New guy from Florida USA

Hello from Florida! I joined the forum to learn more about Ireland and fishing in Ireland. I live in Florida USA, but hope to one day visit Ireland, and who knows maybe get lucky and live there for a while. Ireland is such a beautiful country.

I have fished in Florida my whole life and I work on the water as an aquatic scientist. I have a 22ft open fishing boat with a 150hp outboard. I fish everywhere in Florida up to 30 miles offshore on both coasts.

My Great Great Grandfather moved to the US from Ireland a long time ago. My wife also has Irish heritage, but we are not that sure about the details.

If I was sitting next to you, I'd be glad to buy you a beer or whiskey, sláinte!

Here's a few pics of recent catches, I hope it lends me some credibility with a wise group of anglers such as this-

Red Snapper

WFK Redsnapper.jpg

Gag Grouper my daughter caught

WFK Gag Grouper.jpg

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Welcome aboard Capt Panky
To be honest, the activity on this forum has slowed quite considerably over recent years, with people (arguably) more content in sharing advice and reports etc on Facebook and other platforms. There is a however a great record of discussions and fishing reports in the archives which are worth looking back on, just use the Search box top right if you wish. Still a little activity here and there though..
Florida, I've never been but it's definitely somewhere where I'd like to go and fish. Hope to go there some day soon

Thanks Chuckeroo. I noticed that the forum was a bit slow, but I don't go in for Millennial Social Media, so I'll give this a try.

Here's a few more fish pics from my boat to get my post count up so I can see the fish reports.

Little Tunny -a low food grade tuna, but very fun to catch and it has a strip of meat that is quality, but most is too dark to be worth eating.

Little Tunny 3.jpg

King Mackerel or Kingfish. These are also fun to catch and slightly better eating. Best if carefully cleaned to remove blood-meat, then lightly smoked for a couple hours. Often made into fish-dip.

King Mackerel.jpg

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And puffer fish, who doesn't love a puffer? Some people eat these, but you must clean carefully, they can poison you if not cleaned correctly. I do not eat these.

Puffer.jpg

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Is that puffer what the Japanese call "fugu"? With fish like those in your pics, I think I might stay where you are!

I’m with Johnwest,if your catching that stamp of fish where your from I would consider myself very lucky indeed.And you have Disney land on your doorstep.When to Disney land just before COVID with the kids,just about got the lone payed off but well worth it.Hope to get back there in another couple of years.A very warm welcome to the forum and who knows maybe we’ll see you this side of the Atlantic one day.Céad Míle Fáilte.

Sorry for the slow reply, my family did a little stay-cation and I was away from the computer. We went "tubing" on the Ichetucknee twice. This place is about 45 minutes from my house. It is a large spring and the water is 72F year round. You just hop on a float and drift down for an hour or two. The water is crystal clear and you can see fish like largemouth bass, bluegill, mullet and maybe a gar or sturgeon.

https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks ... state-park

We went fishing once, but it was very hot, and crew moral was low, we caught a few small fish, but nothing worth a picture, then got off the water before the afternoon storms fired up.

Johnwest, I do not know if that puffer is an exact match for the "fugu", but the Asian community are the ones best known for keeping those and other puffers in Florida.

I have a couple of nice videos on youtube of red grouper fishing, but I am having a hard time resurrecting them.

Hi johnwest, I am not sure that puffer is a true "fugu", but it is the Asian community that targets the puffers here.