Water LIFE Feb 2015

February 2015February 2015

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LIFEThe Don Ball School of FishingThe Don Ball School of Fishing

Charlotte Harbor, Lemon Bay & the GulfCharlotte Harbor, Lemon Bay & the Gulf

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Seminar in Printpage 12

BabyTarponpage 8

Offshore page 10-11

More Ethanol Woes

page 21

Waterway HistoryWaterway History

page 14page 14

The Local Newspaper The Local Newspaper is is LYING LYING to youto you

page page 2020

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Michael & Ellen Heller Publishers

(941) 766-8180217 Bangsberg Rd.

Port Charlotte, FL 33952Independant - Not affiliated with

any other publicationVol XIV No 2 © 2015

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

permission 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: Red grouper are backand this anglers, out on a trip with Capt.Joe Miller of Venice was taking them homefor dinner. Offshore: page 10-11 & 23


Send letters and photos to: [email protected] To Water LIFE

I just happened toread some of the "fac-toids" published byCapt. Blago in yourJanuary issue. Ithought I might re-spond with a few "fac-toids" of my own.

For example, heasks "who is payingtheir fair share" oftaxes? He thenstates that the top 20percent of incomeearners pay 69 per-cent of all of thetaxes. My "factoid"the wealthiest 20 per-cent of US citizensown over 85 percentof the wealth of ourgreat country. His"factoid" "The bottom20 percent paid only 4percent of the taxes."My factoid. The bot-tom 40 percent ownonly 0.2 percent of thewealth of our country.(I couldn't find anydata on the wealth ofthe bottom 20 per-cent). Here's anotherlittle "factoid" he mightwant to include in his

next discussion of in-come inequality ....the top 400 families inthis country own asmuch wealth as thebottom 150 million in-dividuals. Mr. Blagomight want to take an-other look at his "fac-toids" ... and at who ispaying their fair share.

As for his ideas onconservation.... Yes,we all know that theextinction of speciesis a natural phenome-non, but to seeminglydeny that mankind iscontributing to extinc-tions is particularlydisturbing when hislivelihood depends, atleast in part, on theconservation ofwildlife.

I am sure the cap-tain is an excellentfishing guide. Per-haps he should stickwith his area of ex-pertise and leave thepolitical posturing tothose who actuallyhave correct "fac-toids".

Dave Dyke, PGI

Thank Youfor supportingThe Don Ball School ofFishingThis year marks the 14th

year of our Don Ball School ofFishing. The only reason we areable to continue this programtghat teaches 6th and 7thgraders about local fishing andpreserving the local environ-ment is because the communitysupports the idea. Right beforethe holidays we received a nicecheck from the South GulfCove Fishing Club. They haveencouraged our programstraight along. For the staff andthe students I say ‘Thank you!’And at the beginning of this

year the Southwest FloridaMarine Industries Associationalso give generously to ourcause. Thank you too! We all believe that educating

kids is a positive way to influ-ence the future. We thank allour donors and sponsorssincerely!

Iʼve been on a clean-drinking-water crusadelately. Charlotte County needs to update theirwater system and either ʻloopʼ their dead endwater mains around into the other mains so theyflow freely, or automatically and regularly (likeevery other day) flush the dead end lines out. Ifthe county doesnʼt do one of those two things theʻcrudʼ in the line (rust and particles from decaying50 year old pipes and God knows what else) getspiled up at the dead end of the line so the housesthere suffer the most with yellow, rusty, stinkywater from Charlotte County Utilities.

So Iʼd now like you to meet the new guys at thedead end of the water main on my block. Thehouse isnʼt quite finished yet, in fact they justplanted all those palms last month. I donʼt knowwho the owners are, but do you think someonewho builds a house like this is going to put up withsmelly rusty yellow water? Nope - not even fortheir landscaping! – MH

New House May Solve Old Problem


Super Trawlers, Really Big, Bad I deaBy Michael HellerWater LIFE editorIt was a simple video link on

YouTube that got my attention.The still image on the link was athick cylindrically shaped form,filled with silver . I clicked ‘play’and the form began to move. Itwas a section of a compressednet, maybe 20 feet across and10 feet high and it was filledwith fish, mostly mackerel, fromthe ocean off Australia. The net movedacross my screen as the ships automatedmachinery kept pulling it out of the seaand past the camera. It kept coming andcoming. When deployed, the net was over1800 feet long and 600 feet wide.The world has gone mad with super-

size on the ocean. Gigantic cruise ships,supertankers and now super-trawlers. The Australian government instituted a

ban on these vessels two years ago, buttheir ban runs out this year. Super trawlers have the ability to deci-

mate the fish populations. Opponents saythe Australian ban is inadequate because itdefines ships only by size and not by theirindustrial fishing capacity. A recreational fishing industry

spokesman said there was now a need tosit down with environmental groups andput pressure on the government to change

the definition of a super trawler.The Australian secretary for agriculture

released a statement on Christmas Evesaying supertrawlers would be perma-nently banned from Australian waters, buthis ban simply defined a super trawler asa vessel longer than 130 meters. Environ-mental and fishing groups immediatelycriticized the decision because it allowssmaller vessels with equally large nets andprocessing capacity to fish in restrictedareas. The acceptable size of the nets usedwas not specified in the ban.The Australian government had previ-

ously imposed bans on Dutch owned su-pertrawlers. One ran out in November, theother is up for review in April.The world must learn from the Aus-

tralian experience. Supertrawler concen-trates an enormous effort into a small areaand that it has an impact by efficientlytaking a huge number of fish out of the

sea very quickly, exaggerating issues al-ready ongoing in the fishery. This has thepotential to become a global problem.“There needs to be more research into

depletion of fish stocks, a more transpar-ent policy on how much and where fishare caught and a commitment to inde-pendent observer programs,” an Aus-tralian fisheries minister said. As expected, fish processing compa-

nies argued a ban on its fishing boats wasimproper and should be overturned andwhen questioned a processing spokesmanwould not state whether his companywould continue to use super trawlers if theban is lifted this year, saying only thatthey had a quota and that they intended tofill it. In Australia, a website petition at-

tracted 90,000 signatures, claiming theships would have devastated local fish-eries and impacted protected species.Under the proposed conditions for fishing,the super-trawlers could have legallykilled up to 10 seals a day. The environ-mentalists had a field day with that report!A Tuna Club of Tasmania spokesman

summed up the situation saying they be-lieved that supertrawlers outdated thepresent harvest strategy. ''The sheer effi-ciency of this type vessel means that thescience used to determine quotas needs tobe rethought,” he said.A final decision is expected to be made

later this year in Australia, but the otheropen oceans of the world are still fairgame for this kind of ‘fishing’ and theredoesn’t seem to be any way to regulate it.

