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Contributing Editors:Photography: ASA1000.com

Senior Editor: Capt. Ron BlagoCharter Fishing: Capt. Bart MarxPort Charlotte: Capt. Billy Barton

Punta Gorda: Capt. Chuck EichnerCommercial Fishing: Kelly Beall

Sea Grant: Betty StauglerReal Estate: Dave Hofer

Inshore: Fishinʼ FrankOffshore: Capt Jim OʼBrien

Kayaks: David AllenSailing: Bill Dixon (on sailbatical)

Office Dog: Molly Brown

on the COVER: Capt. Glen Ballinger sent us a number of reports

from his offshore trips last month out of Venice inlet aboard his boat Outcast. This red grouper was part ofthe fun. See page 15

Letters to [email protected]

Charlotte Harbor Reef Association

Inshore and Offshore HeadquartersInshore and Offshore Headquarters

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June 16 Mr. Heller, My name is Ray Combs and I am Owner

of REC Media Group, and the televisionproducer of the PTTS. A few day ago, I washaving dinner at a local restaurant and Ipicked up a copy of Water Life Magazine. Iread your commentary on page 11 aboutyour recent experience during one of thePTTS events and I was deeply concerned.My goal during the production is to get thebest possible coverage of the teams and, asI'm sure you can relate, the best shots. Ourintention is never to hide or block anythingnor to impede other's rights in any formwhatsoever. That being said, I would like tooffer my sincere apology for any distress orembarrassment members of my team mayhave caused you. Additionally, I would liketo extend to you an invitation to come out toeither of the two tournaments and ride onone of our camera boats this weekend toget some shots. You may even join me onthe main boat with Joe Mercurio as weshoot.

I'm sure you are aware of the issues sur-rounding jig tournaments in the pass. Weall have different opinions and feelings onthe subject. Personally, I feel strongly aboutencouraging open dialogue and communi-cation between all parties and figuring out away to share the pass for all anglers.

Best regards, Ray Combs

June 18 Mike Heller,It feels sometimes like we're all just talk-

ing in circles. Arguing for argument's sakeand getting nowhere.

Ug.... I just read an entire article/rant bysome (presumably jigging) Captain thatclaims it's because of the renourishment,the commercial tanker traffic, the changing

currents, etc. On and on and on. There'salways an excuse why it's not the jiggersand their boat operation. There's alwaysanother way to spin it.

Bottom line is, the tarpon aren't here asthey were before, and they aren't behavingin the same manners they have beenbefore. No matter what side you may be onand no matter how many excuses/reasonsyou can come up with and spin - the fact is,if something isn't done, the fishery will con-tinue to decline - and everyone will be out ofa job - and out of the incredible experienceof fishing for tarpon in Boca Grande Pass.

No matter who wins this jig/anti-jig battle,all I can say is that I am pleased as punchthat the area is getting a spotlight shown onit. The good news is that everyone is push-ing for conservation - or at least, eye-ing/research/studies on the number andmigratory patterns of the tarpon, as well asALL factors that may affect them.

However, I, like many of the "LiveBaiters/Old School," will continue to docu-ment, photograph, and DNA swab to showthe damage the PTTS/jigging is doing. Ithink the impact they inflict is a factor, buteven if (for some reason) the researchshows differently, it's still unnecessary.

Coco Hibb

Water LIFE then asked for pictures

June 19 Mr HellerWhat a disaster. That's all I can say. The few photos I was able to take, well,

suck. PTTS had boats everywhere blockinganyone with a camera. It was ridiculous.They were trying to herd anti-PTTS boatsaway from the weigh scales, they wereblocking photos of the "release/sink" boat,they were blocking any potential photos offoul hooked fish, they were blocking photosof the fish being gaffed and dragged out ofthe pass. Coco

June 19 Hi Michael,Obviously this is a heated debate down

there and will most likely continue to be.From my perspective, I found this week-

end's "peaceful protest" to be a deplorableshowing of aggression. In my seven yearsof shooting in Boca Grande Pass, this wasthe first time I truly felt concern for the safe-ty of me and my crew. I completely supporttheir right to protest and get their messageheard, however, their personal threats andverbal abuse was inexcusable.

Although I am not an official representa-tive of the PTTS, I am happy to speak withyou about the events on Sunday from mypoint of view.

Thank you for your dedication toresearching the facts and objective journal-ism. That is an honorable trait in today'sworld. Best regards, Ray

June 20 Mike, I'm hearing rumors that the "conserva-

tion minded" PTTS did not DNA swab anyfish from this final tournament. Not sure ifthat's true or not, but would be curious toknow.

Thanks! Coco Editorʼs NOTE* More to come

Tarpon eMailsTwo Perspectives

TURN THE PAGESEVERY MONTMRHBack Issues to 2004Kids ChartersFishing ClassesTidesWeatherSailingKayakingDiving

One-click Linksfrom the web addressin your monthly ad toyour website

4th Place 170-pound PTTS entry. Hooked,fought and caught by Jen Powell Markett


By Michael Hel lerWater LIFE publisher

I know there are some readers outthere who are going to say ‘serves youright’ and maybe it does, but I’m not put-ting up with duck poop in my pool.

We feed the small song birds, cardi-nals, sparrows and such with food mywife buys bulk from Crossties Farm andGarden store out on Hwy 17, but a cou-ple of months ago we got a sack of birdfood from someplace else. I don’t know if it was the different

seeds, or millet, or what, but the ducksappeared soon after we put it out. We’vehad neighborhood ducks living in thecanal for years, but now, suddenly, wehad move-in ducks living in our yard.Then the ducks started swimming in

the pool and making little ‘yucky, ducky-deposits’. So we quit putting out birdfood and the birds left... except for 3stubborn Mottled ducks, what looked likeone mating pair and a persistent follower.Our house is set back about 20 feet

from the pool and elevated 8 feet aboveit. We have a nice deck outside thekitchen that faces the pool. The pair of ducks would respond

quickly when I’d come outside to shoothem, but the left-out duck began to

ignore me. Even when I'd run down tothe pool making noise and waving myhands, he'd just swim across to the oppo-site side. So I came up with a new strategy. I'd

go to the refrigerator and get some icecubes to throw into the pool around himand roust him. Gerrunk, gerrunk the icecubes would come out and when I had ahandful I'd go outside and show him my

ice-pitch. That alwaysgot his attention..andoff he would fly, buthe would come back.And I’d get more ice.Eventually, just

the gerrunk, gerrunk,gerrunk noise of theice maker was enoughto get the duck’sattention and he’d go

airborne before I could get out the kitchendoor.

Now for the ankle part: I was down atthe pool the last day of May vacuumingup Mr. Single Duck’s poop when I hearda familiar splashing sound in the canal. Itwas Mr. Single Duck who had just flownup onto the concrete walkway leadingfrom the dock to the pool. I was squat-ting down with the vacuum pole and hedidn’t see me as he waddled ahead.There is a small low concrete wall

between the walk and the pool. I sprangup from behind the wall, waving myarms dropping the long aluminum vacu-um pole to make even more noise. WhenI landed my right foot collapsed and Itumbled onto the lawn. The commotion scared the duck into

an immediate flight of fright, but I hurtpretty bad. I reached down to feel myankle and my heart sank. I could put my

hand right around my ankle. It feltcreepy. It wasnt broken, but there was noAchilles tendon on the back of my leg. The Achilles is the long tendon that

connects the calf muscles with the heelbone. The achilles helps flex your footup and down. The treatment for thisinjury is surgery asap, with conventionalstitches outside and something like abimini twist inside that attaches to a tita-nium screw in my heel. Recuperating will keep me from put-

ting weight on my leg for four months!I’m on crutches (borrowed from Darrel atFishin’ Franks - thanks!) and then I'll bewearing a knee high boot untilHalloween. No boating and no driving.Gas prices going down, stinks to be me.

But still, there may be a good side.As I sit at my desk trying to type withmy leg up, to keep the swelling down, Iknow that every hour, when my wifegoes into the kitchen to fill the big Zip-Loc ice bag for my ankle, and the refrig-erator makes that greeunk, gerrunk ger-runk grinding sound crushing up the ice,we are getting Mr. stubborn SingleDuck’s attention. I figure that by the timeI’m up and walking around and don’t needice any more, either the duck will havegotten the hint and moved out for good orwe’ll be getting ready to serve duck forThanksgiving dinner.

The Duckʼs Revenge

Above: Mr Single Duck, itʼs all his fault.Right: Capt. Andy Medina postedʻFrankenankle ̓ on my Facebook page after Ihad surgery to repair my ruptured Achillesʼtendon.

