Water LIFE Dec 2014

GoodFish Karma

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Water LIFE [email protected]

Michael & Ellen Heller Publishers

(941) 766-8180217 Bangsberg Rd.

Port Charlotte, FL 33952Independant - Not affiliated with

any other publicationVol XIII No 12 © 2014

No part of this publication (printed or electronic) maybe copied or reproduced without specific written per-

mission from the publishers.

Contributing Editors:Photography: ASA1000.com

Senior Editor: Capt. Ron BlagoRiver and Shore: Fishinʼ Frank

Charlotte Harbor: Capt. Billy BartonFamily Fishing: Capt. Bart Marx

Punta Gorda: Capt. Chuck EichnerVenice: Glen BallingerKayaking: David Allen

Sea Grant: Betty StauglerOffshore: Capt. Jim OʼBrien

Fly Fishing: Capt. Scott SichlingBeach Fishing: Mallory Herzog

Circulation: Robert CohnOffice Dog: Molly Brown

on the COVER: Juvenile Atlantic Bumpersschool around and under jellies, whereas adults stillschool, but lose their affinity for grouping under jelly-fish. This image was made last month while on theoffshore trip with the Don Ball School of Fishing.

PAGE 4 EMAIL: W [email protected] DECEMBER 2014

Send letters and photos to: [email protected] Michael, I donʼt mean to muddy the waters, but Ihave enclosed a photo of a 41-inch red-fish that I caught last December 10 at themouth of the Myakka River. The bottom ofthe tail is fine and the top is gone.....Ihave no idea why. Best Regards. Harry ThomasEditor Notes* The whole point is that de-formed fish, no matter the cause, shouldnot be allowed in fishing tournaments.

Hi Michael! Lately I havebeen gettingback out on thewater, however Ihaven't evenbeen touchingthe pole, but in-stead using acompound bow Irigged up forfishing. I had noidea this kind offishing existeduntil one day I happened to be under a bridge fish-ing and there were five guys up top shooting ʻemup! It is so exciting hunting for fish and when youfinally get one it's game over, you're hooked! Honestly I'm surprised it's not more popular espe-cially because of how much great fishing there isaround here. My first day out, the first fish I evergot was a sheepshead, then I got a mullet, andended the day with a 35-pound ray that was nothappy about it. Lol! Hope all is well, look forward to future good reads! Shannon Friday

Hello Water LIFEL ove your magazine, we always grab one.My 8 yr old loves fishing and reading andlooking at them as well! Here's her 30 inch snook she caught in theMyakka River on 11/16. It was catch and re-leased back into river. She said it was one ofthe best moments in her life - haha! She'll be absolutely thrilled!! Thank you somuch! Her name is Konstantine Belgradeand the man is Erik Noack.

Editor notes* Really nice snook! Tight linesand keep fishing!


By Michael HellerWater LIFE Publisher

According to global scientists there is going to be aworld wide influx of jellyfish. Am I worried? No becausescience always provides us an answer. Science has desig-nated species that we don’t have enough of - like panthersand manatees - and dictates we must feed and protectthem. And science has designated other species, like lion-fish and now jellyfish as those that we clearly have toomany of and then they suggest the scientific solution isfor us to eat them. Lionfish tournaments are sanctionedby the FWC and lionfish-fry’s are encouraged. But nowwe have jellyfish too, so why not eat them as well?In a country with 5,000,000 hungry new residents, eat-

ing jellyfish might actually be a reasonable option. Othercultures eat jellyfish. Perhaps they are a delicacy that has-n’t caught on here yet. The annual global catch of jelly-fish is actually greater than that of lobsters, or scallops,so people are eating them somewhere – most likely peo-ple in Asia, I assume, are eating jellyfish. I like Asian food; crusty jellyfish with flat noodles in a

brown sauce? It’s probably got a texture crossed betweenraw quail eggs and tofu. I could see that on a bistro menu.I just can’t see me eating jellyfish any time soon. I’mthrowing up in my mouth just writing about it! But what if we do wind up with a lot of them? The

same comb jellyfish that recently crippled the BlackSea’s fishing industry thrives in the Gulf of Mexico. Thepicture I shot for the cover of this magazine this month,the one on this page and the winning photo from the En-glewood open spearfishing tournament that we publishedtwo months ago were all of comb jellyfish. Comb jellies

are not rare, but last weekend on our second offshoreschool trip I watched for any of them and saw none.Too many of any one thing in nature is not good. Jelly-

fish compete with smaller fish for the same food and theyeat the smaller fishes’ eggs, which in turn helps to col-lapse the fish’s population. I have heard they tanglesmall fish in their tentacles and can digest them. Jelliesare a pain in a cast net and bathers don’t like their skin-pain either. And to make matters worse, they proliferateon a grand scale.Jellyfish don’t have baby versions of themselves, at

least not the way most animals do. Jellyfish createpolyps—little bundles of clones—that attach to hard sur-faces and wait for the opportunity to release more smalljellyfish. Often, while they’re waiting, the polyps clone

themselves, creating even more bundles of future babyjellyfish. Cutting some jellyfish open actually creates ex-ponentially more of them and when the cells of one jelly-species, the Benjamin Button jellyfish, are released intothe surrounding water through decomposition after death,many of the cells are said to somehow find each otheragain and link up to form a whole new live polyp. Warm-water species of jellyfish today are finding

more and more areas to expand their ranges. Scientistshave already observed this with Australia's jellyfish andnow scientists expect that on the East coast of the US andhere on Florida’s SW coast, jellyfish will begin showingup ever earlier and sticking (pardon the pun) aroundlonger and later into the fall. We will have to see.

Happy Holidays! from Ellen and Michael

Eating our way out of trouble

I photographed this comb jellyfish in the Gulf several years ago. Today, biologists predict we will be seeing more and moreof them in the coming years and suggest we might, one day, eat them.


By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE InshoreCold fronts are now a way of life with

yankee clippers and polar vortex’s thebuzz words that weathermen like to scareyou with. Our fish do not like the cold,but if you have the luxury of timing yourfishing trips December can be quite spec-tacular.November had more than its share of

extra cold days but I was able to capitalizeon it and found extraordinary fishing.Cold fronts are easily predicted and oftenafter they arrive you can expect a warm-ing trend to follow. The pattern is basi-cally this: 3 days of cold weather takes 3days of warm weather to energize theshallow water fish this time of year. Coldfronts have unstable barometric pressuresand warming trends often have stablepressures. Warmer waters and higher tidesturn the fish on!With that recipe I fished 5 trips in No-

vember that produced huge numbers ofsnook. With 3-to 4 days of upper 70sweather white bait re-appeared and windsout of the west-southwest brought thehigher tides. I departed with 50-75 pieces of bait,

certainly not enough for chumming. Onfour of these trips I fished different areasincluding the Burnt Store area, Turtle Bay,

Bull Bay andPlacida. Eachtrip producedsnook numbersbetween 30-50fish, a few red-fish, trout andan occasionaljack. With nearly

