Water LIFE Oct 2014

October 2014

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LIFEThe Don Ball School of FishingThe Don Ball School of Fishing

KidsClas

ses

Thank Yo

uʼs

Page 5 WWaatteerr

Wade in the Creeks

Fall Has Arrived!Page 11

Tarpon chasing tilapiaAquatica, pages 12-13

Fishinʼ ReportPage 22

Fishy Tale?Page 5

SpearfishingTournament

Page 21

Reds are Hungry!Page 15

Photo Contest Winners

BusyMonthPage 88

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Michael & Ellen Heller Publishers

(941) 766-8180217 Bangsberg Rd.

Port Charlotte, FL 33952Independant - Not affiliated with

any other publicationVol XIII No 10 © 2014

No part of this publication (printed or electronic) may becopied 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: “Winter time negativetides can't get here quick enough! My toughgirl Rachel Nicole and I have been wading uplong feeder creeks to get to the pot of gold atthe end” Capt. Scott Sichling page 11


Send letters and photos to: [email protected] Dear MichaelJust writing again to let you know that I am still interested in the whatʼs and wherefores of theSeminole Trader (shrimp boat). Thanks Thomas Mckeown

Tom: Capt Steve Skevington, who owned the boat when we started reporting on it, has now soldit to John Drown. John tells me he has cleaned it up further and now only needs to remove therigging. John says he has been in contact with Charlotte Countyʼs abandoned vessel programwhich does not have the funds to help him with the boat so they referred him to Lee County.“Feels like Iʼm getting the run around” John told me adding that he is now thinking about towing itto Fort Myers and scrapping it.Iʼll keep you posted if anything changesMichael Heller

Our RHEEM HOT WATER HEATER rustedthrough in 7 years - the warrantee was for 6!So I wanted to see where the problemstarted. I found there were pinholes (below)in the metal where the threaded neck for theheating element was welded onto the tank.Rheem has got to know this happens!

WaterLIFEHere is an electron micro-

scope scan of Karenia brevis(red tide), photographed as partof the ongoing red tide researchin Florida.

Hopefully all the rain aboveTampa will keep the big red tidebloom in the northern Gulf whenthe manatees start migrating upto the Crystal River area thiswinter. Map from 9/26 Don G.

Water Heater Water Heater Exploratory SurgeryExploratory Surgery


By Michael HellerWater LIFE PublisherThe FWC issues a culling waiver to

redfish tournaments allowing their anglersto catch a redfish, put it in their well andthen later, if they catch a bigger redfish,switch them out, releasing the one theycaught prior and replacing it with the big-ger one. Recreational anglers, on the otherhand, are stuck with the first redfish theyput in their livewell.In return for this ‘culling waiver’ tour-

nament officials are required to release allthe fish alive and submit a written reportto the FWC about how many fish werecaught, how many were dead at theweigh-in and how many died after it.I looked at the report the Punta Gorda

Flatsmasters Tournament filed with theFWC after some non tournament anglersposted pictures on facebook noting adozen dead fish at Laishley Marina left bythat July event.The Flatsmaster’s report lists 3 dead

redfish at the time of weigh in and 7 fishthat died after the weigh-in but before theremaining live fish were released. I askedthe FWC what the requirement was fordisposing of the dead fish. The reply was: If a fish dies, it is the

property of the angler who harvested thatfish. The angler is the one to decide whatto do with a dead fish since it is theirs, butthe fish cannot enter into commerce in anyfashion. If the angler decides to give thefish to a tournament, the tournament can-not use the fish as barter or exchange forany type of goods or services, whichwould include a fish fry if the tournamentcharged a fee per plate. If the tournamentwanted to do a fish fry without charging a

fee, then that would be ok. That answered part of the question, but

what happens to the fish that dies after theweigh-in, but before the release boat re-leases all the live fish, which happenswhen the tournament is over. The anglershave gone home, what is done with thosedead fish, I asked. Do they dump them inthe trash or do they dump them in theHarbor? I didn’t get an answer back.Maybe the release boat didn’t go out

far enough before they dumped the deadfish into the Harbor and maybe the mathwas a little off on someone’s dead fish re-port. Potentially honest mistakes. Maybethis will be the end of the Flatsmaster’sdrama, I thought to myself.The next day my wife came in from the

mailbox and handed me a letter. Therewas no return address and no stamp. In-side were two white pages with picturesprinted on each. The first was of threetournament anglers holding fish and theother was a close up picture of one of thefish’s tails. There was a handwritten notesigned Tired of the Cheaters. It was morefrom the Flatsmasters.Sometimes the feathery ends of a tour-

nament redfish’s tail is clandestinelyclipped so the fish will be short enough tofit between the lines on the measuringboard. A fraction of an inch of ‘trimmingcould mean the difference between severalthousand dollars in prize money or a cita-tion for an oversized fish. With cash atstake, clipping is felony fraud.I have seen clipped fish tails before.

Usually the clipping is more subtle. Thislooked more like an axe-chop than a clip. I looked at the picture carefully, but a

picture of a picture from a home printer

isn’t going to be conclu-sive.Why does this

matter? You knowwhy, because thistournament has along history ofquestionable acts,deeds and deci-sions ... and because itsactions affect the wayour local fishing commu-nity is perceived by an-glers around the state.I don’t know what the

tournament officialsthought but they had tosee this was ‘curious’ atleast, and at that pointthere should have been apublic explanation. I’m not saying thereisn’t a good reason, I’m just saying I can’tthink of it myself. A quick accurate honestpublic response travels with a picture likethis and when people see it that explainsit. These anglers won the event. It’s worthexplaining.It may sound funny, but I look at fish-

ing tournaments the same way I look atJournalism; I believe that even the appear-ance of something improper in eithervenue is unacceptable. Everything mustbe open, above the table and beyond re-proach... according to ethics and the law.Flatsmasters does not allow me to be at

their events and they stopped answeringmy emails a long time back, so I don’thave their official explanation. Otherknowledgeable tournament anglers whohave seen the pictures suggested this:1: The fish was run over by a speeding

boat and the prop chopped the tail off.2: The fish’s tail was cut off by some

other angler for a different tournamentand then these anglers caught it.3: Lightning hit it while it was tailing.4: Aliens took a tissue sample.5: It grew that way, honest!Many anglers like to talk trash in the

baitshop, but few will say anything inpublic – and they never want their namesin print. How is that any different thancheating? It’s looking the other way andthat only helps the wrong people.We are doing our part to change that

kind of thinking one student at a time byteaching Ethical Angling in our 7th gradeDon Ball fishing classes. If the anglerwho sent us the letter wants to take onFlatsmasters or its anglers about ethics, heor she will have to sign their name to it.Without a signature it’s cowardly whining.

Unacceptable Appearance of Impropriet y

Team Flippers on the Bay, Stuart Widner, Derek Ward, andKenny Wells with a curiously strange-tailed redfish

Capt. Billy Barton and prospective 2014 students at Punta Gorda Middle last month

I just celebrated a Big Number birthday with what was the biggest surprise ever. and tomy kids.......WOW did you guys fool your mother!

Family and friends came from all over to help me celebrate. Knowing this is so near and dear to my heart, in lieu of gifts it was suggested that

guests make a donation to the DON BALL SCHOOL OF FISHING. And WOW! Thanks to everyone who gave, we have taken in over $1500! This is our 13th year for the kids program and funding is always the biggest task at

hand. If YOU would like to donate you can useon the WaterLIFE.com website, or you can mail a donation to:

The Don Ball School of Fishing, P.O. Box 512010, Punta Gorda, FL 33951.For more information call: 941-766-8180 and we will call you back.Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Donna Ball

GO FISH .........teach a child. Donna Ball

Fundraising Continues - You Can Help Too!


