water life may 2013

Charlotte Harbor and Lemon BayCharlotte Harbor and Lemon Bay

May 2013May 2013

Keeping Fishermen and Boaters Informed since 1997Keeping Fishermen and Boaters Informed since 1997

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The Don Ball School of Fishing

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Inshore and Offshore HeadquartersInshore and Offshore Headquarters

LETTERS email: [email protected] Water LIFE inc.www.WaterLIFEmagazine.comMichael & Ellen Heller Publishers

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Port Charlotte, FL 33952Not affiliated with

any other publicationVol XII No 5 © 2013

No part of this publication (printed or elec-tronic) may be copied or reproducedwithout specific written permission

from the publishers.

Contributing Editors:Photography: ASA1000.com

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

Punta Gorda: Capt. Chuck EichnerSea Grant: Betty StauglerReal Estate: Dave Hofer

Inshore: Fishinʼ FrankOffshore: Capt Steve Skevington

Kayaking: David AllenOffice Dog: Molly BrownCirculation: Bob Cohn

on the COVER:Mallory Herzog with a sizeable blue-fish caught off the beach, north ofEnglewood, late last monthSee Fishing Report -page 22

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4TH OF JULY BEACH: This is the beach the July 4th River Swim departs from.According to a source close to County planners, when the new county park on thePort Charlotte side of the US 41 bridges is built, it will include a path underneaththe two spans, connecting the walkways on both sides. This path, we believe,would also provide access for shore fishing and wade fishing between the spans.

The more and more popular sidescan sonar machine will show an

accurate rendition of a tarpon.

To the Editor,My name is Maralee

McGowen and I along withmy partner, Tony Millan, arethe owners of the new Tor-tugaʼs Seafood Restaurantin Punta Gorda. Weopened in February and arethrilled with our strong start.We sincerely thank thepeople in PuntaGorda/Charlotte Countythat have welcomed us tothe community. The feed-back has been overwhelm-ingly positive and thereferrals have kept us ex-tremely busy.

I am writing this letter inregards to some negativecomments by one of yourcontributors, Mr. DaveHofer of ReMax Harbor Re-alty in the April issue ofWater LIFE. I am appre-ciative of customer feed-back, both positive andnegative. I have been inthe customer service indus-try for over 30 years andthose who have come toknow me through my busi-ness, Harbor Seafood inPort Charlotte, know thatcustomer satisfaction is ex-tremely important to me.Mr. Hofer, it would havebeen more professionaland more appreciated ifyou had discussed yourconcerns with me person-ally, as I am quite confidentI could have resolved theseissues on the spot. But

since that was not an op-tion, I will address yourcomments here. Mr. Hoferwrote “quick tip: Tell themyouʼre a party of six or youwonʼt get fed…” This is ab-solutely false. Our restau-rant is small and we havelimited seating that is pri-marily geared towards seat-ing 2-4 people. When wefirst opened we didnʼt ac-cept reservations at all. Aswe got going, we decidedthat taking reservations forlarge parties (6 or more)and only at two differenttimes per night (one earlyand one late) was the bestway for us to maximize ourseating and minimize waittimes. While this may notbe perfect or alleviate all ofthe waiting time, it hasseemed to help. As for theother comment “request atable without lights shiningin your eyes!” We do havespot lighting from the ceil-ing. The lights are smalland each bulb is only 40watts. While this has notbeen an issue for the hun-dreds of other diners in ourrestaurant, it could havebeen easily resolved with aladder and a slight twist ofthe light fixture. Perhapsone day youʼll give us an-other try and discover whyeveryone else is ravingabout us!

Maralee McGowen

Connor of Upstate New York in front of BurntStore of Southwest Florida, with a snook, justone of his fine catches of the day, with Capt.Fred of Backdraft Charters.

By Michael HellerWater LIFE editorLast month Peter Eichstaedt, an old friendand former colleague of mine, told me thatJavier Manzano, a photographer he workedwith in Afghanistan, had just won a PulitzerPrize in photography. Javier’s picture was

of two snipers in Aleppo, shooting from aroom apparently riddled with bullets. Lightfrom the outside was coming in through allthe holes. It is a great photograph, but it wasovershadowed, last month, by some otherbullet holes: those in Boston.Everyone knew when the smoke cleared

there were going to be a lot of holes in theboat the Boston bomber hid in. Fiberglassisn’t very bulletproof, so in the end, the boatlooked like the photo from Aleppo, riddledwith holes.Since then, there isn’t a boat owner I have

talked to who didn’t look at the pictures ofthe Boston boat on TV, look more carefullythan most, and then try to figure out whatmake and model boat was. I even blew up

the picture myself and looked for somemarkings that I might recognize, but therewere none. For the next week, I scoured the news sto-

ries on the wire and on the web. OneBoston station said it was a Sea Hawk, butwhen I searched for Sea Hawk there wasnever a Sea Hawk boat made. A news re-port said she was named Slip Away II. Butwhat make was she? They didn’t say that.I had a hunch that the average used boat

dealer in Boston looked at that boat on TVand recognized it immediately – localknowledge. It looked like a Shamrock tome so I called a New England Shamrockdealer who said no, it wasn’t one of theirs.On TV, the story evolved and several

Boston boat dealers said they wanted to fixthe boat or even get Dave Henneberry, theowner, a new boat. Media reports right afterthe capture said the boat was worth$50,000. Henneberry didn’t comment onthat, but a post on a Boston Marine Tradeswebsite noted: “There is no way in hell thatboat is worth $50K. Besides, it should beinsured. No wonder he won’t respond!” A neighbor of Hennesberry’s launched an

online fundraising campaign for him andcollected $7,000 for a new boat the firstweek, but the website didn’t mention themake or model of the old one. Also unmentioned was that this boat was

now a piece of American History and theywere wanting to fix it. Unlike the remains

of the World Trade Center, this boat, just asit is, will forever be a shining reminder ofThe times when the good guys won. Moreso than Bonnie and Clyde’s bullet riddledcar - which wound up as a cheap roadsideattraction outside of Las Vegas - my think-ing is this boat should become an exhibit ina museum, with all the bullet holes intact.But what kind of boat, exactly, was it?I googled Boston Used Boat Dealers and

found the most trafficked site: Russo Ma-rine. So I picked up the phone and called. I spoke to Dave, a salesman who told me

he only saw infrared pictures of the boat onTV, so I emailed Dave a color picture. Hewas very nice. But he didn’t know.On the Russo website Larry Russo Sr.

was listed. The bio said Russo Marine hadbeen a family business for almost 70 years,started in the 1940s by Larry’s parents.Larry himself is past president of the Ma-rine Retailers Association of America, aboard member of the Recreational Boatingand Fishing Foundation. He was a con-nected player in the New England boatingindustry, I figured he was the one, so I lefta voice mail explaining my predicament.Fifteen minutes later my phone rang.“Hello, Mr Heller? This is Larry Russo.”

His voice was soft, but Boston strong. Rightoff the bat, he wanted to know exactly whoI was. Then, once I explained what I wasdoing he softened up. “I can help,” he said.“I had thought it might be a Shamrock,”

I said to him. “No. You are wrong.” He cutme right off. “Are you ready?” he asked.

Yes sir, I was ready, been ready!“It’s a 1981, 24-foot Sea Bird,” he told

me. He said he had just looked it up in theMassachusetts Marine Registry. “The boatwas made by Falcon Engineering in Rich-mond Va. They were in business from 1978to 1991. It’s a 32 year old generic boat, withno graphics and no identifiable markings.” I got the feeling Larry had heard the

bogus $50K valuation numbers too, but Ididn’t ask him anything else. I just thankedhim and said good bye. My question hadbeen answered. Now we’ll just have to waitand see what happens to the boat.


That Boat In Boston

Looks like there were plenty of bullet holesin the Boston Bomberʼs fiberglass hideout.