A tightly packed net, 1800 feet long and stuffed with mackerel, is pulled from the ocean.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTeCliOqJrA


By Capt. David StephensWater LIFE HarborLiving in South West

Florida over the years, Ihave heard people talk aboutwinter being the worst timeto fish Charlotte Harbor, butin my personal opinion, wehave world class fishinghere year round. The biggestproblem is, during thecooler months one of ourmost prized game fish is notknown for its ferocious ap-petite. Snook fishing thistime of year is not at itspeak, however we do live inan area that has warmingtrends between cold fronts. After a cold front passes

generally we will have sev-eral days, and at times a week or more ofwarm weather. When this happens ourwater temperature will rise enough to makesluggish snook feed. I have been targetingsnook as long as I have been old enough tofish for them. Over the years I have taken alot of notes. I have also had my share ofbad days fishing for these guys during thewinter, but one of the things I have noticedthat helps to get our water temperatures tolevels that snook will actually feed in is notthe how warm it gets during the day, buthow cool it is at night. If we have nice sunny days in the 70s,

but it gets down in the 40s at night, thatwill not allow our water to warm enough.The warmer it is at night paired up with areally nice warm day is the key. Put severalof those days together and we are makingthe right conditions for snook to turn on. To locate feeding fish during this time

of year you have to know where they mi-grate to. During the colder months snookmove to areas that have depth. Water coolsfrom the surface to the bottom, so whencold fronts pass the deeper the water thewarmer it will be close to the bottom.When we have a w arming trend snook willmove from these deeper water areas insearch of prey. Look for areas that have good tide flow

that are near deep water. I also like to lookfor areas that have a black or darker bot-tom. The darker bottom absorbs heat better. If you locate fish in shallow water and

are not able to get them to bite, the chancesare they are more interested in warming upthan feeding. Take a note of the water tem-perature and try again once it has warmedup a little. If the water is cooler than 70 de-grees chances are it is to cold. That’s whenI often have very good luck getting snookto feed in the deeper water. If you can lo-cate some, live bait will work well. Ajumbo shrimp or fresh cut-bait will also gettheir attention. Just be patient - you will berewarded.www.backbayxtremes.comSouth West

Florida’s finest fishing give me a call or sendme an email. All of our charters are private andcustomized to fit your parties needs. 941-916-5769 ww.backbayxtremes.com

Snook Still Have to Feed

FEBRUARY 2015 BACK ISSUES @ BACK ISSUES @ WWW.WATERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM PAGE 7

By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE InshoreModern day largemouth bass fishing has

led to lure and tackle innovations that havecarried over into the saltwater arena. I wasa bass fishing guide for 17 years beforemoving to the Charlotte Harbor area, butwhen I started hooking snook, redfish andtarpon, I literally lost interest in bass fish-ing. But not the tactics used by bass fisher-men. I still find their tackle fascinatingand recently found a better way to fish liveshrimp using a bass jig!Daiichi Hooks has a jig-rig designed for

plastic baits called the “Butt Dragger”hook. This rig comprises of a bent shankhook with wirespring to attachthe bait and aweight that is at-tached to the un-derside of thehook. It comesin only oneweight at 1/8ounce and hooksizes range from3/0 to 5/0. Thebeauty of this rigis that you canrig a shrimpTexas stylewhich makes the shrimp completely weed-less – and equally as important it presentsthe shrimp in a realistic manner! Shrimpby nature almost do a vertical leap in thewater column when agitated and then theysoftly float and glide back down towardsthe bottom. Mess with a shrimp in abucket of water and you will get the idea. This jig was designed for a plastic bait

but is incredible for fishing live shrimp. Torig, you first cut off the tail flush againstthe first segment. You will need to use asharp pair of scissors to assure that themeat at the end is firm and intact. You thenscrew the shrimp onto the wire spring untilflush with the hook. You turn the shrimpunderside so that you can poke the hookpoint into the bottom of the shrimp, firstbending the shrimp so the hook penetrates

allowing the shrimp to be straight. Two important things; first a shrimp that

is bent on the hook spins in the water andfish do not like it – and secondly, do nottear the tail off as it weakens the meat inthe tail end and the shrimp will not stay at-tached. You have to cut it!To fish, throw out to a pothole or man-

grove bush and allow the bait to settle tothe bottom. Raise your rod in a softsweeping motion without reeling to movethe bait. Drop your rod, reel in the slackand pull the rod from the 10’oclock to12’oclock position to move. Basically, you fish the lure on a slack

line which allows you to drop the rod upon

a bite, then reel in your slack and set thehook. This presentation with this specialjig has the shrimp fall in a natural way loft-ing back to the bottom as opposed to a nor-mal jig where the jig pulls the shrimp in astraight line to the bottom.All fish love this method of fishing and

you can cover water, making accurate castsand fish a live shrimp like a lure. On awinter day in Charlotte Harbor you can ex-pect to catch, redfish, trout, sheepshead,blowfish, pompano, ladyfish, bluefish, jackcrevalle, flounder and a few others. Not abad alternative to cutting a hole in the iceup north and sitting on a bucket in a fishshanty!

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

Get Ya’ a Butt Dragger


By Mallory HerzogWater LIFE FishingWhen you hear about tarpon in the

fishing world it’s usually a catch of a life-time. Heavy duty rod and reel. Two hun-dred pound gorgeous silver king leapingout of the water, all the while you’re pray-ing the fish stays on the line. We all knowabout tarpon of this caliber but where dothey start? Tarpon are said to live intotheir 50's. Where are they able to hidefrom many of the ocean's predators look-ing for a quick meal? Just-hatched tarpon are not the fish you

would recognize, they are transparent,

eel-like body with a prehistoric-looking,fanged head. They remain in this stage forabout 30 days before starting to transforminto normal-looking fish. Where tarponspawn has been a hot topic for many yearsbetween scientists and anglers. Do theyspawn offshore or in our back waters andbays? I believe both. One of my favorite gloomy day activi-

ties is to head to my friends back yard. Helives on a few acre's of land with "fresh-water" ponds and canals. Perfect for thatday where you only have a few hours be-fore work. These waterways hold your av-erage bass, blue gill and even a few

tilapia. But on a re-cent trip, I was re-ally surprised whatwas hooked on theend of my line. Atiny tarpon! Theseguys range from 1-to 5-pounds. I wasthrilled when I sawmore of these guysrolling around inthe distance. Buthow did they getthere? The how is es-

sentially drainageditches teamingwith life. Have you ever seen the movieFinding Nemo? "ALL drains lead to theocean!" Maybe not directly, but in a

winding twisting and turning system ofculverts and pipes, these juvenile tarponhave found their way to a safe homewhere they can grow. And they are thriving.

Rolling around in the distance,feeding on smaller minnows.I’ve never seen this canal thisfull of life. We've fished thislocation at least a dozen othertimes with nothing exciting toreport back. Maybe that daythey were just passing through,but I’m thrilled that we were inthe right place at the right time.

Andrew got out his fly rod to see howthey would respond to that. He was throw-ing a grey/blue EP fly he tied earlier in theday. After a few casts he was hooked up,as was I, catching a few on the fly.

So much fun on a fly, they have suchintensity, even at such a small size. I triedswim baits and various lures, but mostwere just too large to hook these littleguys. The smaller the better worked in this

situation. They were so visual, whichmade it all the more exciting. They wereshort striking and fighting over the luresand the fly as we were bringing themclose to shore. We must have hooked adozen and caught four before they disap-peared for the day. I’ve heard of otherscatching "ditch tarpon" but did not realizeit was possible in your own back yard. My favorite thing about saltwater fish-

ing is you never know what will bite yourline, and that surprise species usually turnsout to be a great memory on the water.

