Author: BD STAFF

Giant Cuda – Record Barracuda Caught in Africa On February 14, 2013, Thomas Gibson, a Texas native, was fishing for tarpon in Barra du Kwanza, in the African nation of Angola, when he hooked up to mysterious fish. Given the fish’s enormity, Gibson initially suspected he had hooked a massive tarpon, but when the fight only lasted ten minutes and the fish came to the boat fairly easily, he realized it was an enormous barracuda. With only a lip gaff aboard, the fish was carefully landed, with Gibson taking care not to let his hand get too close to the…

As anglers, the staff of BD Outdoors is always on the look-out for new products that will help us catch more fish. Furuno is the only marine electronics manufacturer with a product line that covers vessels from trailer boats to aircraft carriers. With a product line this large, it’s important to keep refreshing and innovating products in every market. This year, Furuno is delivering two new Chart Plotter/Fish Finder combination units. Furuno’s new Chart Plotter/Fish Finder “combo” lineup consists of two models. The GP1670F offers a 5.7″ color LCD, while the GP1870F has a larger 7″ wide-format screen. Each deliver…

Coast Guard Station Montauk and Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 18 hosted a cold water safety event in Sag Harbor, New York, and their tips can help save the lives of boaters everywhere. The event, which included speakers and presentations from Cold Water Boot Camp’s Mark Chanski, a boating educator in Connecticut, and members from the East Hampton Ocean Rescue Squad and tours aboard Station Montauk’s 47-foot motor lifeboat, was established to educate boaters and paddle sport enthusiasts about the dangers of cold water and cold weather excursion. “Viewers may think they would never go boating when the water is 45…

Doug Hannon, a legend in the fishing world known as the “Bass Professor” whose unique expertise in a wide range of design skills and academic subjects in and outside of angling, died Thursday at his home in Keystone, a north Tampa suburb. Hannon was 66. He recently had neck surgery and was recovering at home said friend Russ Riley, a family spokesman and president of WaveSpin/MicroWave, a fishing components design company Hannon launched eight years ago, and which he served as its chief engineer. Hannon, who was best known by recreational anglers for catching-and-releasing over 800 largemouth bass of 10…

Capt. Jeff Legutki, a Southwest Florida guide who charters in the Everglades, became the first recipient of the Jose Wejebe Memorial Professional Guide Award during the second annual Hell’s Bay Boatworks’ Guides Rendezvous. Wejebe, a member of the Hell’s Bay’s world class pro team and a friend of the BD Outdoors team, died April 6th of last year, after his single-engine plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Everglades City, Florida. He had just finished taping a segment with Legutki for his Spanish Fly fishing show. Weather is believed to have been a factor in the death of the much respected…

Oyster Arrest Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Enforcement Division agents arrested a Port Sulphur man for attempted first-degree murder of a LDWF agent, aggravated assault, resisting an officer, public intimidation and taking oysters from a polluted area on March 26. With the aid of Louisiana State Police and the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office (PPSO), LDWF agents arrested Jonathan K. Ragas, 50, at his home in Port Sulphur and booked him into the Plaquemines Parish Jail. The arrest stems from an incident that occurred on March 20 when Ragas was stopped by an LDWF agent and PPSO marine division…

Captain Releases Record Billfish Capt. Brad Philipps reached a milestone by releasing his 25,000th billfish on February 2, 2013, aboard his 40 ft Gamefishermen Decisive off the Pacific Coast of Guatemala, Central America. Philipps has won The Billfish Foundation’s Release Captain of the Year Award for the past 11 consecutive years and is widely recognized as one of the most prolific billfishing captains of all time. What makes it an even more special accomplishment is that more than 23,000 of these fish have been released together with his longtime first mate Kennedy Hernandez in the cockpit, fishing in Guatemala. They…

Born and bred in Florida, Krista Tucker holds a captain’s license and loves to fish redfish tournaments.

For decades researchers have recorded sounds from whales and other marine mammals, using a variety of methods including passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to better understand how these animals use sound to interact with each other and with the environment. Now, for the first time, researchers report using this technology to record spawning cod in the wild. Acoustic behavior in cod has been of interest for several decades, but few studies have observed their use of sound as part of reproductive behavior. Although both sexes produce low frequency “grunts”, only male Atlantic cod make this sound during spawning season. Researchers from…

Scientists have confirmed the discovery of the first-ever, two-headed bull shark. The study, led by Michigan State University and appearing in the Journal of Fish Biology, confirmed the specimen, found in the Gulf of Mexico April 7, 2011, was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins. There have been other species of sharks, such as blue sharks and tope sharks, born with two heads. This is the first record of dicephalia in a bull shark, said Michael Wagner, MSU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, who confirmed the discovery with colleagues at the Florida Keys Community College.…

Missing Vessel Found The Coast Guard recently identified a sunken fishing vessel missing since 1972. The Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessel Falkor in concert with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management found an unknown sonar target object December 2012. The research vessel sent a remote operating vehicle to investigate. The fishing vessel Katmai was discovered in 8,920 feet of water approximately 200 miles offshore. After receiving data of the discovery from BOEM, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigations National Center of Expertise initiated a cold case investigation. Oskar Joos, his wife, eight-year-old child and deckhand Clinton Hollevoet departed Mobile for Anchorage, Alaska…

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) marine officers cited several boats for fishing in the Marine Protected Areas and other resource violations near the Channel Islands on Sunday. Wildlife Officers from the CDFW patrol boat Swordfish, based in Ventura Harbor, contacted three private boats and one commercial passenger fishing vessel (CPFV) and found violations onboard all four boats. Anglers on the private boats were cited for fishing inside a Marine Protected Area, fishing without a license, taking a rockfish in a closed area and two citations for taking rockfish in water deeper than 120 feet. The fourth boat, Ranger…