EMAIL: W [email protected] MAY 2013

By Capt David StephensWater LIFE InshoreOne of the biggest problems that

most anglers face here on CharlotteHarbor is what to fish for. With so many

different species it would be impossibleto fish for all of them in one day. As afull time guide I am more guilty thanany other angler about not pursuingsome of our other species. It is so easyto get stuck in the redfish, snook andtrout rut since those are the main threethat are targeted the most. From spring through early summer

we have plenty of other excellent gamefish that can be targeted, such as Span-ish mackerel, triple tail and cobia. Also,there are lots of back tip and spinnersharks in the Harbor. One of the biggest problems anglers

face is to leave the flats and go deep.Most of these species can be caught onthe local flats on occasion, but are foundin greater numbers out in the deeper wa-ters of the Harbor. We have severalgreat inshore reefs that hold all the fish Ihave mentioned. If you have a chart ofCharlotte Harbor then you have the lo-cations of them. If fishing the inshore reefs is not your

thing, there are several holes in the Har-bor that are excellent spots to fish formackerel, cobia and sharks. If I am going to spend a day fishing

this way, I like to bringa couple chum blocks.Also make sure youbring some wire. Mostof these fish are toothyand will bite throughregular leader. I alsolike to bring along abigger rod. You neverknow when that fish ofa lifetime will swim upto the boat, so youwant to be prepared.Most of the local

tackle shops will haveeverything you need.Make sure you tellthem what and howyou plan to fish thatday and they will helpyou. I guarantee thatthere is no one wholoves fishing for snookas much as myself, butsome days if the flats fishing is just notworking, try thinking outside the box.You will enjoy your day on the waterand find yourself doing it more often.

Send me an email or give me a call. Charters are customized to fit your needs.Capt. Dave Stephens 941-916-5769 www.backbayxtremes.com

FISHING THE DEEPER SPOTS

All Tuckered Out

$2 off any haircut!

Big tripletail

This cobia tired these boys out! There have been a lot of bigcobia around this year.


By Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE BaitshopI love shark fishin, they are some of the strongest

fastest fish ever to get on the end of a rod. I have caughtthem with bait and even lures, but it is top-water sharkaction I crave.

I have had a shark blow up on a top water lure. It willalmost stop your heart – what an explosion – way toocool not to pursue. This is my goal: to understand whichlure, which action is the one that will turn the sharks on. Despite their reputation, sharks are quite timid – they

are a battle-ready fish, but do not seek out confrontation.So during the day they like to stay in deeper waters.Feeding off of sandy or gravel bottoms is easier for ashark than grassy bottom. I spent years looking overcharts, finding deeper troughs, and then going out anddropping a line to the bottom to see what was there;grass, weeds, sand, gravel – once I had that mapped outin my head, I started fishing these spots. The first thing I look for is the sun. On bright sunny

days the sharks are definitely going to be deeper, oncloudy days, I am more likely to find them in shallowerwaters – more like I would if I was fishing in theevening. As it gets darker, the sharks will go into theshallows to feed, so a little sun light helps them findfood. In the evening, or on cloudy days, I am fishing justoff the grass flats, anywhere a shark would be able tocross the shallow sandbars and get back to the food-richflats. In the day time I am going to fish the deeper placesin between two lager deeper holes – this is a great am-bush spot for sharks.In May, most of the deep holes are covered up with

tarpon fisherman, which is cool for me because I ammore likely to find my sharks going from one hole to theother than I am to find them in the holes themselves. Depth finders are a puzzling thing. Bull sharks have

been followed up river, going from boat to boat, bypass-ing some boats and going right up to others. It seemedstrange until the people following the sharks noticed eachof the boats the bull shark spent time by had it's depthfinder on, and the boats without a depth finder had theshark pass by un-noticed. Apparently, if you have yourdepth finder on, the sharks are beginning to associate thatwith food.When I go out to shark fish, I find my spot then drop

out an anchor, making sure to use a loop on the anchorline and drop the loop over a cleat not tie the line to theboat, so If I get ...sorry, when I get, a larger shark I can

just toss the anchor line overboard and follow the fish.I always put out a chum bag, making sure the chum

bag is not laying on the water. It must be hanging soevery wave or wake, or even when I walk from one sideof the boat to the other, the bag will slosh and releasechum. If the bag is just lying on the water the chum reallydoes not disperse properly and continually.

My first rod out has a bobber on it. Not only is this agreat way to catch sharks, but it also tells me where mychum slick is going. Often looking at the water it appearsto be flowing one way, but when you put a line out with afloat on it, that can show you the water is flowing an en-tirely different direction. I want the chum going over thereef not away from it. Only a bobber line can tell you thereal story.My second line out is a free line, no weight or float,

this will just be drifting with the tide. My 3rd and 4thlines out have a heavy sinker on them and are cast out, ata 45 degree angle, toward the back of the boat. So thebobber line is at or near the surface, the free line one isdrifting with the tide, both of these rods are out the backof the boat, then off the side casting towards the back a

little, are my 2 sinker rods. Nothing gets tangled, I havecovered the whole water column and now I kick back andwait for the reels to start screaming.So how and where do I start trying to get sharks to hit

a top water? I am thinking the schools of thread-finsmoving across the Harbor – when the thread-fins are justmoving they look a lot like rain on the surface of thewater, dimple, dimple, as they go on their merry littlebait-fish way. But when you look closer you can see partof the school slash across the surface, much like if youtook a garden hose with pressure and sprayed it acrossthe pod of bait. If a school of fish was feeding on the podof bait the whole school would be in turmoil and birdswould be over head, but when a larger single predator at-tacks from below, slicing and swallowing its way throughor across the pod, the ones that did not get eaten are try-ing to get out of the way and they do so by trying to jumpout of the water. If you are watching you can see the pathof the predator as it goes through the school.So I am thinking, if I can recreate that splashing of the

scared bait fish by working a top-water lure across theschool of bait as I see the shark attack from below, itshould work. I was thinking a walk-the-dog action would be the

best bet, so I tried the Super spook junior, and I am goingto keep trying it, but it is so small and just does not causeenough disturbance. Next I am going to try the full sizeZara spook, or the larger size Skitter-Walk. I gavethought to the Top-Dog, but it does have a large ball formaking noise which is perfect for redfish, giving off thatdeep pitch sound. I have it in my head that a higher pitchor no rattles at all would be better for shark, more like thenoise the bait is making. It is going to take much trial and error. I did try a hen-

don Torpedo which produced the best noise – from what Icould hear, which admittedly is not much. When I jerkedthat Torpedo lure across the surface it sounded likethread-fins escaping a predator, so because of that I amtaking out an oldie; a Rat-L-Trap Slap Stick, it is a tail-drop style top-water lure, which, in the early days wasthe ultimate top water snook lure,There are a lot of lures to try and usually what I think

will be the great one, won't be the one at all, but it is thelearning, that I think I am addicted to. I will keep youposted on my path to top water shark fishin enlighten-ment and when it happens, you’ll see the pictures here.In the mean time, get out and enjoy the wonders of springtime fishin, in southwest Florida. Have fun, and be safeout there. Frank can be reached at: 625-3888 or at: Frank@ Fishin-

Franks.com

Top Water Fishing for Shark?

Mike Martinʼs ʻbabyingʼ a nurse shark before releasing it,last month.


ON THE LINE By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior StaffEach year the State releases a Save the

Manatee Trust Fund report which outlineshow much money they brought in to pro-tect manatees and how the money wasspent. This is not the same money that theSave the Manatee Club gets from volun-tary donations (they pulled in a cool $1.1million in 2010); nor is it the Federal Fishand Wildlife Service monies that is spent(that comes out of a different pocket of thetax payers). I'm talking only about theState of Florida taxpayer funds used tohelp manatees.The State has a clearly defined man-

agement goal when it comes to manatees.“To remove the manatee from the

State imperiled species list and effectivelymanage the population in perpetuitythroughout Florida by securing habitat andminimizing threats” Manatee Manage-ment Plan-2007.I thought it would be a good idea to see

how well the State is meeting this goal.From July 2010 to June 2011 the Statebrought $3,946,789 into the trust fundand like all true bureaucrats they spent$4,412,673, about half a million more

than they took in. The major source of thisincome comes from boat registration fees( $2,478,659 or about .63 cents of everydollar they take in). Not many boaters re-alize when they register their boat they aremaking an un-voluntary contribution tothe trust fund. In some countries theywould call that a tax. Talk about having topay for the rope they hang you with. If they called it a tax then we would

talk about taxation without representation;and we know how that story ends. It’shard to tell how much you are paying be-cause nowhere on your boat registrationdo they tell you this, but since in 2011there were 941,611 boats registered inFlorida; that comes out to $2.63 per boat.That makes me envious of the kayakerswho don't have to register their vessels.Another source of funds is from the

