December 24, 2001<br><br>It's Christmas Eve and we are still enjoying summer like weather. Along with the weather, dolphin are still roaming the blue water in large schools just like summer. The only difference is that the fish are much closer in. Today we started out fishing for barracuda in 85' off Key Biscayne. We had a half dozen bites and landed and released two, one about 10 pounds and the other pushing 20 pounds. We lost another to a lobster pot buoy, one got back into the wreck, and the other two threw the hook after making a tremendous leap into the air. After all that excitement, we moved offshore and found a weed line and birds working over fish in 400'. They were hungry dolphin in the 4 - 10 pound class. Once they went down, all you had to do was look north and south along the weed line until you saw the birds working over them again. We kept enough for several meals and released just about as many.<br><br>I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year. I hope that the New Year brings you calm seas, tight lines, and lots of fish action. Keep a few for the table and release some for tomorrow.<br><br>Captain Dave Kostyo<br>Knot Nancy Fishing Charters<br>www.rnfl.com/knotnancy<br>nkostyo@bellsouth.net<br><br>

Hi everyone! Hi Shawn!<br><br>

Hello to everyone on the Florida board:<br><br>New to this board because I spend most of my time on the Ca. board but I thought that I would let you guys know that I just spent some quality fishing time with my stepfather who lives in Ormond beach. Fishing was very good. We caught grouper, snook, redfish, and jacks.<br><br>Florida sure is a fun state!!<br><br>Milo

Hola and Happy Holidays!!<br><br>Hey Romey-rome and Hodg- Thought that I would give you a quick run down on the Florida trip:<br><br>Great time with the family. Mom and Stepdad are doing great. I stayed at their new house on the beach in Ormond Beach. It was very mellow compared to Ca. but a nice change for sure.<br><br>We only got to fish 1 day because mom had other plans for me for the remainder of the time. Anyway...no tarpon. Didn't even look for them. According to all of the guides that I spoke with, they were not chewing at the time so we fished grouper, snook, permit, jacks, and other misc. east coast fish that I don't even know what they were. <br><br>Weather was great, food was great, everything was great. Great time had by all!!! <br><br>Merry Christmas to you all!!<br><br>Milo

Seasons greetings and snowy Christmas wishes to everyone at the BigFishTackle forum and your families from Russ Bassdozer! <br><br><br><br><b>Bassdozer Worldwide Bass Fishing</b><br><A HREF="http://www.bassdozer.com" target="_new">www.bassdozer.com</A>

Kona Hawaii fishing report 12/23/01<br><br>Striped marlin tops this months fishing report as the most common Kona catch. The run has been awesome. Plenty of multiple strikes and catches. It’s slowed down a little this week but will pick back up again with the coming of the full moon. Along with the stripies, there’s still some blue marlin coming in. Not too much size to ‘em but still bigger than the average stripie.<br><br>The end of the mahi mahi season has come. There’s still a few around but as soon as they figure out that the water is getting colder, they’ll be gone with the rest of ‘em. I haven’t seen any spearfish at the dock in a while but by the middle of next month we’ll be seeing more. Their season really kicks in starting February and remains good ‘til April. A little flurry of ono came through this past week. Lost? Who knows, who cares. Ono are good eating any time of the year.<br><br>Kona is having another poor year when it comes to Shibi season. Last year, the run never really showed up and this year looks much like the same. Shibi season is the time when the smaller yellowfin (5 to 30 lbs) tuna and bigeye tuna hang around our ledges and FAD’s. It’s not too late though. I still have hopes to catch some new years sashimi.<br><br>The bottom fishing bite has been extremely slow for this time of year. The recent current switch from North to South nearly killed the bite all together. A few of the commercial snapper fishermen have found some spots where the bite was good but as soon as the word got out, those spots more resembled a parking lot for boats. <br><br>See ‘ya on the water ,<br>Capt. Jeff Rogers ,<br>http://FISHinKONA.com <br><br><br>