By Mallory HerzogWater LIFE Beach FishingDuring the last 4 years of fishing in

south west florida I have caught many go-liath grouper from land. They are a funfight and some of the larger ones reallypull some drag, and in my opinion are al-most as tough as the bull sharks. I’ve al-ways wondered though, is it a harder fightfrom a boat? Land based fishermen liketo talk trash and say how boat fishing iseasier. In some ways I am sure it is, oth-

ers not so much. On the beach when we hook up we

wear a gimbal fight belt and a harness.This helps save your back and aid in thereel not twisting all around when your try-ing to reel. On a boat this isn’t safe to becompletely harnessed in. The fish yourfighting could make you easily misstepand fall overboard taking you down intothe depths of danger. On a boat you canuse a fight belt, but that’s about it! I hadto try this for myself so I called our friendCapt. Bo Johnson of Tenacity Guide Serv-ice and asked him to take us out! My husband Andrew was up first and

landed a nice sized goliath. We snappedsome pics, released it and got ready formy turn! I saw Andrew do this solo, no assis-

tance and it didn't look too difficult but Iasked first mate Deidra to stay close to mein case I needed help. And Oh did I! Assoon as I hooked up on this fish I knewthat I was in trouble. Dei dra and I wereboth lifting up on the rod in hopes ofpulling this fish out of his home where hewas hiding! It’s such an intense feeling,

very different fromthe beach. Wewere using all ourweight and strengthto pull this fish tothe surface! Wesaw the fish at thesurface 30 yardsout, but he also sawus diving backdown taking the rodto the rail as wepulled with all ourmight to get himback up. When this

grouper was finallynext to the boat wereally saw his in-credible size. Thisis why it was somuch of a harder

fight than Andrew’s fish! The goliathgrouper Diedra and I reeled in was 3- to400-pounds! We had a quick discussionabout pictures. Previously in the weekFWC had stated that captains are nolonger allowed to bring Goliath Grouperto the shallows onshore to take photos anddehook. But we wanted an IN the waterpicture with this extra large grouper. The last thing I remember was looking

at Bo and asking " have there been manybullsharks around recently? With a smilehe replied ‘No’, he already knew what Iwas about to do. I jumped into the usu-ally sharky waters without another

thought. What an experience being in the water

with this HUGE fish. At one time he doveunder, probably terrified of me and think-ing ‘crazy human!’ My biggest worry wasthat it would surface underneath me, butthankfully it didn't! I swam around took afew pics and eagerly went to get back inthe boat – thankfully Deidra still had somemuscle left to pull me back in. The water depth at the Phosphate

Dock, where we were fishing, is 10-15feet, with strong currents. I was exhaustedfrom the 15 minute fight and then treadingwater. I should of been wearing a PFD.(Personal Flotation Device) but thank-fully my adrenaline kept me going. Later in the month we took our good

friend Tom back to the same location tobreak in his new boat! He also got to feelthis incredible pull of a mighty goliathgrouper. I must say its a different experi-ence doing this on my own without the ex-perience Capt. Bo has. He certainlymakes it look a lot easier than it actuallyis! This has been such a great learning ex-

perience: bBoat vs beach, but, I must say,I think they are much harder from a boat.The weight you feel is much more intense,you can really feel how powerful these an-imals are.

FWC is currently doing a stock assess-ment on goliath grouper to possibly openthem back up for harvest. They have beenprotected since the early 90s and theirnumbers have greatly increased because ofit. There are a lot of rumors on how theywill handle this, most likely coming upwith a system similar to tarpon tags. Theirfinal ruling on this will take place sometime in the spring 2015. Until then theyremain protected. When you catch onefrom a boat it must be de-hooked quicklyand not be removed from original catchlocation. When fishing from the beachFWC asks that you keep them in the waterwhile de-hooking and taking photos.

The Pull of GOLIATH!

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

By Capt. David StephensWater LIFE Charlotte HarborI was getting ready to watch some foot-

ball when my phone started ringing. Itwas my good friend Jimmy Beal who Ilived down the canal from, up on thePeace River, 15 years ago. “I was coming back up the river from

running my crab traps,” Jimmy told me“... and in the distance all I could see washuge splashes. When I got up to the areatheir were tarpon, snook and all differentkinds of fish feeding on tilapia!”

After getting the location and time ofday and what the tide was doing, wetalked about how long it has been sincewe have seen a tilapia run up on the river. The people that know me know I grew

up a river rat. I was raised up on the PeaceRiver and spent a lot of my free time fish-ing up there as a young boy. Back 20- to25- years ago, depending on the summerrain fall, it was not uncommon to havetilapia runs during the late summer. Anyone who has been in a restaurant in

the last 10 years has seen these fish on themenu. I’m not sure if it was from the sud-den commercial boom over tilapia or justnot enough rain in Central Florida, butover the last 10- to 15-years their havebeen no more tilapia runs down the river.

Tilapia are an invasive species not na-tive to Florida. I have seen ponds thathave been taken over by these fish, as amatter of fact they can live just about any-where from lakes to rivers or ponds andeven in drainage ditches.

I didn’t have a charter that Mondayand my wife Rachel had the day off work(not to mention she had been on me aboutcatching her a big tarpon!) so we decidedto go for a boat ride.We rode up past the county line, taking

our time looking around but we hadn’t re-ally seen much.

So we decided to goback and check the areaJimmy told me about. We got about a quarter

mile from the spot and inthe distance we could already see fishfeeding. We set up, put out a couple baitsand before we could grab something coldto drink from the cooler we had a tarponover a 150 pounds in the air. We managedto get a couple jumps before he spit thehook. So we baited back up and not morethan five minutes later we had numbertwo on. Rachel wanted a big fish and

number three was a monsterand after an almost hour longfight Rach had her big tarponwhich we estimated to be in the150 pound range.Unfortunately we were too

tired for a good picture. Y’alljust have to take a fisherman’sword!The next day I spoke with a

buddy of mine, Bryan Ball, whotold me he was going to ride upthere and he invited me to ridewith him and Cory. We meet at

the ramp around 11:00am and after havingto take cover from the rain for an hour orso we headed back down to the boat. As we made our way we noticed there

were fish feeding all around the dock, solike any fisherme in their right mind, wegrabbed our rods and fished from thedock! We jumped several juvenile tarpon and

Cory caught a couple very nice redfish onhis fly rod. Once the bite slowed down onthe dock we jumped in the boat to fisharound the schools of tilapia we could seebeing blown up by fish. By the end of thatday we jumped over 30 tarpon and caughtsome nice reds. Cory landed 6 or 8 tarponon his fly rod and we lost count of howmany he jumped. It was a day we will allbe talking about for a long time

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 -

Reted Photos on page 12-13

Tilapia Run

A pod of tilapia tries to make its way across the Peace River. Rachel with a ʻsmallʼ tarpon

Tilapia caught while feeding on algaegrowing on the boat ramp surface

Cory with that nice redfish


By Capt. Betty StauglerWater LIFE Sea GrantIt’s been a busy month

in my world on both work and personalfronts. My highlights start with a shortboating jaunt. For years, Port of the Is-lands has been a launch point for James(the hubby) and I when headed south, butwe’ve never really spent much time inCollier County north of Faka Union, sowe made that our goal. Located at the tipof Cape Romano are the mysteriousdomes, six concrete domes with open win-dows sitting atop pillars. The domes wereonce connected into what was a very luxu-rious home, but storms, erosion and ulti-mate abandonment resulted in the dome

shells slowly making their way to sea. Wefound the domes to be an excellentsnorkel but the fishing not so much (Icaught a few small snapper). The domesare heavily visited including being a regu-lar stopping point for guided ecotours on