Save the Manatee license plate;$1,373,751 or .35 cent for every dollarcollected. Since 1990, $38,524,399 hasgone into the trust fund from license platesales. With the increase in choices in li-cense plates, the annual income is shrink-ing to the point were this year is down27% below the 20 year average. If you'reinterested, voluntary contributions to thetrust fund was only $63,593 or less than 2

cents per dollar. It amazes me that theSave the Manatee Club can bring in overa million dollars annually while the Stateonly get less than $65,000. Maybe theState should start their own Adopt a Man-atee scam.Now let’s look at the other side of the

ledger and see how the State spends thetrust fund money. That pie is divided intotwo pieces. The first is Conservation andManagement expenditures which gets$1,038,220. The single largest expense is$481,733 for Plan and Permit Reviews.The next largest expense is for ManateeProtection Zones at $279,094. Next isHabitat Protection; remember that secur-ing habitat is one of the primary goal ofmanatee protection. They spent $141,610on that. That means that for each dollarthey spent, 87 cents went to manage-ment and administrative cost while only13 cents was spent protecting habitat.That's a pretty sorry record in my opinion.The biggest piece of the expenditure

pie goes to Research Expense at$1,807,245. In this category the largestportion is Mortality and Rescue whichcost $1,277,946 or 71 cents out of everydollar. The next is Population Assessmentat $209,000, which is 12 cents out ofevery dollar. Maybe it's only me, but itseems there is something wrong with theState spending 71% of their money tostudy dead manatees; but only12% toknow how many live ones we have.

I have always been fascinated at theState's fixation with dead manatees. In the2010 – 2011 there were 470 manatees re-ported dead. Now, I'm sure the folks in thepathobiology lab in St. Pete didn't cutthem all up. Maybe they did half of them,say 235. Now the results of about 20% ofthem came back as undetermined; thatmeans you found the cause of death of188 manatees. If you divide that numberby the money you spent, you come outwith spending about $6,800 to find thecause of death of each manatee. Is this re-ally worth the money? Some manatees dieeach year, but more and more of them liveeach year. Shouldn't we be spending mostof the money on the live ones? To be fair, they also spend some of

their money on manatee rescues. Duringthis period they recovered 97 manatees ofwhich 54 were later released back in thewild. So it seems that despite all themoney we spend, an injured manatee onlyhas a 50/50 chance of making it. Even back in the wild they still have to

deal with natural cold snaps and red tide. We now have over 5000 manatees in

Florida; does it make economic sense tospend a lot of money to improve the sur-vivability of just 1% of that population?As a guy once told me in an undergroundparking garage back in the 60s - ‘Followthe money.’

Where the Manatee Money Goes

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By Capt. Steve SkevingtonWater LIFE OffshoreAJs are all over the place, eating blue

runners. We got ‘cuda all day long on allthe wrecks, eating ‘cuda tubes, you know,the ones made of surgical tubing. Kings?We limited out in an hour, 25-30-poundfish. Huge jacks on the Palm Island Ferryright now. Our customers love fightingthem - they are like sparing partners.Lots of small AJs on Boxcars Reef, they

are fun to catch and release. Keeper redgrouper out past 75 ft. Vermillion and lanearound too, lots of them! Cobia are a big target offshore for a lot

of anglers. We drift the wrecks so we’re

not catching cobia that much. Over the years I’ve seen tons of little

tunny, and big king fish in the Harbor. Ithappens in spring, I’m not sure why.There have been tons of bonita and kingsin Boca Grande over the years too. Sev-eral SKA tournaments have been wonwith kingfish from inside Boca Grande.Sharks are all over the place. Everybody Italk to says the Harbor is full of them.Any place you find fish you’ll find sharksright now. We had a 10 foot plus sharkfollow a grouper to the boat today, wehad a tiger shark the other day close to 11or 12 feet. Sharks are out there right now.Capt Steve Skevington Paradise Fishing Charters941-575-3528

Offshorewith Captain Steve Skevington

Serious Chewing

This look down fish looks a little like thepermit to the rightFar Left: Kingfish on ice

By Betty StauglerWater LIFE SeaGrantMacroalgae are

large species ofalgae often referredto as seaweeds. When not attached to thesediments they are commonly called driftalgae. Macroalgae are different from sea-grasses and other common plants such asgrasses, scrubs and trees, that have vascu-lar tissues to transport water and nutrients(much like veins and arteries transportblood in humans) throughout the plant.Vascular plants also have true roots, stemsand leaves. Macroalgae do not have thesevascular tissues, instead water and nutri-ents are absorbed directly across their sur-faces.Macroalgae, like all plants photosyn-

thesize. That is they convert sunlight en-ergy into usable chemical energy,specifically carbohydrates such as sugars.These carbohydrates are stored in or usedby the plant and then transferred to otherorganisms as the plant is consumed. There are three types of macroalgae,

which are distinguished from one anotherby the different types of photosyntheticpigments found in their cells; green algae(Chlorophyta), brown algae (Phaeophyta),and red algae (Rhodophyta).The most commonly seen macroal-

gae in Charlotte Harbor are red algae.Worldwide red algae comprise about6,000 species and make up the secondlargest group of algae. Red algae get theirred color from pigments called phycoery-thrins that absorb blue light and reflect redlight. The blue wavelengths of sunlightpenetrate further down in the water andthus make it possible for red algae to carryout photosynthesis in deep or dark waters.Common red species found in the Harborinclude Gracilaria, Hypnea and Acan-thophora. All of these are similar in ap-pearance.Less common in the Harbor, but

most abundant worldwide are green

algae. Approximately 7,000 species areknown worldwide. In Charlotte Harborthe green algae typically seen includeUlva and Caulerpa. Ulva, also known assea lettuce, looks much like pieces ofsaran wrap. Caulerpa is an attached algaethat is either feathery or strap like andlooks like it could be a seagrass. Anotherattached green algae Codium, also knownas ‘dead man’s fingers’, have been wash-ing up on shore at Indian Mound Park inEnglewood recently.Brown algae are far less abundant in

the Harbor. The species I see most fre-quently is Sargassum. Most Sargassum isplanktonic meaning they drift in the watercolumn, but the one I frequently see in theHarbor is attached. Although little Sargas-sum is seen in the upper Harbor, at times,now in fact, it is locally abundant near themouth of the Caloosahatchee River. Sar-gassum have small berry like bladders thatare gas filled and help with buoyancy. In many coastal waters macroalgae

abundance has increased in recent decadesdue to nutrient enrichment. Periodically, Ireceive phone calls and emails fromboaters and anglers who are concernedthat macroalgae abundance is on the risein Charlotte Harbor too. There are certainseasonal patterns that give rise to moremacroalgae. Whether we are experiencingan increasing trend or seasonal patterns isunclear, but it is something that will needto be addressed in the future. As nutrient levels in coastal environ-

ments change so do the plants species. Allplants require light, water and nutrients togrow. Studies have shown that seagrassesgenerally dominate in waters with low nu-trients and high light availability. In con-trast, macroalgae (and microscopicmicroalgae) tend to dominate where thereis less light and more nutrients. Because macroalgae (and microalgae)

are better able to make use of low lightlevels than are seagrasses, they have acompetitive edge when nutrient levels in-crease. This is because seagrasses are

rooted to the substrate and as such aresubject to shading effects of unattachedmacroalgae covering them. When sea-grasses are shaded their ability to photo-synthesize is reduced and ultimately theirgrowing season is shortened. So, one could expect as nutrient levels

increase, seagrasses which are slow grow-ing, to be replaced by macroalgae, whichare fast growing. If nutrients continue toincrease macroalgae will be replace byeven faster growing microalgae (micro-scopic algae). From an ecosystem per-spective, that shift from seagrass tomicroalgae could have cascading impactsas animals dependent upon seagrass forfood and shelter – spotted seatrout for in-stance could be replaced by less desirablespecies such as jellyfish. Studies indicate that nitrogen is gener-

ally the nutrient that seems to controlmacroalgae growth rates throughout theyear. However phosphorus alone, or atcertain times of the year, both nitrogenand phosphorus together may be impor-tant. To complicate this, different speciesof macroalgae can be limited by nitrogenor by phosphorus in the same estuary.One of the biggest challenges when nu-

trient levels increase is identifying where

the increase is coming from. Regularwater monitoring programs cannot get tothat detail without including some sophis-ticated and often costly sampling. In re-cent years a few studies have beenconducted in southwest Florida estuariesand coastal waters to identify the speciesof macroalgae present and to determinewhat nutrient sources (fertilizers, sewage,etc.) macroalgae were utilizing. Deter-mining what nutrient sources are con-tributing to macroalgae growth will enableresource managers to implement correc-tive action hopefully before major shiftsin plant species occur. Of course in the end it’s important to

note that simply seeing macroalgae is notcause for concern. In fact, as primary pro-ducers (photosynthesizers), they do servean important role, particularly in wintermonths when seagrass growth is naturallyslowed. The key is keeping our bays andestuaries healthy to ensure a healthy bal-ance in macroalgae and seagrass abun-dance. Betty Staugler, Florida Sea Grant