200 fish caughtless than 8were legal fishand none wereharvested.The snook

fishery wasopened justabout two years ago and at that time I pre-dicted it was way too early to be keepingthe larger fish, fish that are over 26 inches.At that time bigger fish were very com-mon, but now they are rare in the slotrange. Skillful anglers and guideshave extracted the legal size fishand what is left are tons of smallones - this fishery is out of balanceand needs to be closed again. Another interesting observation from

my November trips was the absence ofredfish in places where there are usuallyplenty. Any redfish tournament anglerwill tell you that fish has been over har-vested. Too many people love to eat red-fish and the lack of fish is a clear sign.The fifth fishing trip in November was

offshore for kingfish. This was a timedtrip after 3 warm days following a coldfront. Four hours of fishing proved fruit-

less so we moved off to grouper territory.Catching red grouper on cast after castwas huge fun however releasing 12 poundgrouper because the season was recentlyshut down did not make any sense. Therewere tons of red grouper as expected! We did manage one gag grouper push-

ing 12 pounds and this was a fish that wasin season. So we had to catch 40 redgrouper out of season to catch 1 gag inseason. Does something seem out of bal-ance here? I was fishing in an area wherethe gags live. But the best surprise of theday were the 4-pound vermillion snapper!They pulled like crazy and were perhapsthe best fish I have ever eaten!So what are anglers to do if they are

not able to time their fishing trips andhave to fish during a cold front or coldwater conditions? The answer is to fishshrimp slow on the bottom, fish the

deeper waters; canals, basins and the pot-holes on the flats. Sheepshead, redfish,flounder, bluefish and speckled trout aremore tolerant of the cold and will take thechill off the day.

Capt. Chuck Eichner operates ActionFlats Backcountry Charters and can bereached at 941-628-8040.

the 3-3Pattern

DECEMBER 2014 BACK ISSUES @ BACK ISSUES @ WWW.WATERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM PAGE 7

By Capt. David StephensWater LIFE Charlotte HarborIf you have been away, welcome back

to sunny South West Florida. With thecooler weather pushing its way downsouth, we have seen our water tempera-tures begin to fall. During these winterchanges a large majority of our game fishmigrate to deeper warmer waters. Gamefish such as snook and sea trout leavetheir warm summer homes on the grassflats in search of warmer deeper haunts. During the coolest of the winter

months we still have some of the bestfishing in the state of Florida in our backyard. I mean literally, in our back yard.We are very fortunate to be able to fish aplace that has the diversity that CharlotteHarbor offers. During the warmer monthswe have seemingly endless grass flats andmangrove marshes to stalk our favoritegame fish. As winter approaches we haveplenty of deep water for our fish to mi-grate into. On the north end of the harborwe have miles of man made canals inPunta Gorda Isles where, during the win-ter months, a large number of our fish go.

With so many miles of fishy lookingwater, locating fish in these a reas canseem overwhelming so let me give you afew tips to make it a little less stressful. Since the main idea of fishing these

areas is to locate fish in deeper water, let’sstart off by looking for and locatingdeeper water. If you have a depth machinethis is a great time to use it. Spend sometime riding around and locating deeperspots. Make some notes or rememberwhere you see depth changes. Once you’ve located some areas that

look fishy, it’s time to see if there are anyfish holding in them. I prefer to fish withlive shrimp on a jig head when I’m fishingdeeper water. Normally I will use a 1/8 oz. chartreuse

jig, make sure it has a strong sharp hook.There are a couple ways to hook yourshrimp. The two most common are fromunderneath the head or through the top.Try to miss the brain. If you look at thehead you will see a darker spot - that isthe brain. Another very effective way is toremove the tail and thread the hook onbringing it out half way up the back.

Trout love to set up residence in theseholes during the coldest months. Whiletrout are the majority of the bites this timeof year, don’t be surprised if you catchblack drum, sheepshead, mangrove snap-per and even some snook and reds. And ifyou are not getting any bites don’t beafraid to move on to the next hole. Gener-ally during this time of year, when youfind a deep hole that is holding fish therewill be a large number of them and gettinga bite shouldn’t take very long. Artificial shrimp such as Berkeley

Gulp and D.O.A. can very effective. Theone bonus about fishing this way is youcan cover more water. If you find a holethat is producing bites on artificials, takeyour time and fish it slow. One of the mostcommon mistakes anglers make duringthe winter months is fishing to fast. Slowdown and make sure your lure is makingcontact with the bottom.

If you would like to experience some ofSouth West Florida’s finest fishing give me acall or send me an email. All of our chartersare private and customized to fit your partiesneeds. 941-916-5769 ww.backbayxtremes.com

Wintertime OptionsHarbor – River – Canal


By Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE BaitshopA hearty Ho Ho Ho!

and it’s beginning to look a lot like troutseason, every-where you go. From theeast side to the west, and the poppin corksyou know..... OK, enough of that! It is true that the trout are getting

thicker by the day, not only here in Char-lotte Harbor, but in the whole of S.W.Florida where the waters will be cool andwe should have plenty of sunny days.Those are the factors combined that illu-minate the trout bite like a string of barlights on a Redneck’s porch in July.

The one thing different this year is thesuccess of bobber jiggin’ for sea trout. I will explain:

to bobber-jig, get astandard poppin’cork, an un-weighted onewould be better,and a Rockport rat-tler jig head. Thebright colors seemto work best, likepink or chartreuse.What makes thisreally affective isthat the jig headhas a rattle built in.Place the jig about2 -1/2 feet belowthe cork. Hook alive shrimp onto thejig head - it does nothave to be very big a choice size. Hookthe shrimp through its head. One of the better spots to try this out

would be on the east side of the Harborbehind the sand bar about 1/4 mile northof the Pirate Harbor entrance. Go throughthe channel markers, but slow downgoing into the channel, just because it ismarked as a channel dose not mean thereis any water in the channel! The averagedepth there is 2-feet, so go slow and boatflat. Head to around half way betweenthe start of the channel and the trees infront of you, turn North (or left - as it isthe same thing) go about 5 minutes, yes Iknow, it does not seem long, but use yourwatch it is a longer time than you think.Now turn into the wind. Leave your out-board motor as deep as you can, go untilthe motor bottoms out. Now turn off themotor and cast into the wind. Let the boatdrift until the engine bottoms out andthen raise the motor a little and head backinto the wind for another drift. It is im-possible to get stuck if you follow thissimple system (editor Notes* impossi-ble?). When you cast to bobber jig intothe wind, your bait will trail the boat, so I

let out some extra line. I do this by leav-ing the bail open on my reel until the bob-ber/cork is about 50 feet away from me.Then I close the bail. The trout will getspooked by the boat but then they circleback to where they were. And you’ll havea tasty shrimp waiting for them. When bobber jiggin’ you do not really

pop the cork as much, maybe half asoften as you would regularly pop, - andif there is a breeze and light waves Iwould not pop at all since the wavesmake the Rockport jig head with yourshrimp on it bounce up and down and thatmakes it rattle in the jig, which attractsthe trout. Poppin is not really necessary,but I enjoy the ‘pop’ of the cork so I stilldo it now and then.