By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE Punta Gorda FishingFor most anglers monsoon summer

rains and high waters keep you from put-ting your boat in the water. The toughpart is that for the next couple of monthsrain will be part of the forecast on justabout any given day. The fish are condi-tioned to expect this seasonal shift andadapt their feeding habits and fishyhaunts. Predictable afternoondownpours are usually followedby a calm spell and on somedays it is rain all day. Whenthe scorching afternoon sunmoves the thermometer on landto the low 90’s the shallows ofCharlotte Harbor reflect tem-peratures pushing 90 degreesand that is hot for any fish!The beauty of it is that the

cooling rains chill the water,increase the volume of waterand with the additional wateryou see increased tidal velocity. Thisrecipe excites our backcountry gamefishand some open water fish like the tarpon!Flexibility is the key in planning yourfishing trip. Perhaps you will need totrailer your boat to work to catch thesweet time right after an afternoon stormin mid afternoon. Another alternative is

to fish on a day when they are calling forrain. Most anglers will avoid the waterand you will have the harbor to yourself!With a couple of days of rain and almostno boat traffic you will be amazed at allof the fish that appear in places wherethey should be and perhaps used to be.With tournament anglers blazing the shal-lows preparing for the weekend tourna-ment, recreational anglers exploringunknown territory and tower boat ownersrunning the islands our fishery is con-stantly disturbed. A few rainy days will

prove to you that there are more fisharound then you might think because boattraffic has changed fish patterns. Mothernature will give you plenty of interestingsigns that things are different in the rainand before and after a storm. After a trop-ical storm you might see a wandering

alligator that followed the freshwater flowfrom a local lake. Pelicans must hunkerdown in the rain as well and seek com-panionship while waiting for sunshine toilluminate the waters so they can see tofeed on baitfish.Summertime is a great time to fish the

outgoing tide. More anglers prefer theincoming tide overall however high tidesenhanced with extra fresh water createquite a sheet flow in the backcountry.The best method to locate fish is to hop-scotch from island to island. Throw arti-ficials or bait focusing on obvious watermovement on certain parts of the islands,creeks, canals and areas where there arebottom depth changes. A lot of time youwill see floating leaves, seaweed or aquat-ic stuff piling up in certain areas which iscreated by a tidal eddy with a swift currentflow nearby. Snook and redfish love toskirt these areas because crabs, fish,shrimp and salty creatures are flowing inthe mix. The higher the tides the furtherback into the bush the fish will meander.Gamefish will instinctively begin tomove out towards open water with thefalling tide. I have caught redfish in lateafternoon in open water in front of theoutermost islands where boats have runthrough all day. Fish know that it is asafe time after a storm to patrol theseareas as the tide flushes morsels throughthe water column. An absolute greattime to throw a hard or soft jerk bait or a

top water bait covering lots of water.Every creek in the harbor will be

swollen with a strong outflow after arainstorm. Canals in Punta Gorda andPort Charlotte will be doing the same.The fish will be in predictable locationsambushing from mangroves, seawalls orgrassbeds as your bait passes by. Waterclarity went through a dramatic change inJune going from clear to dark and murky.Avoid muddy brown water but expect toonly see a few inches below the surface. The recipe for a hot bite in the sum-

mer is a cool rain storm. After the rainand associated winds have passed we havea grandeur period where the water is oftenmirror flat. You will see more fish activ-ity then you can imagine and the fishwill be the only ones you are sharing thewater with.

Capt. Chuck Eichner operates ActionFlats Backcountry Charters and can bereached at 941-628-8040 or atwww.backcountry-charters.com


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Fishing theStained Water

By Capt. David S tephensWater LIFE InshoreEvery summer when the rainy season arrives, the

waters of Charlotte Harbor become stained like a glass oftea. The darker water comes from the dead vegetationmixed with the rain run off. No the water is not pollutedthis is a natural occurrence that is important for the healthof our estuary. There are both positives and negatives ofthe dark summer waters. Hopefully I can help you turnsome of these negatives in to positives. The biggest com-plaint that I hear when speaking to people about the waterclarity is sight fishing. Well look on the bright side if youcan’t see them they can’t see you. If you have ever sightfished for Charlotte Harbor redfish, you know it is not aseasy as it sounds. When I’m out fishing the flats with arti-ficials I do what we call fan casting. This is a simple tech-nique, I will position myself to where the wind or currentwill push me across the flat I plan to fish. Put your anchoror pole down and make several casts if you catch fish workthe area more thoroughly, if not move to the edge of yourcast and repeat. Also I recommend a lure that you can covera lot of water with fast. In this situation early I throw topwater, later in the day a spoon.For the live bait guys out there, well I let the bait do

the work for me. When I pull up to an area I’m going tofish I chum heavier this time of year than when I can seefish over the white sandy bottom. Many times fish willblow up on your chum in places you didn’t expect. Tryto picture the area as it was when the water was clear.The grass lines and pot holes didn’t change.If you would like to experience some of Charlotte

Harbors finest fishing give me a call or e-mail me andwe will customize a charter that best fits you and yourparty’s needs.

From BassFishingOhio.com:Reaction strikes are different than the regular hungry

strike….this is a strike out of anger. What causes reac-tion strikes? Well, I was fishing once and saw a very nicebass in this pond. I tried everything to catch her and shejust wouldnʼt hit so I changed to a bug type lure and justkept casting over and over to the same exact place rightby her…finally she struck. She was a nice 4 pounder.Pressure or a cold front has moved in or the bass are ontheir beds just to name a few.

So, what kind of lures do you use to get reactionstrikes? Usually a big lure with bright colors, white, pink,fluorescent, yellow and many more.

You can also use spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, big worms,swimbaits, jitterbugs and many more lures. Just repeatthe casts to the same area. Sometimes even switching toa different bait will do the trick. Surprising the bass willget a reaction strike too, moving the bait fast, and maybefrom behind the bass to his front so he canʼt see it com-ing.

If youʼre having a slow day or maybe a “no” day trygetting reaction strikes, you just might catch the bass ofa lifetime.

Water LIFE Editor notes* think about it in relation tojigs and tarpon. Are reaction-type strikes part of sometarpon hooksets?

ANGRY REACTION STRIKE for Bass (and Tarpon?)


CommentaryBy Michael Hel lerWater LIFE publisherOk, so here’s the deal. The Charlotte

Sun has refused to print my letters tothem, letters that concerned theFlatsmasters Tournament and theLaishley Crab House, so I’ll say it here.A real newspaper has a responsibility

to the community it serves, a responsi-bility to put out both sides of an issueand to investigate a story before it puts itin print. It is arrogant for a newspaperlike the Sun to think they know what’sbest for the community.Here’s the way I believe it’s supposed

to work in the newspaper business:Unless a story is labeled as an opinion oras a commentary, it is irresponsible toprint what an outside contributor writesand then publish it as fact. This problemis compounded exponentially when thenewspaper is itself involved in the issueit is writing about, such as is the casewith the Charlotte Sun being a competi-tor and sponsor in the Flatsmaster’sTournament.

Last month I wrote about theFlatsmasters Tournamentbecoming a kill tournamentwhen they included the very del-icate sea trout in their catch andrelease events. The Sun newspaper reacted

with a story which I suspectwas driven by advertising dol-lars. In that story the writer,Lee Anderson, talked about howgood the tournament was doinghandling fish. Clearly there is adifference of opinion, (ask thedead trout) so here is what I’dlike the Sun readers to know:In the Sun article titled:

Flat smas t ers Rel eas e Boat Gi v esFi sh a Fi ght i ng Chance. The writerstates ‘Cons ervati on o f fi s h i s hi s(Jerry Cleffi, the Tournament Director’s)main pri o ri ty ’I think that’s laughable! The Laishley

Events Management Group owns theFlatsmasters and holds the tournament todrive food and beverage sales at theLaishley Crab House and at HarpoonHarrys. The second priority would be thethousands of dollars in profit each tourna-ment generates. Fish, I think, are low inpriority and are only props for the show.In that same Sun article, tournament

director Cleffi claims he ‘res earched theBas smas ters tournament and thendevel oped hi s own rel eas e boat toensure the fi s h’s s urv i vabi l i ty. ’Truth is, if not for law abiding, conserv -ation minded observers, dead fish wouldstill be floating the morning after eachevent and there would be no release boat. But put all that aside, and let’s assume

there was some release boat epiphany thattook place on Jerry Cleffi’s part and likeNoah, Cleffi built a boat to save the fish.Then once Flatsmasters had that releaseboat things would have gotten better forthe fish. Right? That’s what theCharlotte Sun would like people tobelieve, but that’s also not true.Go back and look at our 2009 April

Water LIFE edition online, the fish in thefirst Flatsmasters release boat (snook,

redfish and trout) were dead. (photo left) ‘Would it be fair to say half the f ish

were dead? ‘ I had asked the Flatsmastersrelease boat operator at the time and hetold me ‘it would be fair to say they wereall dead.' That was the quote the releaseboat operator working for Jerry Cleffigave me. Go back and read the story andread the June 2009 story “You Can’t FixStupid” while you are at it.“Fi sh are taken to areas that pro -

mo te s urv i vabi l i ty, ” Cleffi was quotedin the Sun's article, but in 2009 thispublication also published another quotefrom the Flatsmasters release boat opera-tor who said: “We’re just taking themaround the corner to dump them off.”That instance must have slipped Cleffi’smind in the interview. I have to believe if

Flatsmasters really paidenough attention to the fishthey wouldn’t have theseproblems. Are things better for the

tournament’s fish today thanin 2009? I don’t know. In2010 the Laishley groupbanned me from their events“unless I only had ‘positivethings to say.”

