Wate LIFE Jan 2016

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Charlotte Harbor, Lemon Bay, Venice, Estero, 10,000 Islands and the GulfCharlotte Harbor, Lemon Bay, Venice, Estero, 10,000 Islands and the Gulf

WaterWater LL II FEFEThe Don Ball School of FishingThe Don Ball School of Fishing

January 2016

SexLivesof FishPage 14

AJs open againAJs open againpage 6page 6

Gaining popularity...Bowfishing

Page 4

BarracudaBarracudain thein the

Venice Inlet!Venice Inlet!

Fishing ReportPages 22-23

PAGE 2 EMAIL: [email protected] JANUARY 2016

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Michael & Ellen Heller Publishers

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Port Charlotte, FL 33952Independant - Not affiliatedwith any other publication!

Vol XV No 1 © 2016 NO PART of this publication (printed or elec-

tronic) may be copied, reproduced or re-usedwithout specific written permission from the

publishers.

Contributing Editors:Photography: ASA1000.com

Senior Editor: Capt. Ron BlagoCharlotte Harbor: Capt. Billy Barton

Baitshop: Fishinʼ FrankPeace River: Capt. David Stephens

Diving: Adam WilsonPunta Gorda: Capt. Chuck Eichner

Venice: Glen BallingerEstero: Capt. Joe Angius

Everglades City: Capt. Charlie PhillipsKayaking: Bob Fraser

Sea Grant: Capt. Betty StauglerBeach Fishing: Mallory Herzog

Pier Fishing: Bobby Vitalis

On the Cover: Heather Cusackcaught this AJ last month with Mallory

and Capt. Andrew Herzog. She couldnʼtkeep that one, but as of Jan 4 AJs are

open again. See page 15

Send letters and photos to: [email protected]

LEONARD AT TOP NOTCH CANVAS“... A LOT MORE CALLS FROM YOUR PUBLICATIONTHAN FROM ... THAT OTHER WATER PUBLICATION”

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NO BRAINER! IT WORKS FOR US”

Hi Water LIFE My wife and I run Aim Lower BowFishing Charters. This past week wehad some clients come down fromTennessee to do some bow fishingwith us. We landed a bunch of reallynice fish and got some great photos.We read your magazine regularly andhave yet to see any pictures of otherbow fishermen. Maybe it's still new tomost people. Bow fishing is gainingpopularity in other states, most of ourcharters so far have been out-of-statebowfishermen along with a few locals

that are new in the sport.Anyway, I thought I'd submit a fewpictures. We do advocate the eatingof all the fish we shoot. We sent theTaylor's home with almost 30 lbs offileted fish and I've added another picof a giant black drum we got lastnight. I look forward to the Januaryissue.

Thank you.Captain Mark Harrison941-585-7034

Serious Bowfishing

About Sending us PicturesWe like Fresh Fish so please donʼt send us old photos.We like the First Catch so donʼt send us pictures you are sending toanother publication, like for instance, the Charlotte Sun ;-(Bigger is Better, higher resolution is best. Please donʼt adjust, crop orsharpen your pictures. Let us to do that, it will look better!Send Where? email to: [email protected] or txt them, include yourname, to 941-457-1316 (txt only, voice calls are not answered)Best Picture Wins There is no guarantee your fish will appear in print,but if itʼs a better picture of a bigger fish or something cool or unusual, ithas a good chance of getting into the magazine. ... and Thank You!


By Michael HellerWater LIFE Editor

I picked up some stone crabs from the fish market atPlacida and walked around back to see, first hand, whatthe new replica submarine looked like, but in front of methe old shrimp boat Seminole Trader had sunk in her slip.

In Fort Myers, in 1978, Thomas McKeown, helped hisfather build that boat. In October of 2014 Thomas wroteme asking that I keep him abreast of progress, after I re-ported the boat was out of service and being stripped inpreparation for it becoming an artificial reef. Thomas, ifyou are reading this, the progress has now been halted.

I shook my head and called my wife over to take alook. A man in the parking lot came over. “A guy fromCharlotte County was here to get it,” he told me, “Theshrimp boat guys wanted the County to pay them for themotors, but the County wouldn’t,” the man told me.“Lee county wouldn’t pay them either,” he said.

I’ve known Capt. Steve Skevington, for 16 years. Heis one of the last owners of the boat. My friend Capt.Ralph Allen gave Steve his first Captain’s job. Steve hadbeen keeping me abreast of their progress dismantling it.

According to Steve, he and John Drown (most peoplecall him JD) bought the Trader to go shrimping, thenthey later decided to scrap it. Both Steve and JD, insistthey never asked for money from the County.

Before a vessel can be sunk on a reef it must pass aCoast Guard inspection. The rigging and the cables andthe engines – the hard stuff, the heavy stuff, the stuff noteasy to remove – that was what they had left to remove.So the Trader rusted away in her salty slip.

The Seminole Trader rests bow down, insensitively, ina very environmentally sensitive area – off GasparillaSound, between the Charlotte Harbor Aquatic PreserveState Park and the Gasparilla Island Aquatic Preserve . “It

will make a nice grouper habitat,” one captain on thedock said to me, sarcastically.

“JD and I bought it from John and Oddly, who run thePlacida Fish Market,” Steve wrote me. “After trying tomake it seaworthy we realized that wasn't going to hap-pen. That's when JD and I decided to donate the boat fora reef. JD has a long paper trail of trying to get theCounty to accept the donation.” Steve wrote me. “Ifmemory serves, it was one excuse after another as to whythe County couldn't take it and make a reef.”

Roger DeBruler, the Marine Resource agent withCharlotte County worked with them. He wrote me:“A deal was made with John Drown aka “JD” for

Steve and John to clean up the vessel and get the boat topass a Coast Guard reefing inspection. The countyagreed to take the vessel as a donation only after it wasdeployed. A local salvage company was going to donatethe towing and deployment of the boat on the Capt. JeffSteel Memorial Reef. The county’s Solid Waste Depart-ment donated a 40 yard dumpster for the cleanup. Butafter about two years, JD backed out of the deal.” “Last spring JD sold the vessel to a Mr. Eiseman of

Lehigh Acres, who, during the summer, was taking thevessel apart for scrap metal, but he stopped and since hewas not watching it, the vessel sank.” Roger said.

According to Roger, reefing this boat is no longer anoption. The marina and the bank that owns the marina’smortgage would like the county to remove the boat, butsince the vessel is within the marina, it does not qualifyas a derelict vessel... and it doesn’t qualify as an aban-doned vessel because it has a known owner.

So the Coast Guard, FWC-law Enforcement and theDepartment of Environmental Protection are pursuingsome guy named Eiseman (who is probably un-collec-table) and they are also pursuing the marina at Placidawhere the boat sank. The USCG has drafted a written re-port and has contacted Mr. Eiseman. The FDEP has fileda report and has contacted the marina since the marinahas a sovereign submerged-land-lease with the State.