Trout are one of the most dangerousfish we have here, no it is not the bigfangs or all of the teeth they have, it isthat they are slippery little devils and youget a hold of one and it starts to slip andyou tighten up your grip just as the hookreaches your hand and zap! You have ahook through your thumb! So use a Mus-tad 37140 #2 hook as it will hook in thecorner of the mouth every time, thismakes it easier to avoid it and un-like acircle hook, you can get it out of thetrout’s mouth with-out doing major dam-age. Plus, those hooks are way less ex-pensive than circle hooks and work waybetter. If a trout starts to slip out of yourhand, let it slip and pick it back up. Remember; dry hands and dry rags

kill trout. Use the water in your baitbucket or live well to wet your hands orrag before handling trout. That way youdo not have to get the slime off yourhands as it will stay on the trout. A trouthandled with a dry rag dies within a fewdays. Keep it wet, you and the trout willboth live better. Have fun out there, enjoythe trout fishing and have a S afe andHappy Holiday! Fishin’ Frank 625-3888

The Gift of Christmas Trout

Trout was good last month and should be better this


By Capt. Scott Sichling Water LIFE Fly FishingGetting back on the water after having

the last seven weeks off has been nothingshort of amazing! The worst feelingwas having to be towed in by SeaTow after I blew my motor at thebeginning of October. Thesame day I blew it, Idropped the boat off atthe shop to be re-built. SevenLONG weekslater, afterwaitingforparts,machineshops beingoverwhelmed anda few “oh boy”problems arising I’mnow very thankful to beback in action!

Right at the beginning of Oc-tober the shift in climate changestarted occurring getting us ready forour normal wintertime weather patterns.Afternoon rains ceased, the temperaturesbecame mild and most game fish begantheir winter time transition into the backcountry as water temps began to drop. Thistransition period is dictated by the ap-proaching cold fronts, there strength andhow cold it gets. The more frequent thefronts are with consistency in keepingcooler temps for extended periods of timethe quicker the fish move on their route.You can almost predict pit stops orovernight stays in particular areas depend-ing on how fast win-ter conditions haveadvanced.

For example,warmer temps andweak fronts that onlyhave chilly air tempsfor a day or two willkeep fish closer tothe Gulf in areas likebull bay, Placida,Whidden or CatfishCreek. Stronger coldfronts with strongwinds and reallycold temps for ex-tended periods oftime will drive fish further back into noman’s land or around and down the WestWall where the water will remain a few de-grees warmer. Each year I’ve fished during this transi-

tional period I’ve learned a lot but moreimportantly I have taken good notes. Somethings I like to write down when fishing anarea are of course tidal stages, weatherconditions, sunny or overcast, water andair temp and what particular method I em-

ployed to search and catch fish. Somethings in life really pay off in the long runfor unknown reasons and good note takingwas a HUGE success.

My first day back on the water wasthis week, what a huge change in

seven weeks! Water clarity im-proved significantly, cold fronts

have become consistent nowand the water temps have

dropped at least 10-to15-degrees. I was

absent for thebeginning of

the transi-tion -

the for-mal retreat of

game fish push-ing into their win-

ter destinations andwas about as lost as any-

one could be. I referred back to my notes

over the last 4-to 5-years of winterfishing and compared current condi-

tions with what artificial lures I used incertain potholes and what species of fish Icaught. I rigged up the night before head-ing out to scout and wouldn’t you knowmy note taking skills prevailed. We arrived in our first spot on a super

low negative tide and had to wade to ourfirst set of potholes. After a little waitingthe second the tide switched to come in theredfish pushed in and began terrorizing thecommunities of glass minnows staked outunderneath low hanging mangrovebranches and oysters bars. Once the water level came up a few

more inches themullet andsnook moved inthe area just aspredicted andthe catchingcommenced! Iwas nervousbeing off thewater for suchan extended pe-riod of time - inthe most impor-tant time frame- to track andstay on qualityfish for clients.

Taking good notes, pictures andsketches of certain areas helped meachieve my goal! Next time you’re outtake a few minutes to see what reallymakes things “Tick” and learn the patternsof what’s really happening so you can keepyour catching consistent and fun! Until next time, tight lines and good

luck! Capt. Scott can be reached for fly or

conventional charters at (941) 408-5634

Detailed Notes Can Save Your Butt

By Capt Billy BartonWater LIFE INSHOREI had the pleasure of fishing quite a bit

with some close friends last month. DavidGrant and his mother Linda, a.k.a. LuckyFishin Granny, have been by my sidesince my first month’s of charter fishing.Charter fishing is a competitive businessand not as easy as some folks make it outto be. Linda and her son have been a hugesupport to me as I've worked my way upinto the industry. Without them and asmall handful of other folks and family, Ican't say for sure that I'd still be fishingfull time today. So for their support andeveryone else who has shown me supportin chasing m y dream, I am truly grateful.And I think what comes around goesaround.Needless to say, when I get these folks

out on the boat I do everything in mypower to make sure that they've caughtquality fish and they're heading homehappy. But besides me giving them mybest attention, which I do on every charterno matter who the clients are, I think somedays the Good Karma factor definitelycomes into play when we are out therefishin together, I truly do. It's like the FishGods look down on us and say "Oh, lookwho's on the boat with Billy today!" andthey snap their fingers and BOOM! Bigfish appear out of nowhere!?

Here are few examples of what I'mtalking about and this is just over aneight day stretch of fishing together. Miss Lucky Linda, while fishing on the

flats with a small Penn spinning outfit,caught her new personal best snook whichturned out to be the biggest snook of themonth. The fish measured 41-inches andweighed over 20-pounds! She caught it onthe first day of a cold snap in extremelylow water. I had even told her prior tofishing that I wasn't confident with ourconditions that day, but we went anyway.The second day of that front she and Ispent four hours straight on one mangrovebush and she caught redfish on just aboutevery cast until we ran out of bait! Weguessed that she caught over 60 redfish up

to 30-inches and not one was under theslot. Can you say lucky Karma!?Another example was on one of our

Gulf trips. I could write a whole storyabout this one! On this trip while trying tocatch us a piece of live bait for the big rod,she latches into a 25- pound cobia on a lit-tle tiny pink jig-head with a tiny piece ofshrimp and on the little tiny rod! Some-how she landed that fish! I would havebroken it off a dozen times. Then, 15-minutes later her son David hooks andlands the cobia of a lifetime. After anhour long battle we boated his fish whichwas 5-feet and tipped the scales at over 70pounds! What an amazing fish! Cobiawas also a species I had yet to get for

Good Fish-Karma: EITHER YOU HAVE IT OR YOU’RE WORKING ON IT


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Kings, cudas,bonitas and aFREAKENGIANTRAMORA!(left), thelargest I'veever seen!!Caught byDavid Grantwhile snapperfishing withlive sardines. We thought itwas a cobiaon the way in,it put up a hellof a fight! – Capt. Billy

Linda Grant, Capt. Billy and her 41-inch snook

David, so it made it all thatmuch better! When you’re standing in

my shoes and you'veworked hard to make it hap-pen, playing your role,watching it all take place, itdoesn't get much better. Itreally doesn't. And it does-n't get more gratifying. For a charter captain,

making memories like thisis what we live for. Wedon't care about catchingfish! We care about youcatching fish! So whetherit's just luck or Karma that follows goodpeople on the boat, I honestly don't care.I know whatever it is, they have it and it'salways nice seeing good things happen togood people. I think we all know what themoral of this story is.

