might miss what's going on if you don't stop in often. Here's a quick overview of what's going on at Florida Paddlesports...

We’ve added local fishing celebrity Josh Harvel to the staff. He is the new Store Manager. Please give him a warm welcome. You can reach him at the store Monday through Friday. He is still very active as a tournament fisherman, so he will be out fishing on weekends! He will be available for charters. Call the store to book him 239-214-8300.

The fly shop is gaining some momentum. Please come by and take a look. If we don’t have something that you’d like us to carry, come and tell us! We are happy to get new products that you need!

We are super stoked about Tahoe SUP. We have been looking for the finest flatwater SUP on the market. We found them! If you’re not SUP Surfing, then you are on “flatwater”. Tahoe SUP offers fast, stable SUP’s that you can tie down your goodies for the day and go out and cover some water. They are stable enough to Fly Fish off of, but considerable faster than the standard flat-bottom “surfboard” style SUP. They use a displacement hull to achieve this perfection. They are also some of the most gorgeous looking boards you’ll see. We have them available in the rental fleet. Reserve one today!

We brought in a few new lines that you should be aware of. We are addicted to Whiskeyjack Paddles! They are gorgeous wood paddles that are very reasonably priced. For the price of a good fiberglass SUP paddle you can get one in beautiful handcrafted wood. Come and take a look at these!

We’ve taken on Buff Wear. The Sun in SWFL is a doozy! This multi function headwear offers sun protection to the face, neck, and head. They are great for outdoor sportsman or anybody that works outside. We are selling a lot to landscapers and construction professionals. We have many prints in stock.

We brought NuCanoe on board. They are a wide, stable canoe/kayak kind of thing that has become very popular for Bass Anglers in the area. Check it out.

You can now buy from Florida Paddlesports online! We have launched an e-commerce site to serve our “out of area” customers. Many of our customers spend half the year up north without the ability to come in and see what’s new! In addition, the longer we’re in business, the more customers we are getting from rural areas of Florida and surrounding states. We have limited offerings as of today, but we are adding more products daily. We wont stop until everything that we sell is posted. Keep checking back, or send an email if you are looking for anything in particular. There’s a good chance that we carry it, but it hasn’t been added to the e-commerce site yet. We’ll add it right away so you can purchase immediately. You can reach the Online Store by click the “SHOP” button on our home page, or visit: shop.floridapaddlesports.com.

Happy shopping!

Event Schedule - Sept 2011

Tue, 6 Sep 2011 14:58:12 -0400

September is a little light while we wait for season to “kick in”. Please call the store in advance to schedule any of the events below. 239-214-8300

9/10 - Intro to SUP, 9am
9/11 - Bert’s Redfish Challange! See www.bertsredfishchallenge.com for more info.
9/13 - Full Moon Paddle, 7pm
9/20 - Intro to Kayak Fishing, 9am
9/23 - Eco Tour w/ Chris Nappi - Marine Biologist
9/30 - Intro to Kayaking, 9am

Visit our “Tours” page for info on the above tours.

Fishing Report - Sept 2011

Tue, 6 Sep 2011 14:48:38 -0400

CAPE CORAL, MATLACHA PASS, PINE ISLAND SOUND

Fishing in Cape Coral, Matlacha, Pine Island Sound, and surrounding areas has been as hot as the weather lately. If you can get out between storms you have the chance of getting into some of the best fishing our area has to offer. We’ve been having some serious high tides so the fish have been pushed way into the backcountry and under the bushes. The key to fishing the higher tides is presenting your preferred bait of choice as close to the mangroves as possible. Sometimes even a foot off will make the difference of hooking up or not hooking up. I’ll now break it down by species and let y’all know what’s been working for me and our clients.

We’ll start with redfish. The redfish bite has been very consistent; we’ve been catching them on almost every trip. I’ve been concentrating on finding schools of mullet near the mangroves, almost always there is a red or two mixed in with them foraging for whatever the mullet are stirring up. They’ve been tearing up top water lures first thing in the morning. The lures of choice for the top water bite has been either a Rapala Skitterwalk in the gold mullet color or Riptide Saltwater Lures new TW Shad, it’s a soft plastic lure that floats and walks the dog. It’s a bit smaller than a skitterwalk and really seems to entice the fish into striking. Once the sun starts getting a bit higher in the sky we’ve been switching over to the Riptide 5” Jerk Shad rigged weedless on a Mustad Power Lock hook. All lures mentioned above have been working equally as well on snook and trout. Another sure fire way to bang a nice red is soaking a chunk of ladyfish under a deeper mangrove shoreline. Find some nice green mangroves with a couple feet of moving water underneath them, throw your ladyfish as far under the bushes as possible and set your rod in the rod holder. Before long you’re going to have dinner alongside of your kayak.

Now on to snook, the snook and redfish pretty much hang out in the same areas. If you’re catching reds you have a shot of catching a nice snook also. The big girls are just getting ready to make their way back into their winter time haunts and now is the perfect time to intercept one. Concentrate on fishing points with deeper, moving water. With the heat of summer, another fun way to get out and catch some snook is night fishing some of the many snook lights the canals of the Cape have to offer. My preferred method of doing this is with a fly rod. The fly that Norm Ziggler made famous the Schminnow is deadly for snook on the lights. White is the color of choice. Snook fishing is still catch and release and will be for the foreseeable future so be sure to release them when you catch them.

