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© 2007 Vol VII No. 1 Water LIFE

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ten permission of both publishersContributing Editors:

Fishing / Environment: Capt. Ron BlagoCharlotte Harbor: Capt. Robert Moore

Gasparilla: Capt. Chuck EichnerPort Charlotte: Capt Andy MedinaOffshore: Capt. Steve Skevington

Real Estate: Dave HoferSailing Advisor: Bill Dixon

Kayaks: David AllenSea Grant: Betty Staugler

Diving: Adam Wilson

on the COVER:Dirk Peterson of Ft. Myers with a 30pound black grouper taken in Dec.

on our WEBSITE:WWW.charlotteharbormagazine.com

Realtors: Links to advertisersTide Graphs: For local watersWeather: Links to all of our favorite sites.Back editions: Pages of previous editionsArtificial Reefs: Lat. and Long local reefsManatee Myths: Read the original plan tocreate sanctuaries and refuges, as spelledout by the United Nations in 1984Kids Cup Updates, Fish Tracking andTournament Information.

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LETTERS TO WATER LIFE

Still Dragginʼ on the TruthBy Michael Hel lerWater LIFE Editor

Last month I told you about a ques-tionable photo that depicted a dolphinentangled in a commercial fishermen’s net.The photo was shot in 1987 and was usedas a poster to rally support for the gill-netban. There has recently been a questionwhether the FWC or the Naples DailyNews was responsible for setting-up thep h o t o .According to a report by the commercialfishing group Fishing for Freedom, FWCdirector Rodney Baretto had said a NaplesDaily News photographer who took thepicture had signed an affidavit saying thephoto was not a set up.

It didn’t take much digging for me tofind out who the photographer was. Thephotographer still works at the paper and isnow the city editor. I called him.

Eric Strachen told me, adamantly, henever signed anything for the FWC andthat he remembered the incident well.Strachen, himself a fishermen and boater,said he had noticed the dolphin was stiff andblue and had obviously been dead for sever-al days. Later he sent us copies of twophotos and the story that the Naples DailyNews ran on July 1, 1987. The picture

that was the ‘poster’ for the move-ment to ban gill-net fishing raninside the paper with the story.That was the photo we had previ-ously seen. The other photo ran onthe ‘section front.’ That photoshowed the officer in his boat, tow-ing the dead animal. This was aparticularly interesting imagebecause of the angle. The pictureshowed the dolphin’s nose, whichwas important because anotherFWC officer had reported the dol-phin was killed by a boat strike tothe animal’s nose.

The nose appears intact.I re-contacted Mr. Strachen and

asked him to send me any otherphotos, in particular photos thatmight show other angles of the animal’snose. I don’t believe the Naples DailyNews had anything to do with setting upthe photo.

Last month David Grix, who representsthe commercial Fishing for Freedomgroup, went down to Islamorada for theFWC’s December meeting. Grix said hewas going to corner chairman Baretto andget his explanation for the inconsistencies.

But since the meeting I was unable to

recontact him. It would be extremely dis-appointing to find out the FWC had a handin setting up this story.

It would be equally disappointing to findout the commercial fishing guys put theirown wobbly spin on the story.

Why would an FWC officer come for-ward after 20 years to say the photo was ahoax? Did in fact FWC chairman Barettosay there was an affidavit?

As soon as we get this month’s publi-


Tree Scalping in Charlotte CountyMichael Hel lerWater LIFE Editor

Strange things happen in life. Take mylife for instance. One minute I’m fightingthe good fight against the tree huggers andthe manatee madness and then the nextminute, My God! I’ve become one... We’llsort of, anyway.

It doesn’t matter that this particular treehappened to be growing on my street. I’d feel the same no matterwhere it happened. Mature, stately trees can apparently be dug up,sold for cash and hauled away from residential lots in CharlotteCounty without any regulation or concern what-so-ever.

Now I wasn’t exactly ready to chain myself to the trunk, butI’ve seen this before and it really should stop.

Case in point: A house down the block was sold at foreclo-sure. That’s bad enough for real estate value, but then the newowner, (I’ve not met him and his name is not yet on the countytax rolls or I’D use it) anyway, this guy bought the house andimmediately sold off the big tree growing out front. I think thereshould be a permit required for that. It’s like you have a cash crop.

There are so many regulations in our over regulated county Ican’t imagine we don’t have some paperwork governing the diggingup selling off of trees from residential lots. At the very least it’srude and unfriendly. At most, it has environmental and psychologi-cal impacts on the entire surrounding area.

We need more leafy green, not less. We live in a county deci-mated by Hurricane Charley. This year was the first year we’ve seentrees beginning to grow back, many of them in grotesque twists ofshort green branches or sprouts emanating directly from the trunk,but at least it was new growth. That is somehow psychologicallyrewarding. Consider, also, we are not only surviving after Charleywe are also surviving the real estate crisis that is blanketing thestate – these are two separate and serious impacts. I figure if

Charlotte Countywants to ‘come back’it needs to makeitself as attractive aspossible. Thatmeans, keeping theempty lots clean andpresentable, making theeconomic climate favor-able and the impact fees affordable so people and businesses wantto locate here, and seeing to it that every stitch of greenery, that wehave remains intact.

Palms and green landscaping is what people expect from Floridaand we ought to be more concerned with keeping it. I think if atree in a populated area made it through Charley, native or not, weought to let it grow for a while. Selling off landscaping at thispoint in time should not be an option. Trees and plants are part ofthe neighborhood, they provide shade, windbreaks, bird roostingsand other natural benefits. Taking away the big trees sets the neigh-borhood back, makes it look less established, less attractive.

