Water LIFE June 2015

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

WaterWater LIFEThe Don Ball School of FishingThe Don Ball School of Fishing

“The fishery is in good shape

and we are experiencing

a lot of angling success”

Fishing Report: page 22

Happy CampersHappy Camperspage 14page 14

No SurvivorsNo Survivorspage 5page 5

June 2015June 2015

Horseshoe CrabsHorseshoe CrabsUpside Down?Upside Down?Page 12Page 12

TarponTarponTarponTarponSnookSnookPage 8Page 8

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Michael & Ellen Heller Publishers

(941) 766-8180217 Bangsberg Rd.

Port Charlotte, FL 33952Independant - Not affiliated with

any other publicationVol XIV No 6 © 2015

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

permission from the publishers.

Contributing Editors:Photography: ASA1000.com

Senior Editor: Capt. Ron BlagoRiver and Shore: Fishinʼ Frank

Charlotte Harbor: Capt. Billy BartonDiving: Adam Wilson

Punta Gorda: Capt. Chuck EichnerVenice: Glen Ballinger

Estero: Capt. Joe AngiusKayaking: WRITER STILL WANTED

Sea Grant: Betty StauglerOffshore: Capt. Dan CambernOffshore: Capt. Jim OʼBrien

Beach Fishing: Mallory HerzogCirculation: MIke Ellen

Office Dog: Molly Brown (in memorium)on the COVER: Big Time Tarpon and Zack caught his big fish with Capt. Billy Barton. Story Page 8

PAGE 4 EMAIL: W [email protected] JUNE 2015

Send letters and photos to: [email protected] Are you aFISH KISSER?

Send us your great fish-kissing photo (it must be recent andplease don’t send it toanyone else) You’ll see it herein Water LIFE [email protected] include your name other silly photos might also be considered!

Capt. David Stephens smooches a snook last month. The snapper are coming in good now, he said when wetalked fish-kissing. Ouch!

20th Annual Peace River Clean Up June 7 & 8 from 9am to 2pmBased from Nav-A-Gator Marina (but all River clean up efforts will be appreciated)Free use of kayaks (a limited number available) from Nav-A-Gator Marina Call 941-627-3474.

SillySilly

SUMMERSUMMER

SeasonSeason

Really...MichaelYou actually used Water Life to troll for an attorney! Wow...I am surethose who paid for advertising space just love sponsoring your use oftheir money to bring legal action against your water supplier. Oh, I getit...it is your football so you get to make the rules...and here I thoughtWater Life was about helping us to be responsible fisherman. Brad PeeblesPunta Gorda

By Michael HellerWater Life editor

I am writing this from Jacksonville but fishing is nodifferent up here. I’d been watching the tides every daywhen I went out to exercise and one day, when I had thetime, when the tide looked right and solunar tables werelittered with fish icons, I went.

Memorial Park is on the water and right around thecorner from where I was staying. I had seen several shoreanglers reel in (and keep) undersized redfish from thereand I had heard of trout and croakers, but the park wasmostly all social-fishermen, guys who would stand up apole or two and sit down to eat some kind of snack.

Everyone fished with shrimp. Some brought theirshrimp from the local bait shop while I had seen someothers come from Publix, across the street, with shrimp.My plan was to throw my trusty gold spoon and see whatI could find, but I was not going to do it at the park.

A few weeks earlier I had scoped out the neighbor-hood on Google Earth and zoomed in on a dead end streetwhere, when I drove by, Isaw a new high rise wasabout to be built. And Isaw some mullet. Therewas a big tree and theriver was at a choke pointwith nice moving water.

That was going to bethe spot. I got there for the last two hours of a falling tide.I had the area all to myself.... for all of about 10 minutes.

First a guy in a pick up pulled over the curb and droveright up under the big tree. Then another fellow showed

up with a lawn chair and finally an old lady with herdaughter drove up and unloaded an armful of rods.Everyone was rigged with big pyramid weights with anarray of short plastic-coated steel leaders and big hooks.

I am throwing my gold spoon. I’ve got 15 pound yel-low braid and a 20 pound leader. They are watching melike I am from another planet. I feel like I am, but I keepthrowing. A half hour goes by, we make small talk. Theguy in the chair shows me a picture of a 30 inch redfishhe is holding. The big tree is in the background.

Then I get a bump and my line starts to move. I try toset the hook but my line goes limp. A second later the guyin the pick up hooks a fish. He reels it and asks me to getthe net from his truck. As he reels it up to the seawall Isee it is a jack, but before I get the net down to the waterthe fish splashes and is gone.

Then the guy in the lawn chair yells, “I got one too!”He reels in his fish and it’s a jack too and this time we

do net it. But the hook is hooked not in the fish, but in aloop on the end of length of green plastic coated leader,that is attached to a rusty hook in the jack’s mouth. Thereare several clusters of red plastic beads on the leader too.

We all had that fish. I figure I must have snagged that

green leader, then the truck guy had the fish swim alonghis line and he got it, but it got off, and then the chairguy got his line in the loop and caught it.

I suggested we release the fish, I said it was a survivor.I was going for my pliers to pull the rusty hook when theold lady reached down and took it. I was going to releaseit, I said, but she wrapped it in a plastic bag and threw itonto the floor of her car. “What? “ she asked, looking upat me, confused.

There was no sense in me answering her, she had herreasons I am sure. And the same goes for the argumentabout filling your freezer. Sure, maybe it’s legal, but Ithink, more often than not, it’s usually a waste.


ʻNo Survivorsʼ Sadly, itʼs a mindset

By Capt. David StephensWater LIFE Harbor

The people that know me well, know Ilove fishing the north end of CharlotteHarbor and the Peace River. I have evenheard the term River Rat a few times. WellI guess when you grow up in an area,home is where your heart is.

I’m often asked how far up river do thesnook and tarpon go. My reply is nor-mally simple, as far as they want. Whatmost people don’t understand is snookand tarpon can live in conditions withzero salinity.

On most of my charters I use live bait.The bait that I choose to use most arescaled sardines, also known around hereas white bait or pilchards. These guys dorequire a certain amount of salinity so youcan’t take them too far or too long upriver

in an open circulating livewell .... andthose guys don’t really do very well with-out a lot of circulating water.

An incoming tide will bring more saltup the river and the opposite on an outgo-ing. The easiest way I can tell someonehow far upriver you can go is to taste thewater. I often taste the water when I get toa spot. If you can taste salt, you should beok. The thing that makes the river nonfishable with live sardines is rain. In thesummer, when we get our summer rain,more fresh water will be pushing downthe river. I try to explain to people it’s notso much the rain we get here, but the rainthat falls north of us. The Peace River be-gins at Lake Hancock, and flows throughseveral counties. I have seen years that wehave a low rain fall and the mouth of theriver will have salt.

If you are an artificial lure fisher per-son and feel adventurous, take a ride upbeyond the Navagator. You might getlucky and get a Peace River slam. Asnook, tarpon and a large mouth bass.

Over the years, I have caught some fishup that way that just make you scratchyour head. I was on a charter two weeksago. I was fishing a shallow mangroveshore line that produces some really nice

snook and reds on a high tide. One of myclients hooked - what I assumed was asnook - since we had caught 6-to 8 al-ready. Then all of a sudden, this thing -we’re going to call it the ‘thing’ becausewe never saw it - ran out to the middle, al-most spooling him. We cranked the dragdown and got the thing to turn. Then all ofa sudden again, it started coming in veryeasily. And when he got it to the boat, wesaw he had a 24-inch remora.

