West Coast of Florida Archives

March 13, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

Its always pretty cool to see a bald eagle out in the wild.

Its really cool when you get to see a bald eagle feeding.

And its freaking awesome when you get to see a bald eagle stealing a sheepshead from an osprey!

Luke and I were already having a pretty awesome day when we caught this bald eagle on film.

And then, as if the bald eagle had passed on some of its mystical good luck powers, Luke lands a redfish on his first cast.

Note: This was all filmed back in Bull Bay (near Boca Grande and Little Gasparilla Island, FL)

Bald Eagle = Salt Strong

March 12, 2015March 12, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

Two summers ago my family and I went to Destin Beach, Florida to relax, get some sun, have a few adult drinks, and to show our daughter how to build sand castles.

I recall our young daughter not wanting to go into the ocean the entire trip.

Perhaps she knew something we didn’t…like the fact that there might have been a large hammerhead shark at Destin Beach that day as well…

In all seriousness, the chance of you ever getting attacked by a shark are pretty slim considering how many people are in the ocean every day compared to how many actually get bitten by a shark.

But this is still a great reminder to keep you eyes peeled while out in the ocean, and everyone once in a while it actually pays to listen to someone from New Jersey yelling “Hammerhead Shark” from a balcony.

Destin Hammerhead Shark = Salt Strong

March 9, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

It’s rare that we ever post our own videos on this main Salt Strong page (in fact, I believe this is the first video we have ever posted on this main video board), but we had such a great day back in the Florida grass flats yesterday that we couldn’t help but show you.

This was a “Skinny Water Inshore Slam” (Snook, Redfish, and Trout) all on artificial lures…and all of this footage and fishing action was caught over a 3 hour period yesterday.

Pretty good considering when we finally hit the water for the day (at 3:30pm) we had on rain gear as it looked like it was going to storm again.

But the sun peaked its head, and we tour it up in less than 2 feet of water catching a big 31-inch redfish, tons of smaller reds, a handful of snook, and even a couple of trout.

And Andrew, the Salt Strong promoter and marketing manager, caught the biggest fish of his life.

Team Salt Strong = Salt Strong

March 6, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

There are three things that can instantly bring a crowd together on a public beach…

The Ice cream truck
Anything Free
A big fish, shark, or Goliath Grouper being landed on a crowded beach

In this case it was #3…

And it was a huge Goliath Grouper that was landed on a public beach in Naples, FL

As you can see from the video, the angler hooked the large Goliath Grouper from a pier, and then walked the large fish all the way down to the beach where they finally landed it among many beach onlookers.

Well done gents.

March 9, 2015March 5, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

If you have been following the lionfish invasion down in Florida, you know that these beautiful (yet venomous) fish are creating a bunch of issues for fishing habitats.

In fact, it is one of the only salt water fish that the state of Florida has no limit on, as they are encouraging the elimination of these fast reproducing fish that have no natural predators here in the Florida water.

And keep in mind, these lionfish aren’t just a problem here in Florida. They are starting to show up all over the Gulf, and according to lionfish expert Alex Fogg, these fast spreading lionfish are even popping up in high numbers near the oil rigs off of the Mississippi coast.

(the female lionfish can carry up to 15,000 eggs)

The Ultimate Lionfish Killer

But the good news is that with divers like this (aka the Ultimate Lionfish Killer), the lionfish population is slowly starting to reverse course.

This video was from Alex Fogg as he was diving with the Coast Watch Alliance near an old airplane wreck off of Pensacola, Florida.

According to the video, they bagged 200 lionfish from this spot alone!

Well done!

Related to helping eliminate lionfish, there has been some footage of sharks and even some grouper that are starting to prey on the lionfish as well (so perhaps the Florida predators can be trained to eat lionfish)

(If you haven’t seen the Grouper sucking down the lionfish like it was an oyster, then watch it here)

Alex Fogg = The Ultimate Lionfish Killer = Salt Strong

March 3, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

With today’s sophisticated Great White Shark tagging and tracking, we now know that Great White Sharks do in fact visit the coast of Florida…

In fact, scientists have seen Great White Sharks even come up into the Gulf of Mexic0 (previously thought to be too warm for the cold-water loving Great White).

And this week, Gabriel Smeby and Derrick Keeny of Dark Side Sharkers proved without a doubt that Great White Sharks are off of the west coast of Florida.

Great White Shark Caught on Florida Beach

At some undisclosed beach off of the West Coast of Florida, the Dark Side Sharkers reeled in the first ever great white shark caught on a Florida beach.

This is only the 4th Great White Shark landed from a beach in the entire US.

Check out all of the pics below of this first ever Great White Shark caught on a Florida beach.

great white shark caught on florida beach

Story originally posted on Wide Open Spaces here

February 25, 2015February 25, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

Let me tell you, a 13’7 Hammerhead is a HUGE shark, with massive force and power…

So when our friend Andrew over at Big Bully Outdoors sent us his video of catching this Monster Hammerhead off of the beach at Boca Grande, Florida, we stopped what we were doing to check it out…

And once we saw this awesome video, we couldn’t help but share it with you (and we hope that you will share it with your friends)…

The only thing we don’t know is how long it took Andrew to land this big boy (Andrew, feel free to comment below).

You can see from the video that Andrew had the shark on while the sun was about to set, and it was definitely dark by the time this huge hammerhead was landed on the beach at Boca Grande.

Great job from start to finish to the release Andrew!

This is how you catch a hammerhead shark from land!

Andrew of Big Bully Outdoors = Salt Strong

P.S. – Make sure to go check out Big Bully Outdoors with Andrew and Mallory here.

June 21, 2015February 4, 2015 by Joseph Simonds

Did you see that great Super Bowl commercial about “throwing like a girl” and “running like a girl”?

It was a hard hitting commercial (especially for a father like me with two daughters), and the producers really nailed it on the head.

But the one thing they should have followed it up with was this video of Deidra Bridger (first mate with Captain Bo Johnson) pulling in this Goliath Grouper by hand!

What a rock star of a girl!

I don’t know how long it took her to land this Goliath Grouper, but one thing I do know for sure…

Deidra Bridger = Salt Strong

Related Video: “Two Girls Tag Team 300lb Goliath Grouper” (watch it here)

January 8, 2015 by Luke Simonds

Sightfishing huge redfish off the white sand bottom beaches of Destin, Fl.

The Ultimate Lionfish Killer

Great White Shark Caught on Florida Beach

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