Jet Skies which appeared to be quite pop-ular down there. My next excursion was spending a day

with the FWC-FWRI fisheries folkspulling seine nets in Alligator Creek.FWC is just beginning a new project tocollect information on young of the yearsnook. The project involves Tampa Bay,Charlotte Harbor and the Indian River La-goon. Right now they are working onsampling design and specifically whichtype of net will work best for sampling inthe creek systems. We pulled two differ-ent nets at six locations along both thenorth and south forks of Alligator Creekand in some of the smaller creeks off the

main stems. At times we were knee deepin muck; a perfect spot to find little snook,and we did. According to the crew I waswith, creek sampling there will likely be-come a permanent part of their program. Fast forward, mid-month was the an-

nual Florida Outdoor Writers Association(FOWA) annual conference in CrystalRiver where area guides are recruited totake out FOWA members. Our targetspecies were redfish and trout. My tour-nament captain was Johnathan Hamiltonfrom Brooksville. The Nature Coastwhich includes Crystal River experiencesa three to 4-foot tide range and becausethe shelf extends so far out into the Gulfthere are no beaches or barrier islands.Shallow water seagrass beds extend off-shore for miles and that is where wefished for trout. When we fished for redsCapt. Johnathan explained that they al-most never see reds tailing because theirbottom consists of exposed rock and verylittle sediment leaving nothing for redfishto root around in. I caught several trout

and a few mangrove snapper. The onlyredfish I hooked into got away before Icould get it to the boat, but I landed asnapper on the same cast. Most impor-tantly I had a great day!My month ended down in the Keys for

the Swim for Alligator Light. This is an8- mile swim out to the lighthouse andback. I went with 18 of my swimmingfriends and we comprised 5 relay teams.We learned that the 8 miles advertisedwere really 8 nautical miles making theswim over 9 miles total. To do the swimwe rented two boats and brought along 3kayaks to support our swimmers. I wason the first rental boat to head out. Afterarriving at the race start (2 miles away )we found our boat wouldn’t go into neu-tral and wouldn’t go into reverse. Fortu-nately the marina sent someone outquickly and got us working right. Theswim was hard, rough current, at timeschoppy, and tons of jellyfish…walls ofjellyfish! The two teams on my boatdidn’t break any records but we did finishand despite the jellyfish stings had a greattime. When we got to shore we learnedthe other boat nearly sunk. It started tak-ing on water and the bilge pump didn’t

work. When it began listing they beachedit in shallow water. Yes we will be re-thinking our boat plans for next year. Allin all though it was a great weekend and agreat month!!Capt. Betty StauglerFlorida Sea Grant AgentUF/IFAS Extension Charlotte County (941) 764-4346

In the Water

By Capt Billy BartonWater LIFE INSHORE

As a born and raised Florid-ian and an avid salt water fisher-man, my heart is alwaysyearning for another trophycatch. I know a lot of you folksout there can relate. If you areon that mission searching fortrophy fish and if snook and tar-pon are the species you seek, itmight be a bright idea for you toget out there and put some workin at night. Some of the greatestfishing memories I have in over20 years of fishing here weremade at 3 a.m. at one of ourlocal bridges. Snook and tarpon are two of

the most exciting and populargamefish that Southwest Floridahas to offer. It's most commonfor captains and anglers to betargeting these two species dur-ing the day. What I've come tonotice though is that over theyears these fish are have beenforgotten by many when itcomes to fishing them at night. The lack of night time pres-

sure may be what actually en-

tices a lot of theselarger fish tocome out, relax,and eat like crazy! Two important

factors that comeinto the picture are our tides andyour moon phases which do playa large role in how active thesefish are going to be. With thefull and new moons especiallycome your best times of themonth to get out and fish hard!Where do I go? You ask. A

simple answer. Anywhere thathas a decent tidal flow andwhere you have light creating ashaddow line on the water.Most of our local bridges willcreate this scenario for you. How do these fish stage? It's

typical for these fish to lay onthe surface in the dark side ofthe shadow, with their noses fac-ing into the current. Predatorslike to stalk their prey right?This is exactly the scene that'scoming into play here. These fish are laying in the

dark unseen and not noticed. Asthat shrimp or live bait fish

flows through onthe surface, help-lessly fighting thecurrent, you canbet your luckystars that there's asnook or a tarponlaying in a nearbyshadow in search of that easymeal. The early fall months make

for some of the best night timesnook fishing this place has tooffer. I'm not talking about lit-tle breeder males either folks.These are the big, wise femalesthat didn't get that big by beingdumb! They know when theycan relax and take an easy mealby now. Or at least they thinkthey do.... Good luck out therefolks. Go out and get ya a tro-phy!Capt. Billy Barton, Scales-n-TailsFishing Charters 941- 979-6140


Ambushing PredatorsNIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME

Snook have been the target when fishing nights under the US 41 Bridge. Tarpon have been a very pleasant by-catch!


When heʼs not fishing at night, (see page 9)Capt. Billy has been doing pretty well on hisdaytime trips too. Snook, and reds for clientsand a slam of snook, trout and gar for himself .


By Capt. Scott Sichling Water LIFE Fly FishingFall has finally arrived in southwest

Florida…or at least the calendar says so!Idling out into the channel where the redand green navigation lights shine into thedark, the cool morning temperatures setthe mood for the beginning of a great day. Glass calm conditions make the Harbor

look like one long mirror that stretches asfar as the eye can see, giving you an openinvitation into one of best fishing estuaries

southwest Florida has to offer. It is a short boat ride before we arrive

at our first location. The sun peeks overthe horizon and sheds light onto our spot. On top of the poling platform I’m

greeted with great blue herons wading onthe exposed oyster bars and looking forbreakfast. Snook are popping the glassminnows along the nearest shoreline. My partner ties on his favorite gurgler

top water fly and lays out the fly line ontothe deck as I stealthfully pole him towardssome rolling juvenile tarpon ahead. With a bird’s eye view from the poling

platform I position the boat so my buddyon the bow can make the proper cast and

presentation to the silver princes that arerolling about. A few slow strips are given as the gur-

gler travels gently across the surface be-fore it’s violently crushed when the littletarpon launches skyward inhaling the fly! Nothing is more exciting than catching

10-to 20-pound tarpon on fly, especially ifit’s your first fish! Watching friends andclients over the last month land their firsttarpon on fly is especially rewarding tome as I know it will create memories of alifetime for both the fisherman and my-self. The tarpon bite shuts down almost as

quickly as it starts. Shortly after 9 a.m. thefish seem to magically turn off and be-

come preoccupied with other things. Nowthey could care less what fly was put ontheir nose. Knowing that we are fishing an incom-

ing tide we decide to switch gears and runto one of my favorite redfish spots to tryand find a school. Locating a school ofredfish can be tricky, but often times youcan see them pushing a “head wake”across the flat as they travel looking forfood. Sometimes they will be swimmingin shallow water so stealth and a quietboat are key to getting within casting dis-tance. Push poling is my preferred method

and often can get me within 30 feet of 300

or more redfishundetected.Observing theschool and ahigh level ofpatience is re-quired to seal-ing the dealwhen throwinga fly into theschool – tim-ing is every-thing. We decide

to throw a pop-per type of fly and wait until the right mo-ment to place the fly 20 feet in front of theschool. Concentration is key when watch-ing hundreds of red pumpkins swim to-wards your fly. A couple of quick tugs as the water

erupts in a sea of red and then the wholeschool goes into attack mode trying to de-stroy your fly. It is an incredible sight towatch and it’s only when the fly line rock-ets out of your hand that you are broughtback to the reality of a hook up! Fly fishing can be extremely rewarding

and it is the most humble form of fishing,at least that’s what most people say. There is something special about feel-

ing the strike and the smooth line gliding

through your hand that leaves you comingback for more! Capt. Scott can be reached for fly or

conventional charters at (941) 408-5634

FLY FISHING: Snook, Reds and Tarpon

PUNTA GORDA ISLES MLS C72021993 Bed/2.5 Bath/2 Car Garage – Heated Saltwater Pool

39' Dock, 20,000 lb. Boat Lift Just minutes to Charlotte Harbor!!