Two months after the‘they are all dead,” incidentthe Flatsmasters releaseboat had another incident.

A video shot from anapartment at Colony Pointsurfaced, showing theFlatsmaster’s release boatgiving away live fish theywere supposed to be releas-ing. They were giving themto anglers on another boat.And to make a point, whenthe release boat driver saw hewas being recorded hedropped his pants andmooned the camera! Theseare arrogant folks.When I questioned Cleffi

about it at the time, thefirst thing he said was"That's not my boat, that's

John Flowers’ boat." Once again, thesurvivability concern was clearly forCleffi’s own ass and not for the fish. The FWC sent Flatsmasters a letter

after they saw the video warning that itwas only because they were not presentin person that they did not take action.You’d think that all this would figure

into a story about the release boat givingfish a fighting chance.Long about now, a real newspaper

would be figuring out they are in wayover their heads with the tournament peo-ple and they would start digging out thereal truth about what’s been happening. The Sun, on the other hand, by cater-

ing to its advertisers, has chosen to takesides with the big money.

Note to the Charlotte Sun: You are Way Out of your League

Fish handling has improved since this 2002 CHS tournamentwhere Tournament Director Jerry Cleffi dumped the redfish down acorrugated pipe into the Harbor.

Big breeding female snook, dead in theFlatsmasters release boat in 2009. Would itbe fair to say half the fish were dead? Iasked - the answer from the release boatwas ʻit would be fair to say they were alldead.ʼ

The You Tube video of the Flatsmasters release boat givingaway live fish instead of releasing them has over 2000views. You can still search YouTube for ʻFlatsmasters ̓ andwatch it. Call me if you know the guys getting the fish.

OpinionBy Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE Baitshop

Florida evaporates 51inches of rain a year, so in order for lifeto exist in balance here we need an aver-age of 1 inch of rain a week. After thefirst 2 days of Debby the ground was stillbone, powder dry 8 inches down from thesurface. So as much of a pain as stormsare, we need tropical storm systems tosurvive.There has not been a rainy season here

in S.W. Florida since 1988. We do have arainy-er season, when we get more rainthan other times, but since I-75 and thebuilding of Murdock we’ve had no rainyseason as us old timers remember it.Every afternoon between 2 and 4 p.m.

it used to pour/ team rain, thunder andlightning cracking around you every fewseconds. Forty mph winds, 2 inches ofrain ... then just as fast as it started anhour later it was gone. This happenedalmost every day. So scary were thesestorms many people who had boughttheir homes in the winter sold them andmoved north after their first experiencewith a true Florida rainy season.What I believe happened was when we

built I-75, then the Mall and the otherbuildings in Murdock, it disrupted the cir-cular flow of the air patterns. Back then Iwas an iron worker, tieing steel reinforce-ment rods for concrete structures. Each

day during the summer it wasa race to see if you could getdone before the storm hit.Lightning or no lightningsteel rods had to be placed intowet concrete. So with light-ning cracking around us andme holding steel rods andsticking them into the pour,we learned to work early andhard to finish before the stormstarted every day.Concrete, roof tops, and blacktop roads

create a hot zone where heat goes up in athermal rise –think of it as a wall of hotair blocking the local weather patterns. In the central part of the country a

storm moving across the states will oftengo around a city and when storms do passover a city, the rain does not make it tothe ground. Before the 1990's the clouds would

start to move in about 11a.m. from theGulf, go up along the Myakka, backdown along the Peace River then circletogether like an old wagon train. Whenthey got together bang - smash, thunder,lightning and rain.The last time I remember being really

scared was when I was working on theold Service Merchandise Plaza, whereLowes is today. We had no thought ofchanging the weather patterns, affectingthe history and the lives of every personhere, all we were doing was building.

This is all what I have seen and havebeen a part of. Maybe the planet justchanged from one year to the next?Maybe what I and others did had no partin it, but something changed and now weare dependent on tropical rains for thewater we need to survive.In some ways it is nicer with no

intense storms every day, but at whatprice? Maybe it will be better in someways, but at what cost? Can the wildlifeadapt to such a fast changing environ-ment, or are we seeing the last days ofCharlotte Harbor as an estuary? The fight to save Charlotte Harbor has

just begun and I owe the Save the Tarponpeople a word of thanks, it was their cryabout the changing tarpon habitat whichbrought this to my attention. Stand onthe shore, look at our beautiful harbor andjoin me in helping save it.

Frank can be reached at 625-3888 or [email protected]


Changing Weather Changing the Estuary?

P a g e 1 0 Wa t e r L I F E @ c o m c a s t . n e t J u l y 2 0 1 2

Bay Scallops in SWFL: A Protected Species By Betty S tauglerWater LIFE / Sea Grant The Florida bay scallop is a bivalve

mollusk that grows and lives in seagrassbeds in relatively shallow water, 4 to 10feet deep. At one time scallops could befound from Palm Beach to Pensacola.Today, consistently healthy populationscan only be found in selected locationsalong Florida's West Coast - principallySt. Joseph Bay, and the area between theEconfina and Weeki Wachee rivers.In recent years, bays scallops have

been seen in greater numbers in south-west Florida waters, in part due to restora-tion efforts in the area. With greaterawareness of their recovery, unfortunatelycome many reports of illegal harvesting.Readers should be aware that recreationalharvest of bay scallops is prohibited in allsouthwest Florida waters. Legal RequirementsIn Florida, commercial harvest of bay

scallops is prohibited. Recreational har-vest is allowed only in state waters fromnorth of the Pasco-Hernando county lineto the west bank of Mexico Beach Canaland only during a limited season, whichruns July 1 through September 10, 2012. For readers interested in traveling to

the Big Bend during the recreational har-vest season a few rules apply. In general,recreational scallopers between the ages of16 and 65 must have a current Floridasaltwater fishing license to collect scal-lops. There are some exceptions; these arelisted in the FWC "Florida RecreationalSaltwater Fishing Regulations," which isavailable in bait shops, FWC offices, orat the FWC web site. All non-residentsover the age of 16 are required to buy alicense unless they are fishing (scallop-ing) from a for-hire vessel (guide, charter,party boat) that has a valid vessel license. Two new brochures: Recreational

Harvesting of the Florida Bay ScallopCitrus County and Taylor County areavailable through Florida Sea Grant(http://flseagrant.org/recreational-scallop-ing-in-florida). Both brochures include aboat ramp and marina locator for visitorsto those areas. Life HistoryScallops live about one year before

either dying off naturally or being eatenby crabs, octopuses, or a variety of shellcrushing finfish. Most adult scallopsspawn in the fall, and after about twoweeks, the swimming larvae attach ontoseagrass blades where they continue togrow until late spring to early summer.They then fall from the grass blades andbecome free swimmers, unlike oystersand clams. To swim, the large white mus-cle most harvesters consume is used topull their shells together rapidly, forcingexpelled water to propel them quite rapid-

ly. Scallops are prolific spawners - a sin-gle scallop can produce more than onemillion eggs per spawn. Because they areso heavily preyed upon, only about onein a million will reach adulthood.To monitor bay scallop populations in

the state and maintain an abundant breed-ing population, the Florida Fish andWildlife Conservation Commission(FWC) has reviewed the status of thefishery annually since 1993 by means ofa statewide survey and monthly monitor-

ing for settling larvae. Volunteer opportunities exist for the

public to assist in evaluating bay scalloppopulations in southwest Florida. Theseare no-harvest events organized to monitorand document the health and status of thebay scallop population in the respectiveareas. Reservations are required to partici-pate.In Charlotte County, the 2012 Great

Bay Scal lop Search will take place onAugust 4th. Up to 40 boats and 150

snorkelers are being recruited to partici-pate in the event where volunteers willsnorkel in assigned locations ofGasparilla Sound and Lemon Bay lookingfor bay scallops. For more informationor to reserve your spot visit:http://2012lemonbaygasparillasoundscallopsearch.eventbrite.com.