Happy Holidays guys and gals! Bestof luck out there.

Capt. Billy Barton, Scales-n-Tails FishingCharters 941- 979-6140



By Michael HellerBy Michael HellerWater LIFE Kids Fishing and EnvironmentWater LIFE Kids Fishing and EnvironmentAs part of our Don Ball School of Fishing proAs part of our Don Ball School of Fishing pro--

gram we work with Capt jack Pearson of the Engram we work with Capt jack Pearson of the En--glewood Bait House on offshore fishing trips forglewood Bait House on offshore fishing trips forthe students. For the last few years we have runthe students. For the last few years we have runone offshore trip per school session. This year weone offshore trip per school session. This year weran two trips. ran two trips. Students from Punta Gorda and Murdock MidStudents from Punta Gorda and Murdock Mid--

dle schools went offshore in mid November anddle schools went offshore in mid November andwere met by the cool jellyfish shown on the coverwere met by the cool jellyfish shown on the coverof this month’s edition. Then we got down toof this month’s edition. Then we got down tofishing.fishing.We had 28 fishing stations setWe had 28 fishing stations set

up around the deck of the up around the deck of the ReefReefRaiderRaider , every two students, every two studentsshared a bucket of cut bait. Theyshared a bucket of cut bait. Theyfished with a rod rigged with anfished with a rod rigged with anegg sinker and a circle hook.egg sinker and a circle hook.Those who knew what to do gotThose who knew what to do gotright with the program right with the program

We took one gag grouper back to the dock for a filletingdemonstration. Then we cut open the stomach to seewhat it had been eating (far right: white boney things)

Capt Billy shows how to hold a spiney fish for a photo. Lucas Blanchette gets to feel what a grouperʼs skin is like.

James Sibley untangles a small snarl

Harley Wetzel selects the right bait

Capt. Cayle shows Jase Martin how to rig a cut bait. Then Capt. Billy shows him the picture of him and the fish he just caught

AAQQUU AATTIICCAA Ofshore with the Don Ball School of Fishing

and for those new to offshore fishing, Capt. Jack and Mate Dickand for those new to offshore fishing, Capt. Jack and Mate Dickgave them a demonstration on how to keep your thumb on thegave them a demonstration on how to keep your thumb on thespool and click over the release. And we had our class instructorsspool and click over the release. And we had our class instructorsCapts Cayle Wills and Billy Barton show how to put on a bait andCapts Cayle Wills and Billy Barton show how to put on a bait andpull up a fish. It didn’t take long before everyone was fishing,pull up a fish. It didn’t take long before everyone was fishing,catching and asking each other ‘How many you got?’catching and asking each other ‘How many you got?’We caught red grouper and gags, porgys and grunts, swuirrelWe caught red grouper and gags, porgys and grunts, swuirrel

fish, a few red snapper and one yellowtail.fish, a few red snapper and one yellowtail.We usually release all the fish on our outings, but this year, asWe usually release all the fish on our outings, but this year, as

part of the learning experience, we kept one gag grouper andpart of the learning experience, we kept one gag grouper andbrought it back to the dock for a filleting demonstration and thenbrought it back to the dock for a filleting demonstration and thenwe examined the contents of its stomach and then Capt.we examined the contents of its stomach and then Capt.Billy took the fillets home for dinner. Billy took the fillets home for dinner.

The Don Ball School program is funded with a grant fromThe Don Ball School program is funded with a grant fromthe Fish Florida license plate program and additionalthe Fish Florida license plate program and additionalfunding from the Charlotte County Marine Advisoryfunding from the Charlotte County Marine AdvisoryCommittee and private donors. This was our 13th year!Committee and private donors. This was our 13th year!


Capt Billy shows how to hold a spiney fish for a photo. Lucas Blanchette gets to feel what a grouperʼs skin is like.

Raphael Martinez had the onlyyellowtail snapper - a little guy!

Capt. Cayle shows Jase Martin how to rig a cut bait. Then Capt. Billy shows him the picture of him and the fish he just caught

Above: natalie barzyskowski with a grunt

Right: Teamwork with Max Kent (center) helpingto land a fine red grouper

Ofshore with the Don Ball School of Fishing


Staff ReportWater LIFE - Don Ball School

Capt. Bart Marx, (right) instructed thePort Charlotte class of the Don BallSchool of Fishing and accompanied theclass on this offshore outing, so insteadof his regular column this month, we are

showing you his class catching and re-leasing fish, which after all, is what theclass was all about!

The trip for the Don Ball School stu-dents at L.A. Ainger and Port Charlottemiddle schools had already been can-celled once last month on account ofweather. Thanks to Capt. Jack Piersonand the Reef Raider out of the EnglewoodBait House for accommodating us with areschedule the following week. Theclasses this year caught gag and redgrouper, porgys and grunts, red and yel-lowtail snapper, and a few squirrel fish. Wesnuck out under cloudy skies had a greatmorning of fishing on three different spotsand then ran back in just as the windpicked up and rain threatened.

This event concluded the 2014 DonBall school year.

The Fish Florida license plate helps support our program.

Don Ball Offshore #2L.A. Ainger and Port Charlotte

For more picturesfrom this yearʼs twooffshore trips go tothe Don Ball Schoolof Fishing page


The Holiday season is upon us. It is atime for holiday cheer, peace on earth andgood will towards all men ... but wait! Allis not well in the environmental kingdombecause a few discouraging words arebeing heard from the Center for BiologicalDiversity (CBD). For the folks who havenot been keeping up, the CBD is an envi-ronmental law firm that has made a livingsuing the U.S. government on behalf ofthe environment. They have sued the gov-ernment so many times I have come to theconclusion that their main goal is to hu-miliate and demoralize the very govern-ment workers who’s job it is to protectthe environment. The CBD has no mem-bership fees: yet it receives over $6 mil-lion dollars a year.Last week the CBD filed a suit in Fed-

eral Court against the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service and the National MarineFisheries Service alleging that power plantcooling systems are responsible for thedeath of sea turtles and other protectedspecies. They contend that these coolingsystems kill, in addition to sea turtles,more fish than the entire commercial fish-ing industry. The interesting thing is thatthe U.S. EPA has long approved and per-mitted the cooling systems at the powerplants: so rather than go after the EPA orthe power plants themselves, the CBD isgoing after the people trying to protect theenvironment.So how are sea turtles doing here in

Florida ? Well, in 2013 we had the largestnumber of sea turtle nests ever inrecorded history. This year appears to beanother record; 2,459 nests were recordedwithin a 35 mile stretch from LongboatKey to Venice. Most people would con-sider that a success, but some people thinkwe should always do better.

Power plant cooling systems are prettystraight forward: water that comes into theplant, picks up the heat from the electric-ity production process and the plant thenreturns the heated water back to where itcame from. The CBD seems to have aproblem with that. They say in their pressrelease, “cooling systems discharge tril-lions of gallons of heated water back intothese waterways, transferring trillions ofBTUs of heat hourly. The resulting unnat-urally warm water further disrupts localecosystems”.And that presents a sticky problem.