Agent UF/IFAS Charlotte County Exten-sion, (941) 764-4346 http://charlotte.ifas.ufl.edu www.flseagrant.org -

PAGE 10 EMAIL: W [email protected] MAY 2013

Macroalgae of Charlotte Harbor

This is a 500 times magnification of some Charlotte Harbor algae. Algae are non-vascular,They have no veins or arteries so they ingest water and nutrients directly across their sur-

GUIDESGUIDES : Are you willing to: Are you willing toshare your expertise with ourshare your expertise with our

Don Ball School students? Don Ball School students? Can you devote 1 night a weekCan you devote 1 night a week

to help us teach 7th gradersto help us teach 7th gradersabout local fishing? about local fishing?

email: [email protected]: [email protected] call 941-766-8180 Thanks!or call 941-766-8180 Thanks!


By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE Punta Gorda FishingMy good friend Brian Sabo usually

makes a trip from Baltimore at least oncea year to experience everything CharlotteHarbor has to offer. We met about 12years ago when I was moving to PuntaGorda and since then he has raised twowonderful daughters who coincidentallylove to fish. Brian is a hardcore bass fish-erman and really knows his stuff so hequickly became addicted to our local fish-ing. For years he has told me how hisdaughters Megan, age 11 and Caroline,age 9, have become talented anglers andon a recent trip to Charlotte Harbor theentire family paid me a visit. Our hopeswere to expose the girls to the ultimate ex-perience with interactions with dolphins,manatees, the aquatic environment andhopefully a few fish.With my compass heading south, the

morning boat ride to lush grass beds tocatch bait, was delightfully calm. Most ofmy guests’ fishing is done on calm reser-voirs so occasional Harbor boat wakesmade for exciting boat maneuvers thatbrought smiles to their faces. Bait catching pilchards was a new ex-

perience and chumming my special mix-ture and throwing the net brought theharbors aquatic bounty into our livewell.A beautiful oversize cowfish and porcu-

pine puffer were attracted to my chum andwhen shaking the net out the two unusualspecimens were found swimming in thewell. Without a fishing rod in hand, theday was already a success as we quietlysmiled at each other. On the other handthe whitebait was difficult to catch and weonly had about 100 pieces.There was no long boat ride to the fish-

ing hole as I moved the boat from thegrassbeds about 100 yards to a ledgewhere it dropped off to 5 feet. Corks withlivies pitched out resulted in quick actionas we began to catch plenty of speckled

trout and a few ladyfish. Mom Cindy Sabo com-

mented she had never seen aplace where as soon as youstarted fishing you startedcatching! For the next hour,trout were caught then aschool of jacks showed upand the girls kept us busy re-leasing fish and baitinglines. Luck was truly withus this day as two pelicansbegan diving on the grassflat just out of casting range.We pulled anchor anddrifted to where the pelicanswere sitting and thousandsof pilchards were schooledup. A couple throws of thenet and we had a day’sworth of bait! Pausing for alittle lunch we spotted dol-phins in the distance and Iwondered if the day could

get any better.With only a 10 minute boat ride to my

next spot, we eased into a mangroveshoreline, set anchor and pitched outfrisky pilchards. Caroline and Meganeach impressively cast with precision tothe mangroves and in short order rearedback and were setting the hook. For thenext 2 hours theses girls hooked more

nice snook than most could hope to catchin a week! With some of Charlotte Har-bor’s finest fishing at hand Brian and Iwere chomping at the bit to fish ourselvesbut snook after snook was hooked andlanded and all we could do was bait theirlines. Amazing to me was the stamina ofthese young anglers as they cast repeat-edly, set the hook with a vengeance andskillfully fought fish that fight harder thenany freshwater fish. On one perfect castthat Megan made, a hard strike resultedwith the water exploding from a very bigfish and her drag was burning. A hugesnook made aerial leaps as I coached herto drop her rod and put pressure on thefish hoping to change its direction. Indeedit did and it ran straight back to the boatrequiring her to follow the fish around. Infact, the fish circled the boat three timesand with just the right amount of pressurethis impressive fish was boated! Brianhas caught countless snook in the past 12years but none as big as Megans!This was one of those rare days. The

fish bit until we were all tired. To the de-light of this captain, the Sabo family en-joyed world class fishing, interacted withaquatic creatures and experienced thetranquility that only Charlotte Harbor canprovide.Capt. Chuck Eichner operates Action

Flats Backcountry Charters and can bereached at: 941-628-8040 or go to hiswebsite: www.backcountry-charters.com

6-pound Bass Will NeverBe the Same

Kids love the cool looking stuff in Charlotte Harbor, like this colorful cowfish


April offered VARIETY

April was yet another incredible month of Charlotte HarborFishing! The weather was (for the most part) good and thefish were (for the most part) hungry. All photos this pagefrom April charter trips with Capt. Billy Barton.

snook

flounder

cobia

trout redfish bonnerhead shark

sheepshead

grouper

jack crevalle

By Capt.Billy BartonWater LIFE /Charlotte HarborOne of my

guide friendswas literally put-ting limits ofSpanish mackerelin the boat this week - taken on nothingbut a bare hook! Our section of the coastat this point in time is just full of life andthere's an influx of great sportfish to targetright now. First off, my heart does resideon the grassflats of Charlotte Harbor,which right now are just covered in beau-tiful and healthy sized copper toned red-fish, BIG mama snook, and gator trout. However, this is the time of year that I

wanna hear that drag scream a little more.This is when it's time to break out the biggear, get out in the middle of the harbor inthe holes, or out in the passes, or on thenearshore reefs for a serious adrenalinerush! When I'm talkin’ adrenaline rush, I'm

talkin’ big tarpon. First off if you don'tfeel like going out, putting your work in,and catching some nice live bait thenthat's gonna be a problem. Yes, you canhook up some good size tarpon on a pieceof cut mullet, or ladyfish, but you will in-crease your odds by catching an adequateamount of livebait and keeping themhappy and healthy in your livewell.When I go out and I'm looking for lady-fish or good sized herring or whitebait I'm

always watching for birds. A small soft plastic jig of any sort, or a

small silver spoon is a good choice whentrying to put some ladyfish in the well. Ifyou're good with a cast net, there areschools of large threadfins out in the mid-dle of the harbor and on the channel mark-ers that make great livebait. This is thetime of year when the tarpon really seemto prefer a good sized threadfin as theirnumber one meal choice.Locating the tarpon is an obvious part

of the equation. If you are looking for tar-pon, typically it's easiest to just run yourboat slow up the deepest areas of the Har-bor, and ICW and just to look for themrolling on the surface. If you see one free-jump, there's just no way he was the onlyone around.