$589,000

Lennore Shubel – RealtorOffice: 941-575-2502 Cell: 631-741-4589

Email: [email protected]

By Michael HellerWater LIFE EditorI don’t remember if I was on the bow and Capt.

David Stephens was on the motor end of the boat,or if we were theother way around,but I do rememberus both moving aswe reacted to an air-borne tarpon. The fish before

that one, and therewere a bunch before.... and many after it,had run straight b ackat the boat,jumpingand divingwildly in apath thatlooked like

it was coming ourway. That fishdove out of a tailwalk with a wet‘in your face’splash from 10feet away! Butthis fish was dif-ferent. This fishwas bigger. And itwas much closer!I’m going to

say 80 poundsand 5 feet. And it

was out of my control. I couldn’t reel fastenough and I couldn’t run. There were a lot of fish that morning,

all tarpon and tarpon of all different sizes – 10 to200 pounds. This fish wasn’t the biggest, but it wasone of the wildest and it was close.

The tarpon we were after, right around themiddle of last month, were after schools oftilapia in the Peace River. We motored over to the Harbour Heights

boat ramp where Dave netted a well full oftilapia feeding on the algae on the ramps sur-face, but when we got out in the middle of theRiver, with tarpon all around us, we started

throwing the D.O.A. Bait Busters he had alreadyrigged. There must have been a lot of oxygen in the

water because the tarpon were not rolling, insteadthey were busting upward and sideways into thetilapia like killer whales after seals.I let my first cast sink deep and I began reeling

it closer to the boat. I was jigging it a little and Iwas ready. BOOM! First cast and I was on a bigfish. The water 30 feet in front of us boiled and ex-ploded as a big tarpon came up, did a 180-degreeturn onto his side at the surface, showing us histranslucent golden rain-stained brown geometry andthen he disappeared. It was a great start.A low laugh rolled between us; an affirmation.

Yes! It wason! Therewere no ‘I toldyou so’s’ re-quired. Big,hungry fishwere close by. I like to fish

fish like thesebecause everyhit makes megrin childishlyor laugh aloud. I like to

hook them up,hang on for agood run and ajump, maybeget control andthen I’ll givehim slack andlet him shakethe hook... if

he hasn’t already...and then I’ll cast that same lureright back out and do it again. D.O.A.s are hard toland these kind of fish on anyway.Over and over, the lures took a beating, Lure

bodies would be sliding up the line and we’d slide‘em back in place, cast back out and hook morefish. If I had to write a screenplay about fishing,that morning would be a part of it. There were a lotof feeding tarpon.But I digress! Back to the second biggest fish,

the one that I had on my line that jumped twice and


The Bite Was Definately On! AAQQUU AATTIICCAA


kept turning leftin a ever tighten-ing circle to-wards the boat. We had

laughed at thefish right beforethat one. You know: Wow, I thought that fish was going tojump in the boat. But now we were sliding out of this fish’sway! He had the control.His last jump turned him sideways, it was easily a 100

pound fish. It hit the water rightalongside the boat in a bigsmacking splash. We both knewwhere the next jump would takeit. I looked at the space between

the gunnel and the console. Thatwas going to be my out. I keptreeling, Dave angled back, wehad eye contact and then the linewent slack and all the excitementwent away. It was quiet, but thenwe laughed. And then I cast outthat same lure again only to be quickly broken off.

I was letting my lure drop deep where the bigger fishwere. Reedy to re-rig, welooked for another DOA;white, root beer - the colordidn’t matter but after anhour and a half of fishingwe were running out ofD.O.A.s !I had brought a gold

spoon along. This one hada nice plume of bright redcustom tied feathers on thehook. I wish I could showyou a picture of it, but atarpon took it and ran off. I was spoiled throwing

those heavy Bait Busters amile, then I cast my little5/8 ounce gold Rex spoonwith its custom feathers.Cast - 30 feet - plink. Nodistance. No matter.

Whoossshhh! That cast was my last with that fine littlespoon. Yet another giant had swirled slowly just beneath

the surface, a rolling boil of disturbed water came up thatlooked like a manatee’s tail wash. Overpowered! We werelaughing again.Towards the end of our morning we free lined some

‘crushed’ tilapia and took some from the baitwell andbroadcast them around. A few were taken, but many swamoff. Something had changed. We could feel the excitement drain away. We were start-

ing to see more rolling fish, more of a traditional tarpon airbreathing behavior. Some fish were still busting the variouspods of tilapia around us, but the edge was off. The tidewas changing and the magic was gone.

Related story on page 7


By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior StaffSome times I feel like a juggler with

too many balls in the air. There are somany things going on in the world rightnow that it’s hard to focus on one prob-lem without another one coming right be-hind it. So in order to catch my breath, Iwould like to update you on a few of myfavorite topics.

First off is red tide. Currently there isno red tide in Sarasota, Charlotte or LeeCounties. There is still a massive bloomto the north of us, from 5 to 30 miles off-shore centered around Cedar Key. That’sthe good news: The bad news is that an-other harmful algae bloom (HAB) hasbeen found offshore from ClearwaterBeach to Sanibel Island. This one iscalled Trichodesmium and they are nottoo sure if this will cause fish kills.

Manatees are in the news again.Afew months ago I wrote about a localgroup called Save the Crystal River thathad filled a law suit against the FederalWildlife Service (FWS) asking them toact on a request to delist the manateefrom endangered to threatened. In Julythe FWS answered the petition by agree-ing with the petitioners that there was noreason not to delist the manatee. This rul-ing was placed in the Federal Registerwhich begins a 90 day public input pe-riod. That ended in Sept. Now the FWShas 12 months to make a ruling. Remem-ber that in 2007 the FWS said that thepopulation of manatees was large enoughto justify delisting. Since then the popula-tion has only gotten bigger. Before yousay I'll believe it when I see it, rememberthat the legal firm Pacific Legal Group,representing the Save Crystal Rivergroup, were the ones that got the eagledelisted and last month they also had thewoodstork delisted from endangered tothreatened. By this time next year themanatee may have ended its 50 year reignon the endangered list.

Stump Pass has been a project closeto my heart for many years. CharlotteCounty’s permit to keep the pass openhas expired and we are in the process ofrequesting another 10 year open permit.This time we want to put a jetty on thenorth side of the pass to prevent sandfrom filling the pass. State officials haveagreed with the basic plan, but now theyare arguing about where the jetty shouldbe, how long it should be, what it shouldbe made of, etc, etc, etc. I'm sorry to saythat the County doesn’t expect to have thepermit in hand until November 2015.