I told him there is no way that fish waspulling like that. I have caught sawfish inthis area in the past on a couple occasions,but never a remora. For the people thatdon’t know, remora have a suction cup ontop of their heads. They suck on to larger

predator fish and feed on their scraps. Ifind it amazing how you never know whatthe day is going to bring when you set outfor a day of fishing on Charlotte Harbor.If you would like to experience some of

Charlotte Harbors best fishing give me a callor send me an email. All of our charters areprivate and customized to fit you and your par-ties needs. Capt. Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com 941-916-5769


FISHING: An Old River Rat Might Just Know A Thing Or Two

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


CANVAS &UPHOLSTERY

By Capt. Billy BartonWater LIFE Inshore

May was nothing short of an amazing month of fish-ing with numerous big, beautiful, silver kings to the boatand numerous firsts chopped off of the bucket lists of myregular customers. Many new and lasting memories weremade and that is what the charter business is all about!One particular fish with one particular party comes tomind.

I had a family of four, for a full day of fishing whowere recommended by a friend at the PGI fishing club.The mother, Debbie, called me prior to the trip to talkfishing. She inquired about tarpon, which is in full forceright now. She was eager to put her son Zach (19) and hernephew Josh (14) on their first tarpon. I told her wecould possibly make that happen and so in mid May weset out on our day of fishing!

We had an early start in order to catch the crack-of-dawn tarpon bite. I had a livewell full of perfect bluecrabs for bait.

We made our way down towards Gasparilla Island

where I idled my boat along the beach in search of theright school of fish to start on. It took an hour or so tofind them that morning, but once we found them it wasexactly what we were all hoping for.

Over that first hour or so of fishing, the boys hookedup and jumped several tarpon, however none of themwanted to stay connected! But after a little bit of persist-ence, Debbie’s son Zach was hooked up and it was agood one! So after a 45-minute battle we had this approx-imately180-pound fish boatside and snapped a few pic-tures, then we set her free. Zach was finished! His fishhad dragged the boat well over a mile and he was under-standably pooped! Now it was time for Josh!

We made our way back to the school of fish andwithin minutes Josh was hooked up with a solid 120pound fish that was extremely acrobatic! Josh did verywell getting his fish boat side in about 30 minutes. Thefish threw the hook at the boat, but they got some greatvideo footage, so Josh and everyone else were beyondcontent, tired, and sweaty, to say the least!

I took us to a mangrove shoreline afterwards, wherethe boys could have some "easier and more relaxing fun"on light tackle. Tracy Westermoreland, 50, a familyfriend, was on board with the boys and Debbie that day.He admitted he had little fishing experience, but decidedhe wanted to get in on the flats action. So it was his turn!

The boys caught several mid-size snook before Tracyhooked up a good one. For those of you who don't know,when you hook a big mama snook she knows exactlywhere to go, which is right back to some structure, whereshe feels like she can get away!

And that is exactly what this big girl did! She tookTracy right to the bushes in no time! I knew the line wasgoing to snap if he continued to put pressure on the fishand instructed him to ease off.

Within seconds and before I could even think about it,I was off the boat and in the water chucking it to thebushes! I could see the fish thrashing in the brush andknew it was a good one!

This fish heard me coming so she did not stop tryingto get free. I was a good 6-feet away from her when Isaw the line snap. I could only imagine what they were

Tarpon and a Fine Snook by the Tail

thinking on the boat at this point, but I continued to try andrun her down! Seconds later I reached forward and grabbeda hold of her tail, tight! She struggled to try and get away,but by then I had her with two hands and I turned aroundwith a huge grin and held the fish up high to show them.Hootin’ and hollarin’ we were all in disbelief. I brought herback to the boat, we snapped a few pictures and took a quickmeasurement of 37-inches and over 15-pounds - a fish to beproud of for sure! I know it made Tracys' day and it mademine too. It was definitely a first for me and there wasn'tanything attached to that fish when I got a hold of her. Twoseconds later and she would have been gone.

Days like this are why I love what I do and I know I won'tever forget this trip nor will they. It's beyond gratifying - it’snot just fishing’, but a passion that runs deep and I knowsome of you out there can relate. Now I'm looking forward

to what the month of June will bring. I hope you guys areout there making memories too, that's what life is all about!

Capt. Billy Barton owns and operates Scales-n-Tails FishingCharters. http://www.puntagordafishingcharter.com 941- 979-6140


Capt. Billy put a lot of people on the tarpon last month and for some, like Charlotte County Sea Grant Agent Betty Staugler (above)it was their first!


By Mallory HerzogWater LIFE Fishing

About a month ago we filmed with GusCongemi from the TV show Live the WildLife. We did bow fishing for sting rays onour local flats. This is something mosthunters enjoy. We use stingrays for baitand hitting a ray with an arrow is betterthan coffee to wake you up in the morn-ing. We also caught Gus his very first go-liath grouper! He had fished for thempreviously but was unsuccessful due to theintense structure they like to hide in. Ifyou've never heard of these awesome fishhere is a little information about them as aspecies. Goliath Grouper are found allacross SWFL. Their size and locationvary. Many are found on reefs andwrecks. Smaller juveniles have even been

caught inshore.Many younger go-liaths can spend asmuch as 5-6 yearsgrowing up in ourmangroves. As theygrow and get muchlarger they move outto reefs and struc-tures such as docksand bridges.

We get to experi-ence these powerfulfish in our own backyard at BocaGrande. These fishlive and travelthough the Passsticking to structureand shelves.

They range from 100-to 500-pounds in this area,but can reach up to 800-pounds and 8 feet in length.The Florida IGFA record is680-pounds for a goliathcaught off Fernandina Beach in 1961.

Question is can you hold on? It takessome strength and luck to get them out ofthe intense structure. A great Captainhelps too. You need to position your boatwith the current to get the right drift.

Gus was ready for revenge on thesefish. We showed him how we rigged thebait and how to operate the reel. The baithit the water and instantly was inhaled byone of these beasts. This particular fishtook him around about 5 pilings, zig zag-ging before breaking him off.

Take two was more successful. Fishnumber two was hooked and angry aboutit. Gus hung on and did a great job onthe reel, pulling this fish away from thestructure. Many anglers describe this ex-perience as "reeling in a sunken car."Nothing gets your adrenaline going fasterthan gaining on one of these dinosaursand watching them surface, making hugesplashes with their large paddle tail rightnext to the boat. You did it Gus! Yourfirst Goliath Grouper.

Take nothing but pictures. We de-hookthese guys next to the boat. Sometimeswe can even remove other hooks left be-hind as well. These fish are opportunisticfeeders, often stealing other fisher-man's catches right offtheir hook,

and col-lecting some extra

metal in the process! Harvest andpossession has been prohibited in bothFlorida Stateand Federalwaters since the90s due to se-vere over fish-ing in the 70sand 80s. Listedas critically en-dangered bythe IUCN ( In-ternationalUnion for Con-servation of

Nature) Their numbers havegreatly increased in recent yearsso now their population is onceagain thriving which is greatfor the fish and the angler.Each grouper looks uniqueand has a distinct pattern.You never know what youwill find. I am thrilled wecould show Gus aroundSWFL for the weekendand give him and in-credible memory to lasta lifetime. Stay tunedfor airtime dates for

our episode airing in 2016!http://www.livethewildlifetv.comYou can contact Big Bully Outdoors Char-

ters for a trip with Mallory’s husband CaptainAndrew. Call 941-661-9880 or go toBigBullyOutdoors.com

Fishing: Behind the TV Screen


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By Captain Joe AngiusWater LIFE Estero Bay

The back bay bite in Estero Bay hasbeen very consistent this past month.Large snook have been staging at creekmouths and feeding aggressively on shal-low grass flats, getting ready to migratetoward the beaches for their spawn. Oncequality bait begins to show up on ourbeaches, the summer-time female snookwon’t be far behind. Redfish have beencongregated around large oyster bars feed-ing on crabs and pinfish. It’s extremelyimportant to find an area with clean waterand signs of fish activity. The key is to an-chor far off of an oyster bar or mangroveedge and wait to intercept feeding fish. Sothere’s plenty of fish out in Estero Baybut, where’s the bait?