Be tty StauglerFlorida Sea Grant AgentUniversity of Florida IFAS ExtensionCharlotte County(941) 764-4346


Call the Captain! Call the Captain! INCREDIBLE OPEN WATERVIEWS of Charlotte Harbor! Rare tip lot sold with the lotnext to it. Combined waterfrontage of approximately 262ft. Located in a protected open water estuary. Immediateaccess to Charlotte Harbor for world class fishing andboating pleasure. Seawall already constructed. $750,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! CUSTOM BUILT LAKE-FRONT POOL HOME! Deep Creek, 3/2, 2,000+ sq. ft.Numerous upgrades, cultured marble vanity, dual sinksand garden tub in master, Too much more to list here!White hurricane storm panels, bevel cut glass entry.Wired for surround sound. Built in 2007. $249,900

Call the Captain!Call the Captain! FANTASTIC KEY WESTSTYLE HOME! 5 bedrooms, 4 car garage with pool andover 4600sf under air. Built in 2000 with dock and boatlift. $399,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! BEAUTIFUL STILT HOMELIKE NEW! High end appointments built in 2004, boathouse and a short boat ride to harbor. 3/2 with 4 cargarage and room for an RV. List $474,500

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! 3400 SQ FT GARAGE with thisbeautiful 3 bdrm 2 bath waterfront home built to com-mercial standards. Huge 900 sf porch over looks water,65 ft. concrete dock & lifts. Garage has 14' ceilings & 2double doors. $399,000

Call the Captain!Call the Captain! FABULOUS WATERFRONTHOME - LIKE NEW Florida style 3/2/2 plus Den, builtin 1999, over 2000sf Air, lanai, dock, large backyard,great room design, short boat ride to harbor Only$199,900

Cal l the Captain!Cal l the Captain! BEAUTIFUL PUNTAGORDA waterfront community, immediateaccess to Charlotte Harbor with no bridges!Only 20 minute boat ride to the Gulf, secludedlocation with gorgeous homes nearby. Harborestuary views from dock! $139,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! 3/2 MODULAR HOME INGOLF COURSE COMMUNITY Like new with lanaibuilt in 2006, workshop and used seasonally. Amenitiesinclude club, restaurant, fitness club, pool and sports.$89,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! Incredible waterfront lot,southern exposure, minutes to harbor situated amongstbeautiful homes and walking distance to Fisherman'sVillage. Incredible price $159,000!!

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! OVER 1 ACRE with additional30'x40' 4 car garage! 3/2/2 pool home is perfect to storeyour boat and launch in minutes at the community boatramp. Over 500 ft. of vinyl fenced property and has a largeconcrete pad area, stamped concrete driveway and pooldeck. RV Parking, Close to beach $265,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! INTERSECTING CANALVIEWS IN PUNTA GORDA ISLES Only $249,000for this beautiful 3/2/2 pool home with great canalviews, quick harbor access. This home is in move incondition with many updates!

Call the Captain!Call the Captain! OPEN HARBOR WATERVIEWS ovesized seawalled waterfront lot.Approximatley 157 ft. complete with dock. Beautifulwestward views of artfull sunsets. Nearly 1/2 acre,ready to build on, secluded yet easy to reach down-town activities. $399,000

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Provided to Water LIFE BY: Dave Ho fer RE/MAX Harbor Realty(941) 575-3777 [email protected]

Recent area news i tems:1. Probitas Enterprises purchased a5,735 acre farm for $18 Million($3,135/acre). The purchasers found itto be some 60% more valuable than theCharlotte County Tax Assessor thoughtit was. This sale price should encouragethe assessor to correct some of the valu-ation discrepancies that seem to prevailhere for commercial and investmentproperties. 2. TEAM Punta Gorda, The LaishleyGroup, the city of Punta Gorda andMote Marine have begun the search forarchitectural and engineering serviceproviders. Bypassing many more suit-able sites, all seem to be anxious tobegin the multi year task of buildingthis curiosity on the City's iconic retailsite at Marion and Rt 41.3. Charlotte County got some helpfrom incredibly low mortgage rates toallow refinancing of its albatross,Murdock Village. Interest rates will drop

to

2.95% for the next ten years on theremaining $49 million still owed.Let's hope that development of this siteoccurs before this loan comes up forrenewal again.4. The Punt Gorda CRA was extendedfor an additional 11 years past its origi-nally intended 2019 expiration date.Taxpayers will be deprived of any incre-mental taxes that would otherwise becollected in the City Center taxing dis-trict, home to the Herald Court ParkingGarage and some of the city's most cost-ly retail space.5. Three of Punta Gorda's councilseats are up for election this year. Allthree were filled without the need for anelection. Kim Nickelson-Devine turnedin the only application for District 1,Rachel Kiesling, an incumbent, willcontinue to represent district 2 & TomCavanaugh will replace Harvey Goldbergin district 4. Redistricting will eventu-ally eliminate the seat currently held byBill Albers. The new council memberswill be sworn in November 7.6. Clear Channel Radio's KenLovejoy will moderate two candidate'sforums this summer. Candidates for allof the County board spots, sheriff, tax

appraiser and assessor and election super-visor will participate. The debates willbe streamed live at 7pm on July 12thand 19th. The sponsors haven't decided ifthe debates will be archived for laterenjoyment, so go to ccfam.com to listento them live. There will be no call inquestions, so email yours in advance [email protected]. Sun Coast Media Group Inc., thenewspaper chain owned by David Dunn-Rankin, has borrowed $4.8 million fromFlorida Shores Bank SW. The loan wassecured against 9 of the company’s prop-erties.In other news: Sales Statistics: Inventories of bothvacant lots and houses continue to runabout 20% below year ago levels. Asthe inventory of distressed propertiescontinues to shrink, sales at the lowerend of the market have heated up.Charlotte County matched national sta-tistics for growth in home sales of 3.4%for April vs. March.

By Capt. Bi l ly BartonWater LIFE / Charlotte Harbor

What's up all you fishin fools!? Ihope the salt life's been treating every-body special! Spending 75- percent ofmy waking hours on the water is with-out a doubt a dream come true. Alwayswill be. And I get the pleasure of writ-ing about my experiences and sharingthem with you all. I'm out there, and Isee what's going on. My only hopesare that some folks read what I writeand use it to better there own fishingexperiences. This last month the fishing was just

fantastic. On average in a four hourtrip I'd say we caught about 50 fishgive or take. I'm not talking about cat-fish either guys. I'm talking qualityfish. You can pretty much pick andchoose what type of species you wantto target on the water this time of year.To me this is what always keeps thingsinteresting. You really can't switch itup much if you're a fresh water fisher-man. The salt water is where theexcitement is!One fish that is just so exciting to

target here inshore is mangrove snapper.Snapper are one of the tastiest fish inour waters, and pound for pound theyare probably one of the scrappiest fishyou can target here as well. Theinshore variety might not look likemuch, but let me tell you those littlesuckers put up a fight! I put a ton offocus on these fish this time of year,and let me tell you, it is the time to getout and put some in the cooler! As ofthis year in Southwest Florida theyhave increased our bag limit on thesefish to ten per person which makes foran even better reason to go target them.It was five, which if you ask me justwasn't enough for a fish that is soabundant in our waters. You don't get awhole lot of meat off of em unless

Real Estate News

Anew term

was added tothe ever expanding

phraseology used byweather men to describe

what they really donʼtunderstand.In discussing Tropical Storm

Debby, whose where abouts andintentions were the subject of much

ʻforecasting ̓last month, they said:

ʻThis is a LimitedReliability Forecast ̓The Weather Channel

Downtown Punta Gorda. The twinarrows are the city park boat ramp, belowtheat is the proposed site for a MoteMarine attraction

Snapper

J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w. Wa t e r L I F E m a g a z i n e . c o m P a g e 1 3

they're twelve inches or better. I don'teven bother keepin em under twelve inch-es truthfully. It's nice in my opinion tobe able to bring home a better supply ofsnapper meat. So, needless to say thismonth I'm gonna give just a few tips onhow to make your snapper trips hopeful-ly a little more successful.For being a smaller fish snapper are

pretty smart. They know water structure,and they have extremely good eyesight. Ilike to target these fish on our reefs, onmangrove shorelines that hold a goodamount of underwater debris, tree limbs,and around boat docks especially. Thelarger the fish, the better its eyesight isgonna be. I like to use a good three footpiece of fluorocarbon leader, ten to twen-ty pound tied to a number one hook,when targeting them. If you need asmall split shot sinker to get down in thecurrent use one but I prefer to free line(use no weight) if possible. This lighttackle makes them a challenge becausewhen hooked the fish will almost alwaystake a run for the structure and attemptbreaking you off. Sometimes the fish will shut down a

little bit during your slower periods ofthe tides. This doesn't mean they aren'tthere, it just means when the tide turnsand starts moving the fish will turn ontoo. Some type of water movementALWAYS makes for better fishing. Thetoughest of fishing days are usually thedays that are ninety degrees with no windat all and a slow moving tide. Even ifthe tides are no good for that day, a littlebit of wind almost always will get thingsmoving around a little more, and get thefish eating a little better. Snapper enjoy all types of bait fish.

Shrimp, small crabs, whitebait, pin fish,cut mullet all can be baits of choicewhen targeting these fish. During theday in my opinion the shrimp tend toproduce the smaller snappers. At night

however I have more confidence in theshrimp for the larger fish. My successlately has all been with small quartersized pin fish, or live or cut threadfin her-ring. The larger snappers are goingbonkers over the threadfins especially!Lately, if my customers want to targetsomething to eat, snapper is most cer-tainly on the list. Without a problemI'm sending home a limit of snapper forevery person on the boat. Some of thesefish have reached up to eighteen inches.If you ask me, for inshore that's impres-sive!!!Last but not least if you have a good

tidal flow always remember to chumwith whatever your bait of choice is.This will always improve your chances.I've been cutting my threadfins in tinypieces and once every five or ten minutesI'll throw out a small handful.Chumming is very important it reallygets them going.

