Seminar Schedule
(Similar 2007 Schedule will be relaesed one month prior to the show)
Seminar Schedule Same Both days
Inshore Stage
11 a.m. Capt. Mark Nichols Wadefishing the Flats
Noon Nick Cardella Urban Snook Fishing
1 p.m. Capt. Alex Suscuen Coldwater Inshore Fishing
2 p.m. David Justice Monster Snook Fishing
3 p.m. Shane Edgar & David McCleaf Fishing from Kayaks
4 p.m. Capt. Ed Zyak Trout College
Offshore Stage
11 a.m. Capt. Josh Foster Maximize Your Offshore Catch
Noon Capt. Ralph Allen Bottom Fishing Basics
1 p.m. Capt. John Bunch Nearshore Trolling for Grouper
2 p.m. Capt. Alex Suescun Fishing the Shrimp Boats
3 p.m. Capt. Rick Ryals Snapper and Grouper
4 p.m. Capt. Denny Young Kingfish A to Z
INSHORE STAGE:
11 a.m., Wadefishing the Flats Mark Nichols, inventor and manufacturer of D. O. A. lures, has tested his lures in shallow water all over the country, and the techniques he uses in the Indian River of Florida, Texas bays and Louisiana coastal islands will work just as well in Southwest Florida. “Keeping a low profile is essential in skinny water,” explains Nichols, “and I can’t do that from the bow of a boat. I’ll get out and go down on my knees on a submerged sandbar when I see a fish, which might put the water around my chest.” Nichols will demonstrate lure retrieval technique while wading in the inshore pond, casting to a display of virtual reality snook and redfish swimming in the roots of artificial mangrove plants.
Noon, Urban Snook Fishing 16-year-old Nick Cardella is a rising star in Florida fishing. Within the last two years Nick has won the junior division of the RedGhost Stalk Tournament-- the junior version of the Redbone--by catching 12 redfish on fly and 9 on spin, won first place junior and third overall in the IFA Islamorada Redfish Tour while fishing with Capt. Rick Murphy, and came from nine places back on the final day to take second place in the IGFA Junior World Championship. Nick was featured on CBS Sunday Morning News when he was twelve, was a guest angler on Sportsman’s Adventures with Rick Murphy, and won the Florida Sportsman State Casting Championship in 1999 and 2001. Nick fishes every day during summer vacation--the other days find him completing his homework early to get on the lakes and canals near his home. His topic will be the basics of “urban snook fishing” at night around docks and bridges with spin, plug and fly. “We’re catching dozens of snook around the lighted docks at night,” says Nick, “mostly with a fly I designed called the Feathered Friend.
1 p.m., Cold Weather Backcountry Tactics Capt. Alex Suescun is the host of the popular TV show, Tarpon Bay Tales, a professional redfish tournament angler and a full time guide working out of Cape Coral. This seminar covers a variety of important topics to help anglers find and catch more shallow water fish during these cold winter and early spring months. “You have to know the temperature comfort zones of snook, redfish, seatrout, pompano and tarpon,” advises Capt. Alex. “I’ll talk about where and when to find them, the top baits and lures, and the best tackle and specific techniques to get those inactive fish to bite.” Don’t have a boat? That’s O.K. Capt. Alex will end the seminar with a special segment on how to target the top backcountry species by wading.
2 p.m., Fishing for Monster Snook Dave Justice is a Product Innovation Associate and Pro Staff Manager for Berkley Line and is known throughout Florida as one of the top snook catchers of all time. Dave published a video on monster snook fishing and has made numerous appearances on TV shows, including Bill Dance Outdoors, Rick Murphy’s Outdoor Adventures, Shaw Grigsby’s One More Cast, and Bob Stuart’s Southwest Florida Outdoors. Dave has caught more than 400 snook over 30 pounds--his biggest was a 42-pound behemoth caught on a live “tuna mullet.” “My best plan for large snook in Southwest Florida in early spring,” says Justice, “is to fish from bridges over deeper water with live bait, like a ladyfish, mullet or sand perch, or if you can’t get those, big soft-body jigs. By late February the larger fish are just coming off of a winter pattern of feeding on smaller baits and their target forage will increase dramatically in size. They go from small shrimp to mullet the size of an Okeechobee phone book.” Dave fishes these baits with 80-pound Spiderwire on 8- to 9-foot live bait rods. “Tell everyone to bring their charts and maps and I’ll be happy to mark off my top three areas for year ‘round snook fishing.”