Finding quality bait in the bay has beendifficult, but it can be done. White bait hasbeen found on shallow grass flats withclean moving water. Chumming the baitup to you is the only way to catch a lot atone time. If the white bait decides it does-n’t want to show up, I would recommendlooking around the sand or mud flats. Castnetting in the mud can get messy, but itwill produce bait that catches the elusivefish of Estero. On the grass flats, use an 8--foot’ 3/8 mesh cast net. I prefer an 8-footnet because it is lighter and easier to load.If you decide to look around the mud andsand flats for bait, an 8-foot 3/8” meshnet would work but, a 6-foot 3/8” meshnet will get the job done without leavingyou exhausted.

Every morning on my charters I willbring all of my good bait to a few backwa-ter tarpon spots. It has been difficult land-ing a few of these fish, but hasn’t been aproblem jumping them. Getting the hook-up on picky backwater tarpon is a task initself, but I owe success to having qualitybait. Without having extra bait to chum,getting the fish riled up to chew would benearly impossible. If you do come acrossa school of tarpon in the backbay, pa-tience, silence, and persistence is going tobe key to your success. Don’t get discour-aged if there are 20 fish rolling next to theboat and you’re not getting one to evenconsider your bait. Try different baits andtechniques such as, cut bait, free-linedbaits, baits under corks, and differentpound test leader line. This is a great time

to study the fish and see what makes themturn on.

Southwest Florida is a fisherman’s andfisherwoman’s paradise. Estero Bay inparticular is an area where several tech-niques and ways to catch fish can be suc-cessful at once. Don’t limit yourself to onetechnique, take the risk, try new things; itwill pay off. If the fishing becomes frus-trating, then it becomes work and that’sone thing we want to stray away from.

Enjoy the fishery you are in, respectthe rules and the boaters around you anddon’t look past the little things we oftentake for granted.

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

Estero Bay: Catching Bait is the Hard Part

Jenni Orcuttʼs Estero redfish caught on a live mud minnow An upper slot redfish sight casted using pinfish T.J. with his first Estero Bay redfish caught on a white bait

White Bait – First you fish for your bait then you go fishing for your fish

Captain Joe Angius with a healthy backwa-ter snook caught on a pinfish

Capt. Joe and his father holding anoverslot Estero Bay redfish caught onwhite bait.


Capt. Ralph Lennon said that on numer-ous trips he has seen baby horseshoecrabs swimming upside down at the sur-face. He wanted to know why that wouldbe. The photos are by Sherri, his wife.

By Capt. Betty StauglerWater LIFE Sea Grant

Recently, horseshoecrabs about 1-2 inches insize have been observed swimming up-side down. I got a text from one of myfriends who observed this asking “whatʼsup with this?”

Well it turns out horseshoe crabs doswim upside down or at an approximately30 degree angle to the bottom; we justdonʼt typically see it. So one would askwhy in the world would an animal that is al-ready awkwardly shaped for efficientmovement in the water, choose to swimupside down? How could that possiblybenefit them?

So first, why do horseshoe crabs swimat all? Scientists believe swimming mayhelp distribute crabs to other areas. It mayhelp them hurdle barriers that they canʼtclimb over or around. Swimming mightalso help them escape from predators orwaters with oxygen levels too low for con-tinued survival.

Swimming for horseshoe crabs actuallybegins before the crab hatches. Digressingfor a little life history, horseshoe crabs arethe only marine arthropods (includescrabs, shrimp, lobsters, and barnacles)that fertilize eggs externally without brood-ing the eggs. They are also the only onesthat migrate from offshore deep areas tothe intertidal beach, where spawning oc-curs on the beach. The horseshoe crabstypically come onshore with a male at-tached to a female and a number of “satel-lite” males nearby. As the female depositsher eggs in a sand nest they are fertilizedby the males.

Horseshoe crabs molt approximatelyeighteen times before they reach sexualmaturity. The first three molts occur before

hatching. The fourth molt takes place atthe time of hatching, about 4 weeks afterthe eggs were laid, and results in the firstinstar or trilobite larvae. Yes, trilobites, socool! Only a couple millimeters in size, thetrilobite larvae resembles the adult butwithout a telson, commonly called the tail.Trilobites by the way are extinct arthro-pods…distant relatives of modern lob-sters, horseshoe crabs and spiders. Theyexisted for approximately 300 millionyears and occurred on every continent onEarth.

Back to swimming horseshoe crabs,scientists think swimming may be inher-ent, learned while an upside down em-bryo is still encased within its transparentegg. Theyʼve observed well-developedembryos turning somersaults, using bothlegs and their book gills (resemblingpages of a book) to create movement. Assuch, it is not surprising to see newly

hatched larvae swimming awkwardly to thesurface.

Approximately 6-8 days after hatchinghorseshoe crab larvae molt into the first ju-venile instar. At 5 millimeters in length thejuvenile fully resembles the adult but with ashorter telson. Juveniles are also knownto swim as evidenced by the observer. Inlaboratory settings, crowded conditionsstimulate juvenile horseshoe crabs to

swim. It is thought that swimming is a wayof dispersing the animals which makessense since horseshoe crabs are not so-cial animals. Swimming may also be away of avoiding cannibalism which has

also been observed inthe laboratory.

For smaller morebuoyant horseshoecrabs, swimming alsoappears to be an al-ternative to turningover in the waterusing the telson. Inthe laboratory juve-niles have been ob-served propellingthemselves off thebottom in order toright themselves.

As horseshoecrabs get larger they

appear to swim less which is why we typi-cally donʼt see them at the surface. A bookwritten by several horseshoe crab expertsindicated that in all of their field observa-tions over the many years that they hadonly observed two adult horseshoe crabsswimming at the surface in open water andonly once in the open ocean. Interestingly,the later was a horseshoe crab about onemeter in length! A very big crab indeed.

This leads me to my last few tidbitsabout horseshoe crabs. Worldwide thereare four species of horseshoe crabs.Three occur in Southeast Asia (includingthe big one from above) and the fourth is

found on the Atlanticand Gulf coasts fromMaine to Mexico.

Horseshoe crabsdate back almost 450million years, 200 mil-lion years before di-nosaurs existed andover this time their bodyform has changed verylittle. Itʼs worth notingthat horseshoe crabsare not crabs at all.They are really mostclosely related to spi-ders, scorpions andmites. Horseshoecrabs mature around

ten years of age and live about 20 years.Horseshoe crabs benefit humans in

many ways: because their blue, copper-based blood clots in the presence of bac-terial toxins, it is used to test intravenousdrugs, vaccines, and other medical de-vices. Every year thousands of crabs areharvested, bled, and then returned to thewater for this purpose. Also, much of whatwe know about the human eye can becredited to horseshoe crabs.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conserva-tion Commission is trying to documentnesting sites of horseshoe crabs fromaround the state with the publicʼs help. Ifyou would like to find out how you can beinvolved, please visit: http://myfwc.com/re-search/saltwater/crustaceans/horseshoe-crabs/documenting-beaches/

Capt. Betty StauglerFlorida Sea Grant AgentUF/IFAS Extension Charlotte County (941) 764-4346http://charlotte.ifas.ufl.eduwww.flseagrant.org

Whatʼs up with those baby horseshoe crabs swimming upside down?