If you're land bound and you can't getout on the water this doesn't prevent youfrom catching quality snapper in goodnumbers. The bridges on 41 and 776 areholding an extreme amount of snapperright now. El Jobean, the Placida fishingpier, Tom Adams pier in Englewood, andSouth Gasparilla pier in Boca Grande areall places to catch some good fish. Ihope this leaves everyone with some bet-ter insight on some inshore snapper fish-ing. Now get out there and catch yousome dinner!! Take a kid with you too.You get him hooked it'll be the bestthing you ever did for him. Good luckout there guys and girls I'm signing outtill next time.

Capt. Billy Barton operates Scales NTai ls Charters. He can be reached at 979-6140 or : [email protected]

Keeper

Snapper have been great (above) but red-fish and small sharks are also showing them-selves in a day of fishing


Compiled from reports by the crewPete Lee celebrated his first day of fish-

ing during American red snapper seasonby catching a personal best snapper.

The seas were a little choppy but wemade our way in two hours to about a 200foot depth. The fishermen dropped theirbait to the bottom and instantly the bitewas on. Several grouper and snapperwere already on board when the tip ofPeteʼs fishing rod violently lurched forward.The hooked opponent made a run forstructure, but Pete turned the fish aroundand after a 10 minute struggle a 36 inchred grouper (approximately 20 pounds)came aboard. Pete did not have a person-al best red snapper, but this was thelargest red grouper he had ever landed.Several minutes later Pete had recordedanother personal best: a Scamp grouper ofapproximately 12 pounds. A few hefty redsnapper were boated at this location soPete baited his hook with a frozen cigarminnow and dropped it towards the bottom.The bait never got a chance to get there.Pete held on tight as the aggressive hitand strong head shakes said he was nowin battle with a big snapper. Eventually

flashes of iridescent red became visible 30feet below and Pete knew he was in thefinal stages of catching his red snapper.The 16 pound red snapper flopping on thedeck was yet another personal best.

On the third spot of the day, schools ofalmaco crowded around the Outcast andwe watched as they eagerly hit smallchunks of bait on our flat lines. Amazingly,Pete was again hooked into a big fish. Thedrag on his spinning reel screamed as thefish continued to pull out line on deep divestowards the bottom. Several minutes laterCapt. Glen was gaffing a 10 pound almaco,yet another personal best for Pete and ourlargest almaco of the day. The bottom rigswere useless at this last location as hugefish (probably Goliath grouper) proved toomuch for our tackle, but the surface actionwas so relentless we just continued tocatch and release amberjack and gaggrouper (both out of season) as well as lit-tle tunny and a few sharks that wereattracted by the chum. A school of dolphin(mahi mahi) swam near the boat and threewere added to the dayʼs catch. Finally, ourfish box was full and Capt. Glen signaled itwas time to call it a day.

A Slew of Personal BestsCaptainʼs Corner Offshore aboard OUTCAST Got a Story? send us your pictures: [email protected]

On June 3rd, the intrepid crew of The Outcastfrom Venice, FL set out to take advantage of the newly

opened red snapper season. Capt. Glen Ballinger suspectedthe snapper fishing would be good, given his favorite numbers

had been rested over 10 months and he was right. Then on the 16th Jeremy Wilhelm from Atlanta on vacation in

FL.with his father Frank, ended up catching a real nice black fin tuna and the largestred grouper of the day! We left the dock at 6 AM and finished up cleaning the boat andfish at 8 PM on that trip.

The day took us 80 miles offshore for a local Venice fishing tournament, and onthe way back home we spotted a whale shark swimming on the surface. We stoppedfor about 10 minutes and enjoyed the beauty of this great animal. It stayed on the sur-face the entire time. We tried to catch a cobia that was near it, but had no luck. Thisis only the second whale shark we have ever seen off Venice. Fish aboard The Outcast w i th Capt . Glen Bal l inger (941) 323-5251

By Bobby Vital is JrSpecial to Water LIFECheck out this snook. Snook are a lot of

fun to catch because they give an awesomefight. This one was caught at Tom Adam’sbridge in Englewood. You can also catchsnook at Sharky’s pier in Venice. You willsee the snook at certain times, in schools,right at the beginning of the pier, along thesurf. The snook has a most distinctive bodyshape, with large fins and most of all has aprominent black stripe running the fulllength of the lateral line. However, snookfishing is out of season, so you have tothrow them back in the water. The best timeI have caught these fish is at the incomingtide in the morning. To find these fish, youneed to look around docks, under bridges,around the mangroves, piers, and around pil-ings. There are many baits you can use tocatch snook, but the most common bait iseither pilchards (green backs), mullet, or liveshrimp, which is very productive. Most ofthe time, I love using artificial lures, most ofthe time I cast. I have been trying severallures which I’m having very good luck with.

Some of the best lures I have been using iscalled the Berkley Gulp Saltwater 3” NewPenny shrimp. The good thing about this isit comes with its own strong scent, that willlast all day. I do not have to put scent on theshrimp. The other lure I am using is theD.O.A C.A.L 4” Jerk bait Model #419 color(green back), which I have been having verygood luck with. But, I have to put scent onit. The best jig head I’m using for theselures is the D.O.A C.A.L short shank from3/8oz. to 1/2oz. weight, color (white orchartruse head). If the water is calm and shal-low, I use the 3/8oz. weight. If the water hasa current and deep, I use the 1/2oz. weight.There is one more lure I would like to sharewith you, which is called the GOT-CHAlure. It has a silver body with chartruse headand weight is from 7/8oz. to 1oz. With thislure, I have caught snook, ladyfish, shark,crevalle jack, blue fish, and Spanish macker-el. I can use this lure year round and alwayscatch something on it. Now, for my mainline, I am using 30lb. test SUFIX 832ADVANCED SUPER line (braided). For myleader line, I am using 3 feet of 25lb. test

SEAGUAR 100% FLUOROCARBONLEADER line, which is invisible in thewater. When tying your leader line to yourjig head, I suggest you use the RAPALAknot because it will create more action out ofthe jig. So have fun fishing.

SNOOK: The Pier Angler J u l y 2 0 1 2 w w w. Wa t e r L I F E m a g a z i n e . c o m P a g e 1 5

Diver ParticipationSought for Fish CountFLORIDA KEYS — Divers and

snorkelers can participate in a series ofJuly events hosted by Keys dive opera-tors, in cooperation with the ReefEnvironmental Education Foundation, toassist in identifying and documenting fish

diversity and popula-tion trends.The Great Annual

Fish Count is aninternational eco-eventwhere volunteer diversand snorkelers gatherdata used by marineresearchers, resourcemanagers and policymakers to help assessreefs’ condition and

their ability to sustain fish and marinelife. Interested divers and snorkelers can

organize their own fish count dives indi-vidually or through a dive club, or joinlocal dive shops for special fish-identifica-tion dive and snorkel excursions.Kickstart the annual event Sunday,

July 1, with Amoray Dive Resort, milemarker (MM) 104 in Key Largo, for anafternoon of diving and fish surveys. Toregister, call 305-451-3595 or visitwww.amoray.com.Horizon Divers, located at 100 Ocean

Drive in Key Largo, is to host a REEFfish ID class Thursday, July 19, startingat 9 a.m. and followed by afternoon divesto conduct fish surveys. For details, callHorizon Divers at 305-453-3535, [email protected] the afternoon away Tuesday,

July 24, with Sail Fish Scuba, located atMM 103 in Key Largo, during a fishidentification snorkel scheduled to departat 12 p.m. Reservations are required andthe trip is limited to six snorkelers. Fordetails, call 305-453-3446 Fish identification and survey materi-

als are to be available before each excur-sion and REEF staff members accompanyeach trip. More than 160,000 surveyshave already been submitted for research.Survey results can be reported and viewedonline.


