TH E
P C HAM
BY FRANK SARGEANT
Florida is the undisputed, heavyweight fishing champion of the world. Not to get up a controversy, but it’s really not even close. Florida is, hands down, the fishiest state in the nation in terms of the number of species that can be found in its waters, the number of record fish it has produced and continues to produce, and the skills of its anglers. A look at the IGFA record book is telling. Some 4,298 all tackle, fly and line class records have been set in Florida waters, fresh and salt, since that august body began keeping records in 1939. No other state comes close. There have been 110 cobia records broken in Florida, 130 tarpon, 88 blackfin tuna, 91 redfish, 103 spotted sea trout, 96 greater amberjack…and so on. And that’s to say nothing of species like snook, bonefish and permit, which other states do not even have.