AAQQUU AATTIICCAADiver Down

Adam WilsonWater LIFE Underwater

The top photo is of aspotted cleaner shrimpliving on his/her host, aGiant Caribbeananemone.

I took this photo lastmonth on a naturallimestone ledge off-shore in 58 feet be-tween Stump Pass andGasparilla Pass. There are a lot of nice ledges in this area that arehome to Giant Caribbean anemones. Not all anemones have cleanershrimp, but I have seen as many as 4 on one anemone before. When-ever I find an anemone I check for shrimp. They are on the small side,less than an inch long, and they are fun to watch as they walk alongwaving their antennae, guiding fish in that need a cleaning from para-sites.

The next photo is a typical sight now, I call it "Lion Fish onLedge". I kill every one I see with my little pole spear, right after Itake their picture! I then carefully remove their spines with my shearsand shove them in my bag. They are delicious, very similar to hogfish,extremely white meat, flaky and sweet tasting. We removed 5 largeones from this one particular small spot.

The goliath grouper at the top right was under a barge that wassunk near the Palm Island ferry site in 60 feet. I think this barge hasonly been down for a little over a year but already it is crawling withlife and it has an inordinate amount of mature goliath grouper.

A lionfish (above) and a dwarf-frogfish (an-tennarius-radiosus) (right) from a trip lastmonth with Capt. Joe Miller out of Venice

DIVE REPORT.There is still a little thermocline about 20 feet off the bottom, but it is mild (upper 70's) and a 3 mil wet-

suit is sufficient. By the middle of June that thermocline should be gone, except in deep water (out past 100feet). Vis is a little dirty on the bottom and will probably stay that way on the shallow reefs (inside 60 feet)through the summer.


By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE Inshore

Amazing is the response you get whenyou give 3 kids brand new fishing rods.Grandsons, Jonah (4), Gavin (7) andZachary (9) moved from Zebco 202 reelsto nice lightweight Shakespeare spinningoutfits rigged with 15# Power Pro line.Instantly, they became very good withlong casts, close calls with hooks wizzingthrough the air and spikey catfish off mydock.

Before their arrival from Baltimore, Iran out into the Harbor and cast netted alivewell full of frisky whitebait. On thedock I thought fishing was the first prior-ity... but not. Kids find fascination inthings I take for granted like “dock crabs”scurrying around pier pilings and lizardschasing bugs. But eventually, some nicecasts were made and plenty of 23-inchsnook came a calling along with sail and

hardhead catfish. Four year old Jonah’sfirst snook pulled so hard I thought thenew rod was going to be pulled out of hishand. He thought the snook pulling dragand jumping was funny and laughed theentire time he reeled. Laughter seemed tomake sense to me, so when my fishingbuds see me laughing when fish jumpthey can think I am acting like a little kid.

An hour before dark we ran out intothe Harbor and dropped a few crab potsinto the water hoping for a crab feast in afew days. With a little daylight left,Gavin asked to fish before we went in so Iwent to my favorite snook spot where Ihave literally caught hundreds of snookbefore. The bite started off slow and thenGavin’s cork dove deep and a tarponblasted into the air. The tarpon leaped andpulled drag, but with surprising skill thefish was landed! More than half thelength of this young angler this tarponwas a first and a first for this spot!

Shark seemed the logical choice for afamily fishing outing the next day so we

anchored over a drop off in the Harborand chopped up pilchards for chum. It didnot take long before everyone was catch-ing trout an unexpected bonus, nice onesaveraging over 20 inches! Then a bigshark hit a half of ladyfish on the bottom.

My son Brian could barely get the 5/0heavy backcountry rod from its holderwith drag screaming and rod buckling!His enthusiasm was radiant as he neverfelt the power of a big shark before.Meanwhile I wondered about breaking an-chor and chasing the fish as we were los-ing lots of line. We were fishing with67-pound hay-wire with 60 pound monoand a 5/0 circle hook with plenty of back-ing so Brian battled the monster, but onlyto have the braided line snap! Fishingcontinued to heat up with more sharkhook-ups and break offs until the after-noon storms chased us home.

The next day off we went again forshark, but we were met with slow tidesand a slow bite. To compensate wechummed heavier, chopping up baitfish

into small pieces and sprinkling them intothe water. Kids find fascination in mess-ing with baitfish in the livewell, using thewashdown pump to keep the boat cleanand using a baseball bat to pitch chumpieces into the water so I was bored longbefore them! Finally, after hours of fish-ing, the tide started and several smallsharks blessed our lines before the stormschased us in again

On the way in, Gavin wanted to checkour crab traps, but after two days of sittingin prime blue-claw locations each trap hadthe shellfish welks in them, but no crabs.

A fine speckled trout dinner that nightmade up for the lack of crabs that Mary-landers so strongly desire and all the talkwas about fishing! Gavin asked if hecould move down and his Mom said whenyou are 17 and have graduated from highschool. I think the hook has been set for alifelong love of Charlotte Harbor! Capt. Chuck Eichner operates Action Flats

Backcountry Charters and can be reached at941-628-8040

Three New Outfits


On TheLine By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior Staff

It really was a darkand stormy night backin 1995 when I first re-alized how importantStump Pass was to myhealth and financial se-curity. I was comingback from a night timeshark fishing charterand used my old LoranC to find the pass.There I was with a boatfull of customers tryingto find a safe wayhome. There were noboats to follow, no redor green light to markthe channel, no markersat all, just total dark-ness so I used my depthfinder and bumpedalong the bottom look-ing for the channel.After about a half hourof high anxiety, prayingthat I didn't runaground or a largewave wouldn't crashover the stern and swamp us, I eventuallyturned the corner at Palm Island and madeit back to the dock in one piece. Rightthen and there I swore that I would doeverything I could to make sure thatStump Pass was properly marked, safeand navigable. That vow has taken me ona 20 year odyssey through politics, gov-ernment agencies, fund raising and nu-merous speaking engagements. But Ithink I can now safely say I see the lightat the end of the tunnel.

I have been told by high level Char-lotte County officials at a public meeting,that the actual work on the Stump Passproject will begin in November of thisyear. The first part of the project will bethe building of a stone terminal groin(formally known as a jetty) on the northside of the pass. It is hoped that this solidstructure will minimize the drifting ofsand into the pass. This should help re-duce the number of maintenance dredgesthat would be required over the next 10years. Another portion of the project willbe beach re-nourishment on both theSouth and North shorelines with the sandcoming from the dredging of the pass andoffshore borrow sites already located.Both Palm Island and Manasota Key arein desperate need of this sand to restoretheir eroding shorelines.

I am 92.6% certain that the work willstart on time, but there are always poten-tial problems. Weather can be a major fac-tor, after all it will still be hurricane

season and some unforseen last minutepermitting could be required.

You would be amazed by the numberof government agencies that have to signoff on this project. The bids for all thework has to be within the budget . Thereare very few dredging companies that cando this sort of work. Sometime they arenot physically in our area or they haveother work to do. The Stump Pass work isconsidered small compared to protectsthey usually work on. The biggest threatin my opinion is some last minute legalaction by a special interest group who, forwhat ever reason, does not want the passto be dredged.