When a new house is inspected for a C.O. it is required to havethe right number and size trees or a $500 fee must be paid to thecounty. Planting puny little trees is not an option. So if caliperand trunk size are important to the county when trees are required,then that should come into play when the fine old trees are

Above & Below: The same house before and after the ʻsell offʼ with the one scrawnytree left to replace the majestic old palm cluster.

BEFOREBEFORE

AFTERAFTER

By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE Charlotte Harbor

Warm winter waters, extra salty froma dry summer, was the perfect recipe fora fishing challenge. The goal was tocatch a few major offshore species andthen finish up with a backcountry slam.Conditions were perfect as we left thedock with an easterly breeze at our backand a forecast of light winds. Easinginto a grassbed area near Boca Grandewas ‘phase 1’ of our day- catching bait.

There is no finer sound then pilchardsflipping on the surface after you shutyour motor down and that is what weencountered. With a few handfuls of afishy chum concoction pitched out, thebaitfish swam right up to the boat beforemy fishing partner Mickey even had thenet out! Literally in 15 minutes we hada major baitwell full of whitebait andpinfish. Mashing the throttle down atonly 7:30 a.m. we raced into the gulf,way ahead of schedule. Just outsideBoca Grande, diving birds greeted us fornearly a mile of running. LikelySpanish mackeral and kingfish whichMickey clearly indicated he wanted nopart of. I wanted to stop and get a pull,but bottom dwellers like gag grouper andsnapper were our focus and Mickey hadcaught his share of kings for the year.

Our first drop was on a reef that had asunken barge as the fish haven below.Setting up on bottom structure is not aseasy as it sounds. First, you locate iton your bottom unit, second you mark itwith a float and third you then anchortaking wind and current into considera-tion so that your stern is positionedupstream so that your chum floats backinto the reef. Sounds easy enough butour first attempt put us 50 yards awayand chumming produced not a singlebite. A second attempt at anchoring wasbetter, but the fishing didn’t improve.Our first hour produced two bitten off wewere off to look for another spot. Abrief chart review and a few lat/lon coor-dinates were entered into the lowrancechartplotter. As we neared the area thechartplotter alerted us of being within500 feet of our target and the bottom litup with baitfish. A craigly bottomlooked promising as we slowly motoredabout a half mile stretch and markedwaypoints as we noticed small bottomuprisings. The chartplotter looked like anine hole golf course with each spotflagged and automatically numbered as

we marked interesting bot-tom structure. Waypoint No.5 was the first spot we drift-ed past with 2 ounces of leadon 60-pound leader with abig pilchard speared onto a3/0 hook. Peering into thebigscreen fishfinder we eye-balled a bottom rise and acloud of bait under the boat.Announcing that this has tobe a good spot Mickey rearsback on a big fish to provethe point!

With huge strength and adogged fight grouper sand-wiches were dancing in ourheads as I felt a sharp tug andWham! Iam hooked up! Two fish on the firstdrop and both are big. Our first glanceat Mickey's fish tells us it's not agrouper but a nice cobia of about 22pounds! My fish is fighting the sameway and as we both struggle to get ourfish closer to the boat a larger cobiabegins to follow Mickeys' fish.Grabbing another rod Mickey dares tocast a bait to the free swimming cobewhile the hooked one swims only 10feet below still attached to his line. Wefigured 3 cobes in the boat at one timewas one two many and the newly baitedrod was put down for a gaff and in wenta nice box fish! Finally, my 25-poundclass conventional outfit had whippedmy fish and with gaff in hand a large sil-ver fish came up. We identified it as analmaco jack which is a deep bodiedamberjack, a true fighter. Back into thedrink he went and a few high fives werein order! Our next drift took us overwaypoint 7. The easterly breeze hadpicked up and we were moving quicklyand not making good bottom contact,but it didn’t matter - Wham! Fish on!and 10 minutes later the ol' captainbangs a 25 pound cobia into the box.Repeated drifts produced lots of action onundersize gags, red grouper, more almacojacks, a 25-pound goliath grouper, curioslarge barracuda and several fish thateither broke us off on the bottom or bitus off. As fishing often does offshore, aslowdown coincided with calming windsand the gulf waters became mirrorsmooth. For December it was unusualto see large pods of barracuda on the sur-face hovering over 45 feet of water andhuge sea turtles frolicking in the sun.The gulf was a place of great beauty this

day.Pointing to the

east, Mickey said‘let's go into thebackcountry for red-fish.’ Hard as it wasto leave the gulf, weheaded inshore. Onthe way we noticedhuge black spots onthe bottom in about11 feet of water justoutside the pass.Climbing up the 11foot tower we looked down onto a hugebait mass. Looking like a JacqueCousteau movie we saw huge pilchardsswimming in an orchestrated pattern, ina mass about the size of a mack truck,tightly balled up with huge sharkspatrolling the perimeter. We guesstimat-ed the sharks at 500 pounds perhapsmore–quite a beautiful sight! No tackleon board to handle these brutes. A quickthrow of the castnet into the bait and wereloaded the well. Several miles insidethe harbor we stopped and fished a fewoyster bars near Bull Bay. Approaching3:30 in the afternoon, 3 spots later andonly one nice 20 inch speckled trout wesettled into our last spot. Handfuls ofbait were pitched towards a mangroveshoreline. Long casts and patience wereneeded as a cold beer dockside was call-ing us. Finally, there was a sign, a bigsign. A huge snook mashed a free-swimming bait and we both reeled infrantically and cast towards the residualringlets from the eruption. That's myfish no that's my fish we quipped! Ofcourse, the fish would have to decide andshe did. I feel a tick in my line andreared back. A powerful snook exploded

and began peeling line. I knew I wasover powered right from the get go. Iam a light tackle guy and Mickey heck-led me for fishing 'ultralight' as he calledit. I was palming my spool trying toslow this fish down when it bit throughmy 25-pound test leader. I hope to getover this fish one day because it was ahammer, likely over 20 pounds!Moments later Mickey bows up on anice red. He horses it to the boat and achunky 7 pounder is dedicated to a fishfry. I then hook a big red and get brokeoff. A few more bites for both of us andone more 7 pound red came aboard beforeheading in.

