Wintertime, and the fishing can be breezy in the Florida Keys. Or it could be flat-calm and still bountiful. Whatever. There is always something available to catch if you pay close attention to the …
Making the Blazing Mako
26 Apr 20163:43 PM
By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost Travel Journalist
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Islamorada marine artist Pasta Pantaleo has embarked on the largest metal sculpture of his career: a 30-foot mako shark to be constructed of reclaimed steel and assorted flotsam and jetsam that will be set on fire during the Blazing Mako Tournament and Festival Father’s Day weekend June 17-19 at the Islander, a Guy Harvey Outpost Resort.
And you are invited to watch the work in progress.
Having completed the clay model, Pantaleo now begins to weld the steel framework of the fierce pelagic predator in the courtyard of his gallery at milemarker 81.5, U.S. 1. Once the framework is finished, the artist plans to add some flourishes, such as scrap stainless steel objects that will become eyeballs and fins.
“It’s like laying a track of music down,” Pantaleo, an amateur drummer, said. “You have the guitar, maybe a drum solo. A lot of little things can happen that I don’t even know about during the creative process. If I find reclaimed anything, it’s going into it– could be car parts.”
He expects to finish his work by the end of May. Then the hollow sculpture will be stuffed with flammables and set ablaze on the beach at the Islander in the signature finale of the Father’s Day weekend fishing tournament, art show, and “Conch-servation” Village.
“I am getting better with age,” Pantaleo, 58, said. “My craft’s getting better.”
Pantaleo began his marine art career in the late 1990s with paintings and tee shirt designs for fishing tournaments.
“I’m a nerd about the fish since I’m a kid,” he said.
He relocated from Broward County to Islamorada about a decade ago, opened his gallery, which features mostly oil and acrylic paintings of marine life, and became the founding president of the Morada Way Arts & Cultural District, which hosts monthly “Third Thursday” art walks.
His first metal sculpture of a giant tarpon entitled “Slaying the Dragon” rises over the roundabout at the Islander Bayside. Pantaleo admits he was overwhelmed by the task early on.
“It was the first time in my adult life I felt like, ‘what did I just say yes to?'” he said. “There were a lot of ‘holy crap’ nights.”
But he persevered and the final product won wide acclaim.
“This man is so talented, it’s really amazing,” said Armando Gonzalez, owner of Blue Marlin Jewelry, where Pantaleo’s metal rendering of a blue marlin chasing baitfish decorates a wall.
The Blazing Mako theme of the upcoming tournament and festival was selected because the shark is the mascot of Nova Southeastern University. Proceeds from the event will benefit scholarships for students at NSU’s Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography through the Guy Harvey Research Institute.
For more information, visit www.blazingmako.com
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling, camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women’s world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts.
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![](mailto:?subject=More Reasons Than Ever to Harvest Lionfish&body=by Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost Travel Journalist
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Lionfish: they gobble just about anything they can fit in their mouths, decimating native marine fish populations and taking over coral reef ecosystems. They are colorful and tasty and now there are more reasons than ever for you to hunt them down and take them out.
The month of May-- warmer water temperatures, calmer winds-- marks the unofficial grand opening of the recreational diving season in Florida and the Bahamas, and the kickoff of a busy season of lionfish removal derbies. All kinds of incentives are being offered for you to harvest, log, photograph and eat your catch of these venom-spined invaders from the Indo Pacific.
The <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/destinations/bahamas/green-turtle-cay-abacos/" target="_blank">Green Turtle Club, a Guy Harvey Outpost Expedition Lodge</a> in Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas will conduct its eighth annual Lionfish Derby June 24-25 in conjunction with the non-profit Friends of the Environment. Prizes will be awarded for the most, the largest, and the smallest lionfish brought in, and competitors will celebrate by eating their catch. The club was the scene of the very first lionfish derby in the Bahamas in 2009, organized by dive operators Brendal and Mary Stevens. The fleet of some 20 boats harvested 1,408 of the peppermint-striped exotics in the inaugural tournament. At last year's contest, they took out 763. The event has become a model for other lionfish derbies throughout the Bahamas. To get in on the action, book your stay by calling 1-800-513-5257 and email info@friendsoftheenvironment.org for an entry form.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/GTC-Blog-Image.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-4058 size-full" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/GTC-Blog-Image.jpg" alt="GTC Blog Image" width="624" height="237" /></a>
Stateside, lionfish derby season opens May 14-15 with Florida's <a href="http://reefrangers.com/event-info/" target="_blank">Lionfish Removal and Awareness Day Festival and Tournament</a> at Plaza de Luna Park in Pensacola co-sponsored by the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and <a href="http://www.guyharveymagazine.com" target="_blank">Guy Harvey Magazine</a>. Harvesters can win prizes at this free event, which inaugurates the statewide Lionfish Challenge running through Sept. 30.