Ditch Tarpon


On The Line By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior StaffIf you head north to Citrus County you

will come across the small town of CrystalRiver, known in the past for tarpon fishingand scallop season, but now best knownfor their annual Manatee Festival in Janu-ary. Last month’s event brought over10,000 people to celebrate the Floridamanatee. This is a pretty respectablenumber of admirers considering that thetown only has only 5,000 residents. Thetopic of conversation among some of thelocals this year was whether the manateehas been a blessing or a curse for their lit-tle town. In order to understand their pointof view, a little history is in order.Back in the 60s and 70s the Florida

building boom hit the Citrus County area.Everyone wanted to have waterfront prop-erty and what better way to get that donethan to make it, using the standard dredgeand fill technique. So canals were dug andhomes were built: instant waterfront. Inorder for a plan like this to work, you needa piece of land to mine for good fill forhome sites and a place to put the muckfrom the dredging for the canals. The developers picked a 51 acre site of

swamp-land (today they call it wetlands)as their throw away site. When the projectwas finished, this site, now known asKing's Bay was given to a non-profit foun-dation. After all, there was no sense inpaying real estate taxes on land you couldnot build on.Back in those days, seeing a manatee

was a rare occurrence, but some of the lo-cals noticed that in the winter months youcould find a few manatees in a small sec-tion of King's Bay called Three Sisters; a1.5 acre piece that has three freshwatersprings which pumped out water at a con-stant 68 degrees. The entrances to thesprings was blocked by large limestoneboulders which were part of the naturalgeology of the area.Someone first counted the manatees at

Three Sister around 1965 and found 33

manatees there. Shortly after that, some-one removed those boulders which al-lowed access for the manatees to the 1.5acre spring site and then the number ofmanatees started to increase. By 1988 thenumber grew to 158 and the latest count in2014 recorded over 500. It's important toremember that this is not a natural mana-tee habitat but a man made area that themanatees have adapted to, much like themanatees adapted to power plant outflow. With the manatee's addition to the En-

dangered Species Act; the importance ofthis area became recognized so the City ofCrystal River, in partnership with South-west Florida Water Management District,bought the land.History does not record the name of the

person who first looked at these manateesand said to himself: I bet people wouldpay good money to see these things, but hewould now be the father of the ManateeTourist Industry in Crystal River. As the industry grew, the city required

that all tour operators have permits andlog the number of customers they take.Last year they issued 47 commercial per-mits. In 2010 they reported 67,000 cus-tomers in 2013 that number had grown toover 125,000. If you estimate an averageof $30 per customer, your looking at over$ 3.75 million just in tours, which doesn'tinclude money taken in by hotels, restau-rants and tacky souvenir shops. Themoney adds up. You can see how CrystalRiver has become the boom town of themanatee gold rush.Now some of the locals have the feel-

ing that they have lost control of theirsmall town. Because the manatee is on theEndangered Species List, every Federal,State and local government organizationthat has anything to do with water or themanatees in it must be approved whenthere are any changes to the status quo. Asone tour operator put it “We now have toomany manatees, too many people and notenough habitat.” I feel sorry for the people of Crystal

River; I guess they should have left thoselimestone boulders right where they were.

Crystal River Manatees

The Crystal River Manatee Festival brings in tourists and their dollars


Future Management of the Entire Recreational Sector

NOAA Fisheries seeks public commenton Amendment 40 to the Fishery Manage-ment Plan for the Reef Fish Resources ofthe Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of MexicoFishery Management Council has submit-ted Amendment 40 to NOAA Fisheries forreview, approval, and implementation.

The Notice of Availability for public com-ment on this amendment published in theFederal Register on January 16, 2015.

NOAA Fisheries encourages constituentsto access Amendment 40 and its associ-ated Final Environmental Impact Statementat:

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/gulf_fisheries/reef_fish/2013/am40/index.html

If approved by NOAA Fisheries, Amend-ment 40 would provide a basis for in-creased flexibility in future management ofthe entire recreational sector, and reducethe chance for recreational quota overruns.

Photos on this page are all taken on charters last month by Capt. JoeMiller, of Fish Galore Offshore, fishing out of the Venice Inlet.

scampamberjack

porgy

redgroupers

snapper

atlantic grouper


By Capt. Dan CambernWater LIFE PlacidaOk, so it’s February and you

want to know what is biting andwhere to find those hungry fish.Well let me start out by telling youhow the fishing was in January andgo from there. For the most part wehad warmer than average temps andnot too much wind until the end of themonth, when some of my customers fromMichigan decided to drag some of theGreat White North down with them.Yes, we were blessed with warm

enough temps so that we've had an abun-dance of bait off-shore, including bluerunners, and cigar minnows which aresome of my favorite live baits, especiallyif I'm free lining them behind the boat forkingfish, sailfish, black-fin tuna, ormaybe a cobia. Big blue runners are alsovery addictive for amberjack as well ascobia around many of the numerouswrecks and reefs we have off-shore. Jan-uary and February are not months wecatch many kingfish, but with the condi-tions the way they were we managed tocatch a few. I usually look towards themiddle of March to see significant num-bers of kings.Ok, let’ s talk about grouper fishing. As

of Jan. 1st Amberjack, trigger fish andred grouper seasons re-opened and thebite has been fantastic with many grouper

limits being caught. By the way the redgrouper limit is back up to 4 per person instate and federal waters as of the first ofthe year. I encourage our customers tokeep only 2 or 3 which is plenty of fillets,especially when combined with the manyother reef species such as mangrove, lane,vermilion, and yellow tail snapper thatare usually caught in the same areas. Addto that, we have trigger-fish, porgies,grunts, as well as a few sea bass whichseem to be making a slight comeback.The word is that the Gulf of Mexico

Fishery managers are going to change thered grouper limit to two fish per personsome time this year. Also gag grouper isstill scheduled to re-open July 1st. as faras I know. But red snapper season is stillanyone's guess right now, so stay tuned tothis publication for further updates.

Capt Dan Cambern owns and oper-ates Hammerhead Charters LLC. Ourboat is docked in Placida, Fl at the Fish-ery Restaurant. Call 941-380-6226 or941-625-6226 to book your trip of a life-time today!

Warmer January Brought Kingfish - for a Short WhileStaff Report

Last month FWC officers from Lee andCharlotte counties came together for an organ-ized area-wide detail focused on wholesale/ re-tail licensing and quality control inspections.

According to the FWC, the detail was puttogether in order to protect the public from pos-sible unsafe seafood consumption as well as toensure that businesses had the required licens-ing, to ensure that seafood is being legallybought and sold.

During the one day operation, officers in-spected 65 facilities. Many of the locations in-spected were in compliance with the law,however there were a wide range of violationsobserved including possession of undersizedfish, not possessing proper licensing, failure topossess proper documentation of sales and a

variety of quality control issues.Officers found rotten fish for sale and busi-

nesses that had flies and dogs inside the facil-ity with the fish. One facility had an ash traywith cigarette ashes and bleach being usedright next to fish that was being prepared forsale.

There was also one facility that did not haveproper refrigeration to keep the seafood whole-some and another where the refrigeration linewas cut and was dripping A.C. condensationwater down where seafood was stored.