Bay Heights is a spot I'm sure notmany of you have heard of. It's a smallpiece of land on Lemon Bay close to theCharlotte – Sarasota border. It used to bea cute trailer park before the countybought it in their haste to buy up water-front access. It was next to a small chanelthat ran from the Englewood Marina tothe old Weeks Fish House. The originalplan was to put in a boat ramp for smallboats. The Marine Advisory Committeewas sold on the idea and put up about$300,000 of taxpayers money to get theball rolling. That was six years ago andthat ball has not rolled an inch. Without going into the ugly details,

let’s just say that lies were told and prom-ises were broken. The good news is finally the Florida

DEP has issued the permit to begin thework. The bad news is that all DEP offi-cials go to the Tony Soprano School ofEnvironmental Management where thefirst rule is: we do something for you -you have to do something for us. The permit requires Charlotte County

to set aside a half acre piece of prop-scared sea bed in Lemon Bay; replant it,keep boats off it and monitor it each yearfor 5 years.

The best guess for the location of thisproject is the small piece of bottom whereyou go from the ICW to the Stump PassChannel. Bye-bye [email protected]

On The Line

Situational UpdatesTrue ValueTrue ValueHardwareHardware

ProposedProposedBay HeightsBay HeightsBoat rampBoat ramp

S. McCall Rd

S. McCall Rd


By Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE BaitshopWhat a great time to

be in Florida. Thecooler air and the water temps are goingdown, the rain is slowing, it’s just perfect.And the big, huge, giant, redfish are arriving!Yes, October this year is the month we get

to catch huge redfish right along the beachesand just in front of Turtle Bay and the JugCreek shoals. Andthey are here already.Some years we

have to wait until No-vember before we getthese big reds. By bigI mean over 34-inchesand some of these fishwill weigh in at 40-pounds or more.In the Gulf you can

catch these reds froma beach, but this is anevening, night ormorning thing. If youare fishing during theday, all I can say isthat it is better to be lucky.If you are fishing early or late, which is the

prime target time, try casting a 3/4 ounceweed-less spoon out from the beach. I like toadd a strip of Fishbites cut down to 4 inchesand stuck on the hook of the spoon. Cast out and reel in trying to get the spoon

to come back in, about a foot off the bottom.I use the count method where off the sand Ifigure to have about 6-feet of water, so whenthe spoon hits the water I count to five, then Istart reeling. Keep your rod tip down to keepthe spoon from trying to swim up as you reelit in. Use a slow, steady, retrieve. I will stopreeling two or three times on my retrieve tolet the spoon settle on the bottom. Once thespoon is on the bottom, I will just lift, orsharply jerk my rod tip to sort of dance / slidethe spoon across the bottom. Then start reel-ing again. Think of bait jumping off the bot-tom to escape a predator fish.Trolling for these big reds is the same

thing as trolling for grouper. Use a lure thatwill dive at least 30 feet and troll between 3 to4 mph. What I look for is a path between 2reefs - like between Mary’s and the PowerPoles. I figure that the fish would most likelyhead from one food source to another, sotrolling from one reef to the next alwaysseemed right to me. Now, I do this in around30 feet of water and the lure says it goes down30 feet deep so compensate by reeling insome line to get the lure shallower or lettingline out to get deeper. Pink and bright greens for one of the lures,

and the other purple dark and light. Then ifyou get hit on the darker color a couple time

switch the other lure over and visa/ versa.Getting into the Harbor, there are reds just

out side of Jug Creek shoals. This is a baitthing, lure will work, but it is double-tough todo it. I do a Lewis & Clark on the sand barwhen the tide is very low so I can see wherethe cuts in the bar are – and by cuts I meanslight depressions where the water has cut atrough across the sand bar. This is where thereds will cross in from the Harbor to get backup on the flats. They are going up on the flatsto find shrimp or pinfish, but whitebait (hardscaled sardines) are the best bait right now. Get to the trough at low tide and get set up,

then be quietlike a hole inthe water. As the tide

comes up thereds will wantto get up onthe flat tofeed. Castyour bait intothe middle ofthe trough andwait. If youfish them,they willcome. I have seen

the huge bullreds wait for schools of smaller mullet or ladyfish to leave the flats as the tide is falling.They just lay outside the cut in the bar andambush the fish as they come out, so don’t getall hung up on fishing the trough/cut if youdo not see a big school of reds right there.Keep the boat to one side or the other of theopening so the fish will move through the cut.If your boat is sitting right where the reds aretrying to get on the flats, as you guess, it willnot be good. Stay off to the side and try not tointerfere with the fish except to stick someas they pass by.How you rig depends on the tide. In a

slow moving tide, I free line the bait on 20-pound braid with 25 pound test, fluro leader.Now as the fish get closer to 40-inches, go to40- or 50-pound test leader. The 20-poundbraid should hold, but it takes longer so thethicker leader gives you more time to land it. If the current from the tide is stronger, or if

you have to cast farther to stay out of the pathof the fish, I will add a sinker about 30 inchesup the line from the hook. Split shot - maybeeven a 1/2 - to keep my bait in the trough. IfI am using a sinker, I switch from hooking thebait in the head or mouth to hooking justabove the anal opening. This allows the baitto swim better, pulling against the hook andline rather than pushing it.I hope you find these schools of big bull

reds. If you can find some blue crabs, cutthem into bait chunks, that is candy-crack forbig redfish. And don’t worry if the fish breaksyour rod or pulls it out of your hand, I havemore to sell! Hang on and have fun and bestfish wishes Fishin’ Frank 625-3888

Right for Redfish


By Capt Bart MarxWater LIFE KeysThis month the weather should start

cooling down and the water will too. Thereds will be schooling up all along thecoast, feeding for their offshore trip tospawn, hence the term is Red October. September was kind of red too... red

hot! We had a repeat customer come from

Wauchula. David had never caught a snookso that was a focus species on our trip.There were several snook caught at ourfirst stop, shorts, but they were fun tocatch. They also caught some nice mangrove

snapper to harvest for a meal. It was a hotsummer day and as it approached noon itgot even hotter and the bite slowed. Mrs.Mackey is not accustom to the heat and theguest they brought along was getting hottoo, so they decided to return to the dockand get into the truck for some A/C action. David and I were preparing to clean the

fish and there were some snappers at theramp. There were some shrimp left soDavid started to catch snapper. There weresnook and catfish around as well so heplayed with what shrimp we had left andsoon an hour had passed. I had cleaned the fish they were taking

with them for a meal, a nice red and somemangrove snapper. All in all it was a longhot summer day, but a successful one atthat. The girls got their A/C and the guysgot to catch a few. This month things startto cool down, weather wise, but the fishinggets heated up. Reds, grouper and kingscome to town to play, so give me a call ifyou would like to come along with Capt.Bart Marx ... or we could go on your boat.Call 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at [email protected]

Repeat Customers

Karachi PakistanThe Islamabad Herald reported a

giant prehistoric shark, previouslythought to be extinct for more than 20million years, was captured by local fish-ermen off the coast of Pakistan lastmonth. The creature, first thought to bea great white shark, was quickly de-clared by experts to be an unknownspecies since its great weight and sizewere unheard of.

Later, analysis of the creatureʼs teethsuggested the shark to be a ʻparentʼ ofthe Megalodon, an extinct species ofshark that lived approximately 28 to 1.5million years ago, during the CenozoicEra.