To me, it looks like until someone with a big craneshows up, the Seminole Trader will continue to rustaway; and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit, if in the end,Mr Eiseman says he sold the boat to someone else andthat someone else just can’t be found. That’s the way itworks, it’s like a side-step on the path of responsibility.

A bill of sale isn’t enough. The solution is for thestate to require the last owner who registers a boat to beresponsible for it until it is re-registered by a new owner.

Not Gonna Happen

The Seminole Trader, sunk at Placida. Who cleans this up?

PAGE 6 EMAIL: W [email protected] JANUARY 2016

By Mallory HerzogWater LIFE Fishing

I have been spending a lot of time onthe Gulf lately. Our coastal waters havecooled to wintertime temperatures andthere are some great fish out there thiswinter; fish that will test your enduranceand fish that are great to bring home fordinner. Larger snapper have been biting,although challenging, since some daysthey will only eat very light tackle, takingyou into the structure and breaking yourline. These fish really test your knot tyingskills and patience.

On calm days triple-tail are fun to sight caston the crab buoys.There are lots of just-undersized fish thisyear, with plenty aroundthe 13-inch mark. Livebait such as green backswork, but tripletail can’tresist an artificialshrimp drifting past. I find the TsunamiGold shrimp are great and just the rightweight since these fish hide just under thesurface on the crab line – if your artificialis too heavy, the fish will not notice it.Keeper size is 15 inches.

When you get tired of light tackle youcan always pull out the big guns. Amber-jack opened back up January1. FWC hasissued a new size regulation. To harvestan amberjack in Gulf or Federal waters,the fish must now be 34 inches to the fork.Previously it was 30 inches. These fishare a powerhouse, taking many anglers tothe rail with explosive runs digging forbottom. They eat live bait and jigs. Thisyear they have been prevalent on the nearshore wrecks in the Gulf from Englewoodto Fort Myers. Mild winter temperaturesand acres of bait have kept them around.Tackle for these fish is heavy; a Maxel 10conventional reel, a medium/ heavy gig-ging stick, or a simple knocker-rig with aweight before a circle hook. I like 50-pound Bullbuster braid tied to an 80-pound leader with a 6/0 circle hook.

Amberjack we caught recently were allbetween 30-and 50-pounds. We even hada few break hooks, they were so tough!

If you want to bring home dinner, tar-get one of my favorite eating fish in thesea, Cobia! These fish spend their wintersin the Gulf of Mexico, they migrate as farnorth as Massachusetts in the summer.They prefer water above 68 degrees.These fish are a favorite of spear fisher-men as they travel with larger speciessuch as sharks, whales and stingrays.

In Florida you can take a cobia homefor dinner at 33 inches to thefork. Bait for these guys is afree-lined threadfin or pinfish.Use line like you would for am-berjack, but have a rod riggedwith a bucktail tied on, they areknown to swim up to boats toseek shade. You can also targetcobia inshore, Ive seen a numberof them in Charlotte Harborlately. They tend to hang around

buoys and can be seen cruising the bar fora quick meal. Sight casting cobia is excit-ing, but you have to be careful not tospook thefish. Aimyour cast soyour bait willfloat by in anatural pres-entation.Cookingcobia isn'tchallenging,they are avery mildwhite meatfish, tasty al-most anywayyou preparethem. Theyare great onthe grill or inthe oven with butter and salt and pepper. You can contact Big Bully Outdoors Char-

ters for a trip with Mallory’s husband, Capt.Andrew Herzog. Call 941-661-9880 or visit BigBullyOutdoors.com

Coastal Waters are Cooling

Mallory with a December cobia. Below, Cameron with a nice December AJ

JANUARY 2016 BACK ISSUES @ BACK ISSUES @ WWW.WATERLIFEMAGAZINE.COM PAGE 7


By Captain Joe AngiusWater LIFE Estero Bay

As a Ranger Boats Pro Staff guide Iwas scheduled to work the Naples BoatShow and I was told that Captain Ray VanHorn was going to meet up with the RoseMarina team to help showcase some ofour new inventory. Knowing he was goingto be there, I couldn’t wait to get to theshow and talk his ear off about fishing.

But on the day of the show we had lit-tle to no time to talk about fishing sincevisitors would flock him before we couldshare even a few sentences. Finally, at theend of the day I gave him my businesscard and told him to call me if he everwanted to go fishing. Next thing I knew, Ireceived an invitation to be a guest onCapt Ray’s TV show The Gypsy Angler.

Fishing creates a unique dynamic be-tween an angler and the fish he is after onany given day, but being in front of a cam-era and film crew changes that dynamicdrastically. The day that you are scheduledto film is the day that you are fishing, re-gardless of time, tide, or weather, and inmy case the filming was with one of themost renowned anglers of our time. If youtune in to the Sportsman Channel, startingthe first week of January you can watchthe Placida episode and see how it allturned out.

As far as the fishing goes, happy bait is

being found inlarge quantitiesin a few differ-ent areas. Thebeach shorelinesare holdingmedium-sizedpilchards andwith the rightwind and tide,one could blackout the livewellin one throw.Look for birdsforaging on theshore or divingfor bait. If youcan’t see thepilchards shin-ing in the water,take a blind castabout ten feetfrom shore and see if they are there.

Threadfins and some pilchards arebeing netted just past the beach and in thepasses. You will notice birds diving downon a moving pod of bait that blackens thewater. Also, our local grass flats are hold-ing decent sized bait but netting them re-lies on the wind and tide. The last of theoutgoing and beginning of the incominghas done me well. Be sure to take yourtime chumming and look at your sur-

roundings for signs thatthere may be baitaround (i.e. birds,stingrays, dolphin andtrout).

The fishing in Es-tero Bay has been great with a variety offish being caught. Nearshore, there havebeen a lot of reports on cobia, kingfish,and tripletail. The cobia and kingfish havebeen feeding primarily on pinfish, butwon’t turn down a pilchard offering.Triple tail are on the crab pot buoys andwill eat shrimp, pilchards, andshrimp/crab patterned flies. If you decideto go nearshore, be cautious and aware ofour wind and weather patterns that canchange quickly.

The inshore bite has been superb withredfish, snook, trout, and sheepshead. I’vebeen focusing my time on large grass flatswith oyster bars along the flat.

On the incoming tides I will pitch cutpinfish or live pilchards on the edge of theoyster bar and wait for the redfish to swimby to pick it up. The mangrove islandshave been productive as well, withsheepshead and redfish being the main tar-gets. Live shrimp and crabs free lined on asize 1 or 1/0 Owner hook will work bestaround the mangrove islands.