All together, 30 warnings and 6 misde-meanors were issued for the violations. Follow-up inspections will be done to ensure theviolations have been corrected.

A specific list of the businesses investigatedwas not available at press time, but stay tuned!

FWC Casts Seafood Dragnet


AAQQUU AATTIICCAAONE MONTHʼS CATCH and a Seminar for More

By Capt Billy BartonWater LIFE Inshore

When our watertemps make it downinto the 60s and eventhe 50s, which willmost likely be duringthe month of Febru-ary, you can expectthe metabolisms ofmost of our saltwaterspecies to slowdown. They justdon't have to eat asmuch and in turnthey aren't going tobe as likely to chasedown a bait-fish.Our winter fishingusually revolves around shrimp and crabs, which areslow moving creatures. Crustaceans are found mostlyon the bottom during the daytime. Blue crabs are alittle less intimidated creatures and will be foundscavenging through the grass looking for whateverthey can find to pick on and make a meal of duringthe day. Blue crabs are a favorite bait of many an-glers, when targeting big red drum (red-fish), bigblack drum, cobia, and tarpon throughout the year. Alot of your most aggressive feeding saltwater fish willmake blue crabs part of their main diets.

Fiddler crabs and mangrove crabs are also a fa-vorite during the winter. Both of these crabs averageabout the size of a quarter and a lot of our fish downhere just can't resist them. Fiddler crabs typically canbe identified by having that one large intimidatinglooking claw matched with one small claw. Thesecrabs can usually be purchased at your local baitshop. Now if you're flat broke, don't have the moneyfor fiddlers and you're fishing for a meal, y ou can putthe time and effort into catching mangrove crabs (ordock crabs). These little bugs can usually be foundexactly where their name implies. In the mangrovebushes or scurrying around your local dock pilings.They're pretty quick so it pays to have a small net orsomething to catch them with. If you get your handson some of these little guys it can be very rewarding.

Sheepshead and pompano, two ofour most sought after wintertimefish, make these crabs a main partof their diet.

A good sized live shrimp is stillmy favorite. I spoke at a few fish-ing seminars last month with the

guys from Fishinʼ Franks and the PirateCrew. How to fish a live shrimp properlyin the winter was my primary topic atthese talks, and I had a lot of very inter-ested listeners.

What I learned while teaching, was thatthere are a lot of people out there whodon't actually understand the way ashrimp moves and swims when underwater. Shrimpwill usually bury-up during the day and be on themove at night. Naturally, a shrimp will swim forwardvery slowly. Even during the daytime, when spookedout of its hiding spot by one thing or the next, ashrimp is not capable of swimming fast. It can how-ever, snap its tail when it's spooked and jump fromone spot to the next rather quickly, pushing itselfbackwards. What I like to do, is to try and imitate thiswhile fishing.

The best way to imitate this, is to tail hook a decentsized shrimp on a jig-head. Pinch the fan of the tail offof your shrimp. This will expose the meat of theshrimp, putting some scent into the water. Now sim-ply insert the point of your hook through the under-side of his tail, and come out of his back. If you hookyour shrimp properly this makes for an extremelyaerodynamic piece of bait and it gives you that longcast you need. Your biggest fish more times thannone will be hooked a good distance from the boat

often right when your bait hits the water and is on thedrop.

My personal favorite jig-head is 1/8 ounce goldflake or copper in color, and made by a companycalled Mission Fishin. The gold and copper tend to begreat colors to use while fishing the tanic harbor on abright sunny day. An 1/8 ounce jig-head is probablythe most common size I use and seems to be most ef-fective. If youʼre at a spot where there's a goodamount of moving water or a decent amount of wind,sometimes you may need to bump it up to a 1/4ounce. The idea is to use as little weight as possible,but to be able to slowly hop your shrimp off of thebottom and let it settle for a few seconds in betweentwitches. This is probably hands down my favoriteway to target red-fish. Not only are we catching redslike this, but snook, speckled trout, flounder, pom-pano, sheeps-head, black drum, and bonnet-headsharks are also on the list as well.

As the seasons change, the fishing changes so if


you change with the fishing, it should mean con-tinued success. Remember, this Florida weathermay not seem like ʻwinterʼ because you're notseeing snowflakes, but to our fish, it's winter-time! So next time you're out, try fishing yourshrimp a little bit slower, and a little bit lower.Good luck out there guys! Keep them lines tight!

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

There are lots of nicesnook and redfishhere, but look at thesize of the bluefish(top left this page)and the jack crevalle(bottom left this page)Those were trulyimpressive speci-mens.

All fish shown herewere caught lastmonth on charterswith Capt. Billy


By Capt. Betty StauglerWater LIFE Sea GrantHere's a little trivia for

newcomers and historygeeks. Trivia information and a whole lotmore can be found in two Florida SeaGrant documents: Navigational, Historical,and Environmental Perspective of Char-lotte County Waterways, and A HistoricalGeography of Southwest Florida Water-ways. Both of these documents are longout of print but can be accessed in PDFform online at: www.flseagrant.org.

Who was Charlotte? – Juan Ponce deLeon discovered the harbor in 1513, andfor many years it bore his name: BahiaJuan Ponce. Some maps however calledthe harbor Carlos Bay, for the Calusa chief,Cacique Carlos. Florida was a Spanish ter-ritory until 1763, when the Treaty of Parisceded Florida to England. In 1764, KingGeorge III of England commissioned engi-neer Bernard Romans to chart the coast ofFlorida. In a 1775 document Romanswrote of a new bay that "…contains a largeriver, which empties itself into the new har-bor of which I am the first explorer, wehave given it the name of Charlotte Har-bour. Romans did not explain why hecalled the new bay Charlotte, but it is likelynamed after King George's new wife Char-lotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

How was the Harbor Surveyed Priorto the 1900s? – Often times when you lookat a NOAA Chart you see "Hydrographyfrom surveys made prior to 1900". Startingin the 1800s our nation's first scientificagency, the United States Coast Survey,surveyed this area. One of our first chartswas Coast Chart 175, dated 1883. In thoseearly days, surveying was done using stonebenchmarks called monuments along theshoreline. Horizontal angles were meas-ured among them, distances calculated, anda "triangular network" established. Crewsof sounding vessels measured depths anddetermined the positions of the soundingsby sextant angles taken between pairs ofcontrol stations. The old monuments, al-though obsolete today, are generally foundto be within a two-foot radius of their pub-lished position.

How were the Structures in Bull andTurtle Bays Used? – Ice houses (like theone at the mouth of Bull Bay) were col-

lecting points where keepers would weighcatches from the fishing boats. Run boatsbrought ice from the Punta Gorda Ice Plantto preserve the catch, and transported fishto Punta Gorda for processing and shippingby rail to the nation's markets. The fishhouses provided accommodations for fish-ermen, allowing extended stays near thefishing ground and providing places forgear and net maintenance. Some of thesestructures remain today and are in the Na-tional Register of Historic Places, theUnited States government's official list ofdistricts, sites, buildings, structures, andobjects deemed worthy of preservation.