To: Michael HellerDon Ball School of Fishing

Dear Mike,

I want to thank you for allow-ing Caloosa Middle School topilot your fishing program at ourschool this year. Your class notonly taught our students aboutthe “art” of fishing but introducedthem to how important it is toconserve our natural eco-systemsin Southwest Florida.Additionally, you not only pro-vided them the knowledge theyneed to be successful but youalso provided them the fishingequipment necessary for them tocontinue develop their skills. Asyou know many of our studentsare coming from families that arestruggling financially and thisgift is one that will benefit thesestudents for years to come.We look forward to continuing

this program in the future atCaloosa Middle School. Pleasefeel free to use our school as amodel in order for you to developthis program across the SchoolDistrict of Lee County. If youever need anything please contactmeSincerely,Dr. Ken BestAssistant PrincipalCaloosa Middle School

Caloosa Thank You By Capt. Bart MarxWater LIFE FishingJuly is the time of year for family out-

ings. Going to the beach on family vaca-tions taking in the sunshine. Then they’resome that like to set up fishing trips or goto the different entertainment parks. I pre-fer to do the fishing thing, if I travel outof state we try and do a fishing charter.This is to me an opportunity to let some-one show us the local waters. And a greattime to be in close quarters with familyand to spend time with them. This is all about family time and teach-

ing kids to fish. For several years now I,Capt. Bart, have taught the seventh gradeDon Ball School of Fishing class at theP.C. Middle School. For me it has beengreat fun working with the students. Somehave hard questions to answer and thismakes it all worth it. This means that theyare doing some thinking on their own.Trying to ‘Think Like a Fish’, as theschool encourages them to think. And thereare the silly questions, I will call them. Thewhat if ones fit in this category, or why. Getting back on track here, it is about

teaching the kids to fish. Yeah, the goal isto teach them as much as we can in thelimited time we have in class. With propslike actual fishing poles of different sizesand uses, cast nets and lures just to name afew. You can only teach so much in theclass the rest they have to learn out on thewater, from the beach or boat. This is wherethey have the chance to apply the knowl-edge that they have learned in class, and thisis where the teacher gets graded. If theycatch fish or not lets us know if we aredoing a good job or if they were paying

attention in class. There aremany students taking thisclass that never have achance to fish on a boat,and this is not a bad thing.There are several placesaround where you can fishfrom shore and catch somegood fish like snook, reds,snapper and trout. Andthere are the other placesthat you tend to catchstingrays, and catfish. The best piece of advice

that I can give is fish inone spot till you figure outthe patterns and times thatare best to catch qualityfish. Or you may have friends or neighborsthat have a boat that will take you fishing.

The other option would be hire a guide.This is where I enjoy working with the kidsthat go with me on the boat. While we areon the water I can help with there casting

and perfect the tech-niques of presentationof lures and live baits.On recent trips, I havehad ten year-olds andsix year-olds that couldcast very well by theend of our trip with aspinning rod. And theyalso learned how to usepopping corks to catchtrout on the grass flatsin Charlotte Harbor andwhere to cast whenthey are close to themangroves to catchsnapper, flounder andreds.

If you would like totake a k id fishing and get

them schooled, give me a call and we can getyou hooked up.

Capt. Bart Alpha & Omega Charters 941-979-6517

[email protected]

CAPTAIN, GUIDE AND TEACHER

Thank YouFishermen’s VillageFor the generous donation of proceeds

from Marina Day 2012 toThe Don Ball Scool of Fishing

Through gifts like the one from Fishermen’sVillage we are able to teach fishing, ethicalangling and local conservation to 7th

graders and provide them with the equip-ment to help them begin a lifetime of

responsible fishing.

www.waterlifemagazine.com


By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior Staff The other day I was watching a re-run

of the April meeting of the FWC inCrystal River, on the Florida TV channel.What caught my interest was a discussionon putting manatee speed zones in FlaglerCo. Flagler is a small county on the

Atlantic coasts, south of St. Augustineand north of Daytona; is not known as ahot bed of manatee activity. I've beenaround long enough to know that once aproposal makes it on the MFC agenda,it's pretty much a done deal. The FWCstaff members got up and told of all thehard work they did meeting with theshareholders working out the plan and ofcourse there were the paid representativesof the various environmental groups whogot up and praised the FWC staff forworking with them to make the plan. Itwas all buddy-buddy, good old boy, I'll patyour back and you pat mine style of regu-lation that has happened so many timesbefore. There was one guy who came over

from Flagler Co. to Crystal River tospeak on behalf of local boaters and fish-ermen. He asked if there was a scientificbasis for these manatee zones and are yousure that these manatee speed zones won'tactually have the opposite results andactually cause an increase in manateedeaths? The guy has a point; there is a theory

that a boat that comes off plane has itshull and prop sitting lower in the waterso that if he hits a submerged manateethere is a greater probability of injury. Noone offered to answer his question; not theFWC staff or the environmental groups or

the FWC commissioners. Instead thecommissioners voted unanimously tomake Flagler Co. the proud owners of 2.7miles of manatee speed zones in theirintracoastal waterway.What bothered me the most about what

happened was the realization that peoplelike you and me, never get to vote onthese rules or for the people that makethem, all we do is pay the bills with ourtaxes. I was around back in 1999 whenthe FWC was formed by combining theold Marine Fisheries Commission withthe Freshwater Fish and Game. I support-ed the plan back then because it wasbelieved that commercial fishing interesthad paralyzed the MFC. It was hoped thatby combining the organizations that theaverage recreational user would get a fairshake. It looks like I was wrong.Recently I wrote about the Save The

Manatee Trust Fund with their budget ofover $4 million dollars. That is chumpchange compared to the $287 million theFWC has in their budget. Over $122million goes to salaries for their 1947 fulltime employees. That averages out to

around a yearly salary of$64,000 per employee.In fairness about 50% ofthe FWC budget isspent on law enforce-ment which doesn'tleave much to spend onhunting and fishing inFlorida. In fact theMarine Fisheries Depthas a budget of about$3.7 million dollars andonly 30 full timeemployees to manageall the saltwater speciesof fish in Florida. It’s

hard to believe that we spend more moneyon a single species, manatees, than all ofour saltwater species combined.Getting back to Flagler Co. and their

unanswered question; here is a scientificfact for you – in 2010 there was not onesingle manatee that was found dead inFlagler County. So far in 2011, still nodead manatees – can someone tell mewhat we are getting for our money.

[email protected]

Moving up the Manatee Money Trail‘It’s hard to believe that we spend more money on the single species of manatees than all of our saltwater species combined’

RULE NUMBER CHANGE

To Water LIFEFrom: Denis Grealish, FWC

As previously discussed, the cur-rent correct statute reference for inter-fering with someone fishing is F.S.379.105, no longer 372-705 as refer-enced in the article:Thanks

379.105 Harassment of hunters,trappers, or fishers.—(1) A person may not intention-

ally, within a publicly or privatelyowned wildlife management or fishmanagement area or on any state-owned water body:(a) Interfere with or attempt to

prevent the lawful taking of fish,game, or nongame animals by anoth-er.(b) Attempt to disturb fish,

game, or nongame animals or attemptto affect their behavior with the intentto prevent their lawful taking byanother.(2) Any person who violates this

section commits a Level Two viola-tion under s. 379.401.History.—s. 2, ch. 90-170; s. 27,

ch. 2006-304; s. 9, ch. 2008-247.Note.—Former s. 372.705.

The manatee club says shore to shore manatee speed restric-tions are necessary in Flagler Co. because of the long docks

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By David Al lenWater LIFE KayakingCharlotte County is blessed with some

of the best kayaking to be found any-where. From paddling the open Gulf tothe quiet local creeks and rivers, findingthe birds and other wildlife as your kayakglides quietly by; it's the best. And twoof the more enjoyable paddles are within20 minutes driving time from PortCharlotte.

Shell Creek, north of Punta Gorda, andMarine Park in North Port are two pad-dles our club regularly enjoy. These twopaddles are very different in terms of thesurroundings, the wildlife one sees, andsometimes, in the difficulty of the paddle.Here is a little description of these twovenues so you can see what makes themso attractive to paddlers.

Marine Park is located on the westernend of Chancellor Boulevard, just offHighway 41. There is a good concreteramp and launch area plus adequate park-ing. There is even a covered pavilion fora picnic. However, there are no restroomfacilities at the park.

The Myakka River is about 1.5 milesdownstream from the launch point. Thechannel is clear and fairly wide most ofthe way with little current. As youapproach the River, mangroves appear onboth sides of the channel and add to thefeeling of separation from the surroundinghomes and residential areas. The Myakkais quite narrow where the channel entersthe River…perhaps 400 feet across.

Turning north after entering theMyakka, the River breaks into severalchannels around islands with side-chan-nels, some of which are dead ends.Roughly 0.5 miles upstream of the entryis a rookery island. Many differentspecies of birds make this island theirhome, particularly in the spring when thehundreds of nests are full of hungry,squawking, hatchlings. It’s quite a sight,even if you’ve seen it many times. Goodphoto-ops too.

Paddling downstream after entering theMyakka, presents an entirely different pic-ture. The River becomes much wider, thebanks are populated with residential areasand you lose the feeling of being out in anatural area. If you are ready for a chal-lenging paddle, you can continue to theEl Jobean Bridge, 6.3 miles from theentrance from the channel andbeyond…past Hog Island and intoCharlotte Harbor.

As a counterpoint to the MyakkaRiver, Shell Creek is located about 10miles northeast of Punta Gorda and flowsmostly westward from its origin east ofHighway 31. Overall the Creek is about8 miles long and empties into the PeaceRiver just north of the I-75 Bridge.