More at:http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/15-ton-prehistoric-shark-captured-off-coast-of-pakistan/#sthash.WXPdkn8C.dpuf

PrehistoricShark Latest Victimin Middle East


By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE InshoreLiving near the shores of Charlotte

Harbor is quite the luxury and if that is notenough, in 3.5 hours you can be in theFlorida Keys. The big ticket there is thatthe Great Florida Reef is within a 5-10mile boat ride from shore and it is an ex-traordinary fish magnet. With the reef in mind I towed my 24’

boat to a KOA campground on SugarloafKey for two days of fishing. Yellowtailsnapper and anything else that swims nearmy boat would be my target species. After splashing the boat I ran towards

American Shoal Lighthouse where thefloor bottom goes from 40 to 100 feet injust a couple of hundred yards. Fishingsolo and bottom fishing requires a goodbit of organization to do it safely so whenI was met with 4 foot seas I decided todrop back to shallower water where thereef itself breaks down the chop. Idling around starring aimlessly at two

depth finders I spot a group of fish on thebottom and zoomed in to magnify the de-tail of the marks on my screen and feltgood about my prospects. Critical to fish-ing this area is a reef anchor which hasflexible tines that bend when pulling upthe anchor. Once you know a few basics this is re-

ally easy fishing! First, place a chumblock in a weighted chum cage (sharksdon’t like eating metal) and drop to thebottom. Then, place a chum bag amid-shipoff the gunnel. Do not fish yet! Next, start dicing and slicing frozen

sardines into small pieces and drop thembehind the boat setting out a constantstring of chum for the next 15 minutes.All of this matters, because the goal is toget a school of fish comfortably feedingwithout seeing their friends struggling.Line is very, very important. The water

clarity this day was 40 feet and I was setup in 36 feet so the fish can see what ishappening and are pretty darn smart. Mysuggestion is to A) use 10-pound monofil-ament and no leader straight to hook or B)use 20-pound braid to 8’ of 20-pound

leader to fool the insightful reef fish.Then, after all of this work, you hope thefish are back there somewhere. My first pitch utilized a 1/16oz. char-

treuse short shank Calcutta jig with asmall piece of sardine on it. Wham! Firstcast and a nice 13 inch yellowtail snappercame aboard. For the next several hours Icaught plenty of snappers and found themto be a cast away from the boat as the tidewas sweeping the chum so far. I could notsee the fish, but they were literally pounc-ing on my jig on the surface. A number ofbig fish jumped on my line as well andpulled me into the reef with my guessbeing a Goliath Grouper that chomped onmy snapper!That night I dropped two baited pinfish

traps into some grass beds with hopes ofbigger fish the next day and a bigger vari-ety. The next day approaching the floatball to the first trap you could see it wasfull of bait and lifting into the boat therewere easily 40 small fish, including pin-fish, grunts, baby yellowtails and others.The second trap pulled up had a slimy sur-prise- a moray eel! With no need to begreedy I dumped that entire trap back intothe water and headed to the reef.What a difference a day makes in the

Keys – mirror calm water, a huge reef all

to myself and a well full of great baitfish. I chose to search the bottom in 90-100

feet of water with hopes of catching big-ger fish but the screen was barren after 30minutes of searching. But in the 60-footrange my screen was lit up like a Christ-mas tree so I dropped the anchor, setchum, chunked, waited…….and thendropped lines into the water. One free line with a nice pinfish was

put way out back, one pinfish down on thebottom and the special chartreuse jig waspitched out. Near perfect conditions forthe angler, but the fish did not really see itthis way. Small undersize snappershowed themselves, a shark which wasplenty of fun and blue runners. I switchedspots 5 times, using an anchor ball to heftthe reef anchor off the bottom setting up

on a nice “painted screen” showing reeffish on each spot. I don’t know when Ihave seen live bait go so ignored on thereef, but this was the day. I decided thatcatching undersize snapper was going tobe plenty of fun and made the best of it.The campground on Sugarloaf Key (30

minutes from Key West) has rental trail-ers, a small marina, bait, tackle, snacksand drinks. Typically, you can expect tocatch big mangrove snapper, blackgrouper, kingfish and other reef species ortrolling outside of the reef: mahi, sailfish,tuna and wahoo are easily done. You canfind water depths over 200 feet within amile of the reef.Capt. Chuck Eichner operates Action Flats

Backcountry Charters 941-628-8040 orwww.backcountrycharters.com

YELLOWTAIL Reef Fishing

$2 off any haircut!


Special to Water LIFEFWRI researchers are

studying nematodes found inthe swim bladders of Americaneels. Little is known about theinfection in Florida’s eel popu-lations so researchers are try-ing to collect information inseveral freshwater systems todetermine the prevalence andintensity of infection on astatewide level.Researchers believe the ne-

matodes have originated fromSoutheast Asia and are specificto eels of the genus Anguilla. First confirmed in South

Carolina in 1995, the parasiteAnguillicoloidescrassus hasbeen documented in Americaneels inhabiting many Atlanticcoastal streams, from Canadasouth to Texas.Eels become infected by

consuming intermediate crus-tacean hosts, like copepods orostracods. They can also be-come infected by eating a hostthat is unaffected by the para-site and is merely a carrier. Nematode larvae can re-

main inactive, al-though still infectious,in many organismssuch as snails, amphib-ians, insect larvae, andsome fish. Once in-gested, the larvae mi-grate to the swimbladder where theymature, reproduce, andultimately release eggsand larvae back intothe water through theeel’s digestive tract.The swim bladder is important for a

fish to regulate its position in the water.As a result, these nematode infectionscan influence the fish’s ability to moveup and down in the water column andmay affect the migration of mature eelsto their spawning ground deep in theSargasso Sea. Although eels appear to handle these

chronic parasitic infections well, theymay still have to expend a lot of energyto cope, making the animal more proneto disease or succumbing more easily toenvironmental stressors.Previous studies have shown that

physical barriers, such as dams, andcooler water temperatures can limit thelevel of infection in eels, but givenFlorida’s subtropical temperatures andlimited number of physical barriers, sci-entists are concerned that these infec-tions can be more widespread here.Researchers also hypothesize that more

urban areas have higher rates of infec-tion due to increased stressors in the en-vironment. In 2006, preliminary surveysof commercially harvested eels found asmany as one third of eels from the St.Johns River were infected. Researchers are currently conducting

dissections and assessing overall healthof eels in freshwater systems to learnmore about the potential effects this par-asite may have on Florida’s Americaneel populations.

Asian Nematode Parasite in American Eels

LOCAL ANGLE: Chrissy Moesley wrote: Thought I'dshare this wild lookin eel I caught on the Myakka riverlast month ...first one I ever caught . Man, was it heavy!!... and it didn't even put up a fight!


By David AllenWater LIFE KayakingKayakers are usually a pretty independ-

ent lot, but most will agree that a paddle onFisheating Creek is near the top of theirbucket-list. Over the years, I have paddledthis beautiful stream countless times andam still in awe of the surroundings.The Creek meanders through a land-

scape of prairies, freshwater marshes andfloodplain swamps for about 50 miles, cre-ating a wonderland for all manner ofwildlife.