Get out on the water this month andenjoy the warm weather here in Southwest

Florida. Be respectful to other boaters andanglers, as well as the wildlife that residesaround our waterways. Good Luck!

Captain Joe Angius (727) 234-3171Speakeasyfishing.com [email protected]

Estero Bay Gypsy Angler / Happy Bait


By Capt. David StephensWater LIFE Charlotte HarborThis time of year is the

busiest for me. Normallyafter the first of the year, Ispend more time on my boatthan at home. On a positivenote, there are a lot of famil-iar faces. I have been a fulltime guide for over 15 years,and I have built up a regularcliental so to me it comparesto seeing old friends.

Well folks, so far we can’t do much com-plaining about being cold this winter – everytime I watch the news I hear about recordhighs. In one of my past columns I tried topredict the weather, boy was I wrong. I evengot a text from a client asking me if I was inNorth Florida!

One of my biggest fears with it being sowarm is getting a couple of major cold frontsback to back. I have been catching a lot ofsnook on the shallow flats. For those thatdon’t know, snook can’t tolerate cold water,so if we get some cold weather all of a sud-den that could be very bad for the snook. Ihave also been catching very good numbersof snook in deeper water, so some fish havemigrated to their deeper winter haunts. Thesnook numbers are not as good as I wouldlike them to be. We don’t need any unex-pected weather, but the way it looks guys,maybe we don’t have to worry.

Stay safe on the water.If you would like to experience some of Char-

lotte Harbor’s best fishing give me a call or sendme an email. All of our charters are private andcustomized to fit you and your parties needs.Capt. Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com 941-916-5769

Some Fish Have Migrated

$2 off any haircut!

CANVAS &UPHOLSTERY

By Capt. Billy BartonWater LIFE Inshore

Now that the new year has arrived it's time to getback to fishness – I mean business!So far our winter has been muchwarmer than typical with spring likeconditions almost consistently andplenty of beach days in the mix aswell.

My favorite part about a warmwinter is that the consistent weatherpatterns also provide us with consis-tent fishing.

When our local weather is like aroller coaster ride with too manyups and downs, the fishing can betoo. Fish get confused during thosechanging periods and they don't fol-low their usual moving patterns sothey don't stay in any one area fortoo long.

This year we sure have beenblessed with the first stages of ourwinter, and we are having one of thefishiest winters that I can remember,thanks to the above average temper-atures.

Another factor that has been bene-ficial to our fishing is that we still have baitfish all overour grass flats and in the Hharbor in general. Healthypopulations of baitfish keep our big fish on the hunt.

I do love fishing with live shrimp during the winter.They are consistently a great well rounded bait to use

during our winter months – especially a good sizeshrimp, like the ones we are still seeing in the Harbor.Our water temperature is still up in the 70s. The metabo-

lisms of our predatory subtropicalfish really have not slowed downmuch at this point. Shrimp willwork even better when our waterbegins to cool.

If you can get out prior to fish-ing and throw the net to catchyourself some live sardines and/orpinfish, I believe that is a sureway to make an exciting and ac-tion packed trip happen. Somecaptains and other anglers may notfeel the same way, but I know a lotthat do.

Do you eat the same sandwichfor lunch every day? It's good tobe ready for whatever you mightrun across while out there fishing.Truth be told, for my winter char-ters I like to leave the dock in themorning with shrimp and baitfishin the livewell together. Some fishwill only touch a live shrimp andwon't eat a baitfish and vice versa.

Some fish may just be picky on thatparticular day or tide.

If you don't know and would like to learn how tothrow a cast net, you should stop down at Fishin’ Franks.Not only do they stock cast nets of all shapes and sizes,but they have several good anglers, captains and helpful

help who will be happy to give you a cast net lesson rightthere in the parking lot!

So now it's official. Now that I wrote this little col-umn about our warm winter start and baitfish every-where, Mother Nature will probably throw us a few goodcold-front curve balls to switch things up on us!

Technically, it’s Winter, but ...PAGE 10 EMAIL: W [email protected] JANUARY 2016

The barracudas have been fierce


To be successful we mustadapt to our climate condi-tions, slow it down when it'scooler and understand whatthe fish are eating. If youget those factors figured out,it should make for some con-sistent winter action!

Best of luck out therefolks. If you have any ques-tions please give me a calland I'll do my best to leadyou in the right direction.

Captain Billy BartonScales N Tails Charters

941-979-6140http://www.puntagordafish-

ingcharter.com

Offshore there were plenty of grouper last month, gags, left and red grouper, above


AAQQUU AATICAUNDERWATER: The View From Here

Great Vis for Diving – Mid December, with Adam Wilson

Boca Grande

Novak Reef

The Ledge

This is a little rockpile in shallowwater near theBoca Grandecauseway.I like to look forstone crabs hereand do a littlesnapper fishingtoo.

Looks like someone decided to start an artificial reef at this ledge. I have seen these cube con-traptions on the back of trucks before. They are usually used to hold water, or some kind of liq-uid. It looks like they removed the plastic canister inside the framework. And boy were the fishhanging out on this thing! I spooked most of them before I could get into photo range, but from

a distance I could see big gags, mangrove snappers, and other fish that took of as I ap-proached. Donʼt know how long it will hold up...

Located NW of Boca Grande Pass, the reef is made of long concrete beams stacked to provide more structure. The s nook and AJs were taking advantage of it.

This is Paul Wagenseil from Englewood.He started going offshore with my regu-lar crew when he was about 13. He usedto hang out at Indian Mounds boat rampand ask to tag along with us. One day wetold him if his parents came down andgave us the OK he could go, and theydid. He would drive the boat for us whilewe dived so we didn't have to drop an-chor. After a few trips out he asked if hecould do a dive with us and we explainedto him he would need to take the properclasses and become a certified diver. Hethen whipped out his C-card and said"I'm already certified". To which we allreplied, "Why didn't you tell us that al-ready?!!" Paul just turned 23 in Decem-ber. He bought and fixed up a 1968Corbin flat back boat and we have beenusing it to dive for stone crabs and gaggrouper till season closed. Here he isfrom mid December with a haul of stonecrabs from an after work trip oneevening.


AQU AATTIICCAAUNDERWATER: The View From Here

Great Vis for Diving – Mid December, with Adam Wilson

Phosphate Dock

There are still lots of nicesized tarpon at the Phos-phate Dock, along with bigschools of jacks and plentyof Goliath Grouper. There isone spot along the Phos-phate Dock where we canalways find cool old bottles.

Looks like someone decided to start an artificial reef at this ledge. I have seen these cube con-traptions on the back of trucks before. They are usually used to hold water, or some kind of liq-uid. It looks like they removed the plastic canister inside the framework. And boy were the fishhanging out on this thing! I spooked most of them before I could get into photo range, but from

a distance I could see big gags, mangrove snappers, and other fish that took of as I ap-proached. Donʼt know how long it will hold up...