Reminiscing on the day I proclaimedthat it couldn't get much better than this– incredible offshore fishing and finebackcountry fishing. I was then remind-ed that the huge snook that bit off my'crying line' would have completed amajor backcountry slam of redfish,snook and trout.

Capt. Chuck Eichner is a local chartercaptain. For information or to book aguided fishing trip call 941-505-0003 orgo to his website: www.backcountry-charters.com


OFFSHORE TO INSHOREH o t A c t i o n

Offshore these nice cobia came up on the first spot. The boys were off to a good start!



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By Capt. Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior Staff

The monthly meeting of the FWC inKey Largo on Dec. 6th was to consideronce and for all, if it was time to reclassi-fy the Florida manatee from endangered tothreatened. It was meant to be a simplematter of reviewing the best available dataand following the recommendations of theFWC's scientific staff. The manatee hasbeen on the State endangered species listsince 1979 and probably would stay thereforever had it not been for the CoastalConservation Association, who filed arequest to reclassify the manatee in 2001.This simple act forced the FWC to reviewtheir 25 years of data on manatee popula-tion trends and future threats to the mana-tee’s survival and go on the record byfinally answering the question – is themanatee on the verge of extinction or isthe manatee population on the road torecovery. Basically they were asked to dothe work they should have done back in1979.

The work was done and outside expertswere brought in to review the results; andin 2001 the FWC officially recommendedthe de-listing of the manatee. As quoted intheir most recent Manatee Protection Plan‘ Floridians can be proud of past efforts toprotect and conserve manatees and it is

encouraging that manatee numbers aregrowing in most of the State’. As youwould expect, this did not go over wellwith the private manatee protection peopleparticularly the Save the Manatee Club.You have to remember that this wholemess started because the SMC was threat-ening to sue the State because they allegednot enough was being done to protect themanatee. Since 2001 the SMC has usedevery tactic at their disposal to stall andpostpone this vote; but at Key Largo itwas time to fish or cut bait- at least that’swhat most people thought.

The battle lines were drawn when themanatee agenda item came up – ‘Purposeand Effect - The purpose of these pro-posed revised rules to reclassify the FloridaManatee from an endangered species to athreatened species. The FWC has deter-mined that the reclassification is warranted.

The effect of the rule change will be tomore accurately classify the imperiled sta-tus of the manatee while maintaining pro-tection to conserve the species’.Everybody knew that this was mostly asymbolic gesture and that the laws protect-ing the manatee were going to remain thesame; the manatee would just join thelikes of the loggerhead sea turtle, baldeagle, sandhill crane, gopher tortoise andFlorida scrub jay which are already on thethreatened list.

You had the scientists and researcherswith their data on one side and the SMCand their friends on the other. The SMCsaid they had 28,000 messages from peo-ple around the country asking that theFWC stop the deleting process. Youwould think that recommendations frompeople who live outside of Florida, whoprobable never saw a manatee in the wild,wouldn’t mean much when compared withscientists who spend their lives on mana-tee research; but the SMC had an ace uptheir sleeve that they played brilliantly.The ace was none other than our own Gov.Charlie Crist.

In 1999 the people of Florida voted fora constitutional amendment that wouldmerge the old Marine FisheriesCommission with Game and FreshwaterFish commission to form the new FishandWildlife Commission (FWC). One ofthe main purposes of that amendment wasto take politics out of resource manage-ment policies. Unfortunately the governorappoints all of the commissioners on theFWC so there is somewhat of a conflict.

So for the manatee vote, instead of

agreeing with their own scientific staff, theFWC once again voted to not vote. Insteadthey asked their staff to ‘re-examine theimperiled species listing process and bringback alternatives that are easy for the pub-lic to understand’. Excuse me - if the pop-ulation of manatees is increasing they’rethreatened; if the population is going downthey’re endangered - how much easier canit get?

After the meeting the SMC celebrated agreat victory. They gave the best descrip-tion of what happened at the Key Largomeeting in their press release: Good Newsfor Manatees - ‘Governor Charlie Cristasked the FWC to reject the status changeand the Commissioners complied’. Don’ttell me politics didn’t figure into thatrequest.

Why would the governor go against thewishes of his staff? Rumor has it thatGovernor Crist wants to be considered as avice-president candidate in the upcomingpresidential election. Frankly, he mightmake a pretty good vice president and ifthat’s what it takes to get him out ofFlorida I’m ready to start the Charlie forVP committee. Maybe then Florida willget a leader who understands what ‘bestavailable science’ means.

Just remember that old saying, “a manwho compromises his principles for power– usually winds up with neither.” If youwant to express your opinions on the mat-ter, drop old Charlie an e-mail at:Charlie.Crist@My Florida.com

Cap. Ron can be reached for comments,information or to book a guided fishing tripat 941-474-3474

TheOngoingBattleBetweenScience andPolitics

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S taff ReportAs expected, the ‘Spot” tournament

brought out a different set of anglers. Anumber of the usual suspects, regular par-ticipants who like to focus on big fish,opted out in this event. “It’s all about

luck,” one of them pointed out.The idea in this, the last

Flatsmaster’s/Classic Tournaments eventof the year, was to bring back two legalredfish. The team with the two fish withthe most spots would be the winner.

