Information Page.

Florida fishing.

My friend Will Gascoyne and his wife Annie spend quite a lot of time fishing in Florida. They are essentially shore anglers and will use any tactics that seem appropriate to the situation. Whatever the reason Annie always seems to catch the biggest fish and over the years she's landed a few real crackers. Their latest trip, true to form, produced a twenty pound snook on a small fragment of floatfished, frozen shrimp to Annie's rod. I have to say that it's a hell of a fish by any standards. The tackle consisted of ten pound braid, a fifteen pound fluorocarbon trace and a 2/0 circle hook - quite a feat eh!

As a matter of interest my friends tell me that (for boat fishing) circle hooks are a must in Florida now and from the first of June they are the only type permitted. In addition a regulation enforcing the use of 'fish friendly' unhooking gadgets is about to come into force. Now if the fish is what they call a 'keeper' and is to be eaten it probably doesn't much matter what sort of hook it is caught on but if undersized, oversized or unwanted fish are to be returned alive and well, all this makes good sense. Of course there should be no need for rules and regulations to ensure conservation measures but, as I've said in the past, it wouldn't do any harm for us to make full use of debarbed circle hooks as a means of protecting fish, particularly as they make it easier to handle them after they are landed. In addition, the more information we can gather about how effective circle hooks are for different species and sizes, the better.

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

Annie's big snook.

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