A trolling motor is an added bonus ifyou have one. If you wanna get them toeat, you wanna’ do everything you cannot to disturb them. This means stayingoutside the school when you locate them.Tarpon can be a very finicky fish up insideour Harbor. These fish are going to be moving

around so you may have to move aroundwith them. Most of us like to run driftsrather than anchor up. That way you'realso free to stay with the fish when you'regoing to battle! As far as tackle for tarpon goes, I pre-

fer a 15-30 pound class, 7 and a half footrod, with a medium action baitrunner stylereel, spooled with 50- to 65-pound braidedline. A good 4- to 6-foot of 60-to 80-

pound fluorocarbon leader is a must.You'll get more action on the lighterleader, however you’ll have to add a littlemore finesse to your angling! For a hook,most of us tend to use a 6 to 8/0 circlehook. This way, when the fish jumps, heisn't as likely to shake it out. The size ofyour hook is gonna’ depend on the size ofthe bait that you're using. Once you hookup a silver king, and you see he's about tomake a jump, you always wanna be pre-pared to bow the tip of your rod as far for-ward as you can, pointing it low to thewater and towards the fish when he getsarial. This releases some of the tension in

your line when he makes that jump andshakes his head with all that force, tryingto spit your hook right back at you. Wecall this "bowing to the king." Most tarpon are lost on the jump. They

can be heart breakers. If you go 1 for 4 onyour hookup to landed fish ratio with tar-pon then you are doing great! When you do land one though, there's

no fish more gratifying to have at the sideof your boat ‘cheesing’ with you in a pic-ture!Capt. Billy Barton operates Scales N Tails

Charters. Phone 979-6140 or email him at :[email protected]


Adrenaline Rush

Double Adrenaline Rush - Saturday April 27 - One for the angler and one for Capt. DwayneFrench who was driving the boat and managed to snap this picture too ! Tarpon tourna-ments at Boca Grande start on Motherʼs day and continue every weekend after that.

Sharks are a by-catch a lot of times when fishing fortarpon. The sharks are usually my backup plan – notquite as gratifying to me, but they still get the bloodpumpin! If you target tarpon, you already have the nec-essary tackle to fish for shark and cobia. The baits al-ready swimming in the well. All you need to add is asmall piece of steel wire to the end of your fluorocar-bon leader for shark and you're good to go! Perhapsanchoring up and chumming might be a better choice inthis scenario, but drift fishing for shark could work justas well. That about covers what I wanted to touch up on this

month. Just a little bit of what goes on in my salty life!Keep your eyes peeled for cobia too. They're all overthe harbor, and also a by catch while fishing for tarponand sharks out in the holes! Usually cobia wanna’ eatjust about anything you put in front of them. I had acustomer boat one in the 40 pound range at the 41bridge this week on a live ladyfish while tarpon fishing.They're always a tasty surprise! Good luck out thereguys. If you aren't already, you better get out there andlet that drag scream while the gettin’ s good!! – Capt. Billy Barton

Shark & Cobia

This cobia was taken By Capt. Van Hubbard on a Cabo 40with Cortland Masterbraid 20 pound and a Cotee jig, aboard

Another Keeper with Captain Tom McLaughlin.

Punta Gorda Harborwalk PATH TO THE FUTURE

Water LIFE ReportHave you ever walked it? If not you are

missing something, a labyrinth of paths andwalkways, sidewalks, a long floating dock, un-derpasses, elevated walks and promenadesthat stretch over two miles from Adrienne Streeton Marion (across from the medical complex) toFishermenʼs Village. It then extends into the his-toric downtown, to the History Park and beyond.There are still more sections to come, but youcan walk a lot of it now so why wait?

The routes keep walkers on a paved ribbon,sometimes brick, sometimes concrete andsometimes asphalt, that wanders through lushmangroves and out along the water. Whencompleted all the paths together form a RingAround The City.

There are plenty of shady spots, even atnoon. Much of the Harborwalk is already

lighted for night and there are several fountainsand bathrooms along the way. The city hasmade the path walker, jogger and biker accessi-ble, and has opened most of it to dogs as well.

Really serious walkers can opt to run up thesteps to the US 41 Bridge (at the side of the oldBest Western) and cross the Peace River on a3 mile round trip.

There are numerous parking locations alongthe Harborwalk. We like to park in the middle,in the small lot tucked in behind the auditorium.

Water LIFE has started a Facebook page forthe Punta Gorda Harborwalk, there you can seemost of the sections and follow the progress onits completion. Tell your friends, explore it your-self. This is a path to the future that will bringpeople to, and through, Punta Gorda for yearsto come and keep the locals limber at the sametime.



By Capt. Bart MarxWater LIFE FishingHello fellow anglers, it seemed that the

water was never going to warm up, andthen suddenly it is 80 degrees. There areall kinds of stuff out there to target now.

Tarpon,sharks,king andSpanishmackerel;and thereshould besome per-mit onsome of theartificialreefs likeNovak orTrembly.Inshore wehave

snook, reds, trout, sharks and tarpon. Last month I had some new anglers on

board to learn some fishing skills fromCapt. Bart. I am grateful that these guyswere good students, they listened and ap-plied what they were taught to producesome nice catches. The Simpson brothershad a blast, they caught their first sharkswith us. They also caught some trout andreds. They are true conservationists, theyreleased all that was caught on our trip in-cluding a snook. On another trip we had arepeat customer. Lucas brought hisgrandpa back with him to fish. We startedfishing in the Gulf looking for someflounder, sheepshead or a Spanish mack-erel and maybe even a mangrove snapper.It started off a little slow. We tried a cou-ple of places but they were not too pro-ductive. We decided to travel back inshoreto Bull Bay and look for reds, trout orsnook. There we caught some small troutand reds, Lucas caught a nice trout to addto the bounty for a fish dinner. Still an-other repeat customer Michigan Mike and

his friend Tom with me, Capt. Bart, onToms boat. We started out from the PGIcanals. Mike was interested in catchinganything on his fly rod. On an earlier tripMike caught a 22" snook on his fly rodand a 17" trout and a red on a spinningrod to complete an inshore slam - 2/3 on afly rod. So he was pumped up and wewent in search of a tarpon on the beach.We traveled to Captiva Pass and traveledup the beach, it was a little windy and thesurf was a little milky and hard to spotfish though we did spot several pods ofdolphins along our travels up to Gaspar-illa Pass. Near Gasparilla there was a large

school of bait so we stopped and Mikestarted casting his fly rod and hookedsomething which turned out to be a Span-ish mackerel on the fly rod. The tarpon

hunt was over for that day so we travelledinto Bull Bay where we tried to catch ared or trout but they were not eating so we

moved on up in the center of the Harborwhere we set out a couple of lines. We gotrobbed twice, the hooks were gone, so weput some wire on with a fresh bait and injust a few minutes we had a black noseshark up to the boat. We took some pic-tures and let it swim away in good health.By then it was late in the day so westarted our trip back to the dock. Again,we releasedall wecaught thatday. I enjoy

helpingyoung newanglerslearn skills,how to tieknots andhow tohook a baitand keep italive. And Ienjoy help-ing out the new comers as to where to fishand how to use their own boat and tackle.If you would like to set up a trip with Capt.

Bart Marx to go with you, or you go with mecall 941-979-6517 Alpha Omega ChartersAnd as always singing drags and tight linesmake me smile!

Singing Drag Still Makes Me Smile


Recent area news items:1. Charlotte County will reim-burse the Laishley group for$35K of due diligence expensesincurred by them in the explo-ration of the feasibility of a landswap. The group had pro-posed to trade 34 acres ofzoned and utilitied industrialland in the Enterprise CharlottePark for 137 acres in MurdockVillage. The proposed buyersfound that financing was notfeasible for their water park,music park, hotel complex.Kudos to the developers thatstrong armed taxpayers into ab-sorbing the costs of investigat-ing this speculation.2. North Port and SarasotaCounty agreed to hire a newmanager for Warm MineralSprings when the current man-agement agreement expires atthe end of June. Stymied by thedisagreement of the sale of theproperty, the two partnersagreed to continue with thisfloundering investment indefi-nitely.3. Rotonda West Homeowner'sAssociation agreed to purchasethe abandoned Pinemoore EastCountry Club for $50k funded bya donation from a private citi-zen. Vocal citizens are com-plaining that they should have

been given the opportunity tovote on this acquisition.

4. The owner of the formerTexaco Gas Station and usedboat dealership at Tamiami andHarbor Blvd in Port Charlottehas applied for zoning for useas a gas station again. Sincethe property is located at the en-trance of the Parkside rehabilita-tion area, local homeowners arepressuring County Commission-ers to force the owners to pro-vide a more attractive use forthe property.