Tampa Bay Area <br>Fishing Report<br>Captain Charles Walker<br>12/23/01<br>It was supposed to be 38 degrees this morning. Thank God it wasn’t! I hate the cold! It’s coming though. The last week has been considerably cooler and the Gulf temperature has started to drop. The cold front that’s coming through tonight will probably put things down to “normal” for the end of December. I sure hate to see it. All the weather gurus are saying that we will have a cold winter, somewhat back to the kind we had before they figured out that the Pacific Ocean drove our weather here in Florida. I wonder if that’s really true or if it’s just another batch of fiction by the PETA-heads to try and explain how nature works?<br><br>Anyway, it looks like the holiday weather is going to be cold and windy most of the week. This will definitely make the fish complete their winter migration so we can look for fishing to change to a winter mode.<br>On to the bait house reports:<br>Ruskin Bait and Tackle - 813-641-2325 – The ship’s channel and the flats have been producing some nice sized redfish. There are plenty of trout for catch and release fishing. There are some nice flounder around Simmon’s Park and the cobia are moving back to the power plant outlet. Lots of sheepshead are available around the pilings and there are plenty of black drum in the river. Snook are in the mouth of the river. Don’t forget our guarantee, our shrimp will catch fish or they’ll die trying.<br>Buddy’s Bait and Tackle on the Courteney Campbell Causeway in Tampa - 813-287-1026 – Reds, black drum, and trout are biting around the big bridge on live shrimp. Sheepshead are all along the Causeway and around the bridge pilings. <br>Bonnie’s Bait and Tackle in Clearwater - 727-446-2772- Grouper were caught this week in 30 feet of water out of Clearwater. Kings were still being caught on the Sand Key hard bottom. Pompano have been coming in from the Gandy along with big black drum. Whiting and drum are coming in from the beach. On the freshwater side, the crappie are turned on and we are selling a ton of live minnows for them.<br>Trappman’s Bait and Tackle on Gandy Blvd in St. Petersburg - 727-579-1414- Pompano are biting like crazy off the Gandy Bridge and the best lures are Doc’s Goofy Jigs with fiddler crabs. Sheepshead are biting well. Lots of big jacks are biting at the foot of the bridge. Lots of small snook are biting for catch and release.<br>Dogfish Tackle on Redington Beach - 727-392-6644- Whiting and silver trout are being caught on the beach this week. Grouper are biting in 35 feet offshore. Spanish mackerel are still biting around the Pier. In the backwaters, a few snook are starting to bite along with black drum around the bridges and docks.<br> Pass-a-Grille Bait and Tackle on St. Pete Beach - 727-360-6606- Sheepshead, snook, and black drum are biting off our dock and along the sea wall. Our offshore boats only managed to get out a few days this week and caught grouper and mangrove snapper.<br>The Skyway Fishing Pier - 727-865-0668 and the south Skyway - 941-729-0117- Pompano, king mackerel, grouper, silver trout, and grunts are coming in pretty steady today on the north pier. Our biggest grouper this week was just over 38 inches, 21.4 pounds. Sheepshead are really biting well on both ends of the bridge. Some flounder have been coming in along with whiting and silver trout.<br><br>Folks, feel free to call any of the places in my report for more information, and be sure to tell them that you read about the fishing in their area in Capt. Charlie’s fishing report on the Internet.<br><br>If you want more information about fishing in the Tampa Bay area or wish to book a charter, simply e-mail me at captchas@flfish.com or if you wish to arrange a charter faster, call me at 727-546-7257. Be sure and visit my web site for lots more Tampa Bay Area fishing info at: http://www.floridasaltwater.com .<br><br>Good fishing and tight lines,<br>Capt. Charlie<br>http://www.flfish.com/fl<br><br><br><br>Capt. Charlie Walker<br>http://www.flfish.com

Just wanted to say hello to all of you out there. Looking forward to finding updates around here. I'll post as I have results.<br><br>Shawn Woerlein (aka: tpet96)<br>-Avid Ohio Fisherman

Let's start getting ready for the White Seabass. <br><br>What gear would you bring in your war chest?<br>Rod?<br>Reel?<br>Line?<br>Hooks?<br>Sinkers?<br>Jigs?<br>etc?<br><br>Booyaa To Ya'!<br><A HREF="http://www.fishingclothes.com " target="_new">http://www.fishingclothes.com </A> <br>Romero

<br><br>Conclave 2002, presented by the Custom Rod Builder's Guild, Inc., in Nashville,Tennessee on January 10th - 13th has all the markings of a landmark event in the evolution of the custom fishing rod and the art, craft and science of custom rod building. Consider these exciting features:<br> <br>Conclave director Don Morton has put together an outstanding program that includes a stellar roster of over 50 - many of whom were the developers of the techniques and/or equipment that they will be demonstrating.<br> <br>This is the first time that a field of presenters with this expertise has appeared together, all at once.<br> <br>Suppliers attending and displaying will be about 35 in number.<br> <br> <br><br>