To qualify for the Challenge, participants must take out 50 or more lionfish between May 14 and the end of September. They can win prizes such as fishing licenses, fuel cards, dive tank refills and the opportunity to take one extra lobster over the bag limit during the 2016 sport diving mini-season July 27-28. Whoever documents the most lionfish over the course of the contest will receive a lifetime saltwater fishing license and be inducted into the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Lionfish Hall of Fame.
Especially for the Florida Panhandle, where Gulf waters have become a lionfish hot zone in the past couple of years, the state has launched a year-long pilot program running from May 14, 2016 to May 20, 2017. For every lionfish taken from the seven-county region, the diver or angler will be eligible for a tag to take either a red grouper or a cobia over the bag limit in state waters. Anyone who harvests 500 or more lionfish over the one-year program will have the opportunity to name an artificial reef.
And removing really big lionfish can earn you a spot in the Florida state record book. The current mark for the longest lionfish harvested in the Atlantic is an 18.78-incher caught by Captain Jimmy Nelson in Islamorada. In the Gulf, the largest in both length and weight is a 17.24-inch, 3.1-pounder weighed by Captain Andy Ross of Pensacola.
For details on these contests and rewards programs, go <a href="http://www.myfwc.com/lionfish/" target="_blank">HERE</a>.
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling, camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/more-reasons-than-ever-to-harvest-lionfish/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Great Speck-ulation on Lake Okeechobee&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/crappie.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2984 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/crappie.jpg?w=300" alt="crappie" width="300" height="225" /></a>
By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
[Lakeport, FL.--] It won't be too long before scores of pontoon boats lit up like the Fourth of July and festooned with a porcupine-like array of telescoping fishing rods will crowd northern Lake Okeechobee most nights.
Late fall through early spring is considered the height of the black crappie, or speckled perch season on the Big O. But here's a news flash to all the snowbirds arriving on the first cold fronts aiming to catch a limit of specks: the fish have been here for months now. A couple savvy locals have been catching their limit of 25 less than a mile from the boat ramp at Harney Pond Canal in Lakeport.
"The biggest myth is that you can only catch them in winter," said captain Steve Daniel, a veteran guide and tournament champion. "This summer, I caught a lot of them on Rat-L-Traps and jerkbaits the same places I caught bass."
Daniel acknowledges it's a bit harder to catch specks during warm days than at night, especially if water levels are high. That's because the fish tend to stick to heavy cover under bright conditions and there are thousands of acres of vegetation -- bulrush, Kissimmee grass, hydrilla and lily pads-- where they hide.
At night, however, crappie can be lured away from their hideouts into open water by anglers lighting up their vessels and drawing hordes of minnows that the fish love to eat. With enough rods hanging off the boat, a pair of fishermen can bag a limit of 50 in just a couple of hours in hot spots such as the mouth of the Kissimmee River, Harney Pond Canal, the Rim Canal, and Fisheating Bay--especially near an area dubbed the "Monkey Box".
A nighttime fiesta requires a bucket full of Missouri minnows, available at just about any bait and tackle shop around the lake. Anglers thread them onto a small jig head of 1/8- to 1/16- ounces or on a light wire #4 hook weighted with a split shot. They arrange their 15-foot rods or cane poles in holders in the gunwales so that the tips are low to the surface. When the rod tip dips into the water, they know they have a bite. The rods don't have reels; fish are simply lifted into the boat.
"It's not rocket science," Daniel chuckled.
Day-specking with artificial lures requires a bit more finesse. Like black bass, crappie tend to follow a pattern, Daniel said, which means they'll stick to a particular kind of cover and a certain depth, rarely hugging the bottom. Anglers need to cover a lot of ground with their electric trolling motors, prospecting in holes in various stands of vegetation with long limber rods. It's a lot like flipping for bass, except there's no reel. A length of 20-to-30-pound monofilament matched to the water depth is simply tied to the eye catch of the rod and threaded through the guides.