Strategically located in relation to BigCypress Swamp, Okaloacoochee Slough,Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area,Lake Okeechobee and the Lake WalesRidge, Fisheating Creek is critical to thelong-term welfare of many Florida speciesnative to the area. Fisheating Creek is alsothe summer home and breeding grounds forthe swallowtail kite, which migrates to thearea from South America.I was always curious about the origin of

the name, “Fisheating Creek.” The streamwas originally named by the Seminoletribes that inhabited the area many centuriesago. They called it,” Thlothlopopka-Hatchee,” which translated means the riverwhere fish are eaten. We paddled the Creek recently, checking

to make sure that the water level was nottoo high nor too low, but just right. Thiscan be an issue at the Creek because if thewater level is below 1.5-to 3-feet you willbe dragging your kayaks through some ofthe shallower sections. On the other hand, ifthe stream is flowing at more than about500-600 cubic feet/minute the strong cur-rent will make your passage through thenarrow channels very difficult. Severalyears ago, I paddled the Creek with somefriends who were very experienced kayak-ers. One of the best paddlers capsized com-ing downstream and we had a devil of atime getting him back together. The U.S. Geological Survey posts the

stream flow and gage height on their website, www.waterdata.usgs/fl/current/. Onceon the site, go to station # 02256500 forPalmdale, the town nearest the Creek.The Creek extends both west, where we

usually paddle and east toward Lake Okee-

chobee from the launch at Palmdale.Lake Okeechobee is about 18 miles east

of the launch and Fisheating Creek is one ofonly two freshwater creeks that feed thelake. I have never tried to get through toOkeechobee, but some friends from Ft.Myers tried and failed several years agowhen the Creek became impassable in theCowbone Marsh area west of the Lake.The day we paddled, the water level was

3+ feet, just about right for now. Theweather was bright and sunny, but much ofthe wildlife was hiding somewhere else. Atthis water lever, there are usually severalhummocks dry enough to beach your kayakand take a break. Of course, you may haveto shoo away a couple of alligators that aresunning themselves there too, but that’s noproblem. We did see a lot of alligators anda Blue Heron landing creek-side. Of

course, the cypresses lining the waterwaywere magnificent as usual.We returned to the launch at the Outpost,

loaded the kayaks and drove the 40-somemiles back to Port Charlotte. The atten-dants that run the Outpost are friendly andhelpful and can provide information onkayak rentals, camping facilities and toursof the area. You can also arrange for a shut-tle upstream to Burnt Bridge for a leisurelypaddle/ drift back downstream to thelaunch. Visit their web site at www.fisheatingdreekoutpost.com.The Port Charlotte Kayakers Meet each

Wednesday 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.

The Most Beautiful Paddle in Florida

SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated,

But Often True


FWC OFFICERS WERE DISPATCHED tothe Raulerson Hospital in Okeechobee re-garding a subject suffering from an alligatorbite. The subject advised them that he wasin the process of cleaning an alligator hehad just killed. He took the tape off themouth of the gator and opened it to look atthe teeth when its jaws snapped shut on hisleft thumb, lacerating it severely. The gatorfell on the ground after its jaws closed and atooth went through the subjectʼs boot. Offi-cers completed an alligator bite report.

FORKED TONGUE DEVILS FWC Investi-gators responded to a complaint of an indi-vidual in Palm Beach County who reportedlymight be in possession of snakes illegally.After making contact with the subject, thesubject consented to allow an inspection.He initially showed the Investigator the non-venomous snakes in his room and said thatwas all he had. Further investigation insideof his closet revealed three Monocled Co-bras hidden under sheets. Once again, hesaid that was all he had. Further investiga-tion revealed five copperheads and a white-lipped pit viper hidden under his bathroomsink. It was then discovered that one of hissnakes that was under a rock in its enclo-sure was a black and white spitting cobra.Initially, he stated it was a non-venomoussnake. All of the venomous snakes wereseized and turned over to a permitted hold-ing facility. The subject was charged .

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING The UtahDepartment of Wildlife Resources an-nounced that it will be proposing rulechanges for 2015 that encourage anglers tokeep their fish. The popularity of catch-and-release fishing boomed over the lastdecade, dramatically changing how biolo-

gists are approaching fishmanagement. Too much re-leasing, it seems, is keepingtrout, bass, and walleye fromreaching their ideal size.

SKIPPER AND HIS MOM Col-lier FWC officers worked withMOTE Marine Laboratory andAquarium, SeaWorld Orlandoand other agencies to rescue adolphin calf, named “Skipper.”Skipper was approximately 16months old and was observedby dolphin eco tours to have anet wrapped around his fluke.The biologist came up with aplan to net the dolphin in orderto remove the net, place atracking chip on the dolphinand care for the cut around hisfluke. The officers were able toobserve Skipper and hismother (Motherʼs name notprovided – ED) in Marco Riverand followed them until theywere in shallow enough waterto begin the rescue. Due totide conditions, the officers fol-lowed them further into the wa-ters around Keewaydin Island.Once in the shallow waterthere, the biologist deployedthe net, captured Skipper,cared for the cut and placed atracking device on him. Skip-per was then released back tohis mother.

Checking an Ocean Snapper Farm, in trials at Puerto Rico. Several are in operation.

Anglers are generally accustomed tothe unexpected, but when Steve Barg-eron saw a fellow fisherman pull amassive 18-inch “shrimp” out of thewater on a dock near Fort Pierce, Barg-eron sent photographs to the FWC.Now biologists are trying to narrowdown the specific species of theshrimp. The popular consensus is thatthe large crustacean is actually somekind of overgrown mantis shrimp.

HIGH: ROBAR Quantum of the Seasʼ Bionic Baruses robots to mix drinks. Guests place ordersvia tablets and phones and then enjoy watching. LOW: Hopefully they will clean the Christmas or-naments at the Charlotte County EnvironmentalCampus on Harborview, before they hang them.Storage is very short at this facility - a designflaw that goe s back to when it was built.

HIGHS and LOWS

A football sized, self propelled under-water robot used for port security.


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Englewood Open Spearfishing Tournament at Cape Haze Marina Photo Contest

A moon jelly hovers above photographer Adam Wilsonʼs fin during the En-glewood Open Spearfishing Tournament last month.

Dave Flower shot this diver climbing aboardwith his stringer

Snapper with a headache. “I always like to bleed myfish as soon as I shoot them,” Adam Wilson said. “Ithelps keep the sharks away from my stringer.”

Honorable Mention

Second Place No Third Place Was AwardedFirst Place

RESULTSGrouper1st Paul Wagenseil2nd Eric PinkhamHogfish1st Steven Lee2nd Jason ThompsonSnapper1st Adam Wilson2nd Christina LeeSheepshead:1st Matt StephensonBarracuda1st Ryan Wandersee2nd Pat Tormey

Big Lobster:Ryan WanderseeMost LionfishDarrell Walchle

Largest Lionfish Steven LeeSmallest Lionfish:John Gurland

Charlotte HarborFrank, at Fishin’ Franks

941- 625-3888Keeper redfish are scattered at the top

of the Harbor. On the west side, mostcreeks at the north end have lower slotredfish or even smaller ones. On the eastside, from Punta Gorda at Ponce Inlet toMangrove Point, 20 inch seems to be theaverage there.Snook fishing is really incredible. Oc-

tober is going to be a knock ‘em deadsnook month in the canals in Punta Gorda,Gulf Cove and Port Charlotte. On everythird dock you will probably catch asnook. Fish the small lures 3.5 inches orless. If you are looking for oversize snook,use six-inch lures. Storm Twitchin formost and 16-Bombers for the best sizefish. Make longer casts with the biggerbaits, you’ll cast more but get more excit-ing hook-ups and better fish.The nice part of snook now is we have

a lot of fish 38- to 44-inches and there area lot of them.For those of you with deeper draft

boats, Spanish mackerel are at Cape

Haze around Mkr. No. 5. Up in the middle of the Harbor, at the

deep holes, there are ladyfish and jackson the surface. Surface lures will catchless catfish, but there is no getting awayfrom them. The best lure is a 1/2-ounceRattletrap in 15 feet of water. Cast andcount to 10 before you retrieve. You are li-able to get the macks and jacks comingup. There are sailcats, small gags and go-

liath laying deep in the holes, so if youare dropping down into it add 4 seconds toyour count. With the water this murky Ithink the Rattletrap annoys them into hit-ting the dam thing.There are still a good variety of tarpon

up in the Harbor, just west of Pirate Har-bor channel and up in the mouth of theMyakka. D.O.A. Bait Busters in purple orroot beer, or even light with a green back,are all good. It’s a lot like musky fishing,you put in a lot of time casting to get thatone fish, then when you get it, hang on! Out at Boca Pass there is still quite a

bit of tarpon. In all the passes you haveSpanish and pompano and we have somereally nice flounder coming up this year.