Weight meant nothing.Twenty teams entered. Thetop three went home withcash prizes. First place was‘right around $1000,” JerryCleffi, the tournament weigh-master said.

Early on, Clay Rebol andthe Banks Engineering teambrought in two fish with atotal of 9 spots.

Nine is a lot , that was theearly consensus on the dock. Alot, but not enough. Andrew

Wilson and his Outta Line fishing teamtopped 9 spots with their 11, then MikeMcCarty and Team Haulin’ Reds tied themwith their first fish – an 11 spot beauty –and then backed it up with a second fishadding three more spots. Fourteen was themagic number.

Is a redfish born with the same spots ithas when it is mature? or is a redfish like a

dog, developing new spots over the courseof its lifetime? It is a question that isapparently without a specific answer. Likethe winner’s strategy.

“We had no strategy, no plan – justcatch a lot of reds and see how many spotswe could tally up. Big fish, small fish, itdidn’t matter. It was all luck,” McCartysaid.

Tournament Ends theCompetitive Fishing Season

Seeing

Mike McCarty and team Haulin Reds hauled in the most spots and hauled home $1000

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QUICK FACT: A redfish with over 600 spots was caught lastsummer near Sanibel.



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23' Caravelle 230 CC, 2002. Very wellequipped Tarpon Tower boat. 225hp Yamahaunder warranty until 2008! $39,000

36' Stamas 360 EXP 1992, Only 200 hrs ontwin 375 Merc. inboards new in 2006. Bottompaint, props redone Reduced $69,900

28' Scout 280SF CC Fisherman, 2002. Twin225hp Yamaha 4 strokes. Very nice condi-tion throughout, and lift stored! $79,900

38' Bayliner 3870 1985. Twin 135HPmitzubishi deisels. Nice roomy economi-cal cruiser. $59,500

24' Grady White Offshore. Twin 140HPmotors. Fish rigged with tuna tower,outriggers, down riggers, etc. $10,900

30' Young & Grant Sportfish, 1983. Single350HP Caterpillar 3116 Turbo, 2000.Asking $34,900 Owner Moving Must Sell

18' Cobia Center Console 1999. Single115HP Yamaha V-4. Great for fishing orcruising. $10,900

32' Hatteras Flybridge Sportfish, verynice throughout . Twin 350hp Crusaders.High quality sportfisherman. $44,500

Further

37' Sea Ray 370 Sundancer, 1995. Twin315HP Cummins. New Canvas & Berbercarpeting, 1000 hour check. $139,500.

30' SeaRay 300 Weekender, 1989. Alwaysbeen lift stored out of the water. 260HPMercruiser Inboards. $28,900

26' Shamrock, 2003. Inshore orOffshorefisherman. Full keel tracking and protec-tion. Single 250 Indmar. $29,900

25' Parker 2520 Pilot House Fish 2005, likenew. 225 HP Yamaha Four Stroke. 5 yeartransferrable hull warranty. $54,900

31' Slickcraft 310 SC Express Cruiser, 1988.Twin 260hp Mercruisers. Very clean condi-tion only 197 original hours on her. $29,500

28' Cape Dory, 1985. Highly sought after.Downeast style diesel powered trawler.Single 100HP Westerbeke $55,900

Owner wants her sold now!

22' Black Jack 224 Bay Boat, 2006.Single 250HP Yamaha 4 stroke, lowhours. $47,900

31' Contender Open 2006. Twin 250hp fourstrokes. The ultimate fishing machine! Noexpense spared on electronics. $149,500.

30' Proline Express - 2000. Great offshorefishing boat. Twin 225HP Evinrude.$49,900

32' Island Packet Cutter, 1991. Must see iflooking for a high quality vessel. We presentall offers. Single 27HP Yanmar Deisel. $99,000

35' Trojan 350 Express. Very nice, welldesigned boat that is lift stored and readyto cruise. Twin 320HP Crusaders. $67,500

Loaded with all your fishing needs & more!

37' Marine Trader Double Cabin Trawler, 1979.A lot of bang for the buck on the TrawlerMarket Single 120HP Lehman. $49,900

36' Mainship Express Open, 1990.SaltShaker tower with controls. Twin330HP Meruisers 2000. $32,900

42' Uniflite double cabin. Queen berthsfore & aft, with a popular sundeck. Twin300HP Detroit deisels, 8.2L. $114,900

38' Egg Harbor Sportfish, 1974. Twin 335 HPMarine Power 5.7 Vortec EFI - NEW 2006. Hashad extensive upgrades. $69,500

34' Catalina 34 MK II, 2001 - sailors'favorite! Performs well and is very easy tohandle. 35HP single deisel. $97,900

"Sea Breeze" is a spacious, two stateroom cruiser.

Mechanically good expresssportfish. Owner will

accept trade.

"Slip Away" in a spacious Motor Yacht.

Excellentcondition

throughout.

J a n u a r y 2 0 0 8 Wa t e r L I F E M A G A Z I N E P a g e 1 3

By Adam WilsonWater LIfe Diving

My hands aresore, my body is tiredand every availablesquare inch of real estate in my garage iscovered with dripping scuba gear. Thatcan only mean one thing, the end of along dive trip. If you are looking forsome incredibly different diving and don'twant to head overseas you don't have togo any further than our own backyardright here in southwest Florida.