Hathaway Park, located on WashingtonLoop Road, is the usual launch site onthe Creek, with a concrete ramp, rest-rooms and picnic facilities. Hathawayhas an adequate Park and Pay parking areawith space for trailers. Washington LoopRoad is about 6.5 miles north of Punta

Gorda on Highway 17.

Once you're in the water you obvious-ly can either go upstream to the east ordownstream toward the dam. Very differ-ent paddles.

If you select the downstream course,you will soon find the Creek opening up,the foliage less dense, and you will proba-bly see more birds and other wildlife. Ifyou paddle about 3.5 miles downstream,you will come to a large lake behind thedam. The dam cannot be portaged so thisis the usual turn around point.Unfortunately, there are no beaches nearthe dam.... we usually take a break in ourkayaks before heading back up stream.

If you elect to paddle upstream fromthe dam, you will find a completely dif-ferent scenario. The Creek, about 70 feetwide at the ramp, narrows within the firstmile and the surrounding trees and shrubsseem to hug the banks. I think ShellCreek is one of the most beautiful creeksin the area. With tall stately trees near thewater, Spanish moss abounds and lots ofwildlife.

The current picks up noticeably as youprogress upstream, particularly after aheavy rain and it can be a tough paddle,with the current pushing you around thebends in the creek. After about 2 milesof upstream paddling, the water becomesmore and more shallow, and the banks,closer and closer, until you finally run outof water or fallen branches block the path.There are a few sandy banks on the upperstretches where you can beach the kayaksfor a break. Paddling back downstream tothe ramp is often a sleigh ride with thecurrent pushing all the way.

These are just two of the many goodpaddling spots found in Charlotte County.The 30 to 40 different paddles that thePort Charlotte Kayakers take each year areeach different in their own way. That’swhat makes this one of the best paddlingareas in Florida.

The Port Charlotte Kayakers meet eachWednesday evening at 5:00p.m. at PortCharlotte Beach Park . All are welcome tocome and learn about kayak ing. For moreinformation contact Dave Allen at 941-235-2588 or [email protected].

Two Enjoyable PaddlesKAYAKINGKAYAKING


With Capt. Jim O'BrienWater LIFE Englewood

Hey gang how ya- all doin’? I hopeyou are taking advantage of this beauti-ful fish'n weather we are having. Thefish'n has been red hot. On our last char-ter we had offshore, we had 6 people andlimited out on red grouper by noon.What a day. Most of the other captainsand guy's I've talked to have been doingvery well also. The back bay guides Italked to are doing a lot of beach fish'nfor tarpon. They said the tarpon were allover the beaches from Boca Grande tothe Venice jettys. They are casting bluecrabs 3 to 4 in. across. A lively threadfin or a squirrel fish does well also.Don't forget greater amberjacks areclosed until August 1, 2012 , and ourtasty grey trigger fish is closed inFederal waters for the rest of 2012. I per-sonally don't see a shortage of ether oneof these species in our area, but our GulfCouncil says we have.

KINGS AND SPANISH MACK-EREL are just off the beaches and cruis-ing around the inshore reefs there arestill some nice Kings out 25 to 30miles.

BLACK FIN TUNA and BONITAare being caught in 25 to 60 feet ofwater.

RED FISH are being caught offthe west wall and the front door of BullBay.

TARPON are chewing real goodoff the beaches and Boca Grande Pass.Best bait 3 to 4 in. blue crab, a fiestysquirrel fish or a 6 in. mullet.

SNOOK - Catch an release arechewing pretty good under the man-groves in Bull Bay and also out on thebeaches. Use live bait.

PERMIT are on some of the nearshore reefs, and the offshore wrecks,some BIG- UNS are coming in from 30miles out. Best bait is small silver dol-lar size crab, if you can't get any smalllive crabs, Berkley has scented smallcrabs they work pretty darn good.

SHARKS- Some nice black tipsare being caught just off Cayo Pelu andjust outside the front door of Bull Bay.There are some sharks being caught onthe near shore reefs. Good baits arechunks of bonita, and mullet.

MANGROVE SNAPPER, YEL-LOW TAIL SNAPPER AND POR-GIES- Nice size ones are out from 25 to35 miles, now I'm a talk'n BIG - UNS20 TO 25 INCHERS. We got intosome nice yellow tail snapper just theother day, in fact we got them at 2 differ-ent places. Best bait is chunks of sar-dine, live shrimp and squid.

ED GROUPER- The bite hasbeen good from 25 to 45 miles out.Most fish are running from 22” to 28”,bigger ones farther out. REMEMBERGAG GROUPER opens JULY 1, 2012.Best bait live pin fish, live squirrel fishand my IRISH COCKTAIL which is aslab of mullet with a squid head, theBIG - UNS can't pass that up.For this month’s article we had a

group that was a lot of fun. In the pic-ture from bottom left to right is PamZimmerman, her sister Penny Sonters.Middle left to right Mac Mcloud, PeteBoulton, from England and standing upJoey Cloherty and in the back left cornerGuy Allen Sonters. Pam, and her sisterPenny, was a hoot. The biggest fishthey had ever caught was a bass orWalleye. When they got hooked up ongrouper all I heard was a lot of laughterand some serious grunting. They were

reared back with poles bent to the max.They said they were having a blast. Welimited out on red grouper by noon andwe were still throwing keeper grouperback. We down sized the rods andfocused on catching snappers and por-gies. Later, Pam was so excited shecalled me from South Carolina. She hadbeen talking to the doctor she works forabout being down right POOPED out oncatching fish and wanted me to e-mailher some pictures if I could. I told herno problem. What do you think whenthe doctor sees her pictures? Think I will

be taking a doctor and family fish'n? Iwill let you know if it happens. WellI've flapped my gums enough again soit's time to get out of here.BE SURE TO SNORT SOME OF THAT SALT AIR CUZ IT’S GOOD FER YA!

If you have any questions or if youhave a good ol' fishin’ story or a recipe forcooking fish that I can share with our read-ers give me a call. To book an offshorecharter with us aboard the Predator II -

Call (941) 473-2150

OFFSHOREREPORT The Olʼ Fishʼn Hole


Cooks Sportland

4419 So. Tamiami TrailS. Venice493-0025

Water LIFE Distributorʼs ClubWater LIFE Distributorʼs ClubYou can always get a free copy of Water LIFE at these locationsYou can always get a free copy of Water LIFE at these locations

Water LIFE Distributorʼs ClubWater LIFE Distributorʼs ClubYou can always get a free copy of Water LIFE at these locationsYou can always get a free copy of Water LIFE at these locations


SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated,

But Often True

‘I hate that too,’ the Comcast guy onthe other end of the phone said as I com-plained about the lack of functions onthe new DTA or Digital TelevisionAdapter remote. It feels cheap, I told himand he agreed. The DTA is a device com-cast apparently developed to thwart thenew high tech TVs that come with theirown signal unscrambler. Comcastcould’nt have people picking their signalup so easily, so enter the DTA.The biggest complaint is the new

DTA is cheap and not well thought out.With this new adapter I now have 3remotes for my main TV and two for the

other sets in my house. The programable remote for my

expensive wall mount set no longerworks. I liked that remote because Icould block the religious channel, QVCand a bunch of other channels I neverwatch. Not any more, to go from 10 to13 I have to pass through 11 and 12. Toadjust the picture takes a different remoteand I have three new power supplies thatmust always be on or I am told I'll losethe signal and have to call Comcast tohave the DTA reset. I believe that hap-pens on a power surge too. And my well thought out wires in the

wall install for my wallmount TV now has awire hanging down forthe power supply. I havethree more drains on myelectric bill and I haveto buy batteries for eachof the three newremotes.One DTA adapter has

already failed and had tobe replaced, meaning Ihad to go call (and wait)for comcast and then go back to theComcast store. But wait there’s more: To program

each new DTA remote there are numer-ous 5 digit codes that each must be tried

one by one until the right code is found.(My Magnavox TV has 20 codes to tryeach 5 digits long). The worst part is Comcast customers

are (so far) helpless to do anything aboutit. – Michael Hel ler

Landl o cked Stated advance bi l l -fi s h pro tecti onA bipartisan amendment that would end

the importation of billfish into the UnitedStates for commercial sale was offeredThursday, June 7, 2012 by Senator JonTester (D-Montana) and Senator JohnThune (R-South Dakota) as part of asportsmen’s package of amendments tothe Senate Farm Bill.This legislation will be a big step in

the long-overdue recovery of billfish.

Is No Pl ace Sacred?Google is applying the technology it

used to create a street level view ofAmerica’s roadways to America’s hikingtrails. According to a June 6 announce-ment, Street View Trekke a backpack

device, will enabling Google to photo-graph beautiful places such as the KibabTrail into the Grand Canyon or theAppalachian Trail through the mountainsso anyone can explore them.