Who hangs out in the warm water dis-

charges at our power plants? None otherthan our own beloved manatees. It seemsthat the CBD is suggesting that manateesare somehow responsible for the death ofhundreds of sea turtles. This is not un-precedented; remember last year the gov-ernment let the western wind turbinepower companies off the hook for thedeaths of hundreds of eagles that flew intothe spinning blades. This could get ugly fast so stay tuned.

You might just see the Sea Turtle Loversbattle the Manatee S avers in a real envi-ronmental Smackdown.

[email protected]

On The Line By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior Staff

Don Ball SchoolFinal Quiz and Graduation

enviro-SMACKDOWN: Main Event Features Turtle vs Manatee

All students take a 10-question quiz on thefirst night of classes and then they take thesame quiz on the last night, 7 weeks later.Grades go from mid 60s to mid 90s. Thequiz covers, baitfish, knots, EthicalAngling, tides, high water, hooks andmore. You can take the quiz on our websiteat: www.WaterLIFEmagazine.com

Port Charlotte Middle School

L.A. Ainger Middle School

Punta Gorda Middle School

Murdock Middle School


By Bryan FluechWater LIFE Sea GrantCollier County AgentThis time of year in

Florida presents anglers with an in-creased likelihood of seeing the uniquelyshaped Atlantic tripletail (Lobotes suri-namensis) as they are commonly spottedfloating near crab trap buoys. While theyinhabit Florida waters year round, it isthought tripletail migrate to warmer wa-ters during cooler months and back tonorthern latitudes during warmer peri-ods. Globally, tripletail inhabit mostly

tropical and subtropical coastal waters,but in the U.S. they can be found fromMassachusetts south along the Atlanticcoast throughout the Gulf of Mexico.They are not thought to be very abun-dant in any particular location, and areunique as they are the only member ofthe family Lobotidae found in the re-gion. Individuals can reach over threefeet in length and weigh as much as 40pounds although anglers commonly en-counter much smaller individuals. Tripletail derive their name from their

large rounded dorsal and anal fins,which in addition to their caudal fin,makes it look like they have three“tails”. The fish has a deep, laterallycompressed body and a large mouth.They also have small eyes and a slopingforehead. There are still many unknowns about

the life history and reproductive biologyof tripletail, but it is thought they canlive up to ten years. Spawning takesplace offshore in deeper waters duringsummer months, and females are thoughtto spawn multiple times during thespawning season. Like many fish, tripletail can change

their color to match their surroundings.Juveniles tend to be mottled with yellow,brown and black and have white pectoralfins and a white margin on their tail.They are commonly associated with Sar-gassum and other drift algae and resem-ble leaves or debris. Adults also have

varied mottled patterns ranging fromdark brown to reddish brown or brownwith a tint of gray. They are found in theopen Gulf waters but can also occur inpasses, inlets and bays near rivermouths. Typically tripletail are solitary,but occasionally will form schools. Theytend to float on their sides beneath ob-jects such as crab trap buoys or debris ornear structure such as pilings or naviga-tion markers. Tripletail are ambush predators and

will opportunistically feed on a numberof small finfish and invertebrate speciesparticularly crustaceans. Casting a liveshrimp or crab directly in front of theirview often results in a vigorous strikefrom these otherwise seemingly sluggishfish. Tripletail is a regulated species in

Florida. There is a two-fish recreationaldaily bag limit and individuals must beat least 15 inches in length. They mayonly be harvested using hook and linegear. They are also harvested commer-cially on a limited scale with the sameminimum length and gear requirements. Tripletail is considered an excellent

eating fish. Its meat is sweet, white, andflakey, and is often compared to grouperand snapper.

Charlotte County Sea Grant Agent Capt.Betty Staugler’s column will return nextmonth. She can be reached at: UF/IFASExtension, Charlotte County (941) 764-4346

Triple Tail

This little triple tail could grow to three feetand weigh 40 pounds!


By Mallory HerzogWater LIFE Beach FishingWinter came a little early to south west

Florida this year. I seem to remember nothaving to break out my jeans and sweat-shirts until almost December, not earlyNovember! This means the season isabout to heat up, especially on our flats. It really has been a transition for me

this year. Five years of fishing from ourbeautiful beaches, learning and catchingeverything I could from land, without aboat. Fast forward to this month and I ampurchasing my very first boat. Terrifyingand exciting at the same time, becausewell you know what BOAT stands for?Bust out another thousand. This fall I've had the privilege to fish

with some of the best and most experi-enced captain's in our area. What has re-ally peaked my attention is flat's fishing.Each time I head out on the water, I amlearning and seeingsomething new.One of my mostmemorable tripsrecently was withCaptain Steve Hall,owner of WestWall Boat Works inPort Charlotte. Hewas set on break-ing my "red fishcurse". If you'veseen his facebook & instagram under thename Flats Pirate, you can quickly tell thatSteve is a talented photographer and fish-erman. Many years of experience underhis belt and a passion for sharing his loveof fishing with others, we set out on a coolmorning a little after sun up. Steve ex-plained where the school of fish wouldcome in during the tide switch and that itwas a waiting game. At this point I hadnever actually seen a redfish school. Iveheard about how easy they are to spot andthat the water will look red because of thehundreds of fish traveling together. Aboutan hour into sitting in one of his favoriteflats near Boca Grande there they were.

As we cruised over the flaton the trolling motor, I couldsee hundreds of big redfish infront of us. It was such anamazing sight, I was so mes-merized that Steve had to yellat me to throw my lure into theschool of fish. We were usinga variety of artificial soft plas-tics and various lures. Stevewas a great teacher and couldtell me exactly where to castfrom the platform. Explaininghow to work my lure in a waythat would grab their attention.Always encouraging and in-formative and patient! Theseredfish however were beingdifficult. We had a few hits and saw our friend,

Native Watercraft Pro Staffer "GatorDave"Harper hook up out of his kayak near us.

We kept castingon the sameschool and be-came entangledin Dave's linewith a BIG red-fish on the otherend. That wasinteresting, get-ting our lure un-tangled, beingespecially care-

ful not to cause his fish to come off.Watching him fight this fish for 15 min-utes, I started to understand why theselarger reds are so prized. They are fight-ers!

We just couldn't get them to eat whatwe were throwing at them. This went onfor about five hours. If we were able stayinto the evening hours, I really think wecould of gotten them to eat. But our park-ing ticket was about to expire. Nearing theend of the day my son was throwing a softplastic behind the boat. We told him "onemore cast then were giving up for theday!" As Aiden went to reel in, FISH ON!We cheered him on, and were all hoping

for a big redfish on the other end. Whenthe fish really started to scream drag onmy small spinning combo, he handed offthe rod to me. As I gained control of thefish and we got it closer to the boat, itleaps out of the water in a splashing show.It’s a giant snook. Not our target speciesfor today, but very exciting never the less.Our biggest snook to date at 40 inches. Captain Steve Hall captured these

beautiful photo's of this gorgeous snook.Aiden has been upset ever since, due tohis handing off the fish so I promised himI would let everyone know that it was a

team effort! Needless to say I don’t thinkhe will ever let go of a rod with a fish on itagain – HAppy HOlidays!