Located NW of Boca Grande Pass, the reef is made of long concrete beams stacked to provide more structure. The s nook and AJs were taking advantage of it.


By Capt. Betty StauglerWater LIFE / Sea Grant

Since scientist have no way of countingall of the fish in the Gulf, or in a given es-tuary they do stock assessments based onhow many fish are removed and how manyfish are recruited into the system. To thatend, FWC-FWRI recently published the re-sults of three separate studies conducted inthe Tampa Bay area designed to capture im-portant information about fish spawning be-havior. Redfishwe fish for in the estuary are ju-

veniles. Redfish move offshore when theyare about three years old (+/-30 inches)where they join adult schools. Adult redfishspawn in large aggregations near passes inthe late summer to early fall. The studyFWC conducted involved tagging both sub-adult fish from Tampa Bay and adult fishfrom a spawning aggregation. The fish weretagged acoustically and monitored usingdeployed acoustic arrays at aggregationsnear the passes of Tampa Bay and CharlotteHarbor. The study found tagged fish movedback and forth through both acoustic arrays.Spawning, as indicated by the length oftime in an array, was also noted for bothareas. An interesting result was that firstyear spawners (those tagged inside TampaBay) arrived to the spawning aggregationmuch later in the season than the offshoreadults. Scientist know that larger femaleredfish spawn more frequently than smaller

adults in what is known as hedge betting.This may partially explain the late arrivalof the smaller adults. Spotted seatrout, unlike a redfish, is es-

tuary dependent and seagrass dependent forits entire life. Spotted seatrout spawn nearpasses both in the seagrass and in deeperwaters in aggregations. This FWC studyfocused on a known spawning aggregationin deep waters near the mouth of TampaBay. The study used both acoustic tags andacoustic recorders, the later monitoredseatrout drumming, associated with spawn-ing activity. As part of the study, re-searchers determined the sex of each taggedfish and whether it was ready to spawn orhad recently spawned. Important findingsfrom this study were that males spawnedmore frequently; average frequency of 2.2days, than females; 9.3 days). Spawning in-creased near full moons and was at lowestlevels from 6- to 7 am. They also deter-mined most fish entered the aggregationfrom the estuary rather than from the Gulf.Previous tagging studies have shown thatseatrout that spawn over seagrass do so be-cause it is in their home and foraging range.In contrast, the spawning aggregation stud-ied here is outside the normal seatroutrange. It is thought seatrout go here to in-crease their reproductive success, but do sowith a higher chance of predation.

Snook are part of less than one percentof all fish that move between fresh and salt-water (diadromous) and in our area areoften found way up the Peace River. Alongthe Gulf coast, snook spawn around passes

and along beaches from mid-April to mid-September. It has been reported snook re-quire salinities of at least 24 parts perthousand to spawn in order to activatesperm cells and for the eggs to remainbuoyant in the water. The snook’s move-ment from the rivers to the coast to spawnis what is known as catadromous. Thisstudy evaluated the movement and spawn-ing patterns of sexually mature snook overa three year period. Major findings in-cluded: Snook spawning increased duringfull and new moons. Snook exhibit highsite fidelity returning to the same spawning

site year after year. Some snook skip a yearspawning and remain in the rivers. Theselater results are consistent with findingsfrom Charlotte Harbor and the Caloosa-hatchee. Some snook aggregated in whatwas likely spawning sites in high salinitywaters near river mouths close to optimalhabitat and food. It is not known whetherthis results in a shorter spawning season(only when salinity is high enough) or ifsnook can spawn in lower salinity waterthan previously thought.Capt. Betty Staugler, Florida Sea Grant Agent UF/IFAS Extension Charlotte County (941) 764-4346

ʻThis is my once-in-a-lifetime catch!ʼ Marty Ranzer of Port Charlotte wrote. A 401/2in. 32lb.snook caught at El Jobean. ʻI sure would love to share this with your readers,ʼ Marty said.Editor says: Bingo!

Sex Lives of Fish


By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE Inshore

January fishing in southwest Florida isquite predictable. If you pick a day to gofishing there is a good chance of strongwinds so the best plan is to watch forlighter wind days and take advantage of it.

Offshore fishing is quite good in Janu-ary and you don’t have to go too far to geta big fish pulling on your line! I find thatthis time of year, when the winds are lightenough to feel safe, our local reefs hold abunch of drag burners including bonita,amberjack, cobia, shark and an occasionalkingfish! Of course, there are snappers,grunts and grouper, but these other fishare quite predictable and easy with theright approach.

The key is live bait and frozen bait.The frozen bait part is easy so plan onbringing a few boxes of sardines, squidand perhaps some chum. Once you getoutside of Boca Grande Pass cruise in 20-to 35-feet of water and watch your bottommachine for a cloud of small marks nearthe bottom – that’s bait.

With a sabiki rig in hand, cut smallpieces of squid and bait each hook anddrop it down. You can expect in shortorder you will have a variety of small fishswimming in your livewell. Bluerunnersand pinfish often make up the majority butgrunts, squirrelfish and others will roundit out.

With that, choose your reef dependingon sea conditions. The amberjacks preferdeeper water structure so, in general, reefsin 50-feet of water or more for AJs and allreefs have the potential for the otherspecies previously mentioned.

I generally start my day early becausecatching bait takes time. When arriving atthe reef the first thing to do is drift andcast lures to catch the early morning ag-gressive feeders. Bonita will jam a buck-tail burned near the surface and jiggingspoons often get a quick reaction which isa great wake up call to the day! Someother species, such as cobia, seem to likethe warmth of the late morning sun beforemunching.

My approach to all the reefs is thesame. After fan-casting the area, set up an-chor, put frozen chum in a weighted chumbox and drop it to the bottom. Now chopup frozen sardines and sprinkle them intothe water column. This brings many fishwithin reach of your boat, but then youneed to offer different species differentthings from the menu and offshore speciesdefinitely show a preference for specificbaits.

Amberjacks really love pinfish free-lined with just enough weight to havethem heading to the bottom. Shark, king-fish, jack crevalle and goliath grouper willmunch a bluerunner in short order. I oftenfish the runner 7- to10-feet down, under a

float. Do expect to use wire of some sortto keep the toothy critters on the line.

Other bonus fish around the reefs in-clude flounder, which prefer squid, andmangrove snapper, which are plentiful inJanuary, but reeling them in fast becausethe goliath grouper will be the biggestchallenge of the day! Placing a small hookinto a piece of frozen sardine and driftingit in the chum line is a devious way totrick snappers.

Capt. Chuck Eichner operates Action FlatsBackcountry Charters and can be reached at941-628-8040

Predictable Catching This Month


By Bob Fraser Water LIFE Kayaking

I had two charters this past week. Thefirst one was with out-of-town clients fromColorado. We fished Gasparilla Sound onFriday, my son also came along for the fun.