5. Punta Gorda's "ring aroundthe city" program continues thissummer with extension of as-phalt paved bike trails extendingbetween Airport Rd & Aqui Estaand Monaco to Taylor Rd alongRt 41 and between Shreve andNorthbound 41 along OlympiaAve.6. Nancy Praffke, current CEOof TEAM Punta Gorda, will berunning for Punta Gorda CityCouncil district 5 this. She willbe opposed by Charles Councilfrom Burnt Store Isles.7. The controversial IMPACUniversity property on Retta Es-planade in Punta Gorda wasauctioned for $3,520,000. The

bargain price for this 55,000 sqft facility will be paid by a anunidentified private investor. Cit-izens are anxious to find out thebuyer's plans for this facility.8. The jobless rate for Char-lotte County fell from 8.1% to7.4% in January from a yearago, 9.2% to 7.2% for SarasotaCounty.9. Super Boat International isproposing that CharlotteCounty taxpayers front up to$250,000 to fund a 3 day rac-ing and entertainment programin April, 2014. The sponsorprojects that taxes on 1,500hotel rooms and $7 million ofdining and other purchases(does thatsound a littleoptimistic?)will recovermost of thatinvestment.Seems to methat the hotelsand restau-rants thatstand to ben-efit from thisinvestment ought to fund it, nottaxpayers. In other news: Monty's PizzaRestaurant broke ground ontheir new restaurant located onthe site of their old facilities that

were destroyed by HurricaneCharley. Sales Statistics: Prices forvacant lots continue to stabilizein the $4-$5K range for well &septic lots. Improved lots con-tinue to decline below water and

sewer improvement costs.Foreclosure filings shrank to170 from 219 in March, 2012.Distressed home sales contin-ued to dwindle in the mix ofsales are reflected in rising me-dian sales prices.

The popular Fishery restaurant in Placida was recently sold. Reportedly, the new owner, Dr Mark Asperilla, will be building a big outdoorwaterside deck. This could be a popular spot since the deck will face west into the sunsets.

Several Charlotte Harbor guides have toldus about red sores on the snook they havebeen catching. We sent the above photo(from Capt. Chuck Eichnerʼs column thismonth on page 11) to Dr. Phillip Stevens,head of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conser-vation Commission, Fish & Wildlife Re-search Institute, Charlotte Harbor FieldLaboratory. The following is his reply:

There are many things that can causethese legions. For example, an abrasionthat gets infected, or a microscopic critterthat takes hold, particularly in a stressedfish. The fish in this picture seems to be ingreat shape. We have a fish health sectionup in St Pete who can do the microscopicwork to find out what could be going on.They look for infections at the surface andalso check internal organs like the liverthat can provide clues.

There is usually some background levelof legions in a population, but things canget worse if there is a natural outbreak orsomething going on in the environment.Here in Charlotte Harbor, the backgroundlevel of fish health issues is very low. Thisis one of the things we track and keep abaseline for in our monitoring program.That way, if things start to change, we cangauge how much worse things have reallygotten.

If you hear of such legions, just havesomeone take a picture as was done hereand try to get us the whole fish if legallypossible (the whole fish allows for those in-ternal organ inspections). We'll get it fromyou and get it up to our fish health biolo-gists in St Pete.

Philip Stevens, PhDFlorida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Com-missionFish & Wildlife Research InstituteCharlotte Harbor Field Laboratory585 Prineville St.Port Charlotte, FL 33954Phone: 941-613-0945 Fax: 941-613-0948

Red Soreson Snook


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By Captain Jim O’BrienWater LIFE Offshore

Hey - YA - ALL It’s summer and the fish'nhas been getting better since the water hasbeen warming up. The first week of April thewater temperature went from the 60s to themid 70s in about 4 days out there where wefish. That made all the difference in the world.I just hope we don’t get any more cold blastswith the wind coming straight out of the northagain. Ha! the poor fish don't know if it’ssummer or winter. Give me that warmerweather.Well let’s get into what the fish are doing

offshore in between the winds.COBIA - are starting to come in Charlotte

Harbor but I didn't talk to any one that caughtany.SPANISH MACKEREL - are all over the

place out of stump pass 2 to 7 miles out, trollwith small Clark spoonsKING MACKEREL - are anywhere from

7 to 30 miles out. There are some BIG - UNSbeing caught at 25 to 31 miles they are hittingon Spanish sardines and troll with kingspoons.MANGROVE SNAPPER - the BIG BOYS

20 to 24 in. are starting to bite real good off-shore 25 to 30 miles they are hitting on piecesof sardines, squid and shrimp.LANE SNAPPER - are chewing good in

70 to 90 feet of water, best bait is shrimp.AJs ( greater amberjack ) are on just about

all the offshore wrecks and reefs, Charlie, Pe-

gasis, Bayronto the Box Cars and D-9 just toname a few. There are some big bruisers outthere that will go 50 to 90 pounds. The bestbait is a free lined blue runner or a big pin fishand then hang on.RED GROUPER - there are some BIG -

UNS out in 100 feet of water. One of my pic-tures this month is a 28 in. fat red groupercaught by Dennis Sycora he has been fishingwith me for a lot of years he has my redgrouper record at the 30 mile range thebiggest red grouper he has caught was 38 1/2in. long and weight 31 pounds. He is still try-ing to break his own record.BLACK GROUPER - no reports on blacksGAG GROUPER - IS STILL CLOSED but

we have been catching big ones on every tripout. In one of my pictures of Al holding a nicegag. You should have seen the look on hisface when I told him he would have to releaseit. There are some nice gags at 95 to 110 ft. ofwaterIt’s nice to see the fishing picking up with

the warmer waters now here. The last coupleof charters we done we caught what I call a

smorgasbord of fish I mean we got redgrouper, gag grouper (throw backs), big man-grove snapper, nice jolt head porgies, regularporgies, scamp, etc. You name it its out thereand the fishing is getting better every day. Inone of my other pictures we caught a morayeel that's the first one for this year, Boy dothey get mad when you bring them up from100 ft. That’s about it for now, it’s time to get out

of here. If you have a good ol’ fish story or arecipe for cooking fish that we can share withour readers send ‘em in!

AND REMEMBER, GET OUT THERE AND SNORT SOME OF THAT GOOD CLEAN SALT AIRC U Z IT'S GOOD FER YA ! ! !

To book an offshore charter with usaboard the Predator II call 473 2150

The Olʼ Fishinʼ Hole

Our first moray eel of the sea-son. Boy do they get mad whenyou bring them up from 100 ft!

http://www.callthecaptain.net


By David AllenWater LIFE KayakingAt each Wednesday meeting, after the

usual discussion of “kayak happenings” Iask the club where they would like to pad-dle on the up-coming weekend. I usuallyget several responses; we then take a voteto make the final decision. With so manygood places to kayak in Charlotte County,this is not an easy decision. However,over the years, one launch site that wevisit more than any other is Lettuce Lake.Lettuce Lake is one of the more inter-

esting areas that the Port Charlotte Kayak-ers paddle during the year. Located justoff State Highway 761, about 10 milesnorth of Port Charlotte, Lettuce Lake issituated just east of the Peace River, andthere are several open channels that leaddirectly to the larger river. Lettuce Lake is the odds-on favorite of

one of our charter members, Bill Mango.Bill knows the water trails leading northand south from the Lettuce Lake beachbetter than anyone else in the club. Thearea surrounding Lettuce Lake has a num-ber of open channels and also mangrovetunnels; some so narrow and closed in thata kayak can barely navigate through thetangled branches and fallen trees. If youhead south, there are broad areas of openwater with spectacular views of hugetrees, many vine covered, with birds of alldescription filling the air. As you proceedfurther south, to the east of the PeaceRiver, there is an abandoned phosphate

dock located at Liverpool.You can still see the largelimestone blocks that oncemade up the seawall and sup-port for the loading dock.There is also a boat ramp atLiverpool. A Rookery Island,just west of Liverpool, in themiddle of the Peace River, ishome to huge flocks of wood storks,herons, and many other species of birds.During the mating season, the island is al-most completely covered with nestingbirds, each nurturing their young off-spring. So you can see that leading a pad-dle in this area is rewarding, but not aneasy task.So several meetings ago, when I asked

the familiar question,”Where do you wantto paddle?” It was no surprise that DanHousehold piped up with “Lettuce Lake!”Several other members agreed and the wevoted on a 9 AM launch at the Lake.Thirteen kayaks launched from the

beach at Lettuce Lake on the next Sunday morning. It was a perfect

morning for a paddle; relatively cool, withlittle wind or current to hamper the pad-dlers. But the water in the channels sur-rounding Lettuce Lake and in the PeaceRiver was as low as we had ever seen it.A combination of tides and wind pulledthe water out of that area. Even so, weelected to take the north route, which usu-ally has much less water than a paddlesouth through the channels that lead to the