3 p.m., Fishing from Kayaks Shane Edgar & David McCleaf recently put their kayaks up against thirty typical flats and bay boats and won first place in the West Central Florida Sportsman Forum’s Cockroach Bay Superlure Tournament, a contest in which participants were allowed to use only one lure. They have consistently placed in numerous “strictly paddle” tournaments around Florida by taking advantage of their kayak’s stealthy profile to catch trout, snook and redfish in waters where a traditional boat can’t usually go. “Yes, we can go in shallower water, but that’s not the only key to success,” says Shane. “Once we get there we can be more stealthy and present a lower visual profile.” David adds, “Not to mention keeping the noise down to almost nothing. For me, that’s the real key to success.” Shane and David have taken stealth to an even higher level by using 4-foot fiberglass push poles in shallow grass because carbon fiber paddles might cause noise as they scrape across the grass. This seminar will be all about how to use a kayak to catch more fish, and other topics will include selecting fishing-friendly kayak gear and how to outfit your kayak with rodholders and anchors. The seminar will be illustrated with Shane and David’s slide show and end with each of them using a laser pointer and a projected chart to give up their hottest “honey hole” for catching fish in February.
4 p.m., Capt. Ed Zyak of Jensen Beach and Capt. Goeffrey Paige of Venice have each been pictured on the covers of Florida Sportsman and Shallow Water Angler holding up giant trout. Capt. Ed’s fish was a gargantuan “yellowmouth” tipping the scale at almost thirteen pounds. Both are expert inshore guides and Zyak is also a Shimano rep and regular personality with American Outdoors and Cabella’s Quest on Fox Sports TV. Most days will find these guys guiding clients to “gator” trout, throwing artificials in extremely shallow water that many fishermen tend to overlook. “We’re lucky on the east coast to have some of the largest seatrout in the country,” says Capt. Ed. “The beauty of trout is that you can catch them anywhere in Florida during any season. The tactics I use in the Indian River work just as well in Sarasota Bay and Charlotte Harbor--anywhere there are mangrove shorelines, shallow grass flats, and fast moving water.” Topics will include sight fishing strategies, how to locate the biggest trout, tackle selection, fishing extreme low tides, lure rigging and presentation, and will end with Ed and Goeffrey throwing prize packages to the crowd.
OFFSHORE STAGE:
11 a.m., Maximizing Your Offshore Catch Capt. Josh Foster of Hubbard’s Marina at John’s Pass in Madeira Beach has been an offshore captain and mate for most of his adult life, specializing in wreck and reef fishing off the west coast of Florida. Capt. Josh will cover how to get the most out of your offshore family boating and fishing trips. Boat owners and non-boat owners alike will learn the professional tactics used by party boat captains to maximize catches of offshore fish. Topics will include pre-trip planning and safety, marine weather forecasting, better anchoring and boat handling techniques, how to properly read bottom machines, and how to get the most out of each spot that you stop to fish. Additional topics will be fish behavior, feeding habits, and how to rig for various conditions that affect fish behavior, such as moon phase, water temperature, tides and barometric pressure. At the end of the seminar one lucky angler will win a 34-hour, two-night fishing trip to the Florida Middle Grounds aboard the famous Florida Fisherman II out of John’s Pass.