It was the most productive day I’ve hadin four years as far as the number of fishcaught. They weren’t the biggest trout, butthey kept all four of us busy for 90 minutes.In 90 minutes, we caught about 70 trout!We had about four to five keepers; the restwere just a few inches short of legal size.

One of my clients caught trout onevery cast for about an hour; it was like

fishing in a pond – they were fishing withlive shrimp under a popping cork. My sonand I were fishing with Z-man soft plasticbaits. The color of the day was Houdini,which are brownish with speckles. Thepearl color usually works pretty well too,

but that day they wanted the darker colorand we caught them on almost every cast.

A few weeks ago, I started fishing thesoft plastic baits like a Mirrolure twitch

bait, retrieving the bait with a twitchingmotion as I was reeling. The faster we re-trieved it the better the trout liked it.

It was a great morning on the water,with calm winds and comfortable temper-atures and of course all the trout action.We fished an incoming tide that day. Sur-prising enough, we didn’t catch any pin-fish or catfish. Usually when usingshrimp you catch at least a few cats andsome pinfish, but not that day.

We paddled through water that was 2-to 3-feet deep until we found an areawhere the water was 4-to 5-feet deep andthat’s where the trout were hanging out.

That two-foot change made all the dif-ference. The deeper depression we wereover was about 100 feet by 100 feet.

When two of us caught trout drifting overthis spot, we quickly dropped anchor andstayed there for 90 minutes.

We left the area with the trout still bit-ing, my clients wanted to try fishing someother areas for redfish. We finished theday fishing some docks. We moved a fewtimes, but it was at the third dock that oneof my clients caught a 20-inch redfish.

On the second charter, I took a clientout to Pine Island for a six hour trip. Wedrifted using live shrimp under a poppingcork and I also fished with a light greenMirrolure.

We started that day working the shore-

lines with a top water lure, but had noluck so after an hour of that, we paddledout to the flats.

Once again we looked for a slightdrop-off on the flats. The drop-off wasonly a couple of feet deeper than the restof the area, but that’s all it took to find the

trout! We ended up catching about 15 trout

that day with half of them being 15-to 18-inches. The bigger ones were caught onthe Mirrolure.

If you go to Pine Island with a kayak,put in at the monument. It’s just down the

street from the Marina. Paddle straightout from the launch a couple hundredyards and look for the deeper water anddrift until you catch a fish then drop an-chor. If you don’t catch anything in 5-10minutes, start drifting again.

The sheepshead are starting to bitenow. I caught a 14-inch one last week inLittle Sarasota Bay. Fish for them arounddock pilings and oyster bars. This is thetime of year when the big females comeinshore to spawn.

Bob Fraser is a southwest Florida kayakfishing guide – He can be reached for commentsor to book a trip at: 941-916-8303 or email himat [email protected] His website is ww.kayakfishingwithbob.com

Kayak Fishing: Trout, Trout and more Trout... and a Redfish

Jan 15: Free Seminar with Capt. Jay Whithers

Jan 15: Free Seminar with Capt. Jay WhithersTechniques to catch inshore speciesTechniques to catch inshore species


By Capt. Charlie PhillipsWater LIFE / Everglades City

We finished the year out strong downhere, with warmer than normal weather,water and fishing. Looking back thru mynotebooks, I saw that in 2014 we had ex-perienced some big fronts push thru byearly November, but that has not been thecase this season. Don’t be surprised tojump a tarpon on the flats, or a permit onthe wrecks. One of the biggest schools of30 pound class permit I have ever seencame on a January day a few years agowhile out tripletail fishing, so until theweather changes, stay ready for anything.

I have targeted the inshore and back-country waters because it has been steadyand consistent more days than not and be-cause it’s been too darn windy to try andrun offshore much.

Our snook, reds and trout have beenmoving a little more to the back as weenter winter time season, but they are stilla bit scattered down here. We have beendoing very well for snook, targeting fish atthe entrance to our backcountry, in the bigbays along the small keys in front of them.Most of the time, these small islands havelots of flow on the incoming and outgoingtides as all the water funnels down to getthru the cut. These areas provide wonder-ful opportunities to target predators asthey wait to ambush the baitfish gettingflushed in and out. House Hammock is al-ways a good area to look, as well as Oys-ter and Huston Bay.

Bait of choice for me is typically artifi-cial as I can move fast and cover lots ofwater in a day. A Bass Assassin CurlyShad combo is my go to, typically inwhite. It allows me to cover lots of water,make long casts and fish the entire watercolumn. Fished slow, it sinks down and Ican hop it along the bottom for reds andeven big black drum, fished a little faster, Ican work it over an oyster bar and targetthe snook and trout that are on the edges,even faster yet and I can catch Spanishmackerel off my wrecks. Of course this isnot my only tool in the arsenal, but it’s theone I personally throw most often. It’ssimple, it’s affordable and it works – andthe big thing is, I have faith in it, andthat’s 99-percent of the battle right there.

Redfish will be around the bars that dot

our area this month. We have been pro-ducing some nice slot fish in the back-country as well as out front. Bait ofchoice has been live shrimp under a pop-ping cork worked along the bar edges,giving the ol dinner bell a ring every nowand again. You can fish jigs and jerk baits,worked slowly along those same areas aswell.

Speckled trout are all over right now,with lots of shorts, but with some goodfish in the mix. The tried and true poppingcork will produce numbers, but for betterfish, try using a hard suspending bait thatyou can, jerk, jerk, rest….jerk, jerk rest….and be ready on the rest! This method willalso produce ladyfish, jacks and you maylose a bait or two to a Spanish-mac-attack.It’s the price of being wanted, I guess.

While it’s perfectly legal to keep a fishover 20, consider taking the 18s home forthe hot oil and grabbing a picture of the20s-and -over, who need a safe release sowe can still do it 20 years from now. Con-servation requires forethought.

