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
on the water (83)
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
A sailfish jumps near a boat on Jan. 11, the first day of the annual Silver Sailfish Derby release tournament hosted by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club. Cold weather improved the sailfish action in this year’s Derby. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
B
ABOVE: Part of a trimaran sailboat broke loose during Hurricane Irma and wedged under floating docks at Gateway Marina. The incident caused $90,000 in damage to the docks. Photo provided by Gateway Marina
BELOW: Shredded sails, a tarp and algae cover
ABOVE: Eric Brandon of Nautical Ventures folds down the transom bench seat on the Blackfin 272 center console he displayed at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in November. The bench is a comfortable place to sit that would be an obstructio
Andrea Rutherfoord, officer in charge of public education for Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 36 in Boca Raton, has taught basic boating classes for 25 years. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
Maybe you’ve been boating for years on t
Rene Gross says wakes from boats have pushed up planks and yanked mooring cleats from the wooden dock where he keeps his boats. His dock is on one of the spur canals perpendicular to the Intracoastal Waterway south of Woolbright Road. Willie Howard/T
Underwater photographer Sandra Edwards shows a photo of a goliath grouper nicknamed Wilbur that stays around the M/V Castor wreck off Boynton Beach. She was one of many divers who came to a July 31 Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission meet
Dan Friedman of Delray Beach shows a yellowfin tuna caught on a sardine chunk by Capt. Mike Simko,
background, in Northwest Providence Channel south of Freeport, Bahamas.
Finding birds (red splotches) on radar is the key to finding schools of feeding
Mike Minia of Boynton Beach, a member of the Bootlegger fishing team, caught this 47.7-pound
African pompano south of Boynton Inlet in March. His fish was about 3 pounds shy of the
International Game Fish Association world record for that species.
Ph