Why is this time different from all theother attempts in the last 30 years to fixStump Pass? Well, I am told that in thelast few years there has been a change inattitude in Tallahassee, when it comes toworking with local counties on these typeof projects. In the past, we were told wecouldn't have a jetty or put sand on thenorth side shoreline. Now they are willingto work with the locals to not only protectthe environment, but also to considerboater safety issues and property ownersrights.

Let's hope we get this project done be-fore they go back to their old ways. If youwant more information on the Stump Passproject go to the county web site

www. charlottecountyfl.gov then go toprojects and click on Stump Pass 10 YearBeach and Inlet Management Plan.http://myfwc.com/boating/anchoring-mooring

STUMP PASS: The Fix Is InWORK TO BEGIN IN NOVEMBER


Staff ReportAccording to the FWC, red snapper is: a popular species that

has a strong economic impact for many coastal communitiesthroughout Florida. This is the motivation for their managementstrategy.

Now try and remember their rules, as stated by them:The 2015 season is now open and will run through July 12,

closing July 13. This season will resume for all of Labor Dayweekend (Sept. 5-7) and finish with Saturdays and Sundaysthroughout the rest of September and all of October, with the lastday of harvest being Sunday, Nov. 1. This results in a 70-day recre-ational red snapper season in Gulf state waters.

And you better remember the following too:State waters in the Gulf are from shore to 9 nautical miles. So

far it’s simple... but in Gulf federal waters this year, anglers fishingfrom private boats and anglers fishing from federally permittedfor-hire vessels will have different season lengths. Federal waterswill open June 1 for both groups and will remain open throughJune 10, closing June 11, for anglers fishing from private boats.For federally permitted for-hire vessels, the season will remainopen through July 14, closing July 15. If they want people to re-member all this they better print it on something people take alongfishing, like a bag of ice. Federal waters in the Gulf start at 9 nau-tical miles and extend out to about 200 nautical miles.

Now for the very worst idea: Anglers targeting red snapper inGulf waters off Florida (excluding Monroe County and we don’tknow why) from a private boat must now sign up for the Gulf ReefFish Survey prior to fishing. Sign up at a tackle shop, retailstore, or tax collector’s office; by calling 1-888-FISHFLORIDA(347-4567); or online at License.MyFWC.com.

We wonder how the tackle shops and retail stores are getting re-imbursed for the time it takes them if they- do the paperwork.

YOU WILL REGISTERWITH THE STATE NOW!there will be no complaining!

VENICE OFFSHORELast Monthʼs FishTop Two: A nice man-grove snapper MikeCarr brought back toVenice. Glen Ballinger.with an African Pom-pano caught flatlining ajig head with sardineon it in a chum slick, 45miles offshore.

All other photos on thispage are from trips lastmonth out of VeniceInlet with Capt. JoeMiller, Offshore Gallore

Amberjackcloses June 1

in Gulf state waters

By Fishin’ FrankWater LIFE Baitshop

This is still a bigquestion; should I usebraided line or Mono? Monofilament lineis a solid plastic line getting its name froma single or mono filament invented in1938. But it was stiff and kinky and notuntil the mid 1960s it was made really us-able to fish with. Braided line is a type ofcloth and form of Kevlar, yes it is madewith bullet-proof-vest thread and whilenot exactly Kevlar it’s close enough solet’s start with that.

Braided line is amazing because it al-lows you to fish with very heavy strengthline that is so small you can cast 20 poundtest with the ease of 8 pound mono. Yes,there is a difference between how thin aline is and the castablity of the line. Take30-pound braided line, it is smaller than12 pound mono, but when you throw it ona fishing rod it will cast the same distanceas 12-pound mono. So 20-pound braid,while the size of 4-pound mono, will castlike 8-pound.

Braid line is more resistant to scrapingagainst barnacles, so it wears better thanmono. Monofilament line tends to twistwhen used on spinning reels and to get thetwist out you would drag it behind theboat at a very slow speed. When twisted,mono looks a lot like wrought iron andwhen pulled through the water, the waterwill work out all of the twists in about 1to 2 minutes. Braided line, when it getstwisted, just will not UN-twist when

pulled through thewater. Some of thetwist will come out,but it takes 5 timeslonger to get all thetwist out. Braidedline, being cloth mate-rial, does not hold theshape, as will mono tohelp the water workthe twist out. Thegood news is that ittakes 5 times longerto have the twist in

braided line becomea problem.

Braid is strongerthan mono line.That is what mostpeople think but itis not really true.Braided line has nogive or stretch, soon a flat dead pullwith no jerking it isvery strong, but ifyou pull, then jerk

on braided line it willpop quite easily. This is the reason I usebraided line when fishing against themangroves or under docks, I use it be-cause it breaks so easy. If you hangbraided line in a tree branch a short sharpjerk of the line will pop the braid, whilemono fishing line stretches so much it isvery hard to break and often sends a highspeed missile (the lure) back to the boat –the stretch acts like a sling shot. So con-trary to people’s thinking, I use braidedline so I can safely break it.

So if I am trolling, or really open waterfishing, I still prefer mono as itgives/stretches when the fish hits, makingit hard to break. A hint: if you are going totroll with braided, there is an equation.With mono line, the fish hits, the line

stretches, the rod bends the drag on thereel gives. When using braid to troll withthere is no stretch, so set your drag at least1/3 looser than you would with mono, sothe fish will not break off.

Now mono line will get you more hits,the same way that Fluorocarbon leaderwill get you more hits than steel leader. Soin open water I use mono to hook morefish because more fish means more fun.

Now what color line is the best? Nottoo many years ago it was simple; youhad a choice of clear mono line or whitemono line. Now there are tons of colorsand lines with mixed colors. So which isbest? They are all the best, but not allyear. I had 8 rods and reels on the boatand each one had a different color line onit, no one color catches more fish than theother all year round. As the water colorchanges and the conditions change so willthe color of your line.

I fish every once in a while with whitebait and white bait swims around a lot.Now with each rod a different color Iknow which white bait is swimming be-hind the boat, or is under the boat and all Ihave to say is ‘Hey, yellow reel up.’ Whenthe lines were all one color everyone hadto reel in to find out whose bait it was.Tangles are easier to deal with when thelines are different colors as well. It’s muchsimpler to get yellow apart from greenthan green from green.

So there is no real down side to differ-ent colors other than we are not used to it.

Just to wrap this up, let me ask, what isthe best brand of braided line? There isnot a best one. They are all good, the trickis to find which one is the best for you,which brand of line cast good for youwithout throwing wind knots.

Some people will do better with onebrand and some with another. So if a lineworks for you that means it is good. But itmay not be the one for your fishing part-ner, how he casts, which rods and reel hehas put together.

Whether you use bait or lures will alsomake a difference in which line is the bestfor you. So when a line company says weare the best, know that is impossible. It isonly true if it works best for you.

[email protected] 625-3888

Time To Switch Lines?

Rob Gunnells with a shark-bit grouper ... does this count as half his limit ?

Tiny diamater, 15-pound braid


$2 off any haircut!


Hey YA -ALL! I have to say the fish'nhas been great offshore. The water tem-perature went down to 78 degrees thenbounced right back up to 83 degrees.