Y’all have a great month, and if youmake it down my way give us a shout. Capt. Charlie Phillips: 863-517-1829e-mail:[email protected]: hopefishing.com

10,000 Islands / Everglades City

By Peter WelchWater LIFE SailingThe 2.4 Meter’s (the boat is actually 13-feet 8-inches in length) proportions re-semble anAmerica’sCup racerof the1960s.The di-mensions,weights,and sailplan aretightlycontrolledso sailingskill deter-mines therace re-sults. Theboat’scontrolsare adapt-able to awiderange ofphysical abilities.This results in racesthat are close andexciting.Twelve boats par-ticipated in theMidwinter racesDecember 8 and 9.The racers, maleand female, camefrom U.S. andCanada and as faraway as Seattle.Race headquarterswas Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club whereDecember 7 was consumed with assem-bly and crane launching boats to sit atfloating docks constructed for the 2012World’s International Disabled Race.Wind on Wednesday December 8 was 6-14 knots from the NE and incoming tidefrom the SW produced waves near thesafe maximum for 2.4M boats. The threeraces that day favored those withstrength. Local 2.4M builder and racer

Tony Pocklington ended the day fourpoints ahead of three time U.S. champCharles Rosenfield of Connecticut. Tonyimproved his lead for first place in the

Midwinters,Charlesmaintainedsecond andPeter Woodof Canadasailed intothird.Thursday wasa rest day andthe U.S.Champi-onship beganFriday inlighter windswhen onlytwo raceswere possibleand Charleswon both,Tony wasthree pointsback, and

Peter Wood sixpoints back. Thewind increasedSaturday to 12-to15 knots, and lackof adverse currentkept wave heightslow. Charles, Tony,and Peter each hada first place finishbut the final scorewas Charles 6points ahead ofTony and Peter a

further 5 points back.People of all physical abilities can learnto sail a 2.4M boat at the Charlotte BeachPark. The Community Sailing Center atthe Park has three 2.4M boats and a largertwo place teaching boat. They have yearsof experience teaching people who neverimagined they could solo sail. Learn moreat charlotteharborcommunitysailingcen-ter.com/web: Select sailing classes, thendisabled sailing.


2.4 Meter Midwinter and US Championship Races

Skilled sailors in good conditions kep the action tightWater LIFE photos by Fran Nasher Burstein

Tony and Charles, rounding the mark, theleaders fought it out in good wind


SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated, But Often True

FIRED FROM A SUB Russian DefenseMinister Sergei Shoigu said in late Decem-ber that Russia had for the first time struckIslamic State targets in Syria with missilesfired from a submarine in the Mediter-ranean. "The targets were two large terror-ist positions in the territory of Raqqa,"Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in atelevised meeting, adding that the Calibremissiles had been fired from the submarineRostov-on-Don. "We can say with com-plete confidence that fairly serious damagewas done.” Shoigu said.

INVESTIGATORS WERE ON PATROL ata cruise ship terminal located at Port Ever-glades Their patrol emphasis was the im-portation of highly regulated, protected,threatened, or endangered fish andwildlife. During this particular patrol, ap-proximately 250 passengers arrived byvessel and cleared customs at the termi-nal. Customs agents alerted Investigatorsto three passengers that declared andwere in possession of coolers containing amarine life species. Investigators Coffinand Warne made contact with the threesubjects and obtained verbal consent fromeach of them to look inside the coolers. Thethree coolers contained a total of 233 indi-vidual pieces of queen conch. Queenconch is designated a protected species inthe state of Florida. Each subject was is-sued a citation for violation of Florida Ad-ministrative Code 68B-16.004

TURTLES ON THE MOVE Warm oceantemperatures have brought hammerheadsharks, blue marlin, whale sharks, tropicalsea snakes and loggerhead sea turtle intothe waters off California. Loggerhead turtlesin the North Pacific nest in Japan, andyoung turtles spend time in the central Pa-cific before moving into North Americancoastal waters. Historically, loggerheadsmost frequently have been observed alongthe coast of Baja Mexico. But late last year,as ocean waters along the west coast of theU.S. became unusually warmer, scientistsand fishermen began reporting more andmore loggerheads along Californiaʼs coast.While many sightings of turtles were of singleor a few individuals, some were found in largegroups of more than 40 turtles. Local fisher-

men spotted a long patch of turtles stretchingacross several miles, which sport fishing boatcaptain Paul Fischer described as a “highwayof turtles” in the sea.

The liner Batavia, shown in 1912, brought a steady stream of European imigrants toAmerica. According to libertyellisfoundation.org, the publisherʼs father, David Heller,

arrived on this ship alone, at 10 years of age, in January 1908.

OLD AND NEWA US navy nuclear submakes a pop-up ascentin the Atlantic. Closer tohome, a classic ChrisCraft cruiser makesready for its loadingonto a trailer at thePunta Gorda city parkboat ramp in lateDecember.

Alaskan Coral - these Aleutian coral gardensthrive close to the Arctic, in an environment fea-turing near-freezing water, nearly completedarkness, violent storms, strong seasonalchanges, and frequent volcanic activity. Scien-tists hope these unusual coral species mayspur new medical discoveries.


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By Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE Baitshop

In other years I havesaid I would join a gym,lose weight, stop smoking... things like that. This year Iam going to make resolutions which make sense – I donot think losing weight, or starting to run – or forgoodness sake, I am not joining another gym!Those are normal New Years resolutions and thereason we do not keep up on them is they onlyhelp with our body.

It is my head which needs help. If you knowme, well... you understand that. So to get in shapethis year I am going to go out and paddle a kayak,row a boat, go wade-fishing, take a walk on asandbar and cast a lure. This will be good for thebody and for my peace of mind. I am going to getback to what makes life better; being on or near thewater and it really does not matter if it is a smallfresh water stream, or the deep fathoms of the Gulfof Mexico.

I resolve for 2016 to spend more time castingtop-water lures, that’s the most exciting way tofish. You see the strike, feel the strike, get all of thebattle of the pull and struggle. It’s way too-cool.

In fact, 2016 will be my year to fish. I am goingto stop, turn in and fish for no reason, except the Godshave told me to stop. This is the best way to find newspots.

I am going to get out onto the beautiful waters of theGulf and cruise the stone crab trap buoys and find myhuge tripletail. The other cruise I really wish to do in2016 is cruise along the beach just off of Boca, on top ofthe bar, and skip some pompano. You can skip pompanooff the bar between Burnt Store and Two Pines quiteoften, but I miss the green water and the brighter colors ofthe pompano when they are in the Gulf.

In 2016 I will make it back into Trout Creek and fish

the bends, free-lining a shrimp for huge redfish. I will get back to the inner islands of the area between

Bull and Turtle Bay where the snook stack up and I’lldrift across the open flat of Turtle Bay casting or jigging atandem-lure-jig and catch 50 trout on a drift.

I will be at Marker No. 2 and Jug Creek Shoals just asthe sun comes up and see the white bait start dimpling thesurface of the waters.

I will be on the Gasparilla tailing flats after the other

boats have left, when things get very quiet, just beforedark, and I’ll see the redfish begin to tail as they pushtheir faces into the grass for food.

I just thought about it and it has been 2 years since Ihave been grouper fishing, be afraid groupers I will be inyour neighborhood soon.

Another thing I will do in 2016 is troll the water of theGulf for King mackerel and anything else that will hit.

And I really need to go over to Lake Okeechobee anddo some proper bass fishing too. There are plenty of bassto catch here in Charlotte County, but I would like to bethere as the sun comes up and the mist is still on the lake.