Shallow Flats


By David AllenWater LIFE KayakingA couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday,

the weather was warm, the sun bright andthe wind down. Couldn’t be a better dayfor a little open water paddling. And oneof the best spots to launch from is intoCoral Creek just below the Gasparilla Rd.bridge.As my wife and I were spending the

weekend in Rotonda West, it was just ashort haul down Placida Road to the

launch near the Fishery Restaurant. Itwas a pleasant weekend day and we ex-pected the parking lot to be full of cars.We weren’t disappointed. So we droppedoff the kayaks, parked the car in the Fish-ery lot and launched from along-side thebridge.We paddled east down the tail-end of

Coral Creek toward the entrance channelto Gasparilla Marina and knew immedi-ately that we were going to have highwind conditions…what happened to thosegentle breezes just an hour ago? And wesoon found other boaters that were alsoenjoying a day on the water. Where didthey all come from?After leaving the channel, we headed

west so we could pass under the cause-

way, circle Bird Key, just to thewest, and stop for a break at theinlet. Since the wind was out of thesouthwest we had a little boost onmost of that leg and made goodtime.The tide was fairly low and the

sand bars surrounding Bird Keywere simply covered with birds ofall kinds, all chattering and flyingoff as we approached. The birdswere smart enough to stay on thewest side of the Key to avoid muchof the wind.The tide was still going out as we hit

the sand, but it was close to slack and wehad no trouble beaching the kayaks on theback side of the inlet. The water was stillfairly warm, warmer than my swimmingpool, so we took a brief swim and had abite to eat. We found a few good shells tokeep, did all the beach things kayakers doand then headed for Little Dog.Over the years we have been to Little

Dog numerous times. It is only a littleover a mile from where we used to launchat Grande Tours; that was before Marianclosed up shop. The new launch is slightlycloser. Little Dog has a fine, shallowbeach that extends like a curved arm tothe west. Beaches on both sides of thearm are ideal for practicing wet exit andre-entry from a kayak, rolling, etc.From Gasparilla Inlet we headed di-

rectly east, yes, directly into the wind,passed under the Causeway Bridge andapproached Little Dog from the south-west. Still a lot of power boat traffic, butwe avoided most of it on this route. Afterpassing under the Causeway you still haveto go under the abandoned RR bridge.There are always a lot of fishermen with aline in along the tracks. As we passed by,a lady who was fishing along the edge of

the bank, told us that she had seen a man-atee, also along the bank. We made a cou-ple of passes back and forth but didn’t seethe sea cow.As we neared Little Dog, it was obvi-

ous that someone was holding a conven-tion there. Boats anchored on both side ofthe sand spit. As I said, it was a beautifulday to be on the water. So we circled theisland, and headed back to Coral Creek.On the return trip we spotted several

kayakers fishing along the edge of thebridge and some over toward CatfishCreek. They seemed to be catching fish.Just before we got to the beach by the

bridge, we spotted, off to the right, aderelict boat where white pelicans had setup housekeeping. One was even roostingon the bimini. Must have been eight or tenpelicans when we first saw them, but sev-eral flew away as we approached. Little Dog is an easy paddle from Coral

Creek and there is always something inter-esting to see. And it’s only about a 5 mileround trip if you go to the inlet, so almostanyone can do it. Try to pick a day whenthe boat traffic is low.

The Port Charlotte Kayakers meet eachWednesday evening at 5 PM sharp at Franz-Ross Park adjacent to the YMCA on Quesada.All are welcome. Call Dave Allen at -941-235-2588 for more information.

Kayaking Little Dogin Gasparilla Sound


By Bobby VitalisWater LIFE Pier fishingBonito are so awesome to catch. This

fish took me about 5 minutes to bring in.This bonito was caught at Sharky’s Pier inVenice. I have caught the bonito in theearly morning hours from high to low tide. Bonito come in large schools. If you

see one, you are going to see another.Bonito come and go. The way I catchbonito is to go spinning for them. You want a fast retrieve to move a lure

at a pace that will interest the bonito tobite. One of the lures, I am using to catchbonito with is called the GOT-CHA lure.The color is yellow head with silver bodywith red treble hooks and weight is oneounce, Model #G502RH. The presentation using the GOT-CHA

lure is at a fast retrieve. As you’re reelingit in, give it fast jerks every so often.There are other lures that I am using tocatch bonito with (which are just as effec-tive as the GOT-CHA lure). One lure iscalled the Sea Striker CLARKSPOON.The color is chrome plated, size 3 inch,

weight is 3/8 ounce, model #1RBMSAlso there is the TSUNAMI SEA

SPOON Model #TS1SRB. Both spoonsare identical to one another. Just two dif-ferent manufacturers. The way to use this lure is to have a

Billy Boy bobber in front of it. The lengthof the leader line would be about 4 feetfrom the bobber to the lure. The way touse the CLARKSPOON is to have a faststeady retrieve. Note: with the GOT-CHAlure, all you need is 2 feet of leader line. Iam using 30 pound test SUFIX AD-VANCE SUPER line (BRAIDED) as mymain line. If anyone wants a line that cancast far, then this is a good line to get. Then for my leader line, I am using

SEAQUAR 100 percent FLUOROCAR-BON line. I suggest you use from 30 to 50pound test line. The knot to make from the leader line

to the lure is called the improved clinchknot. However, when twisting your line,with the 30 pound test, twist it 3 times.With the 50 pound test, twist it only 2times. So, have a great time fishing!

PIER FISHING: Bonito

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Harbor Sailing - Upcoming Events2.4M Nationals Dec 9-112.4M North America Dec 12-13PGSC Holiday Regatta Dec 14-15 BOTY PPYC Golden Conch Jan 17-18 BOTY Charlotte Harbor Regatta Feb 6-8 small boats Conquistador Cup Mar 7-8 BOTY Leukemia One Design Mar 14 small boats Leukemia Cup Mar 21-22 BOTY BOTY denotes Boat Of The Year points race event.

Sailing2.4-Mʼs get plenty of wind

From Peter Welch, Water LIFE SailingDanny Evans of Miami (sail number 165) beat nine boats, in eight races over two days

at Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club to place first in the EDGE 2.4M Regatta. Local sailor and event organizer Dennis Peck submerged his 2.4M Saturday running

down wind on a big wave when a gust pushed the bow way down. I towed him back to thedock! More sailing coverage next month. See schedule below

Olʼ Fishinʼ HoleWith Capt. Jm O’BrienWater LIFE OffshoreWell if you could get out fish'n the

Spanish mackerel and king mackerel bitehas been good but between the red tide andthe winds it's been hard toget out. My story for thismonth features my friendand mate Erik. We were outtrolling for Spanish andking mackerel and hecaught his first Spanishmackerel. The smile on hisface says it all. We didn'tget any kings we got somehits but no takers. I toldErik we would go out forgrouper and Aj's when theyopen back up Jan.1st, lifewill be good again. Nowhere’s what other peopleare catching:SHARKS - still some black tips being

caught in Bull Bay and Mary's reef.Chunks of mullet or bonita are good baits.KING MACKEREL - are chewing

good at 1 to 6 miles off the beach, kingspoons in various colors are working well.Live baits, pin fish or blue runners, aregood.SPANISH MACKEREL - are hitting in

the same areas 1 to 6 miles out.COBIA - some real nice cobias are out

on the offshore wrecks and the box carsare producing some 30 to 40 pounders.That my friends is some good eating. Biglive pin fish or blue runners is a goodchoice for live baits and keep a Berkleyblack and silver eel on a casting rod itworks well too.