Every place I have fished has been onfire. I have talked to a lot of fishermenthis last month and they have been doingreal good, most have been fishing lately.They have been catching big mangs, lanesand yellow-tail snapper. They were chum-ming real heavy and they were usingsquid and live shrimp. They also said theystarted out using 15 pound fluorocarbonleader and when the bite quit they wentdown to 10 pound fluorocarbon and thebite started up again.

The red grouper are chewing excellent.The BIG - UNS are out in 110 to 140 feetof water, they are eatin’ live pin fish,squirrel fish and grunts and also mullet.

Most of the guys I talked to haven't beencatching a lot of gag grouper, they are notopen yet anyway.

I was talking to Peter Hood in SaintPetersburg Fl. about the openings andclosing of red and gag grouper. He saidthe red grouper went back to 2 per personand would not close like they usually do.Also when the gags open July1, he said itlooks like it may stay open, so keep yourfingers crossed. I will take 2 fish per per-son any day if they keep the season open.

There are some big sharks in BocaGrande pass and in the Harbor. I talkedwith 2 shark fishermen. They said theyhave caught 3 big bull sharks and theywere a little over 10 feet long. They arefishing for hammerheads now. I ask themif they got any huge hammerheads to getpictures of them and e-mail me some.

Cobia are hitting real good on theoffshore wrecks most are coming up thechum lines. I always put a line out in backof the boat with a balloon half blown upwith a pin fish on the other end.

AJ'S, greater amberjack, are hitting

real good on lively blue runners, a coupleof the hot spots for BIG- UNS are D-9and passed that, on to the House of Pain.Guys are getting them from 40- to 70-pounds.

My story for this month is I had theprivilege of fishing with 3 good friends,Walter Jennings, Bob Speakman, ChuckEdmonsten last week and we decided togo hole hopping for the day and see whatwas bitting at the different spots we weretargeting 40- to 48-miles out. Well as youcan see from the pictures we caught redgrouper from 24 inches to over 30 inches.The big boys tipped in at 17 to 19 pounds.I mean these guys have been eating good.All of us had a ball. We didn't anchor up,we drifted every spot. I want to go back tothem spots and anchor up and chumheavy, I think those spots are going to bedynamite. We also got a big snapper offthese spots.

The neatest part of this whole tripwas we had a visit from a warbalor orsome are calling it a golden finch that

many of you have seen while fishing off-shore. (editor notes: our bird expert saysit is a spring Blackpoll Warbler) It is avery small bird, looks like a little sparrowand I mean he took control of the boat. Hewalked around the center console many,many times. He sat on every ones shoul-der, he sat on every ones hat, he wasn'tafraid of any one of us, but you had tokeep looking down so you would not stepon him. We set up a cap from a water bot-tle and filled it up with water and set itunder the fighting chair in the shade andwe set him down there to have nice cooldrink and he drank and drank and drank.

I have had these little birds come to theboat many times, but none of them wouldlet us pick them up like this one did. Hestayed with us until we started back home.It just goes to show, something differentusually happens every time you go out!

That's all I have, now it’s time to getout of here so if you want to book an off-shore charter with us give me a call at(941) 473 - 2150

AND REMEMBER, GET OUT AND SNORTSOME OF THAT CLEAN SALT AIR, C U Z

IT’S GOOD FER YA ! ! !

The Olʼ Fishnʼ HoleWith Capt. Jim OʼBrien


Local Retailer Makes SignificantDon Ball School DonationMichael HellerPres. Charlotte Harbor Reef Association

Our Don Ball School of Fishing is happy to re-port that last month we received a donation of 73fishing rods from the local Walmart store in PuntaGorda. Thank you Walmart! I understand the rodswere part of a national display and could not beresold.

“The kids are going to love them,” ProgramDirector Donna Ball said as she tried to figure outhow to load 73 rods into her little car.

Luckily one of our board members, Capt.Ralph Allen, was near by and able to provide histime and truck to pick up th e rods and get them toour storage facility.

Classes in the Don Ball School of Fishinghave been offered to 6th and 7th graders in thefour Charlotte County middle schools every fall forthe last 14 years. For more information, go to our website www.waterlifemagazine/DonBall

Support Local Kids who areLearning about Local FishingAnd the Local EnvironmentAt the Local Middel Schools

Donate to the Don Ball School of FishingUse the pay pal button on the Waterlifemagazine.comwebsite. Every little bit helps!100% of your donation goes to the kids!

Donna Ball with the new rods


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Pirate Harbor

SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated, But Often True

Survival InstinctThe original report was that the adultmale was seated at the rear of the vesseland while the vessel was underway andinbound, the other passengers realizedhe was no longer in the vessel. USCGvessel searching heard the adult malescreaming for help and was able to gethim safely aboard after he had treadwater without a life jacket for approxi-mately 6 hours.

T Bone HeadFWC officers investigated a boating acci-dent in Ski Alley involving two personalwatercrafts (PWCʼs). The two PWCʼswere spraying each other with theirwakes most of the morning until one ofthem caught a wake wrong and the PWCwent bow into the side of the other PWC.There were no injuries, largely due to oneof the operators jumping off at the lastmoment.FWC officer completed the acci-

dent report, charging theoperator of the strikingPWC.

Miami Vice-GripTwo off duty FWC offi-cers were traveling westbound on SW 328Street in southernMiami-Dade Countywhen they saw a com-mercial land scapedump truck parked onthe side of the road, ad-jacent to a canal, and aman holding a rope thatwas leading into thewater. They then sawthe man pulling on therope attempting to pullup what was later identi-fied as an 11ʼ alligator,out of the water. Another subject ran to help and together they were able to pull

the alligator to shore. Both men weresubsequently arrested.

Future network along U.S. East CoastScientists are using a variety of buoysand autonomous underwater vehicles torecord and archive sounds (editor notes:and God knows what else!) from marinemammals and fish species in the west-ern North Atlantic through a new listen-ing network known as the U.S.Northeast Passive Acoustic SensingNetwork (NEPAN) which stretches fromthe northern Gulf of Maine to the NewYork Bight in the northwest AtlanticOcean, NEPAN provides year-round,

long-term information on thepresence and physical distribu-tion of vocalizing whales, dol-phins and porpoises and somefish species. (editor notes:Does anyone reading this be-lieve all that money was spentto listen to fish?) The archived and near-real-time data (editor again - yeah,we need real time data to listento fish... uh huh) comes fromrecorders on various platformsranging from fixed bottommounted and surface buoys tomobile underwater vehiclesand surface wave gliders. Thedata will be used by NOAAʻand other federal agencies.ʼthe report says.

The search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 has turned up somethingunexpected this week. Instead of the downed Boeing 777 Australian-ledsearch teams were looking for, the salvage operation has uncovered apreviously uncharted 19th century shipwreck 13,000 feet beneath theoceanʼs surface. Futured imagery will be given to marine archeologists inthe hope of identifying the ship.

Singaporean company Horizon Energy Sys-tems (HES) unveiled HYCOPTER in Atlanta(AUVSI 2015) last month. HYCOPTER is theworld's first hydrogen fuel cell poweredmulti-rotor UAV, and is being readied for arecord flight endurance of four hours, oraround eight to 10 times the average flightduration of equivalent systems today.

This is jellyfish season on Floridasʼs northeast coast. The beach at Mayport was littered with them when we were there last month.Here a young boy with paddels designed for a beach ball game finds another use forthem. This is whatʼs great - kids improvising and experiencing the outdoors.


PGSC Spring Series Overview HOW SAILORS COMPETE Prepared for Anything?