Conservation officers with the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Division of Fish and Wildlife have arrested and charged three men from Maine with illegally harvesting more than 24,000 juvenile eels from an Atlantic County creek, Division Director David Chanda announced today. The three men were arrested in the early morning hours of March 13. Two of the men, Robert L. Royce, 65, of Hope, Maine, and Neal V. Kenney III, 53, of Thomaston, Maine, were observed by conservation officers around 2:45 a.m. tending an illegally set net in the Absecon Creek in Absecon. The net was set to catch glass…

Gulf Rep NOAA U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, introduced the Gulf Fisheries Fairness Act last week. The bill would extend the state water boundaries of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, allowing the states to manage reef fish species like snapper, grouper, amberjack and triggerfish. With federal management agencies planning for the shortest red snapper season ever this year, Southerland said the legislation would “cast a life preserver to fishermen and coastal economies struggling to stay afloat amid crippling federal regulations.” In Florida, the legislation would reset state water boundaries for reef fish management from nine miles to a…

Stingrays Tourists Stingrays living in Stingray City in the Cayman Islands, one of the world’s most famous and heavily visited ecotourism sites, have profoundly changed their ways, raising questions about the impact of so-called “interactive ecotourism” on marine wildlife, reports a new study published March 18. Researchers from Nova Southeastern University’s Guy Harvey Research Institute and the University of Rhode Island studied the southern stingray population of Stingray City – a sandbar in the Cayman Islands that draws nearly a million visitors each year to feed, pet and swim with its stingrays – to assess how the intensive ecotourism has…

Tools Needed Marine Electrical Connection Does your boat have a light that flickers? A pump that doesn’t purr like it used to? Couple switches on the dash don’t work any more? Odds are one or more of your connections has succumbed to saltwater corrosion. The combination of electricity, typically poor factory wiring and salt water/air make for a worst case situation for your boat’s electrical system. Good news is, we’ve got a simple cure. By using non-insulated connectors like you see here you will save time, money and headache. Non Insulated butt connector This is the heart of a quality…

The Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund has been recommended for a $34 million cut under sequestration. According to reports, the funds won’t be withheld from the Trust Fund, but will not be apportioned to the states for fish restoration. This means that monies in the Trust Fund will build over time while the amount apportioned to each state will be cut by 7.6% each year that sequestration is in effect. The Act is considered by many to be the most valuable federal legislation for anglers and fishery resources, delivering millions each year to state fishing and boating programs.…

Music superstar Kenny Chesney and Costa announced the introduction of five new Chesney-inspired limited edition sunglass styles in time for the start of his No Shoes Nation Tour, which kicks off in Tampa, Fla. on Mar. 16 at Raymond James Stadium. Chesney played a large role in the design of several of this year’s sunglass styles, including the on trend metal aviator appropriately named “KC.” Other Kenny Chesney Costa sunglasses in the 2013 collection include the new retro Prop, and a re-introduction of the popular Grand Catalina, Caballito and Hammerhead. Each of the styles will be available in a variety…

Eight men have been indicted as part of a joint U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Missouri Department of Conservation investigation into the interstate and international trafficking in paddlefish “caviar.” The Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri announced yesterday that the men had been charged in four separate indictments for acts that occurred in 2011 and 2012. The eight men are charged with violations of the Lacey Act, a federal statute which prohibits trade in wildlife, fish and plants that have been taken, possessed, transported or sold in…

Recreational shrimp fishers will get more days to fish and a larger share of the catch in areas of Puget Sound under fishing seasons announced Thursday by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). This year’s sport fishery for spot shrimp, set to begin May 4, is expected to run from one day to several weeks longer in various areas of the Sound, due to policy changes recently adopted by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. Under the state’s updated policy, 70 percent of the non-tribal spot shrimp harvest is now allocated to the sport fishery, said Rich Childers,…

In the culmination of their three-month long participation in “Salmon in the Classroom,” nearly 100 fourth- and fifth-grade students took a 70-mile field trip Wednesday into the Columbia River Gorge to release a tankful of Chinook salmon fry in Washington’s Drano Lake. Developed in coordination with Portland Public Schools, the Portland Black Parent Initiative, The Urban League, The Oregon Youth Development Council, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Salmon in the Classroom project uses salmon-themed natural resource lessons to educate elementary school students. Beginning with an aquarium and salmon eggs placed in the classroom, Salmon in the Classroom…

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comment on proposed actions in Amendment 28 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region (Amendment 28). The notice of availability published in the Federal Register on March 12, 2013 (78 FR 15672). Comments must be submitted by May 13, 2013. The actions in Amendment 28, if implemented, would establish (1) a process to determine if a fishing season will occur each year, which would include specification of the allowable harvest and season lengths for the commercial and recreational sectors; (2) an equation to determine the annual catch limit…

Scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory recently tagged a great white shark with a fine-scale motion sensor and collected biological samples from the shark during an expedition led by the nonprofit OCEARCH in waters off Jacksonville, Florida. Mote scientists returned to Sarasota this week with the samples and a tag recovered from “Lydia,” a great white shark weighing about 2,000 pounds and measuring about 14 feet and 6 inches long. Lydia was tagged and released Sunday, March 3, for research and tracking by an expedition team from OCEARCH and scientists from Mote, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth…

Manatee Deaths Red Tide A red-tide event in southwest Florida has claimed 174 manatees so far this year. Although results are preliminary, this is the highest number of red-tide-related deaths in a single calendar year on record. State and federal scientists are monitoring and responding to manatees affected by the ongoing red tide bloom along the southwest Florida coast. To help with these efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) ask the public to be on the lookout for manatees affected by red tide. Signs that a manatee is affected by…