AJ's - Still closed till Jan.1st but they'restill fun to catch and release. They're reallythick with some BIG -UNS on the Mo-hawk. I was told by a couple of guys justdrop a blue runner down over the wreckand hang on WOW! that's some kinda fun.GAG GROUPER - are in close now so

get out and get some before they close Dec3rd. Troll big lipped plugs in35 to 65 feet of water, alsoget out on some ledges androcky bottoms. Best live baitis grunts and squirrel fish.RED GROUPER - are

still being caught but seasonis closed till Jan 1st. Fromwhat I hear the council sayswhen the red grouper opensin Jan that species will stayopen all year with no clos-ings but you will only beable to keep 2 per person in-stead of 4 per person. I my-self would like to see it stay

open all year than to have them keep shut-ting it down.SNAPPER MANGROVE AN YEL-

LOW TAIL - are closer in. Shrimp anpieces of squid are good baits.SHEEPSHEAD - are moving in and

showing up at Placida trestle, Mary's reefand the phosphate docks in Boca. Now it'stime to get out of here till next year.To book an offshore charter aboardPredator II call us at (941) 473 - 2150AND REMEMBER GET OUT AND

SNORT SOME OF THAT GOOD CLEANSALT AIR C U Z ITS GOOD FER YA

P. S. my wife Debbie and I would liketo wish ya’ – A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! AND A HAPPY ANHEALTHY NEW YEAR!

SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated,

But Often True


Superboat races wonʼt be back in CharlotteCounty next year. The Superboat Unlimitedpress release from the race group says theywill be going to Sanford Florida to race.

The EPA announced last month that it woulddelay until 2015 the final rule on how muchethanol must be blended into fuel.The decision creates growing uncertaintyand fails to provide a consistent standardthat marine manufacturers can follow.In related news, portable outboard fuel tanksmust now be pressure tight without conven-tional vents. “In the sun they swell up like aballoon,” one user of the new tanks told us.

The old buoy axiom: Red Right Return doesnot currently apply when coming back in atStump Pass. The better channel appears tobe right (south) ofthe floating redmarkers. The Char-lotte Marine Advi-sory Committee islaboring over whatto do about it sup-posedly because thepositioning of ascheduled new jettyhas not yet been de-

termined. This is aboater safety issue.An obvious remedybenefiting boaterswould be to movethe movable mark-ers immediately,and again if neces-sary, if required forsafe navigation.The new jettyneeds to be a dif-ferent item on theMAC agenda.

America is the firstship of its classand the fourth shipnamed "America."She weighs 45,000tons, is 844 feet inlength and has abeam of 106 feet.Powered by a fuel-efficient, hybrid electricpropulsion system designed to provide thebenefits of increased range, endurance, and

time on station, the shipis optimized for aviationand capable of support-ing current and futureaircraft, such as the MV-22 Osprey and F-35BFighter.CAMP NIGHTMAREA K-9 Officer and new re-cruit were dispatched toa distress complaint onthe Suwannee River by a

group of female campers.The group had been camp-ing on the river for 21 daysand had two juveniles whowere claiming to be pos-sessed by demons andwere fighting with thegroups counselors. The of-ficers arrived on the sceneand determined that the

two juveniles were not demonically pos-sessed or in need of any medical assistance.Officers transported the group of juvenilecampers and counselors along with theirgear to the Manatee Springs State Park with-out further incident. The parents and campcoordinator were contacted about the chil-drenʼs behavior. No further action was taken... at least not by the FWC.

RIBBET An FWC officer on patrol observedthe driver of a truck, shine a spotlight on aclear cut in a manner capable of disclosingthe presence of deer. The officer stopped thevehicle just before it left the area and found

a loaded 7mm rifle between the driver andpassenger seat. The driver told OfficerEdson, he was shining the light to look forfrogs. The driver was cited for attempting totake deer at night with a gun and light. Therifle and spotlight were seized as evidence.

EVEN NASCAR TAKES THE WINTER OFF,but the Laishley Flatsmasters group justannounced a new winter tournament series.Kudos for it being a photo-release event, butBummers for bringing the calendar fullcircle so there will now be a tournament foralmost every week of the year. That may begood for beer sales, but it is bad for ouralready tournament-stressed Estuary.

HANDS UP! – Morning Yoga at Englewood Beach, 7 days a week at 9 am. Call 941-473-0135

Charlotte HarborFrank, at Fishin’ Franks

941- 625-3888 Easiest thing to target right now is

trout. Getting out on a low tide with thepatience for the tide to come up is the key.Trout follow the tide. On the low theymove into the harbor. When it comes backup they move back onto the flats.Hang out until the tide comes up inside

the bar. Fish a dark bait with a bright tail.Cape Haze, the east side, Turtle and Bull

Bay are good spots. The biggertrout are down around Jug Creek.The larger trout don’t school

as much because they don’t needthe same level of protection thesmaller ones do. As they getlarger they are not as vulnerableso you find the bigger ones scat-tered or in singles and doubles.Trout are commercially popularand highly sought after recre-ationally so if one day you arelooking for trout and can’t findany maybe we ate ‘em all!The best tug on your line right

now is redfish. The big redfishare schooling pretty good off Placida, onthe east side and along the front of themangroves on the west side, in the littletrough that runs in front of the bushes.Pull back a little from the bushes and waitthey seem to be a little further out fromthe trees on the west side. The Mayakka cutoff is loaded with nice

schools of resident redfish that are notmoving as much as the ones on the eastside. Up on the Peace River there are awhole bunch of little redfish – one in 50are going to be a keeper.

Snook is doing very well, but there arenot hundreds of fish, not slot sized ones.Out by the Gulf it was sloppy and nasty

last month, hopefully this month there willbe a little less wind which would be per-fect for kingfish. Bonita and cobia areout there too. Try trolling from 20 feet ofwater out to 60 get the big lures downdeep and keep the smaller ones on top.You’re not going to do as well with thebig lures. You will catch the occasionalgrouper on those big lures, but you’llhave a great day all day long on the smallstuff like the Rapalla 08s. Most fish are

keying on the smaller glass minnows. Bottom fishing in the Gulf has been re-

ally good and the water temperature isbringing the fish in as fast as it ever has.The Palm Island Ferry has a lot of goodfish. Take moderate heavy spinning rodwith a light tip for snapper. Use the heav-ier rod for the Goliath. You’ll have fun -if you can get there. Pay attention to thebig weather fronts. So far the weather re-minds me of an elNiño yearFresh water fishing is on fire, crappie

and bass are just going crazy. Fish theCream Little Fish with a Rockport rattlerhead. For bass take your pick: frogs,worms, crank bait they seem to hit every-thing. For crappie this is the time to go toOkeechobee. The best colors are black andchartreuse. The light and dark colors areworking the best. Guys shark fishing the bonnet sharks

along the beach are doing pretty good.Now is the time to target them, they are ahammerhead sub species that are excitingthe first time. Grab hold and hang on.Shrimp is the number one bait freeline itout, under a float, make sure the bait is asclose to the bottom as possible, drag it onthe bottom and use the float to get their at-tention. We are also getting the black tiplooking ones like sharpnose on the beach

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Bill Dunson Jr., visiting from Salt Lake Cityand fishing at at Stump Pass caught a niceselection of fish: ladyfish, snook (shown),flounder and an 83 inch long shark.