When was the Main Charlotte Har-bor Channel Established? – Navigationimprovements for a 12-foot deep by 200-foot wide channel from inside Boca Grandeentrance to the wharf at Punta Gorda wereauthorized by the federal government in1891 and completed in 1897, justified pri-marily to accommodate barge shipments ofphosphate rock from mines in the PeaceRiver Valley. Railroads brought phosphateto the wharf at Punta Gorda; it was thenlightered to vessels lying in Boca Grandeanchorage. Other cargo shipped to andfrom Charlotte Harbor included cattle,grain, fish, oysters, lumber, and generalmerchandise.

How was Dredging done in the EarlyDays? – The Army Engineers during the1890s operated its own dredge, the U.S.Steam Snagboat and Dredge Suwanee,which made channel improvements and setday beacons in the inlets, inland waterways and rivers in Southwest Florida. This ves-sel was a steam-driven shallow-draft,square-bowed scow, 100-feet long with a24-foot beam and 4-foot draft. Althoughunderpowered she was suited to her task.The Suwanee was put together inexpen-sively as an experiment in creating a gen-eral-purpose vessel for work on small baysand rivers. Her suction dredge dischargedthe raised slurry on shore through pipesswung perpendicular to her sides, while herderrick provided the lifting power to raiserocks and snags from the bay bottom.

Charlotte County Sea Grant Agent,Capt. Betty Staugler UF/IFAS Extension, Charlotte County (941) 764-4346

Harbor HISTORY Trivia

A steam tug tows a phosphate laden schooner out Boca Grande Pass in the 1890s


By Capt Bart MarxWater LIFE inshoreFebruary and the fishing has been

good. We have been catching a large vari-ety of species on our recent trips.Sheepshead, mangrove snapper, whitegrunts, flounder, hog fish, snook, reds,trout, and pompano have been on thehook to keep our guests in awe. Anglersare impressed with how many species wecan catch in such a short time. When thewind is not too bad we can venture outinto the Gulf of Mexico and do some bot-tom fishing. This time of year the floun-der and sheepshead are usually plentiful.There are mangrove snapper, porgies andgrunts too. On one of our recent fishing adven-

tures it was too windy to venture out sowe fished inshore around GasparillaSound and Bull Bay. We started fromPlacida Park boat launch. We ventured toour first fishing hole / spot where wecaught a few sheepshead to harvest for afish fry these guys were looking forwardto. Then the bait robbers started to nab al-most every bait so it was time to move. With the waters so cool, we have been

fishing the deeper spots around docks andother structure where the fish have beenhanging. We caught small red fish andsmall mangrove snapper as we would fisha spot for a short time and then have tomove. We went over to Bull Bay where we

rigged for some trout action. The first rig

in the water and there was a trout on theline. I like to drift across the grass flatsand work your baits so as to cover lots ofarea. This has been productive for me andif you get some good catches in an areacrank up the motor, circle back and driftthat area again. And if it is a hot spot,drop the anchor, powerpole, or pin tohold you. Lots of time it turns out to be asand hole, or the edge of one, where thetrout hide to ambush a passing bait. Sometimes you get reds or flounder

out of these holes and on some occasionsyou pick up a pompano. The picture thatgoes with this story is of my three guestanglers, from left to right Lee in his digi-tal camo, Tom in his Realtree camo andRob sporting a black shirt. The otherphoto is of Tom Jones, no he’s not thesinger, but his drag was singing as hereeled in that nice pompano. That thinggave him a fit. It ended up on both sidesof the boat and I told Tom ‘don't let theline touch the boat!’ and he did a greatjob doing that, but somehow the line gotaround the motor. It wasn’t until I trimmed up the motor

and it freed up the line that we got a goodlook at the fish and realized, WOW, itwas a nice sized pompano. Tom let thefish run a few more times to burn offsome of its energy, but it was still prettyfrisky when we harvested it for the fishfry we talked about earlier. This was thehighlight of the adventure for all. Wefished a while longer and then called it a

day. The bait ofchoice was liveshrimp.

If you would liketo come along withme call 941-979-6517 or e-mail meat [email protected] I can gowith you on yourboat using yourgear or we can takemine. Singing dragsand tight linesmake me smile.

Nice Sized Pompano

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OlʼFishinʼHoleCapt. Jm O’BrienWater LIFE OffshoreHey ya -all hope you

got out and got somefish'n in. The catch hasbeen great no matterwhat your fish'n for,from sheepshead to AJsand grouper. Our pictures and

story for this month isme and the guys fish'nfrom 40 to 50 miles outin 120 to 140 feet ofwater. We got some guys

together and fished the 11th Annual JohnBreuggeman Grouper Tournament and itwas a real good tournament. Our fisher-men were Walter Jennings, Maurice Ben-son, Ken Wasson and me and we had agreat day on the water! I broke the ice with the first grouper

then Maurice got a Big -Un then Kencaught a couple of Big -Uns. Like I toldthese guys, I just love fish'n the deeperwaters the fish are just bigger. At 40 to 70 miles out we threw some

keeper grouper back and just kept theBIG - UNS. Fish'n40 to 50 miles out islike fish'n 30 miles15 years ago, - it'sawesome. We wasjust what we callrunning and gun-ning the areas, butout of the wholeday we must havegotten over 20 newway-points for eacharea we fished andI'm ready to goback out there NOW!

Well that's it for today, so if you havea good ol' fish story or a recipe for cook-ing fish that we can share with our read-ers or if you want to book an offshorecharter with us aboard the Predator IIgive me a call ( 941 ) 473 -2150

AND REMEMBERGET OUT AND SNORT SOME OFTHAT GOOD CLEAN SALT AIR CUZ IT’S GOOD FER YA ! ! !

The Breuggeman


By Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE BaitshopI have decided to go

fishin’ on Mondays with my Dad – just tolet you know, he is the original FishinFrank. Boy this was a heck of a Mondayto start on, Jan 26 started out nice as couldbe at 6 am, but by 7 am the front washere, the air temp dropped and the rain

and wind blew in. Right then I knew thiswas going to be a fishin trip, not a catchintrip. But we loaded up the little boat andoff we went to Hathaway Park out onWashington Loop. The ramp at Hathawayis a little steep but not bad. Our thought was, maybe the front

would not stop the freshwater catfish frombiting, but it did.Dad and I launched the boat and

headed up the creek. He watched thedepth finder and when we found a deephole we would anchor up above the hole.Dad would cast a night crawler just to theedge of the hole trying to get it to fall orslide down the side of the hole to the bot-tom and wait for the cat fish. Well, wewaited next to a half-dozen holes, but nocat fish would come and play. Shell Creek is narrow. It could be

blowing 40 mph and you are not going tohave waves. I had forgotten what a beauti-ful ride it is up the creek. I’ve been seenup a lot of creeks, as you would guess,often without a paddle, but this time itwas with a 20 horse outboard and beingthere was a real treat. The banks are oaks, cypress, and

palms, with vines and cypress kneesstickin’ up all over. It’s really quite beauti-ful and we saw lots of turtles gettingwarm in the sun. It’s hard to believe how deep the creek

is. Many spots have 12, 15, even 20 feetof water in a lot of holes, There is an aver-age depth of 6 foot, with the shallowestwater we found at 5 feet.I was not in the mood for live bait. So the choice was a plastic dinger