Capt. Rick Pitts runs the charterboat Ultimate Getaway from Ft. Myersbeach. He specializes in multi-day spearfishing and lobster trips to theDry Tortugas, a tiny island cluster sur-rounded by miles of coral reefs, 70 mileswest of Key West.

Our trip began on a Thursdayevening as the 100 foot aluminum shipslipped out of San Carlos Bay just aftersunset. When we woke up Friday morn-ing we were already anchored over a beau-tiful tropical reef the likes only found inthe clear blue waters of the Caribbean.

Friday was spent riding the warmgulf currents and exploring ledges, pinna-cles and coral heads, some the size of acity block, erupting from the whitesandy desert like a giant mushroom,whilethe boat followed above. Most of the div-ing done from the Getaway is drift divingwhere divers are dropped on one end of areef and just cruise with the flow, usuallypopping up near the following vessel,eliminating the concern of wandering toofar from an anchored boat. This allowsdivers to see huge sections of reefs in onedive, which is great in the tortugas whereledges can run for miles.

That night just after sunset the boatwas anchored in shallow water to giveeveryone a chance at a night dive. Ourswas just a couple of days before the fullmoon and gave us enough light to distin-guish the dark silhouette of the shipshull 60 feet above. It's after dark when

you get to see a completely different sideof underwater life. Fish sleeping againstsponges, squid darting back and forthoverhead, lobsters and crabs out on theprowl and billions of tiny plankton sizedcreatures wiggling their way to the sur-face.

When Saturday morning arrived wewere anchored behind the safety of Ft.Jefferson. A huge brick fort structurebuilt in the mid 1800's. A walk aroundthe fort can be accommodated, but our

group wanted to get back to diving."There aren't any lobsters in the fort" wasthe major consensus. Saturday was spentshooting hogfish and grouper, snaringlobsters and taking lots of pictures, butfor me the best part of the trip was yet tocome.

Saturday night was spent slowly

working our way back to the north.When we woke up Sunday, Capt. Rickhad us moored to the wreck of the BajaCalifornia, a 265 foot freighter 70 milesoff the coast of Naples. The Baja wastorpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942.She had a general cargo with tons ofglassware, cotton, tobacco and militaryvehicles and lies in 115 feet. It is stilleasy to find bottles in and near the cargoholds today. Her tired, collapsed bulk-heads also make great habitat for deep

water shells like lions paws and spinyoysters. Even though there are usuallylarge amberjacks and black groupersaround the wreck, I usually just bring mygoody bag down to collect treasures. Theonly cargo off limits for salvage are thelarge 4 inch munitions littering the sandaround the deck gun still on the ship'sstern.

The final dive of the trip is just a fewmiles away at an Air Force relay tower. Itgives divers a feel of what their largercousins the oil rigs must be like. Thesteel structure and cross beams are cov-ered with sponge and soft coral and arehome to dozens of barracuda, amberjack,snappers and goliath grouper. With noartifacts to find here, it is a better placeto hunt the passing schools of pelagics.We had several out of town divers on ourtrip that weren't familiar with spearingand the wide eyed looks on their faces aswe shot our way down through the thickschools of amberjacks was priceless.

The trip finally ended back at theGetaway Marina early Sunday evening. Iwas sorry the trip was over, but afterthree full days and a total of 14 dives Iwas ready for a rest.

I have been on other charters to thetortugas, unfortunately almost all leavefrom Key West (a six hour drive), costmore money and don't stop at any ship-wrecks. I have been on the Getaway morethan once and would recommend the tripto everyone. For me the cost per diveratio is unbeatable, and with first classservice all the way. Thanks to Capt.Rick, Capt. Matt, Capt. John, Al, Jayand Vick. Charters can be booked at ulti-

D i v i n g : D i v e B o a t T o r t u g a s T r i p

By Betty S tauglerWater LIFE / Sea Grant

It’s been two months since the man-grove restoration project and we arealmost done setting up our monitoringstations and conducting our first set ofcounts. Because it is still pretty early inthe process, it is really too soon to expectmuch success, but I thought I wouldshare my early observations. Rememberwe used two different restoration tech-niques, planting and dispersal. In mostcases, we have been able to find ourplanted propagules and they are still verti-cal. Most, at this point are not yet truly

established– rooted with new leaves. Wehave however, had great difficulty in find-ing the dispersed propagules. At first Ithought they floated off, but in looking atour counts, it is highly possible that thepaint is wearing off. The reason I saythis is that we are finding considerablymore propagules in our dispersal testplots than in our planting or control testplots. Remember we dispersed twice asmany propagules as were planted. Wealso dispersed into the deadfall but stillwithin the water. As such, these propag-ules likely bumped into each other andthe deadfall, possibly rubbing the paint

off in the process. We also discoveredthat a propagule which has spent a con-siderable amount of time floating in thatwhite scum near the shoreline is easilyconfused with white painted propagules (alesson learned...pick a color other thanwhite). This white scum/white paintsimilarity has made finding our propag-ules, and we have found some, a rathertedious job. The majority of the propag-ules in the dispersal plots are still lyingon the ground (horizontal), but the goodnews is, they still appear to be viable, sothey may yet become established. I havenot had the opportunity to crunch thenumbers yet, but we have found someestablished propagules in all but one ofour test plots and that in itself is some-thing!

Interestingly, we planted some propag-ules at the spoil island near the PirateHarbor channel and the island’s crabscompletely decimated them. Fortunately,this is the only restoration plot where wehave observed such an occurrence. Also,worth mentioning is that the 5th gradeclass of Good Shepherd School plantedand dispersed at three islands on the EastWall. This class chose the mangroverestoration project as their communityservice learning project for the schoolyear. Roger took them out in earlyNovember to conduct their restorationevent.