By Peter WelchWater LIFE Sailing

Punta Gorda Sailing Club is in its 40thyear as a 501C organization. It wasfounded by sailors who wanted organizedracing. There are many more activitiesnow, but it is still the major race organizeron the Harbor with three race series of sixraces each. Racers can be win oriented orjust need scheduled events to assure thatthey get out on the water. There is no win-ter allowed on the Harbor so Spring Seriesruns from January until May with six racesat $8 each. A wide variety of boats from20-feet up are rated for speed and theirfinish time adjusted accordingly to deter-mine ranking in each race. A boat’s fourbest rankings are used to determine sea-son’s rank. A boat’s ability to sail to its rat-ing will vary with the boat design, weatherand crew skills. Thus to win your class forthe series it is best to participate in all sixraces. The capricious wind patterns on theHarbor amplify that: start to the left sidebecause the wind was best there, then itstops and the right is best! Your two worstrace results are deleted from the seriesscore…. so race them all.

An unusually warm spring this year hadwind from everywhere but the north untilthe last race on May 3. The second racewas four miles from center Harbor to thefishing structure and return. The first racefor Still Crazy it established a winning pat-tern in spinnaker class until race five whenSoulshine prevailed by seven seconds. Itwas Fancy Free over Morgan in non spin-naker to begin the contest that would notbe decided until race 5. It was the firstrace for DivaGorda and the beginning ofconsistent good results that would putthem ahead of three boats with a firstplace finish in one race. Race 3 and 4 werecontests of patience in light and spottywinds. Race 5 and 6 had great wind forfun on the Harbor no matter where youranked in the results.

There is a picnic after each race. This isa good place for racers to decompress, andcompare race strategy good or bad. And agood place for non-racers to see thefriendly competitive spirit that keeps win-ners and “also ran’s” coming back. Try it! peter can be reached at: [email protected]

Results

Spinnaker Fleet1st Still Crazy2nd Soulshine

3rd Us2

Non Spinnaker Fleet1st Morgan

2nd Fancy Free3rd Rockinʼ Chair

Cruising Fleet1st Diva Gorda2nd Euphoria

3rd Panache

By Capt. Dan CambernWater LIFE Placida Offshore

How many times have you been fishing and had an oppor-tunity arise that you weren't prepared for? I'm talking aboutfishing for one species when all of a sudden something elseswims by and all of a sudden A.D.D. kicks in and now I wantto catch THAT fish instead. I know this has happened to mepersonally many, many times over the years and you'd thinkby now I would be ready for anything that swims. Well, truth isthat you can't possibly be ready for everything all the time, butI've gotten better at it.

Now I'm going to elaborate on fishing offshore from a boatbecause that is the way I normally fish and have the most ex-perience in. I also believe there is a better chance of beingsurprised by an unexpected visitor offshore because thereare more species there. This is the reason I keep over 20 rodand reel combos on my boat. Over kill? Maybe, but I'm readyfor almost anything.

Let's say, for instance, if you're out in your boat fishing onthe bottom for grouper with a traditional boat rod and reel set-up and a cobia swims up to your transom begging for a meal,what do you do? You should always have a pitch rod riggedand ready to go. I like to have a medium to heavy spinningrod with at least 50 # braid main line and a six ft. length of 60to 80# mono or flourocarbon leader. I have 2 of these ready inmy rod holders on my tower ready to go. One will alwayshave a Spro or similar style buck-tail jig on it, while the otheris rigged with a 6/0 to 7/0 circle hook to quickly put a live baiton. I also have similar rods rigged with a wire leader andstinger hook for Kingfish and other toothy predators.

Here's a story from a couple of years ago that I will neverforget. We were fishing a charter group and had just set upon our last spot of the day to catch some more grouper. So,we're anchored up in 80 ft. of water about 20 miles off BocaGrande, I almost didn't put out my flat line bait because wehad fished all day without a strike on it and it was almost timeto go in but I put it out any way. I had a live cigar-minnow on awire stinger rig swimming under a float about 20 yards behindus. All of a sudden the sound of braided line ripping throughthe rod guides and thepole bent straight outtoward the back of theboat. I grabbed the rodout of the holder andhanded it to one of myclients while yelling tothe other guys to reeltheir lines in and clearthe deck. Fish On!Next thing I see is a bigsailfish jumping behindthe boat trying to shake the hook out of his mouth. So now wehave this nice sailfish hooked up and what do I see rightswimming right behind the boat? A big mahi-mahi cruising bylike nobody's business,so I grabbed the pitchrod with my trusty Sprojig and tossed it out infront of it. 2nd fish on!and we're still an-chored up! Well, thesailfish went one waywhile the dolphin wentthe other and both fishwent around the bow atleast once and nevergot tangled in the anchor line! We got the dolphin to the boatfirst and put a gaff in her and put it in the ice box. Sheweighed 20 pounds on the boga-grip.The sailfish eventuallygave up and we boated it, got a few quick pictures and re-leased it to fight again another day.

Now that obviously doesn't happen every day, but we havecaught dolphin and triple tail underneath a single floating crabtrap using lighter spinning rods rigged with a small jig or just asmall hook attached to 20 # leader which is also the samerigs I use for catching snapper when we get them chummedup behind the boat.

I also keep several rods rigged and ready for trolling, aswell as a heavy duty rig set up for large sharks if someone onthe boat wants a good workout.

Capt. Dan Cambern hammerheadcharters.comHammerhead Charters (941) 625-6226 380-6226

Top 3 Photos Fran Burstein

Photo Below:Dennis Peck

Little boat action in last monthʼs Hybiscus Cup - There are usually great smallboat programs during the summer for kids on Charlotte Harbor

Last Raceof Spring

May 3

Charlotte HarborFrank at Fishin’ Franks941- 625-3888

Fishing has been great, but when goingfishing you got to watch the afternoonwind. As it gets warmer, the sea breezegets stronger.

Up in the Harbor there is a good vari-ety of fish. The tarpon are consistent insize but the sharks are from 18- inches to12 feet! It’s just a huge variety of sharksizes and in amongst them, there areSpanish, catfish, jacks, pompano, blue-fish and ladyfish just such a wide varietyright now. One of the coolest things I

heard lately is while looking for tarponbait, like ladyfish, pull a white TwitchStorm lure on one side of the boat and a14 Bomber - the little one - black andshiny silver, on the other and you’ll seethe ladyfish will only hit the black and sil-ver lure while the mackerel that are therewill only hit the white lure. It’s some-thing I never experienced but people aretrying it and telling me there is nocrossover what so ever. Mackerel onwhite, ladyfish on the black and silver.Who knew?

South, into the Harbor from Pirate Har-bor to Boca Grande, there is a good num-ber of cobia out there. Most are too smallto keep so I assume they were all hatchedin the last year. Out into the Gulf, towardsMarys (reef) and the Power Poles, you geta few more but the vast majority aresmall, in the high 20 inches, maybe 26,but a lot of small cobia. A Power Bait eelfor an artificial will work for cobia, butthe 1/2 ounce gold spoon, they seem tolike the Johnson Minnow, is the lure forthem. Live, a pinfish under a bobber. I’veheard many stories of guys fishing smallcrabs they paid $3 for, for tarpon, only to

get wacked by a 26 inch cobia. I guessthings could be worse!Tarpon are kind of wishy-washy.

Some guys say they see them swarm outto the Gulf when there is a lightningstorm. Some other guys say no, but thinkabout it: maybe the older tarpon, 50 yearsor what ever, they might get smarter. Ormaybe its just their time to go out there.