If you ever fished fresh water, you understand there is asmell or taste to the air when the day breaks on a largefresh water lake that is like no where else on earth.

For 2016 I will answer a question, right now: Which isbetter, lures or bait? That is a good question, and whichone should you use? Answer is, it depends on your mood.First of all, do you feel energetic? If so, cast a lure; getwith it, feel the strike of the fish. On my last trip out Iused live shrimp since all I wanted was to kick back,

relax and enjoy sitting there watching the waterand the clouds. It was ok with me if once in awhile, a pesky fish would add a bit of excitementto the day.

Bait is better if you are fishing a spot, like ahole or little cove on a mangrove shoreline, orunder a dock, as you can cast the bait there to thatspecific spot and the bait will help you find thefish.

Now if I was going to fish a shoreline lookingfor fish, or several docks along a canal, I wouldcast a lure. I can cover more water and keep thelure working until I find where the fish are. Often Iwill cast a lure until I hook a fish, then switch tobait to see if there are more fish in that spot, but Idigress...

Are you thinking about your New Year’s reso-lutions? Like maybe: I will learn to use a bait castreel and rod. Bait cast reels do not cast bait very

good at all, but they are way better for top water luresor soft plastic jerk baits. And they are fun and challeng-ing.

So in 2016 I will be in the parking lot more with cus-tomers, teaching them how to set up a bait cast reel,showing them what the magnetic and friction controls doand how not to back-lash.

There are so many things to do and 2016 is my year todo them. I am confident, I am determined and I will en-deavor to persevere to make my goals. Unlike my quittingnicotine, losing weight or working out, I think I can dothis, I think I can, I think I [email protected] 941-625-3888

My Stinger List

Chrissy Mosley sends us pictures often. This is a December sea trout


On The Line By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior StaffAt the end of each year I go through my

notebooks and pick out subjects I foundinteresting, many not always well coveredby the main-stream media. This informa-tion all comes from well respected newssources, so don't blame me if some of thefacts get you upset. I'm only the messen-ger.

# 10 - We are drowning in numbers, Ifound these interesting and noted them:

• Daily calorie intake for the averageAmerican in 1970 was 2039, today it’sover 2600. We now are 53 pounds heavier.

• In 2015, Boston had the snowiestwinter in history, with 108.6 inches.

• The U.S. now has over 130,000 gasstations.

# 9 - 2015 w as a pretty good year inFlorida. No hurricanes in 11 years, mildwinter and very little Red Tide. Unem-ployment is low, home construction is upand tourism is at a record high. Life isgood again for many locals.# 8 - 2015 was the hottest year on

record, this is surprising because 2014was the 17th year of what scientist calledthe pause, a lack of world temperature in-crease. To solve this inconvenient truthNOAA went back and “re-adjusted” their

historical data. Now, wouldn't you knowit, they say that the 17 year pause was amiscalculation. We have been trackingglobal temperature since 1880. Duringthat 135 year period the earth has warmed1.4 degrees fahrenheit.# 7 - 2015 was a great year for mana-

tees and sea turtles since 6063 manateeswere counted in last years survey whichwas a new all time record population esti-mate. Sea turtle nesting also reached arecord high of 28,000 nests at 26 beaches.Thirty years ago they only found 464nests at the same beaches.# 6 - 2015 was a bad year for black

bears and panthers. Last year Florida be-came the 34th state to allow bear hunting.

The FWC sold 3,778 permits at $100 eachfor the 7 day hunt and 298 bears werekilled in the first 3 days so the hunt wasstopped at that time. The hunt brought in$376,900 for the FWC. The population ofblack bears was estimated to be 3,500 be-fore the hunt. Annually; 200 bears arekilled by automobiles in Florida. The pan-ther population is about 150 animals, butthe Florida panther has grown out of favorwith the FWC, with one of the commis-sioners calling them ‘a nuisance.’ TheFWC has asked the Feds to drop the pan-ther from the endangered list. Their rea-soning is that Florida has as manypanthers as can be expected to survivewith the current habitat available. In 2015,37 panthers were found dead; most hit bycars.# 5- Cash cow dies: Rosie the mana-

tee has passed away. Rosie was thespokes-manatee (a poster child) for Savethe Manatee Club's Adopt- A- Manateeprogram. Rosie was captured in the wildnear St. Augustine in 1968 and was heldcaptive at Marineland until 1980. She de-veloped a neurological disorder that causeher to swim in circles and was moved toHomosassa Springs State Park in 1980where she achieved her celebrity status.Because of her limited mobility, she be-came the most popular attraction in theswim with the manatees program. TheSave the Manatee Club, sensing an oppor-

tunity, started the Adopt-A-Manatee pro-gram with Rosie in mind. The first personto adopt Rosie was actor John Lithgow(Third Rock from the Sun); he wrote anumber of children’s books about mana-tees. It is estimated that the Save TheManatee has adopted Rosie to over 1,500individuals; bringing in a tidy sum. Rosiewas estimated to be over 50 years oldwhen she surfaced for the last time. In lieuof flowers, the Save the Manatee Club hasasked that you send them money.

# 4 -Scandal of the year PETA has alarge pet shelter in Virginia that accordingto 2014 state records killed 88% of thedogs and cats entrusted in their care.PETA employees were caught on videostealing a pet chihuahua off someone’sfront porch. The animal was killed thenext day. PETA is now being sued by theowners who claim that PETA employeestrespassed on private property and stoleand killed their pet.# 3-National Security:When George

Bush left office, there were 44,000 peopleon the “No fly list”. Today there are700,000 names on that list. Seventy twoHomeland Security employees are on theTerrorist Watch List and in a recent under-cover test at our national airports by theTSA, there was a 95-percent failure rateon restricted items going through their se-curity check points.

2- Some of you have been wonderingabout what's going on at the northeast sideof the Punta Gorda bridge; well its PhaseOne of the Charlotte Harbor GatewayHarbor Walk. This project was conceivedin 2009 and is now finally moving dirt.The first phase will include a new sea-wall, restrooms, parking and a small-boatlaunch site. In the future, a walkway willbe built under the two bridges.# 1- Stump Pass: Everything is still

on schedule for the new groin, beach re-nourishment and dredging to begin. Oncethe contract is signed, the work shouldproceed quickly. I’m still planning onfishing from that groin on the 4th of July.

[email protected]

The Year in Review – Top 10 Topics from 2015

Rosie the manatee, at Marineland, in better days


Charlotte HarborFrank at Fishin’ Franks941- 625-3888

What most people want to knowis what the weather is doing to thefishing. I tell them to make believeit is May instead of January. Onething going on is there are a ton ofbluefish in the Harbor. From theManchester Waterway through Har-bor all the way to the ICW there is anice population of blues. Flounder fishing along the

beaches and up inside, around theback of Gasparilla Island is verygood. The Cape Haze bar and thesandbar on the east side both haveflounder on them. The fish are righton the bar, hugging the sand.