In other Sea Grant News:Another Kids Cup redfish was recap-

tured and reported to the Redfish Hotline.This fish was originally caught byBrennon Osborne in Pine Island Sound.The fish was recaptured on November22nd near Pirate Harbor, where it was re-released with tag intact. Brennon’s fishhas traveled the furthest of all of ourobserved fish to date. Kids Cup 2008 isApril 19th and the tagging and trackingcrew plan to be in full swing for anotheryear of the redfish tracking project whichin year one, produced some rather interest-ing early observations.

Also of NoteOur first Florida Master Naturalist

Class graduated on December 19th.Twenty students, including Water LIFESenior Staff Writer, Capt. Ron Blago,participated in this six week class-room/field experience. All graduates arenow recognized as Florida MasterNaturalists in the coastal module of thisUniversity of Florida program. RogerDeBruler, Sea Grant Program Assistant,who is instructor of the program forCharlotte County has posted the secondclass offering, which will begin in lateFebruary. You can contact him if youwould like more information at 764-4340.

Betty Staugler is the University of


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Monitoring Mangrove Restoration is Underway

Charlotte Harborʼs coastline like this sectiopn just north of Cape Haze, still has a long wayto go before red mangrove trees once again drape into the water


TarponMyakka River, center ofCharlotte Harbor, Boca GrandePass Canals, boat basins dur-ing cool weather, grass flatsduring warm weather

Jumbo liveshrimp, pinfish,threadfins, dollarcrabs, squirrel fish,jigs

Free line baits where fish areseen in the harbor, fish jigs,shrimp, crabs or squirrel fishon the tides in Boca Grande

SharksLive jacks, ladyfish or trout,cut bait

Live jacks, lady-fish or trout, cutbait

Daytime or night time fish withchum and wire leader

Notes: Snook season is closed May, June, July and August

SnookPotholes on the flats, Gulfpasses, beaches

Whitebait , topwater plugs, softplastics

Free line live baits on thebeach and on the flats, fishdeep on the edges of the Gulfpasses

RedfishMangrove shorelines, flats inthe lower harbor

Shrimp, white-baits, spoons, topwater plugs

Fish the mangroves on high-er tides, the flats during lowerwater

TroutGrass flats

white bait, jigs,various plugs

Drift the flats until fish arelocated

SheepsheadAround piers, pilings androcks in the harbor, on shal-low rock ledges in the Gulf

RedfishMangrove creeks, mangroveshorelines, flats

Live shrimp,sandfleas, fiddler crabs,tube worms

Drift the flats with liveshrimp under poppingcorks, work shrimp-tippedjigs slow and deep in canals

Live shrimp, pin-fish, white baits (ifavailable)

Fish under the mangroveswhen the tide's high, on theflats when the tide is low

SnookCanals, creeks, up river

Jumbo liveshrimp, whitebait(if available),swimming plugs

Free line live baits in creeks orunder docks in canals, trollplugs in canals or up river

Spanish MackerelBoca Grande bar, Cape HazePoint, Alligator Creek artificialreef

Live shrimp,white bait (ifavailable),spoons and jigs

Free line live baits aroundthe bars and the reef, trollspoons or jigs on the barsor around schools of bait orflocks of sea birds

Spanish MackerelBoca Grande bar, Cape HazePoint, Alligator Creek artifi-cial reef

SnookCanals, creeks, mangroveshorelines

Live shrimp, whitebait, spoons andjigs

Free line live baits aroundthe bars and the reefs, trollspoons or jigs on the bars oraround schools of bait orflocks of sea birds

Whitebait , swim-ming plugs

Free line live baits in creeksor under docks in canals,under overhanging man-groves

King MackerelGulf waters one to thirtymiles offshore

Spoons, swim-ming plugs, largelive baits

Troll lures or free line livebaits around schools of bait,around wrecks, under divingsea birds

TarponMyakka River, center ofCharlotte Harbor, BocaGrande Pass

Jumbo liveshrimp, pinfish,threadfins

Free line baits where fish areseen in the harbor

TarponMyakka River, center ofCharlotte Harbor

SharksBoca Grande Pass, deep cen-ter of the harbor, outside baredges, small fish on the flats

Jumbo liveshrimp, pinfish,threadfins

Free line baits where fish areseen in the harbor


Daytime or night time fish withchum and wire leader

SnookPotholes on the flats, Gulfpasses, beaches


Free line live baits on thebeach and on the flats, fishdeep on the edges of the Gulfpasses


Shrimp, white-baits, spoons,top water plugs

Fish the mangroves on highertides, the flats during lowerwater, watch for schools ofoversized fish on the flats

TroutGrass flats

Live shrimp, whitebait, jigs, variousplugs




Free line live baits around thebars and reef, troll spoons orjigs on the bars or aroundschools of bait or flocks ofbirds




Notes: Spotted sea trout season is closed inNovember and December

Red Snapper is closed Nov 1 - April 14

SnookPotholes on the flats, man-grove shorelines, creeks andcanals

Whitebait, topwater plugs, softplastics

Free line live baits on the flatsand under the mangroves

King MackerelGulf waters one to thirty milesoffshore

Spoons, swim-ming plugs, largelive baits

Troll lures or free line livebaits around schools of bait,around wrecks, under divingsea birds

Gag GrouperRock ledges in 40 to 100 feetof water in the Gulf

Live baits includ-ing squirrel fish,pinfish andgrunts

Fish next to or on top ofledges with heavy line and atight drag


Shrimp, white-baits, spoons, topwater plugs


Gag GrouperRock ledges in 20 to 60feet of water in the Gulf

Live baits includ-ing squirrel fish,pinfish and grunts

Fish next to or on top ofledges with heavy line and atight drag

Notes: Spotted sea trout season is closed in Novemberand December.