Peace River.Soon, we were in

the shade of the sur-rounding trees, andfound the channel in-creasingly narrow andtwisted. There weresome small trees andbranches overhangingthe water, but noneblocked our way.Some large brancheswere just below the surface of the waterbut did not slow us down. As we paddledfurther north and west the trail becamewider as we neared the Peace River. Wedid notice that there was a noticeable ab-sence to wildlife for some reason, as weusually see lots of birds and even an occa-sional alligator in that area.It was a beautiful day for a paddle and

we were enjoying the scenery and conver-sation with our fellow paddlers. After alittle over an hour, we stopped along asandy bank for a brief break before head-ing back. A few paddlers decided to con-tinue north on the Peace to get in a little

longer paddle.The trip back to Lettuce Lake was

made a little easier due to the rising tidethrough some of the shallow spots. Abouttwo hours after we had launched, we wereback at the Lettuce Lake beach. It was avery interesting paddle, and we decided totake the south route next time, and maybevisit the Rookery.The Port Charlotte Kayakers meet

each Wednesday evening at 5:00 pm atFranz Ross Park next to the YMCA onQuesada Ave. All are welcome to attend.For more information call Dave Allen at941-235-2588 or email to:

[email protected].

Lettuce Lake: Odds On FavoriteKAYAKS

Preflight InspectionPilots do a walk-around of their craftbefore flight. They look for little thingsthat are out of the ordinary. Boatersshould too. Here we found a piece of10-pound mono line hanging out of thevent hole on our prop. Inside the linewas wound all the way around the propshaft. Had we not removed it, it wouldhave easily cut through the seal (belowthe spring ring in the last photo) andallowed the lubricant from the lowerunit to run out. That would be bad!


Everyone knows the trick of holding yourfish out in front of you, closer to the cam-era, for a picture that makes the fish lookbigger, but what really makes a good pic-ture?After you have caught a good fish it is thesetting. The light should be on the sub-ject, – early morning and late afternoonlight are best. Backlit subjects are rarelyeffective and should be avoided. Thebackground should not be cluttered. Youdonʼt want rods or branches behind thatlook like they are sticking throughyour subjectʼs head. Hold fish hori-zontally for a catch and releasepicture. If you hold a fish verticallythat usually signifies the fish isgoing into the cooler.Shown here is a fellow namedKen on a trip with our residentcaptain/photographer, Billy Barton. Note how Capt Billy tries to gethis subject in different poses. Yourfish pictures look boring if thepose is always the same.

By Bobby VitalasWater LIFE Shore FishingBlue fish are fun to catch. They give an ok

fight. This blue fish was caught at Tom Adam'sBridge Pier,from low tohigh tide.The colorof the fishis blue upabove withwhitebelow. Thelegal lengthto keep theblue fish inthis area isfrom 12inches ormore fromthe fork of the tail, and their most commonweight is from 1 to 3 pounds, but they can getbigger. The food value is ok as long as youcook it in the same day. I would not recom-mend freezing this fish. I do not keep my fish.I catch and release. There are two ways to catch blue fish, ei-

ther use bait or go spin casting for them. Whenspin casting, the lure I am using is a D.O.AC.A.L 3" shad tail model #419 color (greenback). I use a jig for the shad tail which is theD.O.A C.A.L short shank 3/8oz. weight, color

(white or chartreuse head). For thoes peoplewho use bait, I suggest you use shrimp. Thereare many other fish you can catch when usingshrimp. When using shrimp, some people usebobbers. You can fish with a bobber on top ofthe water, or you can use a sinker weight tofish on the bottom. Both are very productive.

The two kinds of bob-bers you can use are theround plastic floats, orthe Billy Boy Bobbersfloats, which workgreat. The good thing Ilike about Billy BoyBobbers float is that theline goes through thebobber. With the plasticfloats, the line getsclipped on to the bob-ber. For those peoplewho use weights, tryusing the smallestweight as possible. If

you are fishing from the end of the pier, andyou are casting out to the pilings which has astrong current, then you need to go to a heavierweight. I am using 30lb. test SUFIX AD-VANCED SUPER LINE (BRAID), as mymain line. When spin casting, for my leaderline, I use 3 feet of 25lb. test SEAGUAR100% FLUOROCARBON LEADER line.When tying your leader line to your jig head, Isuggest you use the RAPALA knot because itwill create more action out of the jig. So, have a great time fishing!

The Shore Fisherman:

BluefishMake Your Fish Photos Keepers


Cooks Sportland

4419 So. Tamiami TrailS. Venice493-0025

Water LIFE Distributorʼs ClubWater LIFE Distributorʼs ClubYour free copy of Water LIFE is waiting at over 100 locationsYour free copy of Water LIFE is waiting at over 100 locations

These are a few of them:These are a few of them:

Water LIFE Distributorʼs ClubWater LIFE Distributorʼs ClubWe say ʻthanksʼ to our major distributors with these free card ads!We say ʻthanksʼ to our major distributors with these free card ads!

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SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated,

But Often True


Target Practice Alert The animalrights organization People for theEthical Treatment of Animals(PETA) announced plans lastmonth for a drone program that willuse remote-controlled aircraft to

keep an eye on hunters. Accordingto a press release, the group is ac-tively shopping for drones to in-clude in the program. PETAPresident Ingrid E. Newkirk said“Slob hunters may need to rethinkthe idea that they can get awaywith murder, alone out there in thewoods with no one watching.”The reaction from sportsmen tothis program has been overwhelm-ingly negative and we think thenew Peta drones had better be bul-let proof.

Renaissance of Moonshine?Three people last week, none con-nected, told us moonshine is onthe come-back in little ol' Charlotte

County, FL. $100 a gallon one fel-low said, offering a sample of thegolden stuff going around. Youdon't want to be any place youhave to walk around, he said, be-cause ʻIt kind of gets to yourknees!ʼ Boy was he right!Is this because of moonshine TV?

Gator Bait Officers were on waterpatrol on the Peace River when anofficer spotted a dead opossumsuspended above the water from asteel cable. A closer inspection re-vealed that the animal was beingused as bait on a bush hook thatwas attached to a dock. Shortlyafter discovering the bush hook,contact was made with a subjectwho admitted that he placed theopossum and hook there in at-tempt to catch an alligator. Thesubject was cited for taking alliga-tor by illegal method.

5 Missing Miami-Dade officerssearched for a family of five fromOhio that included a father, mother,and three young children who werereported missing. After an exhaus-tive search in cold, rainy condi-tions, officers managed to find thefamily. Search and rescue teamhad to walk into alligator infestedwaters for several hundred yards inorder to reach the cold and fright-ened family. Once the familyʼs air-boat was freed, the family wastransported to Kendal RegionalHospital for evaluation.

Big Snails have been populatingthe ponds along Kings Highway.Betty Staugler, the CharlotteCounty Sea Grant Agent said: “Mybest guess is island apple snail(gets to be about 3.25-4" inlength). Could also be channelapple snail (they look very similiar,but this one is slightly smaller 2.5-

3")...again my guess is the former.Regardless, they are both invasiveexotics. Both came from S. Amer-ica and were introduced through

the aquarium trade. Currentlythere are 4 introduced apple snails(there might be a fifth one now)...Idon't know much about the others.We only have one native applesnail (Florida apple snail...1.5-2").The best way to tell which applesnail it is, is by looking at the eggmasses.”

Not So Lucky Last month thehorseshoe crabs in the upper har-

bor appeared to have had theiryoung. This little guy didnʼt make it

Sue and Settle Oklahoma doesnʼtlike the Fedsʼ Sue and Settle ap-proach. Crying ʻfoulʼ Oklahoma issuing the Federal Governmentsaying the EPA would not provideinformation requested under theFreedom Of Information Act. TheEPA has been forcing Oklahoma toadhere to regulations more strictthan required by law. Oklahomasays the EPA has refused to pro-vide emails and telephone logswhich would show the EPA con-spired against Oklahoma in a set-tlement agreement that Oklahomacalls “Sue and Settle” CharlotteCounty boaters are familiar withthe ʻSue and Settleʼ tactic, whichwas used in the 1990s to adopt un-called for manatee regulationswithout appropriate input.