worm, hoping for bass and a beetle spin. Iflipped that dinger into weeds and alongthe shore line as we moved up the creekand at one bend I got a hit, but it was aswing and a miss. It felt like a smaller fish

anyway, but it wouldhave been ok. On the way back

down the creek I chosea beetle spin which ismy go-to lure, after all,everything eats a bee-tle spin, and the Creek-Zilla I was dreamingof was no exception. I had been casting

the shore, but nothing,and then I startedtrolling the ‘spin’, but still nothing. Wewere at the 2nd bend from the ramp whenI decided to reel it in and just to cast at abunch of lilly pads. So I made my firstcast and when the beetle spin hit the waterI let it fall for the first couple feet thengive a small twitch to the spin and after

that, a moderate steady retrieve. This stylehas worked for me many times before.The second cast, the beetle spin hit rightat the edge of the weeds and it was on the

drop and I had just twitched it, whenWham! Something slammed that beetlespin and took off for the bottom. My rodbent over double, I was praying my 10pound line would hold, when ping mylure came flying to the surface. ‘Anotherswing and a miss,’ I told Dad, then I fin-ished reeling in the beetle spin. With it in my hand, I looked and some

creature had ripped off the spinner blade,which has never happen to me before –and it crushed the hook! So I was fish lessand befuddled as to what could have de-molished my spinnerbait up here in acreek? I though about trying again, but itwas getting dark and cold and I wasunder-gunned for the situation, but now Iknow where you live, Creek-Zilla. I’ll beback. We have a personal score to settle

If you have not been fresh water fishinglately give Shell Creek a try. I have maps onhow to get there on fishinfranks.com,[email protected] 625-3888

Mondays with Dad


Sailing 33rd Golden Conch Regatta

By Peter WelchWater LIFE SailingTwenty five boats in four classifica-

tions competed in this Regatta January 17and 18. Participants were from CapeCoral, Platinum Point, and Punta Gordaclubs. Two race cir-

cles were used.Seven Spinnakerboats in one startto the south andthe Non Spin-naker (7) andCruising boats(11) to the northin three starts.Spinnaker boatshad five racesover two days.The north coursehad 3 races in thesame period.

Large varia-tion in wind di-rection and velocity and wave height wasthe major challenge at this event. Theseconditions demanded a flexible strategy,not tactics against a competitor. Recog-nize that the wind was shifting to the eastand tacking to meet it gave a big advan-tage over boats heading north.Regatta winners are determined by the

addition of finish positions. Low points

win. In Non Spinnaker, threeboats were tied at 5 pointsafter two races. The boat Mor-gan had to avoid a collisionand delayed a tack toward thefavored wind in race two and

finished 6th inthat race. Threeother boatswere tied forfirst at daysend. Morgankept their headin the gameSunday afterhaving to ab-solve a penaltywith a 720 de-gree turn.Going right tomeet the newwind they got agreat lift whentacking to themark. Finishing

first Sunday, they rose to sec-ond in Non Spinnaker for theregatta.It was reverse fortune in

Spinnaker class. After fourraces the boat Still Crazy was ahead ofsecond place Soulshine by one point. Butat the fifth start they took a 720 degreepenalty turn in a start line incident when

there was no clear determination of fault.The recovery dropped Still Crazy to fifthand third overall.In Cruising B, Diane Fowler’s Windy

City had two first places on day one. Daytwo they were in fourth. This produced atie score with Mariah. The tie break wentin favor of Windy City by virtue of the twofirsts.Boat of the Year awards are given

based on results in five regattas. GoldenConch was the third. Standings now are:Soulshine, 42 points ahead of See Ya.Fancy Free, 20 ahead of Morgan, andDiva Gorda 14 ahead of Panache. TheConquistador Cup on March 7-8 and theLeukemia Cup, March 21-22, finish theseries and will be reported here. Thismonth the Charlotte Harbor Regatta forsmall boats is Feb 6-8.

$2 off any haircut!

Fleet 1st Pace 2nd Place 3rd PlaceSpinnaker Soulshine (P Robbins) See Ya (T Milan) Still Crazy (B Knowles)Non Spin Fancy Free (G Poquette) Morgan (W Curtis) Jammin (J Haller)Cruising A Diva Gorda (R Gottschlich) Sedaddler (N Maggio) Panache (D Dorey)

All photos: Fran Burstein

Water LIFE photos: Fran Burstein


Yakinʼ with the Sea Cows

By David AllenWater LIFE KayakingThis is the time of year when you can

see manatees up close and personal. Asthe temperature of the local streams andrivers declines, the manatees look forwarm water to survive during the wintermonths. The Fish and Wildlife Commis-sion reports that on average about 150manatees die from cold stress each year.Luckily, the FPL power plant in NorthFort Myers discharges warm water andprovides a safe haven for the manatees soyou don’t have to go very far to find man-atees in the winter.

The power plant is about 1.5 milesabove where the Orange River enters theCaloosahatchee. The water is warm formost of this distance. There is no ques-tion that the manatees like the area near-est to the power plant and seem to spendmost of their time there.

Lee County has conveniently estab-lished a very well organized way to seethe manatees from a kayak. It is ManateePark. You can easily get there by takingI-75 south to exit 141 and going east onHwy. 80 to Manatee Park. There is a b igsign at the entrance. There is an all dayparking fee of $5. You can rent a kayak from Calusa

Blueways Outfitters at the park, starting

at about $15/hour. Tandems are a littlemore expensive. If you want to bringyour own kayak, the launch is free solong as you pay the $5 parking fee.Optimum viewing times are between

the months of December and earlyMarch. Once you get into March and be-yond, the manatees disappear, returningto their more natural habitat. There is a lot to do other than kayak-

ing at Manatee Park. There are sheltersfor a picnic, a butterfly garden, an obser-vation platform right over the warm partof the river and a nice walking trail.You can’t always depend on seeing

manatees at the power plant. So far thiswinter it has been a little warmer thanusual, so many manatees have been com-fortable in the waters they normally in-habit. If you call 239-690-5030, perhapsa park ranger can tell you if manatees arenear the power plant. Or go to the Park web site at

http://www.leeparks.org/pdf/Manatee_park_trifold.pdf.

The Port Charlotte Kayak Club meetseach Wednesday evening at Franz-RossPark at 5:00PM. Franz-Ross is next tothe Charlotte County YMCA. The meet-ing are brief so don’t be late. For moreinformation contact Dave Allen at 941-235-2588 or [email protected]

SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated,

But Often True


Shotgun Wedding When the couple decided to getmarried, they took engagement photos which included

their passions.One in particu-lar shows Mitchwith a RugerRed Labelshotgun brokenover his shoul-der—itʼs thefirst gun hebought with hisown money, atreasure heplans to hang

on to all his life, just like his beautiful new bride who tookthe digital photos to a local Walmart to have themprinted. But an associate at the store refused to print theimage with the shotgun in it because in her mind and in-terpretation of store policy, “It promoted gang culture.”