Snook season closes December 1Red Snapper is closed Nov 1 - April 14

SnookPotholes on the flats, man-grove shorelines, creeks andcanals, up river


Free line live baits on the flatsand under the mangroves,under docks in canals

TroutCanals, creeks and boatbasins

Live shrimp,shrimp-tipped jigs

Fish slow and deep duringcold weather

P U L L O U T A N D S A V E E N T I R E 2 - P A G E 1 2 - M O N T H F I S H I N G C A L E N D A R !P U L L O U T A N D S A V E E N T I R E 2 - P A G E 1 2 - M O N T H F I S H I N G C A L E N D A R !

Red Snapper Closed until April 14 Red Snapper Closed until April 14

Notes: Snook season is closed May, June, July and August


Betty Staugler told us “We have had another dart tag return. This fishwas originally caught by Brennon Osborne near Cabbage Key. Onceagain the angler who recaptured the fish released it with tag intact.”

See details below.

Tag #:19925Date Caught: 22 Nov 07

Site Caught: CH - Pirate HarborDate Tagged:28 Apr 07

Site Tagged: Fishermans VillageDistance Traveled (nm): 7.78

Tagged Length (mm): 514Reported Length (mm): 571.50

Species Reported: Sci. ocellatus (Red Drum)Days-at-large: 208

full & half day charters

Kids Always Welcome!Kids Always Welcome!Capt. John C. Morrison (239) 289-3653

www. floridaflatzfishin.com

FFFF lllloooorrrr iiiiddddaaaa FFFF llllaaaattttzzzz FFFFiiii sssshhhhiiiinnnn’’’’

Yet Another Kids Cup Tagged Fish Turns UpThis one might have been headed ʻhomeʼ


Application forms for the 2008 Kids Cuptournament are now available online atwww.kidscuptournament.com. By midFebruary they will be available in localbait and tackle shops, at Laishley Marine,West Marine and a host of other boatingand fishing locations. We are once again pleased to announcethat Palm Chevrolet and Laishley Marineare the Host sponsors of the Kids Cup.Through their dedication and commitmentwe are once again able to start the ballrolling for a fun tournament and for the2008 Don Ball School of fishing.The whole idea of the Kids Cup tourna-

ment is to introduce kids age 10 through16 to tournament fishing and to introducethem to hands on science directly relatedto the eco system that is Charlotte har-bor. It is our belief that learning bydoing, by being out on the water andwatching what is going on, out kids willgrow up to be responsible stewards of theenvironment. Once again this year Betty Staugler ourSea Grant agent from the University ofFlorida and Carole Neidig and the fishbiologists at Mote Marine Laboratorywill be tagging and studying the fish wecatch and release.

Last year was the first year of surgicallyimplanting sonic tags in our tournamentfish. Watching what the fish did last yearI think we learned that when released thefish venture out from the release pointand then return. Then they go out a littlefurther, then they return again. That tookabout a month. Then the batteries on thereceivers ran out and the study ended. Thisyear I think we will put out morereceivers and keep them in a closer radiusof the release site. This year we will again be looking fortagging sponsors and for tournamentsponsors to help make all this happen. Sponsors receive special Kids CupSponsor hats or shirts and get an ad inthe Kids Cup Program, which is part ofour April edition and distributed around

town for free at various locations.Sponsors also get their names printed inthe upcoming edition and tournamentreport of this publication. The Don Ball School of Fishing programI mentioned earlier is an 8 week course infive of our local County Middle schoolswhere local fishing guides teach 7thgraders about local fishing and the localenvironment. It’s a win win situation. There are no cash prizes but we have greattrophies and the event itself is a fun filledweekend. The top five kids who weigh inthe heaviest five redfish then go on thefollowing weekend to fish on the finalday of the Oh Boy Oberto Redfish Cup atPunta Gorda and weigh in on the ESPN2TV stage.Call (941) 766-8180 for more information

K i d s C u p o f f a n d R u n n i n g S p o n s o r s m a k e i t a l l h a p p e n


PompanoStump Pass to Lemon BayIn and around Gulf inlets

tiny piece ofshrimp on abucktail or asand flea on a jig

Fish the moving water by theinlets or in the surf along thebeaches

January

RedfishCanals, mangrove creeks incooler weather, flats duringwarm spells

Live shrimp, jigs,soft plastic baits

Toss live shrimp under over-hanging mangroves in thecreeks, sight fish on shallow,clear flats making long castswith soft plastics

Gag GrouperLedges in 30 to 50 feet ofwater in the Gulf

Live baits includ-ing squirrel fish,pinfish andgrunts

Anchor just off ledges andfish near the bottom


Live shrimp,sandfleas, fiddlercrabs, tubeworms

Pier anglers fish alongside pil-ings, Gulf anglers fish right onrock ledges

Spotted trout season opens January 1.Snook season is closed all of January and February

Red Snapper Closed through April 14February

Spotted TroutCanals, boat basins duringcool weather, grass flats dur-ing warm weather

Live shrimp,shrimp-tipped jigs

Drift the flats with live shrimpunder popping corks, workshrimp-tipped jigs slow anddeep in canals

Mangrove SnapperLedges in 30 to 90 feet ofwater in the Gulf

Live shrimpAnchor on top of ledges andfish near the bottom or chumthe fish to the surface