DDDDeeeecccceeeemmmmbbbbeeeerrrr FFFFiiiisssshhhhiiiinnnngggg –––– PPPPrrrreeeeddddiiiicccctttt iiiioooonnnnssss aaaannnndddd SSSSuuuuggggggggeeeesssstttt iiiioooonnnnssss

Cobia, caught out from Little Gasparilla Pass by BudAngus of Englewood fishing with Gordon Roman.

Guide Cardspace available$40/mo

766-8180

now too. The bigger nursesharks and bull sharks arestill around too, althoughnow is the least good time totarget the big ones. And tarponare still around too. We have about 10 percent ofthe fish we will have this spring, but they arehere. The weather fronts really seem to messwith the cobia. They seem to move deeper whenthe fronts come through. Look towards the endof this month for triple tail, they are in a lullnow, but they should show up by the end of De-cember or January so keep and eye out.

Lemon Bay Jim at Fishermen’s Edge 697-7595Fishing is OK; actually pretty good! Guys are

catching flounder along the beach with jigs orbait on a jig head from Manasota to BocaGrande. Fish are right in front, in the wash, andguys are catching 22-inch fish. That’s good thistime of year! Also there are some reports ofpompano really heating up. Guys this morning,down around the island by Little Gasparillapass, throwing jigs, said the sheepshead bite isreally starting to turn on. A lot of guys are buy-

ing fiddler crabs and getting way bigger fish -pretty good size - I saw a number of them - guysshowed me pictures.Triple tail are being caught on the crab pots

along the shore line. You got to find a good runof crab pots and keep fishing up that same line.They are all about the depth and spot they like atthe moment. Had a lot of redfish reports from down south

of Lemon Bay. There is still a school or two ofoversized reds in there taking pinfish and white-bait or even shrimp. There are also a lot ofsnook, you have to just weed through the smallones to get to the keepers. Guys tell me there area lot of big snook around and a lot of juvenilesand that the slot fish are harder to find.I had a guy this morning who said the trout

bite has really turned on. He said his best luckwas with a Yozuri prop-bladed bait with a clearspinner - 3-4 inches. He bought two, one darkand one clear. He said the clear smoked themand that he got a snook on it too. Now is thetime you want a prop bait like the Devil’s Horse,

or the Mir-rolure propblade.

Offshore,snapper arein front of Gasparilla Island for a couple ofmiles mixed with glass minnows, grunts, andporgys. You’ll have to rough through them andsee what you can keep.A guide told me a Cobia was hanging around

a big turtle, down off Boca. The guy said hehooked the cobia but it broke off. Charter guidesare saying they are catching cobia every othertrip when the weather cooperates. Guys floatinga bait while bottom fishing are still gettingzinged off by kingfish. Not so much Spanishmackerel, but mostly by kings. There are also aton of bluefish around and a lot of jacks. That’sall I got. Happy Holidays!

SNOOK closes Dec. 1 in Gulf stateand federal waters and will remain closedthrough Feb. 28, 2015, reopening to harvestMarch 1, 2015. Snook can continue to becaught and released in the closed season.

TROUT in the Harbor andalong the beach.

REDFISH Schools fromLemon Bay to Catfish Creek

FLOUNDER Along the beachfrom Lido to Boca Grande

BASS are hitting on every-thing right now.

FISHING FISHINGRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:

Good !Good !

95˚

90˚

85˚

80˚

72˚70˚68˚

50˚

45˚

The BIG-4The BIG-4 GoodGood Fish to expect in Fish to expect in DecemberDecemberDECEMBER 2014 BACK ISSUES @ WWW.WATERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM PAGE 23

Capt Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com

941-916-5769

BackBayXtremes

Gulf Gulf TempsTempsare 66are 66

The Harbor isThe Harbor iscooling off morecooling off more

every nightevery night

The extremely rare and often illusive Charlotte Harbor Soft-Hat- Slam

Capt. Dave Stephens notedthere were a number of hot

days last month, redfishing.


Bay Boat Sea Pro SV2100 CC 2008 $29,900 SOLDSOLDBow Rider Maxum 20 SF 1998 $7,900 #638Center Console Sea Pro SV1700 CC 2006 $17,900 #665Center Console Hurricane 217 CC 2000 $13,900 #643Center Console Boston Whaler 19 Outrage 1995 $11,900 #557Center Console Sea Hunt 172 Triton 2007 $15,900 #647Center Console Angler 173 CC 2009 $17,900 #622Center Console Triumph 215 CC 2006 $21,900 #666Cruiser Bayliner Discovery 246 2007 $35,900 #656Cruiser Glastron GS 279 2003 $19,900 #492Deck Boat Hurricane 187 SD 2014 $29,900 #644Deck Boat Hurricane 226 CC 2008 $16,900 #615Deck Boat Hurricane SS 231 OB 2010 $34,900 #602Dual Console Starcraft Aurora 2210 2006 $23,900 #672Dual Console Ranger 18 Reata VS 2006 $14,400 #661Flats Boat Pathfinder 17T 1999 $9,900 #618Flats boat Tristar 18 Flats 1999 $13,900 #625

High Perf. Baja Marine 20 Outlaw 2007 $21,900 #675Jet Boat Yamaha LS 2000 2000 $11,900 #645 Jet Boat Sea Doo 1800 Challenger 2003 $10,900 #631Pontoon Bennington 2075 GCW 2005 $13,900 #632Skiff Carolina Skiff JV17 CC 2008 $10,900 #660Skiff Boston Whaler 130 Sport 2006 $8,900 #657Skiff Craig Cat E-2 Elite 2013 $9,900 #600Skiff Gheenoe 16CC 2004 $5,600 #648Sport Cruiser Stingray 250 CC 2008 $34,900 SOLDSOLDSport Cruiser Formula 280 SS 2006 $69,900 SOLDSOLDWalkaround Aquasport 225 Explorer 1998 $15,900 #624Walkaround Aquasport 250 Explorer 2004 $37,900 #617Walkaround Pro Line 251 W/A 1995 $21,900 #609Walkaround Cobia 230 W/A 2004 $27,900 #629Walkaround Sailfish 2660 W/A 2006 $58,900 #598Walkaround Grady White 282 W/A 2001 $49,900 #652Walkaround Boston Whaler 235 Conquest 2006 $52,900 #667

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Water LIFE Dec 2014