Noon, Advanced Bottom Fishing Capt. Ralph Allen is Florida Sportsman’s Southwest Regional Field Editor and the second generation of charter captains to run the charter fleet out of Fisherman’s Village Marina. Capt. Allen says successful bottom fishing is like real estate--location, location, location--and will discuss how to locate and catch grouper and snapper using electronics to find hard bottom in the Gulf. “It’s like finding an oasis in the desert,” says Capt. Allen. “When you find it, you’d better be right on top of it or you’d do just as well dropping your bait on the pool table at the bar. The electronics keep getting more and more accurate and much cheaper. Rigging for bottom fishing has been the same for 20 years, but the advances in electronics have made it easier to locate good bottom. If you know how to use this stuff you’ll have a successful day.”
1. p.m., Nearshore Trolling For Grouper Capt. John Bunch is a fulltime charter captain and better known to his TV, print, and radio fans as Capt. Giddyup. Bunch is co-host of Fox TV's Southwest Florida Outdoors Sunday morning program and also broadcasts the Country Music Fishing Report on "Gator Country", FM101.9 radio. He has developed “nearshore” trolling with big lipped lures to a science, catching grouper in six feet of water around mangroves and big breeding snook over reefs several miles offshore. “Because of the hurricanes, there are now lots of reefs that never existed before,” says Bunch. “So now is the time to be using these techniques. Trolling these plugs around acts like a fishfinder--when the rod goes off I immediately hit my man overboard button and that puts icons on the screen that develops into patterns. Those patterns indicate where the new reefs are.” Bunch says that the key to success is managing the depth of these mega lures and does that by using different types of line to tweak the depth by just a single foot. Topics will include Bunch’s top ten favorite lures and how to rig them, boatmanship, and how to “read” bait schools to troll your lures in the proper direction and depth.
2 p.m., Fishing The Shrimp Boats Capt. Alex Suescun is the host of the popular TV show, Tarpon Bay Tales, a professional redfish tournament angler and a full time guide working out of Cape Coral. This seminar will cover fishing around the shrimp boats that anchor in the open Gulf off Southwest Florida, which often happens just a few miles from shore. “These floating structures attract a wide variety of fish,” says Capt. Alex, “as prey and predators gather around them looking for shade, shelter, and food. Even if you have a small bay boat or open fisherman you can safely cash in on great action with bonito, mackerel, kingfish, barracuda, and sharks.” Anglers will learn how and when to locate the shrimp boats as well as the best times and most effective ways to hook up with the gamefish at the top of these food chains. Topics will also include trolling, drifting, jigging, and livebait tactics, with a special segment on a few tricks that Capt. Alex has imported from the east coast.
3. p.m., Snapper and Grouper Capt. Rick Ryals is co-author of Florida Sportsman’s new book and DVD, Sportsman’s Best -- Snapper and Grouper, and team leader of Riggin’ it Right at all Florida Sportsman Fishing Shows. Ryals is also the captain of a new 35’ Cabo Express, Dos Amigos, that fishes Florida waters in search of big snapper and grouper. Ryals has won many tournaments over his 30 years of Florida fishing and will speak about how to greatly improve your catch of the most sought after reef and wreck fish, snapper and grouper. Using video clips and photos from Sportsman’s Best, Ryals will explain how to rig terminal tackle, best baits, how to catch and store live bait, anchoring and drifting techniques, and end with someone in the audience winning an autographed copy of Sportsman’s Best--Snapper and Grouper.
4 p.m, Kingfish A to Z Capt. Dennis Young of Jacksonville was 17 years old in 1987 when he won his first tournament--he skipped school to fish the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, the biggest kingfish tournament in the world with a field of one thousand boats. “I got expelled on Friday but I had $35,000 in my pocket thanks to a live silver mullet and a 49-pound kingfish, so it was well worth it,” says Young, who went on to fish several years of the SKA circuit and eventually settled into a successful charter fishing operation. Subjects will include how to locate feeding schools of kingfish using “breaks” in water temperature, salinity and depth and the best baits, rigs and tackle to use for a successful kingfish trip.