Public Input disregarded Last summer, the FWCproposed a large number of areas in western PinellasCounty, from Tarpon Springs to Fort Desoto, be declaredSlow Speed Manatee Protection Zones. During a re-quired review by a Local Rules Review Committee madeup equally of boating interests and Manatee proponents,the boating advocates were able to eliminate someareas, most notably the elimination of major portions ofthe West Coast Intracoastal Waterway channel from theslow speed proposal. However, in the final MMP pro-posal issued by FWC, several recommendations byboating advocates were ignored.

Lies the Newspaper Will Tell YouThe Charlotte Sunʼs Waterline sec-tion proclaims, on its front page noless, that it is “The Original Since1997.” That is not true. We knowthis for a fact because we CREATEDTHE WATERLINE section for themand the first edition was on March19, 1998. We have pointed this out to them twice, butthey refuse to change their proclamation. One lie shouldmake you wonder what other lies they are passing off asthe truth, so donʼt believe their fishing reports either. Justask Jim at the Fishermenʼs Edge. Heʼll tell you, they sim-ply made fishing reports up and put his name on them.Lies are not a good thing in the newspaper business.

Pay Your Child Support No. 1In December, an investigator observed a known individ-ual actively fishing using a PVC pipe, a method used toharvest ghost shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. The PVCpipe is rigged to act as a suction device. The investigatorobserved the individual insert the PVC pipe into thewaterʼs bottom several times, return to the shore, anddump ghost shrimp into a five-gallon bucket. The investi-gator later conducted a saltwater license record checkon the individual. The investigator confirmed that the in-dividualʼs license was suspended/revoked for failure topay child support. On January 5, the investigator com-pleted an arrest warrant which was signed by the judge.

Pay Your Child Support No. 2 - is this a trend?The FWC officer observed two men trying to load a boatbackward onto a trailer at a local Brevard County ramp.

The officer approached the men and observed severalundersized sheepshead lying on the deck of the vessel.After speaking to the men about the fish, FWC dispatchadvised that one of the men was wanted on two writs ofattachment for failure to pay child support. The man wasplaced under arrest for the two writs and for possessionof undersized sheepshead.

Boating Resources Used to Rescue Kayakers - FWCOfficers received a call that 3 persons had fallen into thewater near the Card Sound Bridge after their kayak sunkin rough seas. An officer located the 3 kayakers who hadmanaged to climb on to a lower support column of thebridge. A careful rescue in over 25 knot winds ensued,the three wet and shivering victims along with their kayakwere returned to the shore. Editor notes* If kayaks wererequired to be registered then these kayakers wouldhave paid their fair share of the cost of being rescued.Instead, this way, power boaters picked up the cost.

MIXED USE AREA - Bathers, sun worshipers, shellers andsand flea hunters all came together with the birds at Engle-wood Beach last month.


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Burnt Store IslesPort Charlotte

By Michael HellerWater LIFE editorFirst the BadLook carefully at the two wear plates

(below) from my water pump after a yearand a half of moderate use. The top one isnew, the bottom one, which still has a gas-ket on it, is the old one. Notice thegrooves worn around the center hole onthe old plate. This is from Charlotte Har-bor sand wearing away at it. Change theplate, the housing cup and the rubber im-peller together, regularly as suggested, or

more frequently if you run shallow a lot.Next comes the GoodAacon Marine hardware (Clearwater,

FL) is the BEST. Here is the inside of myretractable bow light after 13 years ofpunishment! The boat was stored outsidethe whole time. Finally the bulb hadburned out! This unit disassembled as ex-

pected. No water incursion, no corrosionwhat-so-ever. The best companies use thebest materials. End of story.And here is the UGLY: ethanolMy boat quit running right. Top speed

fell off and then it started to die undermoderate power. If I went slow it wasfine, but what fun is that?When it ran, it ran ‘too good’ to be a

water-in-the-fuel issue and if I squeezedthe primer bulb the rpm’s would speed up.A low reading on the FlowScan fuel flowgauge confirmed my suspicion: It wasn’tgetting the gas. What I love about old car-bureted motors is they make sense!Three years ago I had installed what

was then sold to me as ethanol proof fuelline. At that time I was replacing a linethat disintegrated from ethanol and thepieces clogged my fuel pump. The boat

had similar symptoms as it did today. Thehose I replaced the first hose with wasgrey plastic outside with a black liner anda clear plastic sleeve inside - that linerwas supposedly the ethanol proof part.“This is the fix,” the salesman told me,but what happened was, I had to replacethat hose too.What slowed my boat down last month

was that ethanol proof clear plastic linerhad separated from the rest of the hoseand was collapsing inside it. The problemoccurred at the bend above the primerbulb, possibly because of all the flexingthere. I had to cut the whole hose length-wise to find the problem! I also found theplastic liner had ‘fused’ itself to every fit-ting it was at-tached to, whichis not good forremoval. And ifyou try and reusethis kind of hosethe liner crum-ples back inside(right). It was anew product in arush to market

with no long-term testing.Ahhhh the Beautiful! I got to thinking about fuel lines. I have

a fuel cell (tank) in my hot rod with a sub-merged line that shows no ill effect from10-percent ethanol gas. The line is whatracers call blue hose, Fragola 8600 seriespush-lock hose, it has a black synthetic-rubber liner, heat bonded with a fiberweave to a blue synthetic outer shell.Looking down at a cut off end of the bluehose, (below) it has a gear-like pattern.The piece in my car has been continuallysubmerged in 10-percent ethanol gas forabout 3 years. There is a hose available at the local

marine stores that looks a lot like the bluehose, except it is grey. The box I foundwas labeled Silverado 4000, it was not a

known name to me. The end of that hose had a similar

‘gear’ pattern and its inner surface lookedand felt like the blue hose. The box saidethanol compatible. I bought 11 feet of it,took it home and hooked it up.

My boat ran like a raped ape in thecold morning air (can I say that?) and myworld was all good again. I like to test stuff and report on it, so

I’ll keep an eye on this new hose and letyou know how it holds up. No news, inthe short term, will be good news. In thelong term... who knows?

TECH CORNER Bad / Good / Ugly / Beautiful

Charlotte HarborFrank, at Fishin’ Franks941- 625-3888I have been watching all the fronts and

I have this theory. Underwater, every 33feet the pressure doubles, so in shallowwater the water pressure is more affectedby the air pressure above. So if you get alow pressure over 1- to 5 feet of water itdrastically effects the fish because itcauses changes in their swim bladder andthey cant stay upright and so it’s hard forthem to eat. That’s why right now thefishing in the Gulf is going crazy, becausethey are in deeper water, but the inshore

fishing is more or less very inconsistentnow because it’s shallow. It’s a theory.Now on to the fishing: Out in the Gulf

the snapper and grunt fishing went fromgreat to just good. The red grouper havestayed in close to shore because there wasnot much cold. They are still in 60 feet.Take a 272-degree heading 7- to 9-milesout of Boca and you should limit out onreds in 3 hours. There is a huge rock fieldout there - it is at least one square mile ofhard bottom. Most of the near shore reefs have snap-

per, grunt and porgys. You may not hit themax-limit, but you’ll have more than sev-eral meals. Live shrimp are best, that or

squid andsardines .You’ll be inreally goodshape withsquid wings,which arebetter thanthe boxedsquid.Squid