For lures, Daniel recommends jigs-- small bucktails, tube jigs or twister tails. For clear water, he favors white; in dingy water, he chooses yellow, chartreuse, or even black (because it creates a shadow).
The reward will be a cooler full of tasty, but not very big fish. Daniel said two-pounders are not very common on the Big O; the state record for the species is three pounds, 13 1/4 ounces caught in Lake Talquin near Tallahassee in 1992.
But the good news from biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is that Lake O specks are getting bigger. The species took a big hit from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, but catch rates have been on the rise for the past eight years or so. Sampling conducted by biologists has shown larger, older fish each year. With last year's bountiful shad spawn, numbers and size could continue to increase.
Back to the most important part: eating. Most anglers fillet and fry their specks; the health-conscious use olive oil. Or you could just take them to Tin Fish in Okeechobee to have them cooked for you with a couple of sides. Fresh and delicious no matter what.
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` Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling, camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/great-speck-ulation-on-lake-okeechobee/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Hunting Gators in the Heart of Florida!&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/gator.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-2870 size-medium" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/gator.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>
[Okeechobee, FL--] Cows bellow, a limpkin screams and distant lightning intermittently illuminates the nighttime sky as captain Bobby Stafford idles his aluminum skiff north on the Kissimmee River. Oblivious to the eerie atmosphere, Stafford and passengers Roger McCulloch and Butch Butler eagerly scan the tannic surface with binoculars and headlamps trying to catch a pair of ruby-red lights in their sights.
Sweeping the river ahead, bank to bank, Stafford suddenly spots what they're looking for.
"There's a big one!" he whispers excitedly to his companions. "My God, he's a stud. He's coming out of that creek we were in."
The alligator's red eyes, captured in the beam, are spaced a good distance apart not unlike the running lights on a small boat -- indicating he's probably ten feet or better.
This is just what McCulloch, a highway construction foreman from Ohio, has travelled so far to capture. An accomplished hunter, McCulloch has bagged literally dozens of gators with Stafford as his guide over the past ten years or so during Florida's annual statewide public gator hunt that runs from Aug. 15 through Nov. 1. McCulloch has mounted several of these trophies, but his supply of gator meat has run out. Scoring this target will fill his freezer.
Then Stafford says something that, to the uninitiated, might sound really weird.
"Maybe we ought to just drop a chicken," he says to the other men, who nod in agreement as if this is the most normal conversation in the world to be having on a desolate stretch of river in the middle of the night.
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Unlike the depictions of gator hunting on the popular "Swamp People" television show, hunters chosen by lottery for Florida's annual reptile wrangle are not allowed to shoot gators with guns or snag them in the throat with baited treble hooks. Only certain approved methods are permitted to harvest the quota of two gators per person. One of them involves fishing with chickens, minus a hook.
Stafford retrieves a whole, raw, store-bought chicken from a five-gallon bucket with a length of coated cable attached to it. He fastens the end of the cable to a snap swivel tied to 200-pound-test braided line on his stout conventional fishing outfit. Inside the chicken, he has sewn a wooden dowel-- perfectly legal--that will hold the gator's jaws open if and when it devours the bait.
Stafford drops the chicken/bait in the water, puts the fishing reel in free-spool and motors slowly upriver until the boat is about 100 yards from the floating bait. He directs McCulloch to drop anchor and then shuts off the outboard.
"You just have to have patience and let 'em come to you," Stafford says.
The men wait and wait. Nothing happens. Finally, Stafford points the headlamp at the bait and spots the 'stud' gator far past it downriver. No other targets can be seen lurking nearby.
Stafford reels in the bait and the group decides to go looking for more prospects. They light up a small one in the middle of the river that freezes in the beam, but they agree to pass it up. Not long afterward, they spot a five-footer lurking in some reeds on the bank that has someone else's cable attached to it. They keep looking.
Several other small boats pass by during the night believed to be those of fellow hunters. No whoops and hollers of victory are heard, and only a few gators appear in their sights.
"Too many small ones. Too much boat traffic for this stretch of river," Stafford complains. Reluctantly, he turns the skiff toward the boat ramp, done for the night. He and McCulloch and Butler make plans to resume the hunt around 5:30 in the morning.
"If we can get a morning where there's not a lot of people, then we'll get it done," he declares. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/hunting-gators-in-the-heart-of-florida/){kind=link}
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