We’ll round out the big three and talk about trout. This time of year all our big trout disappear, we’ll have to wait until November to be able to go out and consistently catch them over 20”. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t out there though. Find some water over 4’ deep with some grass on the bottom and you’ll find the trout. The powerlines around Tropical Point have been producing trout in the 14-20” range. Trout are not picky eaters, once you find them they’ll be happy to eat just about anything you want to throw at them. We’ve been using the Riptide Conley Grub with great success lately. On one recent trip we bagged over 40 trout in 2 hours using the grubs. The good old shrimp under the popping cork works wonders for them also. That’s the easiest way for an inexperienced angler to get on some fish. Just cast out the rig, give it a couple quick twitches with your rod tip and wait for your cork to go under.

One species that people seem to forget about is the mangrove snapper, this time of year the snapper bite can be truly amazing. You can limit out on snapper ranging between 12-15” very quick if you know where to find them. They like hanging out pretty much anywhere that has some type of cover. To cut down on catching the smaller fish try using small pinfish as bait. The bigger snapper will snap then up like candy, but the little ones are mainly shrimp eaters. If you have any questions about fishing this area feel free to give me a call up at Florida Paddlesports 239-214-8300 I’m in the shop Monday-Friday from 10am-6pm. Sorry I’m not there on weekends, I’m out fishing so I can write these reports for you guys. Until next month keep your lines tight and paddles in the water.

Josh Harvel - Team Florida Paddlesports

ESTERO BAY, SANIBEL

Estero Bay:

Use top water early in the morning for Redfish and Snook near oyster bars and across grass beds. Fish the mangroves later on in the day on the incoming tide using soft plastics (DOA’s, Gulp, etc) or cut bait, live shrimp, or live pinfish. Look for Redfish to be sitting under overhanging mangroves in between 3-5 ft of water. Snook have been everywhere and have been aggressively feeding on live bait. The most productive spots for Reds have been around Little Hickory Pass and New Pass. Snook are everywhere but the biggest have been caught around New Pass and around docks and pilings, and I am still seeing a few on the beaches.

Sanibel:

Ding Darling is the most productive inshore area. Big Redfish and Snook are being caught using cut bait and soaking it under overhanging trees in 4-5ft of water. There are still some nice sized Snook on the beaches around Blind Pass.

Jim Van Pelt - Team Florida Paddlesports

SARASOTA/BRADENTON

The fishing in the Sarasota/Bradenton area has really been heating up this past month. Anglers fishing with Shallow Pockets Fishing have been catching good numbers of upper slot Redfish and Trout. This is the time of year that our Redfish start schooling up in good numbers on the flats and around the oyster bars. The artificial baits that have been working the best have been the Spook Jr (Bone),Bomber Who Dat Rattling Spoon (Bone), Gold Johnson Spoon & Berkley Gulp 3”Shrimp(new penny) under a popping cork. The Redfish have been eating flies as well. Gurglers, Clousers and Sliders prove to be working the best. Get out early and fish the incoming tide and the first hour of the outgoing to be most productive. The afternoon bite has been productive as well a few hours before the sun goes down. Fish the pot holes & oyster bars on the falling tide for best results in the afternoon.
Night Fishing has been a little slow this past month. Many of the Snook are still on the beaches. Look for them to start showing up on the flats as we get further into September & October. There are some Snook on the lights in the Sarasota area, but most have been on the smaller side. They have been eating small flies such as Chartreuse/White Clousers & Seaducers. It seems the smaller the fly the better the bite lately. Redfish and Trout have been active in the lights as well. Use the same flies as I mentioned before and for the spin tackle guys, I would suggest Berkley Gulp on a 1/8 oz jig head slowly bumped across the bottom.

Steve M Gibson - Team Florida Paddlesports

From the Fly Shop - Sept 2011

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:12:40 -0400

If you haven't been in the retail store lately, we've added a new Fly Shop. With amazing products like Orvis, TFO (Temple Fork Outfitters), Royal Wulff, and much more, we offer the finest products available for the local waters.

As a Kayak Shop that specializes in Kayak Fishing, and the availability of “stand-up” Kayaks, we have seen more and more Anglers move from wading in the flats to Kayaking. We opened the fly shop to serve our local customers and visitors who are looking to saltwater fly fish in SWFL. With Redfish, Snook, Tarpon, and tons of other local species, it’s some of the best Saltwater Fly Fishing in the World.

Our initial concern was having consumable goods like Fly Line, Tippet and Leader Material. We also sell locally tied flies that are used by our local guides. We brought in TFO – Temple Fork Outfitters because we feel that there is not a better bargain on the market for Fly Rods/Reels. Their BVK Rods are unparalleled for $250, and the new BVK Large Arbor Reel is becoming a favorite for all of us at the shop. Again, at about $250, it just can’t be beat.

We are very proud to be an Orvis Authorized Dealer. We brought on Orvis for the people that want the best. The Helios Rods and new Mirage Reels are simply the finest made. Come by and take a look.

We carry many accessories for Fly Fishing and Kayak Fly Fishing. We have the largest selection of Stand Up Kayaks and Fishing SUP’s in Florida. Let us help you find that perfect rig.

We specialize in local saltwater inshore fishing. That is our specialty as fisherman, and feel that we can offer the best expert advice on that subject. All of us at the shop are Fly Fisherman, and we are surrounded by the finest Fly Fisherman in the country. We will host Fly Casting Seminars with local Fly “Celebrities” and other Fly related events this season. Check our schedule often for additions.