The water temperature is in mid70s, that’s the perfect temperaturefor Spanish mackerel on thebeaches and in the ICW. There arekingfish in Boca Grande and Cap-tiva Passes, just offshore, with a fewup in the Harbor. To us, it’s still hot,but the water is in the 70s and fishare where they would be in May.

Everything is kind of perfect.There is fall-, or spring-style fishingfor redfish in Bull Bay, Turtle Bay,at Gasparilla and on the east andwest sides of the Harbor. The trickypart is, the fish are in open potholesand under the mangroves, not sun-ning on the flats.

We have lots of small sharks,black tips, bonnet heads and sand-bar sharks out along the beachesand we have tripletail galore upand down the near Gulf coastline.Many people find the thrill of hunt-ing tripletail a perfect combo. Youhunt, find them and take a shot atthem. If you don’t cast straight youdon’t get your fish. Along the hunt-ing and fishing line, you can huntcobia as well. We have been sellingout of eel lures every week. It’s theCulprit worm bait that beats every-thing for cobia. Try a pink 1/4 ozRockport Rattler jig head with a7.5-inch Culprit Kudzu Shad worm,

throw it in front of the cobiaand wham! We have allthese amazing $8- to $13baits, but the best thing youcan buy is a $4 pack of Cul-prit worms. You gotta think,we have these amazing Sav-age lures that looks just likea fish, but $5 for 3 jig headsand $4 for a pack of bait ... Ican’t win; why can’t the bestbait be the $13 one?Sea trout are the only

thing that’s a little slow now.Pirate Harbor, Bull Bay onthe open flats or the Pine Is-land Sound are where theyare.Snook is good, not excel-

lent, but good. They arescattered way back in thecanals and on the nearshorereefs. Once snook are over40 inches they become areef species and they go outin the Gulf.

Also in the Gulf, we haveAJs hitting really nicealong with pompano,keeper gag grouper and redgrouper in Boca GrandePass. The nearshore reefsalso have quite a fewgrouper on them as well – again, weare in the perfect water tempera-tures of the mid 70s range. Snap-per, grunt and porgys have beenamazing. We are starting to have

stories of black sea bass beingcaught. Last year I only heard oftwo all year, now 5- to10 black seabass have been caught in the lastfew weeks.

Out in the middle of the Harbor

Capt Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com

941-916-5769

BackBayXtremes

January January –– Predictions and SuggestionsPredictions and Suggestions

Fish With A Guide!Youʼll catch more fish and youʼll

learn something new, too!

Speak Easy Fishing ChartersCaptain Joe AngiusUSCG licensed & Insured

Phone: (727) [email protected]

Above, Nicky Branciforte with a pair of Christ-mas cobia.Below: December sea surface temperatures.Cooler near shore, warmer as you go further out

This month the mullet hauling is heating up at Placida. Mullet are caught in nets,brought here and put on ice in the containers stacked at right. The containers gointo the semi-trailers and then they are trucked to the processing plant.


there are lots of catfish, withschools of ladyfish at AlligatorCreek and sheepshead, man-grove snapper, some gags andgoliath grouper. Trolling thedeep holes inshore for grouperis a good thing right now.

There are not a lot of hugetarpon around right now, somesporadic reports from passes,but the biggest number of smalltarpon are in the PG and Cape Coralcanals. We have lots of mid size tarponup river by the power lines, nice 60-pounders.

The Peace River is at 2 feet at Arca-dia so we have a little fresh water stillcoming down the river. The brownwater is not going to effect salinity and Ithink that’s what is keeping tarpon infront of Harbour Heights.

The crappie not bunched up, butguys are getting one here and there.Maribou jigs are better than beetle spinson crappie right now. Bass are prettygood through the canals. The green andbrown colored lures seem to be the colorfor bass. Thanks for a spectacular 2015.We will work even harder for you in2016.

Lemon Bay - PlacidaJim at Fishermen’s Edge 697-7595

Fishin is good. I had guys who wentout to the close reefs, Trembly andNovak, and said they had so many Kingmackerel around they couldn’t put aline in the water without being cut off.Mackerel this late has been a good sur-prise and they are still here.

Quite a few guys are getting cobia.One of my customers was fishingaround up in Lemon Bay and caught acobia 34 inches, a lone fish. A couple ofother guys caught cobia at Novak Reefand I am hearing from Boca Grande, 7miles out, up into the harbor the cobiabite has been good - there is so muchbait around!

At Turtle Bay, last week, we saw

some pelicans diving, there was somuch bait, we were there a couple ofhours and the bait was there the wholetime.

We caught a couple of snook and gotinto some really nice trout. Up in Whid-den Bay, we were doing good with cutbait and Gulp shrimp on the redfish, butwe had to move around to stay on them.

There is scattered pompano and weare starting to see some commercialguys doing well netting them.

There is a lot of mullet fishing goingon. The Sunday we were out we didn’tsee many recreational fishermen but, mygosh, the mullet fishermen were every-

where. Fishing down off Boca on the beach

side there are flounder. Just get on theright tide and drag your bait on the bot-tom.

All of a sudden seems likesheepshead is going on. My fiddlercrabs are selling and guys tell me theyare catching sheepshead at El Jobeanand from the trestle at Boca Grande andthe fishing pier at Placida.

Offshore’s been good with snapper,porgy, grunts, some yellowtail and a

lot of nice big mangs. Believe it or not

there’s still been tar-pon around. A guy atEl Jobean pier, in theearly AM said tarponwere busting every-where.

Finally, whiting areon the beach and thereare triggerfish theretoo.

That would beabout all I know.

MACKEREL Close to shore, inthe Pass, in the Harbor

REDFISH In the creeks andcreek mouths

BLUEFISH All over theHarbor and in the passes

95˚

90˚

85˚

80˚

72˚70˚68˚

50˚

45˚

FISHING FISHINGRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:

Great-Plus!Great-Plus!

The BIG-4The BIG-4 Fish you can expect in Fish you can expect in JanuaryJanuary

AMBERJACK on all thenearshore and offshore reefs

Gulf Gulf TempsTemps

are mid to are mid to low 70slow 70s

Cooler close in,Cooler close in,warmer more warmer more

offshoreoffshore

IN THE GULF, OFF OF ENGLEWOOD We took our friends, PGI residents Judy and Cliff Yates, fishing on my boat last Tuesday. Judy caught this 44 inch King. She'd never been fishing before and this is the first fish she ever caught! – Lester Kuhn

Spiderman Tristan Murtagh, 4 , caught a nice trout fishing withhis father William, last month.

Capt Andrew Herzog with an AJ, above and atrout from a trip with Capt. Joe Angius, below


Documents

Wate LIFE Jan 2016