The morning bite is good on tarpon,but the big problem is everything is tryingto eat your tarpon bait. We’ve had someluck with bobber jigging tarpon with crabshooked 5-to 6-feet below the bobber.Sharks and cats don’t key in on the crabslike that. And threadfins? - Pretty mucheverything eats them.

The snook-drift at Redfish Pass has

started and it’s just incredible. Snook arein the mangroves. Turtle and Bull Bays re-ally slowed down lately on snook.The best snook fishing is on the beaches


Capt Dave Stephenswww.backbayxtremes.com

941-916-5769

BackBayXtremes

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

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

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

941-473-2150

Hudson Wilds releasing a tarpon caught on amud minnow with a Penn Battle 3000 on a

Johny Morris carbonite rod

Greg Harris, tagged this big bull shark fromshore and released it last month in the BigHammer Challenge

June June –– Predictions and SuggestionsPredictions and Suggestions

right now from Sanibel to Nokomis. There arebig snook on the beaches right now.

The South end of the West Wall is slowand the north end is better. Seems to be morefish there than on the east side of the Harbor.The weird part is, usually it stays so freshthere all year because of the River but nowthere might be food over there. Right now

there is no water coming down the PeaceRiver, the water is not flowing at all and ShellCreek has a just trickle. It’s 1.1 feet on thePeace right now. So with a nice influx of saltway up the Harbor maybe there is a wholenew feeding ground from the Radio Towers toTrout Creek on the west side.

There is a lot of algae decaying in the Har-bor now. I expect a fish kill soon. High 80s,low oxygen, decaying algae and weeds suck-ing oxygen out of the water. Not good. TheState has found there are 5 - to 10-minute pe-riods in the water when there is almost zerooxygen level.... a few minutes is all it takes.Redfish have come back on east side and

at the north end of the West Wall. More redsare appearing further back among the islands,small pods, not big schools, but quite a few ofthem. Steady exploration is what it takes tofind them. The bigger moves you make, the

less fish you are going to catch. Movein small increments and you’ll findthem. Use whitebait out in front to lo-cate them, but fish with pinfish andshrimp to catch them. Right now thereds will blow up on white bait but theywill swallow a shrimp. Tail hook theshrimp and don’t move it around much.Let it sit on the bottom where the redswill come to eat them.

There are pompano out front of thebar on the west side.

Out in the Gulf it’s been crazy withblackfin tuna 10-to 20-miles, then past

20 you’ve got mahi dolphin,AJs and permit on a lot ofthe wrecks and still someking mackerel too. Redgrouper are still really goodwith keeper red grouper atVenice jettys, yes red grouperfrom the jetty and not to say itcan’t happen again thismonth.

Keep a grouper line outand get a pinfish down. Therehas been lane snapper andmangrove snapper alongwith grunts and porgys andsome amazing vermillionsnapper came from out about20 miles.

If you are going to walkthe beaches, there are floun-der, whiting, small sharksand Spanish. In the middle ofthe day the snook slow down.I think clear water is brighterand they can’t squint.

Lemon Bay Jim at Fishermen’sEdge 697-7595The FWC and

the Coast Guard arechecking the tarponfishermen everyday. Some guys arestill trying to use asnagging type jig.The style haschanged and theFWC wants to seeyour gear. They saidthey will be outthere for the wholeseason. The ticketfor illegal gear is$500.

They are catch-ing the tarponpretty good on thebeach, in the Harborand in the Pass rightnow.

There was just ahill-tide when allthe crabs flushedout, that was prettygood acton foreverybody. A lot ofthe tarpon are in thedeeper holes on thePirate Harbor sideright now.

There are lots ofother fish to catchtoo. There aresnook from ElJobean south andalso along thepasses and aroundthe docks near thepasses right now. Anumber of guys say there are keeper sizecobia in the Harbor from the cutoff down thewest side.Redfish have slowed for a while in the

Harbor but we’ve picked up some schools inLemon Bay and guys are catching them prettystrong by Stump Pass.

Some mixed in whiting, flounder, Span-ish, mangs and sn apper, all good at the mo-ment until the afternoon rains hit and the backcountry stuff migrates to the Gulf side.

The fishery is in good shape and we areexperiencing a lot of angling success.

SNOOK Catch and release onlylook on/near the beaches

COBIA In the southernHarbor and near shore area

TARPON Coming up fromthe south

95˚

90˚

85˚

80˚

72˚70˚68˚

50˚

45˚


FISHING FISHINGRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:

YIKES!YIKES!

WARNINGVery HOT - Very EARLY

BACKWATERLittle GoliathsCapt Joe Angius gave us these photos andothers to go with his column about bait (seepage 11) but this is more. This is what fishing isall about, finding a great, fighting fish that noone else targets!

Northeast Florida mullet rig.Gold swivels and bacon, manyhooks, a foot apart. And it works!

Still some nice redfish around

REPORT CONTINUED

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

SHARKS Some very big, somevery mean, all very hungry

Gulf Gulf TempsTemps

are low 80sare low 80sThe Harbor isThe Harbor is

3- or 4-degrees3- or 4-degreeswarmerwarmer


Bay Boat Epic 22SC 2015 $45,500 cb701Bay Boat Sea Boss 21 Bay 2006 $20,000 cb719Bay Boat Polar 1910 BB 2003 $11,500 cb729Bow Rider Sea Swirl 175 2000 $8,900 cb716Bow Rider Glastron GX185 2001 $13,500 cb713Bow Rider Sea Ray 182BR 2002 $13,000 cb725Bow Rider Sea Ray 176BR 2003 $9,500 cb676Bow Rider Bayliner 2250 SS 1996 $12,000 cb727Center Console Cape Craft 16 CC 2004 $7,800 cb634Cruiser Monterey 270 2005 $49,000 cb715Cruiser Maxum 2500SCR 2001 $30,000 cb711Cruiser Glastron 259 2006 $31,000 cb689Cuddy Cabin Chris Craft 23ʼ Concept 1995 $12,000 cb681Cuddy Cabin SeaRay 200 Overnighter 1993 $9,000 cb712Deck Boat Hurricane 226 CC 2008 $15,000 cb615Deck Boat Hurricane GS211 2003 $14,500 cb714Deck Boat Bennington RL210 2004 SOLD cb686

Flats Boat Flats & Bay 18x8 SOLD $14,000 cb687High Perf. Baja Marine 20 Outlaw 2007 $19,000 cb675High Perf Commander 2300 LX 1999 $19,000 cb682 Jet Boat Sea Doo 1800 Challenger 2003 $9,900 cb631Jet Boat SeaDoo 200 Speedster 2007 $21,000 cb700Pontoon G3 Pontoon 188F 2008 $9,000 cb699Pontoon Tracker Bass Buggy 18 2005 $8,500 cb707Pontoon Voyager 18 2000 $9,500 cb706Walk Around Trophy 20 Walk 1995 $14,000 cb726Walk Around Stratos 2600 1990 $18,000 cb683Walk Around Polar 2300 WA 2005 $35,900 cb655Walk Around Cobia 230 W/A 2004 $26,000 cb629 Walk Around Sailfish 2660 W/A 2006 $50,000 cb598Walk Around Grady White 282 W/A 2001 $49,000 cb652Walk Around Proline 20Walk 2001 $12,000 cb669Deck Boat Crownline 238 1999 $15,000 cb693Flats Boat Pathfinder 17T 1999 $8,000 cb618

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Water LIFE June 2015