Tarpon Genetic Recapture Studydata from the 2012 season, tabu-lated as of October 31, 2012.In 2012, fishing guides and recre-ational anglers collected 4,346 tar-pon DNA samples. Scientistscontributed an additional 263 sam-ples.143 tarpon have been caught andsampled more than once.One juvenile tarpon in the Sebast-

ian River was caught and sampledthree times in three months.One recreational angler. Jon Mal-lory of Merritt Island, Floridacaught and sampled an incredible975 tarpon in 2012.An adult tarpon sampled off Sara-sota County was sampled againless than a month later in Islam-orada. About a month later it wassampled again in Islamorada.Of the 4,606 tarpon DNA samplescollected in 2012, 4,387 came fromthe US and 222 came from othercountries.DNA samples were collected in fivestates. Florida, by far, led all thestates with 4,343 samples.Brevard County was tops of allFlorida Counties with 1,276 DNAsamples in 2012. Monroe Countywas second with 832 while LeeCounty was third with 828.

Too Bad! There is no species thatcan resist a shiny gold spoon witha red feather. Itʼs really too bad!

FWC OFFICERS at CaspersenBeach when he observed threesubjects using two inflatable boatsto retrieve an illegal monofilamentgill net they were fishing with in theGulf. When the netters returned toshore, Officer Brown identified him-self. Two of the individuals at-tempted to flee by running southon the beach, but were appre-hended by Officer Brown and Offi-cer Steve Stasko. The seized netcontained 27 pompano and 47sheephead. The subjects werecharged with multiple felonies andmisdemeanors relating to use ofthe net, undersized fish, over thebag limit of fish, and resisting ar-rest.

Water LIFE ReviewThe Anglerʼs Guide, a pocket size

book for $19.95 better be good and it bet-ter last, especially in our fishy pocket.

This 4.5 x 8-inch, 60 page spiralbound waterproof paged book meets boththose criteria and then some.

Compiled by Les and Kimball Berrythe Anglerʼs Guide covers southwestFlorida from Longboat Key to BocaGrande.

The book contains the expected, lo-cations and maps, baits and tackle,kayaks and fun tips, but where it shinesis in its tips from your guide sectionsthat provides specific local knowledgeabout each area.

Here are some examples:

El Jobean Pier: “....our favorite areastarts about halfway to the end, ..the tidalflows here are substancial....”

Casperson Beach: “There are sev-eral rocky groynes, with the most produc-tive found south of the parking areas....”

Lemon Bay Park “....at the southernend of the park there is a sandbar thatputs you near some grass flats that holdlots of fish...”

The Anglers Guide is available at localbait and tackle shops, selected marinemerchants and outfitters.

the website is:anglersguideswflorida,comISBN 978-0-9858528-0-1

Shore Fishing

Outboard,Inboard &Sterndrive

Charlotte Harbor: Frank, at Fishin' FranksPort Charlotte: 625-3888 Let’s start with the Gulf and work our

way in. Fishing is really good, kingfishand AJs are still within reach, but the kingsare thinning. There are cobia in 20-30 feetof water on the close-in wrecks. Redgrouper have been in 60 feet for keepersizes, nice grunts, snapper, porgys theusual suspects at Novack, Trembly andMarys Reefs. They are fishable, but not ex-ceptionally large. There are also a lot ofsharks moving in. If you stand on thebeach, there are Spanish mackerel andpompano and still pretty decent whitingalong the beaches. Some tarpon are cruis-ing the beaches, not huge amounts, but

worth watching for. And there are lots ofsmall sharks cruising sharp nose, blacktips, small bull sharks, lemons, we havemore sharp nose and black tips cruisingthe shorelines than ever. It’s a little earlyfor the small lemons but the bigger lemonsand bull sharks are cruising the shoreline. And the nightmare of your dreams, Mr

Hammerhead is out there now too. The shark activity is moving onto the

Harbor. There are tarpon in the deep holesand at Boca Grande Pass. A lot of them arecruising outside the sand bars we don’tknow if the rain is going to change things,but it’s a magical-moment of salinity rightnow and there is a huge variety of fish. Youcan catch snook and redfish any time of theyear, the decision is: do you want to go forthe snook now that will be here later, or gofor the Spanish and the sharks that are here

only for a short time. We have had less rain this last winter,

what’s happening is the salinity up in theHarbor has brought King mackerel (up to30 pounds) into the middle of CharlotteHarbor. I am hearing about bonita and pos-sibly blackfin tuna in the harbor rightnow. It happens on the years when we havevery minimal rainfall. A few years ago,when this happened, we had mahi mahi inthe Harbor. Events like this are rare, but notunheard of. I’m betting on not a lot of rain, so I’m

thinking it will hold through May, all thesefish within the harbor. The first two weeksof this month could potentially be some ofthe best fishing we have had in the last 10years. You ought to see the faces of thepeople who come into the shop. It’s a fish-ing dream.

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Clinton Norrisʼ sent this picture of his girl-friend Kim holding two slot redfish caughtin Pine Island “It would be really cool havethe picture in the May issue,” he wrote.Here U Go, Clinton! Since Kim is holdingthe fish by the gills, we presume they ac-companied you guys home for dinner.

This is a tile fish- caught in 800 feet of water off Fort Jeffer-son, in the Dry Tortugas, with Glen Ballinger.

Guide Card SpotOnly 1 Available$40/month941-766-8180

Hog Island Action – Carol Kelley, first time fishing the flats "Floridastyle" caught a red and a flounder on the same rig and shrimp bait, .Lee Strauss with a 24 inch red caught free lining under the mangroves.They let the baits drift with current as it sped out of the cut-off. Happy camper, fishing in tghe Colony Point

basin.

Flats fishing for redfishseems to be more productivein the creeks and the deeperwater, not on the bars. Whenyou find one you find 30 of‘em! There are big snook allover the flats. If you have alittle shade chances are thereis a snook in it. Snook are inthe pre-spawn mode now. It’simprinted in the snooks ge-netics to eat baitfish for their oil before the snookspawn. So by using baitfish or lures that resem-ble baitfish for snook you are keying in on theirnatural preference.In freshwater, bass fishermen are using lot of

shad style lures – the bigger-body lures arewhat’s hot. Bass anglers are using for the deeperdiving lures, like 6 or 8 foot divers. The bass aredeep, but they are hitting good.Get a pole, put some line and a hook on it and

give it a shot. You could have the trip of a life-time.

Lemon Bay: Jim, at Fishermen’s EdgeEnglewood: 697-7595Fishing is reasonably good. Inside, there are

really really big trout (to 10 pounds and 33 inches)mostly around Pine Island or on the bar out frontof Turtle Bay, where the drop off is. Some havebeen taken on shrimp some on topwater lures,mostly it’s an early morning bite. There are a lot ofredfish around now, small and really big.Some guys are using ladyfish and sardines as

cut bait for snook or redfish. There have been some really monster reds

around, up to 45 inches, some are rightnext to the pass.Pompano are still on the Tom Adams

pier. Spanish and king mackerel arearound and cobia are in the Harbor, insideby the phosphate dock.Offshore it’s really good. Snapper,

mangs, lane snapper, and AJ on the Bay-ronto and other deeper wrecks. A lot ofgag still around, but they still have to letthem go.... oh well. There are tarpon inthe pass, moving in and out. In freshwater havent had anybody

doing anything. I’m sure there is somebass fishing going on, but once theweather got warm enough for whitebait itseems like a lot of bass fishermen focus oninsh ore.

The BIG-4 The BIG-4 Fish to expect in Fish to expect in May May and we mean BIGand we mean BIG

TARPON In the Pass more andmore, moving in and out

SHARK Sharks are every-where, both big and small

KINGFISH In 70 feet. A fewcloser in, but not for long

SNOOK in the deeper spotsoutside the bars


www.fishingpuntagorda.com

FISHING FISHINGRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:Big Fish HERE!Big Fish HERE!

Gulf TempsGulf Tempsare finallyare finallyin the 80s in the 80s

nownow

Above Danny Friedlineʼs 13th birthday hammerhead .

From Fishinʼ Frank: This rare fish is a louvar . It was about6 feet long when it washed up on Englewood Beach lastmonth. First time I have ever heard of one of these washingashore. A shark or something must have eaten the tail off. It was so big, two men could not flip it over or get it back inthe water.

Casey Baker and a little lemon shark

Relaxing with the Sharks

water life may 2013

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