The first phase of renovations (shown in yellow) at Ocean Inlet Park Marina will include removing old fixed docks and installing floating day-use docks. Work is scheduled to begin in May. Rendering provided
By Willie Howard
The modernization of agi
on the water (71)
Reef balls are made by spraying concrete or gunite over rubber molds, with the intent of getting coral and sea fans to grow on them.
By Willie Howard
Country singer Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Reefs Foundation, CCA/Florida’s South Palm Beach County ch
A feisty winter sailfish jumps during this year’s West Palm Beach Fishing Club Silver Sailfish Derby. The 2021 derby is set for Jan. 7-8. Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
November’s northerly winds bring sailfish to South F
ABOVE: Doug O’Neal and Chris Deen hold a 30-pound bull dolphinfish, or mahi mahi, that Deen caught using a live goggle-eye near a large sargassum mat off Palm Beach in July 2019. Mahi mahi fishing tends to be good during July and August in the waters
This view of Lake Boca Raton on April 19 gives a small sense of the crowds that usually attend the annual Boca Bash on the state-controlled lake. BELOW: But a week later, FWC and Boca officers found no bash to police. Boaters heeded advice from an or
Jessika Harvey and Rush Rashidi show the 103-inch broadbill swordfish they boated March 23 after a 24-hour fight. They hooked the swordfish off Palm Beach County on the evening of March 22 and drifted north in the current. The fight ended off Vero Be
Angler Doug Sarmousakis holds what remains of a kingfish that was mostly eaten by a shark during the Aug. 10 Mark Gerretson Memorial Fishing Tournament. Photo provided by John Miller
By Willie Howard
Sharks are lingering around fishing boats and eat
Sargassum blankets the boat ramp at Sportsman’s Park in Lantana. The marine algae made it difficult for boat-towing vehicles to get traction. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
Like it or not, the floating marine algae called sargassum
ABOVE: Capt. Carl Torresson of the Slob City fishing team holds aloft the 47.2-pound kingfish that won biggest fish honors and $14,200 in the Boynton Beach event. Angler Chris Bradshaw of Kings Park, N.Y. (second from left) caught the big kingfish
By Willie Howard
If you’re a boat owner living in southern Palm Beach County, you understand that boating is a year-round pursuit.
But the longer, warmer, calmer days of spring and summer lead many boaters to more hours on the water as they fish, di
Capt. Nick Cardella holds one of his favorite fishing kites, an SFE light-wind
kite, during a kite-fishing seminar. Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
Anyone who has fished the ocean off Palm Beach County — or even observed fis
At the Juno Beach pier, Jose Villanueva shows two of the Spanish mackerel he caught using a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow lure.
By Willie Howard
Cool weather of the late fall and winter brings schools of hard-fighting Spanish mackerel to the coast of Palm
ABOVE: Parks runs the Dreamfinder to shuttle underwater video crews to film goliath groupers at wrecks off Boynton Beach this fall. Photo provided by Mike McKenzie BELOW: Parks is restoring the 25-foot Bertram little by little at his home in Boynton
A shark provides a photo op for on-shore anglers before its release. Some beached sharks do not revive and later die. 2013 photo by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission is considering mea
County environmental officials dropped 530 tons of boulders into the ocean northeast of the Boca Raton Inlet to create an artificial reef that intends to help fish moving to the open sea. All four county inlets now have such reefs. Tim Stepien/The Co
The sign at Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo assures boaters that gasoline it sells at the fuel docks contains no ethanol.
By Willie Howard
Most South Florida marinas offer boaters non-ethanol fuel because of problems associated with ethanol use
Scuba divers and dive charter operators turned out in force at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission’s April 26 meeting in Fort Lauderdale to oppose a proposal that would have allowed a limited harvest of goliath groupers. FWC commissio
ABOVE: Dolphinfish (mahi mahi) begin to show up in greater numbers as the weather warms in the spring. These were caught in mid-April by Tim Workman (left) and Dave Hammond from the Lantana-based Geno V charter boat operated by Capt. Geno Pratt (far
A bottlenose dolphin captures a houndfish off Palm Beach. Scientists with the Taras Oceanographic Foundation’s Palm Beach Dolphin Project, which began offering dolphin-watching tours to the public in January, shot the photo.
By Willie Howard
Seeing
A diver uses a clear plastic bag to carry several lionfish. Careful handling of lionfish, which have venomous spines, is essential to the process of bringing them up. The lionfish flesh is white, delicate and tasty. Photo provided by REEF
By Willie