If you are intoflounder this isyour time. Driftwith shrimp orwhitebait. Thereare also quite afew flounderalong the beachesnow too – de-cently sized fish,14- to 16-inches. Iwould think it’stoo early, but herethey are!

The Jug Creek shoal, that’swhere the best size trout are.North of Pirate Harbor, out onthe flat, you’ll have the best numbers oftrout. Cape Haze has a mixed bag. Sharks are slowing down, finally.

There are not as many in the near Gulf,but in the Harbor holes we still have good‘blacktip style’ sharks. We are hearing lessreports of big sharks, but still a few,mostly lemons and nurse sharks.There are pompano in front of Bull Bay

and a few by Burnt Store. Try a bobber forpompano. Use a 1/8 oz jig, with a smallhook and a shrimp or small plastic tail.Let the bobber do the jigging, it seems tobe effective. I don’t know, normally itdoesn’t work on pompano, but it’s beenworking. A crappie jig would probablywork too, with less than 1/4-inch pieces ofpeeled shrimp on the hook. Back yourdrag off a half turn when using braidedline, and play them more.

Reminder: Grouper closes early thismonth. In the Gulf, there are Spanish mack-

erel on the hard bottom and you will havelane snapper, porgys and grunts on thenear-shore reefs. In 60-feet-plus this is agood time for mixed red grouper and gaggrouper and I’m hearing that’s the caseall over the place. The closer to 80- feet ofwater the better, but 60 will do in a pinch.There are Myan cichlids being caught

in the fresher parts of the Port Charlottecanal system, We are identifying these fishfor people every other day. Bucktails withreflective maribu seem to be the cichlidslure of choice - small little fuzzy jigs.Soon we will switch to beetle spins.

Lemon Bay Jim at Fishermen’s Edge 697-7595There has been lots of redfish action

going on over here. The bigger schoolsare in Whidden Creek, up in Catfish Creekand there have been a couple in LemonBay. A lot of these reds are way over the

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

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

Nighttime Trips AvailableCapt. Jim OʼBrien USCG 50 ton license since 1985

941-473-2150


CLOSED!CLOSED!JJohn Hall is Goneohn Hall is Gone

October - Fishing Forecast

Landon Ali with a sheepshead andsister Kendra with a little snook

slot, bigger thanyou can keep forsure. Some guysare catching keep-ers mixed in withthe fish aroundOyster Creek.There are alsosome biggerschools aroundPine Island. Theyare catching themon white bait andcut mullet andsome guys are

using ladyfish chunked dead on the bottom.One guy likes 4-inch Gulp on a circle hook: letthe fish come to you and you don’t have towork. I’ve had guys catching a big variety ofstuff: flounder out on the beach and lots ofSpanish mackerel; just work the area you are in.Snapper are close by and around the trestle.

On docks close to the pass, guys are catchinglots of keeper size m angs.And some guys are starting to catch

sheepshead. They are showing around the ICWdocks. Those fish have a different schedule.The Spanish are fun. A lot of guys are making

a day of snapper, Spanish, trout and reds.One girl told me there were nice trout in

Lemon Bay over by Lemon Bay Park. ‘Shrimpon a poppin cork,’ she said.There are still tarpon around, 40- to 50

pounders with the bigger ones up in the Harbor.Some Boca guides are still running tarpon tripson the outgoing tide late at night and early am.Snook are being caught, a lot of little snook

around here says snook in the future will be awe-some. Keeper snook are now up at the TomAdams bridge, fish in the 28- 32 inch range.There are still some sharks. Bonnet sharks

are the biggest ones still around. Some guys arecatching the smaller black tips too. All in all, Fishing has been pretty good and

should only get better this month.

OFFSHORE from Capt. Jim OʼBrienI talked to some of my friends and seen how they

done and they have been limiting out on red grouper at42 to 45 miles out. Most of them are useing mullet, sar-dines, live pin fish or squirrel fish. A couple of otherguys I talked to was fishing closer in, in about 65- to80-feet of water and not doing too bad on red grouperand snapper. They said they got a lot of shorts, butwhen they did get a keeper it was 22 to 26-inches.

The lanes and mangs they caught they caught onlive shrimp. The snappers was running around 15 to 17inches. One guy I talked to said he got a nice cobia outon the Bayronto wreck. All in all the fish'n is very goodright now and should be getting better.

Now letʼs see what some other folks are catching.TARPON -- there are still some out off the beaches,

but they are starting to thin out and most will be gonesoon.

SHARKS -- nice size black tips are being caught onthe inshore and offshore reefs. The good baits arechunks of mullet and bonita. If you get any, black tipsharks are delicious, just remember after you catchone and put him in the boat, gut him right away and put

him in an ice slurry (salt water and ice) This will keepthe fish nice an cold until you get back to the dock.Then cut him into 1- to 2-inch steaks. You can broil himor put him on the grill and my friend you will have somevery good eating - Yum !

COBIA -- there are some bruisers on the offshorewrecks if your site fish'n cast a black and silver eel atthem. Berkley makes scented ones - or try a nice bigpin fish.

BARRACUDA -- are still on just about all the off-shore reefs and wrecks. Put on a blue runner or a biglively pin fish and hang on, if you want a fight you willhave one.

AJs -- there are a lot of them on just about all theoffshore wrecks. Lively blue runners is your choice ofbaits, but remember, itʼs catch an release only until Jan1st 2015

RED GROUPER -- are on fire at 40- to 45-milesout. Mostly 10- to 20-pounders are being caught andevery one I know is limiting out. Fishing out there is like30 miles was 15 years ago! Itʼs awesome.

GAG GROUPER -- are chewing good if you get outaround the wrecks or ledges an rocks. Pinfish an squir-

rel fish are thehot ticket.MANGROVESNAPPER ANLANE SNAP-PER -- a lot ofthem arebeing caughtin 60- to 80-feet of water.They are run-ning 15- to17- inches onthe inshorereefs. Biggerones are far-ther out. Bestbait is stillshrimp

Well folksthat's all I got fer ya this month. If you want to bookan offshore charter with us aboard the Predator IIgive us a call at (941) 473 - 2150.

FLOUNDER in the Harbor andalong the beach. Theyʼre early!

REDFISH Schools fromLemon Bay to Catfish Creek

SNOOK in the PC and PGIcanals at night

TARPON Big in the HarborJuvies in Spring Lake

FISHING FISHINGRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:

GREAT!GREAT!

95˚

90˚

85˚

80˚

72˚70˚68˚

50˚

45˚

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

Capt Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com

941-916-5769

BackBayXtremes

Guide CardSpace Available

$40/mo

Gulf Gulf TempsTempsare 83are 83

The Harbor isThe Harbor iscooling off. Raincooling off. Rainhas changed thehas changed the

salinity.salinity.

A catfish and a trout on thesame cast

Photo from Glen Ballinger


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