wings come

from Humboldtsquid in California.Most guys use themin thin strips. Thewings are shippedwithout ever beingwashed, so they arevery stinky. It’shard to freeze thembecause of all thesalt in them.Bonita are off-

shore along with amberjack and a coupleof black fin tuna and mahi mahi, but forthem you have to get out past 35 miles. Inthe 10 to 20 mile range we have Spanishmackerel, bonita and possibly a kingmackerel. You still have a real good shot at a

cobia. It’s not like a couple of years ago,not monsters, but there are quite a few de-cent cobia around. The Kudzu shad, cul-prit bass worm, a ribbon tail worm, and 3-to 4-/0 short shank hook with some weightto the front of the hook, like a Florida rigfor bass, let the hook stick out the top forcobia. Getting inside, redfish started to pick

up in the Harbor. They are bigger on theeast side in the deeper spots, but you haveto get way back past the islands, usuallypast the second or third set of islands, fornice redfish now. A trolling motor or pushpole is the way to get back there. If theyhear you, they shut right off. Spanish mackerel are moving in. There

is a good bunch at Jug Creek Shoal, inPine Island Sound and at Cape Haze. Thismonth they should start working up intothe Harbor.Trout and sheephead are much better.

This is the month to look for them atPlacida and El JoBean trestle. Its been alate bunch-up for them this year.


Capt Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com

941-916-5769

BackBayXtremes

February February –– Predictions and SuggestionsPredictions and Suggestions

ChartersOffshore Fishing Trips: 1/2 day • 8hr • 10 hr • 12 hr

We help put your charters togetherShark, Tarpon, Grouper, Snapper, Kingfish, and MORE!

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Pictures this page: Above - Capt. Billy BartonBelow, left - Joe Miller

There are some cobia onthe bar on the west side, moresmall ones and very fewkeepers. The weird part isthey are behind the bar, notwhere we expected them tobe. Cobia will follow a littlebait fish right across the topof the water so watch for thatindicator.Plenty of bonnet sharks

east and west, on top of and behind the bar. Casta shrimp under a bobber and chances are you’llcatch a bonnet.We have pompano from Burnt Store to Two

Pines and some in front of Jug Creek and Bulland Turtle bays.In fresh water, the catfish and bass are pretty

good. Fish bright color lures, light or dark. I havent heard much about crappie fishing

but we’re selling a lot of minnows. Crappie arethe most secretive fish on the planet. You have abetter chance of someone showing you nakedpictures of their wife than them telling you

where the crappie are!Lemon Bay Jim at Fishermen’s Edge 697-7595Who knows what the weather will bring. At

the end of January the water was dirty, the watercoming in from the Gulf was muddy with all thesouthwest wind. You have to find clean water tofind anything other than catfish.There have been pompano and whiting on

the beach and some nice black drum. The guyscatching sheepshead say it has been ok, butsheepshead might get better as the water temper-atures get cooler.With the warmer temperatures at the end of

last month, whitebait was still was around andsnook were on outside of the bars where theyshouldn’t have been in January. I don’t knowwhen were gonna’ get a real cold snap.

Guys are catching snook up in the creeks andway up in the back, up toward the river, up pastEl Jobean, but there have also been some nicesnook caught right at the bridge too. They aregetting big fish casting bigger lures like WindCheaters and big Bombers and guys say thetackle takes some serious strain with the big fish.I would guess they are fishing the outgoing tideat El Jo.We caught some trout the other day, but

nothing worthy to bring back. You gotta’ pickand move around. The little ones are along thebank, but some guys are getting 15- to 20-inch-ers, somewhere, and even a couple over 20.For redfish, you gotta’ go thru a lot of little

ones. We caught some, but not any keepers. Wewere fishing Whidden’s Creek wherever wecould find water and potholes. We only saw oneboat up past where we were. That windy day theBay was wide open for miles and there was not alot of activity at the ramp.A lot of guys have been fishing at the pass

hoping for pompano but when the water wasdirty they weren’t doing much. In and around thepasses, the guys fish heavier jigs to get down tothe bottom, but that was before the wind startedblowing. Now they need even more weight.Offshore, fishing has been lights-out-phe-

nomenal! I saw so many pictures of big redgrouper - 15- to 18-pounders. There were 6guys on one boat and everyone got at least one15 pounder.The Amberjack guys went to the Bayronto

and got into 60 pounders and also caught somenice grouper ... before the sharks came in.There have been nice size mangs and lane

snapper around offshore too, at 30-plus milesout. At 45 miles, a friend caught a 33 poundblack grouper and bunch of porgys and theysaid keeper cobia were around too. There arestill snapper around the docks in the bay andnice flounder on the bottom.A fellow on a research dive said he came

across a depression in the bottom and found 15flounder in the same spot. He said he had neverseen anything like it. ‘Maybe they were matingor spawning,’ he said.

TROUT in the Harbor and thePine Island Sound

REDFISH Way back in theislands on the east side

POMPANO In the Harbor, thesurf and the passes

RED GROUPER On fire onhard bottom offshore.

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 FebruaryFebruaryFEBRUARY 2015 BACK ISSUES @ WWW.WATERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM PAGE 23

Gulf Gulf TempsTemps

are low 60sare low 60sThe Harbor is 3-The Harbor is 3-

or 4-degreesor 4-degreeswarmerwarmer

SHARKS - are out on the inshore reefs some 4 to 5footers are being caught mullet and bonitas are good baits

AJs - ( GREATER AMBERJACK ) Guys, they're on allthe offshore wrecks and are waiting for you and they'rehungry. The guys I have talked to are having a blast catch-ing them and the ones 30-pound and under are great to eat.You just have to make sure you cut every bit of red meat offyour filet and I mean every bit of red meat. Don't leave aspeck on what your going to cook. Then fix it like youwould your grouper. Best bait are blue runners or a livelypinfish and then hang on.

COBIA - are getting more plentiful on the offshorewrecks and reefs. I have had a couple of different fisher-men tell me they are doing very well on catching cobia.They are using big pin fish and they are vertical jigging forthese big boys. The biggest they have caught so far isabout 40 pounds.

SNAPPERS - mangrove snapper and lane snapperare hitting anywhere from inshore to 50 miles out. Bestbaits cut squid and live shrimp.

RED GROUPER ARE TURNED ON RIGHT NOW - theyare chewing on just about anything you want to put downto them. We have caught them on mullet, squid, sardines,pin fish, squirrel fish and squid by itself. There are some

BIG - UNS coming in from 30 to 50 miles out.GAG GROUPER - IS CLOSED UNTIL JULY 1st but a bunch

of them are being caught right now.Just make sure you know the differ-ence between a gag grouper andblack grouper. A black grouper you

can keep, the gag grouper will cost you.BLACK GROUPER - a few have beencaught at a 140 to 160 foot of water.Best bait live pin fish and live squirrelfish.

OFFSHORE Capt. Jim OʼBrien

Shown at left: Mate MattBarton, aboard a King-fisher Fleet offshore trip,helping the customersshow off their catch:(top) red grouper,(middle) gag grouperand (bottom) yellowtailsnapper.The gag, in closedseason, had to bereleased.

Snook from a trip with Capt. Dave Stephens


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Water LIFE Feb 2015