Bay County - Resource ProtectionOfficers worked a detail during the openingof red snapper season and the closed sea-son of greater amberjack. They observed afisherman who appeared to catch an under-sized greater amberjack, gaff it, and placeit on the deck of the vessel. The fish wasnot returned to the water and, after furtherobservation, the officers located two

amberjack fillets on the deck of the ves-sel. When asked why they filleted thefish, the fishermen advised the fish wasdead and they gaffed it because theythought it was big enough. Citations wereissued.

More Frankenankl es DADE COUN-TY - Officers responded to JacksonMemorial Hospital after the victim of aboating accident was admitted for multipleinjuries. A father, operating a personalwatercraft in the Intracoastal Waterwaysouth of Julia Tuttle Causeway, was towinghis son on a kite board when the kitebroke free. The kite lifted the son 30 feetinto the air and the subsequent fall back tothe water caused compound fractures toboth ankles. The vessel operator was citedfor failure to have a mirror or observer onboard while towing a skier.

Lightening Death The BassFoundation mourns the loss of divisionchampionship angler, LorenzoMagdaleno, 51, from Lake Placid,Magdaleno was pronounced dead byFlorida officials on Friday, June 8, after abolt of lightening apparently struckMagdaleno and his boat partner, MikeHardin, while they were fishing shortlyafter noon prior to the final day weigh-inof the TBF Southern DivisionChampionship on Lake Okeechobee.

Charl o tte County officers stopped asmall vessel for violating a slow speedzone. They discovered that the serial num-bers on the motor had been removed anddefaced. The motor was seized and turnedover to the Charlotte County Sheriff’sOffice forensics division where the serialnumber was recovered from the outboardmotor’s freeze plug. The serial number

revealed that the motor wasreported stolen out of CharlotteCounty approximately one yearago. The case has been turnedover to the Charlotte CountySheriff’s Office criminal inves-tigations division.

Parents : Did you know if your child

is on a school lunch subsidyprogram you may be eligiblefor special discounted servicerates from Comcast and othercable service providers?

What Happens When He Gets Bored Ki l l i ngAnimal s ?FWC officer received a

report in late December 2011 ofsomeone shooting sandhillcranes in cow pastures and leav-ing them. During the four-month long investigation, sev-eral other animals, including adoe deer and a bald eagle, were found deador wounded with a variety of different gun-shot wounds. The Seminole CountySheriff’s Office also was investigating twocows and an emu that were shot in thesame general area. The officer’s investiga-tion revealed that a male, who was bored,bought a high powered pellet rifle andwent out looking for things to shoot. Heshot a total of three sandhill cranes withthe rifle. After a week or so, the malebecame bored with the pellet rifle andbought a shotgun. He shot a doe deer atnight using his headlights to shine thedeer. After a week or so he bought a .270caliber rifle and shot a bald eagle with thatfirearm. All of these animals were leftwhere they were shot. All of the incidents

took place by shooting across propertylines from public roadways and shootingthe firearms as the barrel was placed acrossthe chest of a front seat passenger.A total of 11 felonies and 12 misde-

meanor charges were filed.

Schooling fish maintain their distance from sharkslaying on the sandy bottom.

Comcast DTA Grievance

Alaska Airʼs new salmon wrap

Charlotte Harbor: Frank at Fishin' FranksPort Charlotte: 625-3888There’s not much to report with all

this Debby activity. This storm willchange a lot of stuff. When the windstops blowing the harbor will get agood flushing out. Silt and muck andalgae all gets stirred up and when theriver really starts flowing the tannicware will do the harbor good. Traditionally, when this happens

the fish move way back up into thetrees and start feeding in new grounds.When this is over the redfish andsnook will be amazing.Right now, the only fishing has

been at the spillways. Small snookand small tarpon have been consis-tent even during Debby. All the stuffcoming down river, minnows, bugs,and crabs are a huge food source. The upper Harbor from the middle

hole north will be mostly fresh waterwhich means the Spanish mackerelwill be out into the Gulf. Even somesmall mahi-mahi dolphin might bearound the passes. We could also see

the chicken dolphin, the small ones,coming in.The one thing that will be hard to

find up in the northern end of theHarbor will be the small bait fish. Baitwill be at Boca Grande and from BurntStore to Jug Creek they won’t haveenough salt to be up here.Threadfins will be mobbing to

the south end of the harbor but we willsee river shad, talapia and a lot ofthe other fish that were up in the riversbeing pushed down to the tip of theharborThe gag and snapper bite on the

near shore reefsshould be good. Thetarpon should be herefeeding like crazyafter Debby’s weathersettles down. Youcould see tarpon up inrhe rivers because thefresh water doesn’tbother them. If Ilooked for tarponnow, it would be wayup in the harbor orout along the beach-

es. The beaches have been torn uppretty good, so there should be a lot offish cruising the beaches.Spanish mackerel should be on the

beaches too. We had one guy outSaturday, braving the storm and he gotthe snook of a lifetime, a fish over 40inches. He told me, reeling it in awave grabbed it and pushed it like asurfer right up to where he was. But hehad no camera or cell, he had lefteverything back because of the weath-er. It was maybe a 44 inch fish and hehad no proof of it.

Continued on facing page


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

J u l y J u l y F i s h i n g F o r e c a s t F i s h i n g F o r e c a s t

Biologists take samples from a bulll shark enteredin the annual Fishin Franks Shark, Stingray andSailcat Tournament, last month in Port Charlotte.

Shark 1st Place – Joshua Prunier 68 1/22nd- Mitchell Smith 66 1/8

StingRay 1st Place – 1st Stephen Davis 41 3/42nd Robert Gator Earnest 40 3/4

CatFish 1st Place – Chris pack 4.682nd John Willams 4.46

Professional Fishing Guides Charlotte Harbor & Boca GrandeProfessional Fishing Guides Charlotte Harbor & Boca Grande

Photo By Kristie Kulik

SHARK TOURNAMENT

continued from facing page Debby woke up a lot of

peoples freshwater urges. Infreshwater fishing the onething is, the storm has cooledeverything down a couple ofdegrees. There are shellcrack-ers at the spillways and theHillsboro has some big bass.

Lemon Bay:Jim at FishermensEdge, Englewood:697-7595There are some people going

fishing, but not many. There aresome tarpon around up in theHarbor. A guy from Plant City toldme he had caught some really niceredfish and trout down south, thebiggest trout was a 29-incher. A few guys had snuck out right

before the storm and said thegrouper bite was good in 35 feet -nice keeper sized gags , but theycouldn’t keep them at that time.There is no offshore action at alltoday. Gag opens in July, I hope itturns around. I expect grouper should be good

after the end of the first week ofthis month. The Bomber CD25, abig lipped crank bait in gold with ablack back is what they were using.We are going to have a huge

influx of fresh water coming intothe Harbor, a lot of stuff will bepushed out from the back after allthat wind from the southwest. Stump Pass has apparently taken

a hit. The beach was good forsnook before the storm and theyshould still be there in Lemon Baybetween the passes. Look around inLemon Bay, there is no major riverdumping in so the salinity is stillhigh. Use a lure as a search bait.Try a topwater or a shad assassinsoft plastic bait.The last time we had all that

fresh water washing out we had alot of al l igator gars around TurtleBay. Who knows what will happenthis time?There have been tarpon at El

Jobean bridge straight along, a lotof small fish are around now.

With all the wind and rain I’vemade a serious dent in my rodrepair work and I’ve had a chance tostock up on some new stuff.I’ve got a lot of crank baits, the

new Yozuri in the sashimi color,the color changing Crystal minnowis a really cool lure that looks dif-ferent from different angles and isalmost holographic.I got some of the new Starr

Paraflex rods in that are rated for 50to 100-pound braid and are as thinas a pencil. Guides have beentelling me they can’t believe thesize of the fish they get with thesethin rods. Guides like them forwomen and children because theyare light and yet strong enough forshark fishing.

The BIG-4 The BIG-4 Fish to expect in Fish to expect in JulyJuly

TARPON Are in the passesand in the Harbor

SNOOK Top of theHarbor, some on thebeaches

GAG GROUPER on thenearshore reefs

SPANISH MACKEREL alongthe beaches


BBllaacckk TTiipp BBaaiitt && TTaacckklleeOur bai t i s guaranteed to catch fish or die t ry ing!

El JobeanEl JobeanOpen Every DayOpen Every DayMon - Sat: 6am - 7pmSun: 6 am - 5 pm

Live Shrimp, Pinfish, Live Crabs Ful l Line of Tackle Suppl ies (941) 627-0809

Semper Fi ChartersSemper Fi Charterswith Capt. James C Henslerwith Capt. James C Hensler

GulfGulfTemps Temps in the in the

mid 80smid 80s

Fishing Fishingright now:right now:

AdaptingAdaptingafter Debbyafter Debby

Above: a cow snook caught by Drew Wickstrom in Stuart with captain AndyTasker, 39 inches long and 29 pounds.

Below: Capt Billy Barton (below top left) with some of the catches from lastmonth.

Below: Seasonal offshore confusion

water life july 2012

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