Notes: Snook season Closed thru FebRed Snapper Closed through April 14

RedfishCanals, mangrove creeksin cooler weather, flats dur-ing warm spells

Live shrimp, jigs,soft plastic baits

Toss live shrimp under over-hanging mangroves in thecreeks, sight fish on shallow,clear flats making long castswith soft plastics


Live shrimp,sandfleas, fiddlercrabs, tubeworms

Pier anglers fish alongsidepilings, Gulf anglers fishright on rock ledges

June


SharksBoca Grande Pass, deepcenter of the harbor, out-side bar edges, small fishon the flats

Jumbo live shrimp,pinfish, threadfins,dollar crabs, squir-rel fish, jigs

Free line baits where fishare seen in the harbor, fishjigs, shrimp, crabs orsquirrel fish on the tides inBoca Grande Pass


Daytime or night time fishwith chum and wire leader

SnookMangrove shorelines, Gulfpasses, beaches


Free line live baits underoverhanging mangroves,edges of the Gulf passes

RedfishMangrove shorelines, flatsin the lower harbor


Fish the mangroves onhigher tides, the flats dur-ing lower water

May

SnookCanals, creeks, mangroveshorelines, Gulf passes

Whitebait , swim-ming plugs

Free line live baits in creeksor under docks in canals,under overhanging man-groves, edges of the Gulfpasses

Spanish MackerelBoca Grande bar, CapeHaze Point, Alligator Creekartificial reef

Live shrimp,white bait,spoons and jigs

Free line live baits around thebars and the reef, troll spoonsor jigs on the bars or aroundschools of bait or flocks of seabirds


Jumbo live shrimp,pinfish, threadfins,dollar crabs, squir-rel fish, jigs

Free line baits where fish areseen in the harbor, fish jigs,shrimp, crabs or squirrel fishon the tides in Boca GrandePass

SharksBoca Grande Pass, deep cen-ter of the harbor, outside baredges

Live jacks, ladyfishor trout, cut bait

Daytime or night time fishwith chum and wire leader


Shrimp, whitebaits,spoons, top waterplugs

Fish the mangroves onhigher tides, the flats dur-ing lower water

Snook season is closed May, June, July, AugustNotes: Snook season is closed May, June, July and August

September







SnookPotholes on the flats, Gulfbeaches


Free line live baits on thebeach and on the flats

TroutGrass flats

Live shrimp,white bait, jigs,various plugs


Mangrove SnapperGulf passes

Live shrimp,white bait

Drift baits just above the bot-tom in the passes

Notes: Snook season opens September first

OCTOBER







SnookPotholes on the flats, man-grove shorelines


Free line live baits on the flatsand under the mangroves

TroutGrass flats

Live shrimp,white bait, jigs,various plugs


MangroveSnapperGulf passes

Live shrimp,white bait Drift baits just above the bot-

tom in the passes

BarracudaOffshore wrecks and artificialreefs

Various live fish,tube lures Troll or cast on the surface

P U L L O U T A N D S A V E E N T I R E 2 - P A G E 1 2 - M O N T H F I S H I N G C A L E N D A R !P U L L O U T A N D S A V E E N T I R E 2 - P A G E 1 2 - M O N T H F I S H I N G C A L E N D A R !


Screaming ReelsBy Capt. Andrew MedinaWater LIFE StaffThe end of December was an interest-

ing time. With a full moon, and the firstof a string of cold fronts, fishing provedto be less than cooperative. But we stillmanaged to take a few fish – trout beingmy number one trip saver. A shrimpunder a cork on any grass flat seemed toattract the attention of a winter trout. Wealso noticed while running the bar a num-ber of bull sharks and cobia. The cobiawere pretty eager to eat, caught a coupleon top water while searching for redfish,but what really surprised me was theamount of bait. Not just threadfins,they’re here every winter, it was green-backs in December that shocked me. Twothrows and we were done. They weren’teverywhere, but with a little searching wecould find them.As January roles in, the moon will

settle and fish will continue there regularwinter habits. There have been reports oftarpon still in the pass mixed in withkings and spanish. These fish are beingcaught either trolling or fishing live bait.The snook bite is on. There have beensome big girls roaming around in theback creeks of the Myakka cutoff on theincoming tide. These fish are catch andrelease only, since snook season closedon Dec. 1st . With that note, last monthI made a mistake. I wrote that Snook sea-son closed on Dec. 15th. That was mybad. That was the old date. With all thechanging slot limits and seasons, it’shard to keep up. Here’s where the confu-sion comes from: snook season is closedDec 15 on the east coast and closdedDec1 west coast. Why do they get 14

more days of fishing than we do? Theirslot limit is an inch tighter than oursalso. Why? Statewide regulations wouldbe a lot less confusing.The redfish action has been great on

the low water bite. A lot of tailing fishon the west wall. Shrimp seems to bethe ticket for these fish, rigged with a cir-cle hook and a split-shot, or hung on ajig head, has been pretty effective.The trout fishing is hot in the deeper

pot holes. A live shrimp under a poppingcork is a good bet. And on the artificialside Culprit/Riptides root beer shrimpunder a cork has been also worked realwell.Now is the time to start looking for

grouper on the inshore reefs. Pinfish orcut baits will work on reefs such asAlligator or Novak so long as you canget a bait to them before a goliath grabsit. It seems the goliath grouper has justabout inhabited every rock pile or struc-ture in the Gulf.For you fly guys, shrimp patterns cast

to cruising redfish on the bar has pro-duced a few nice fish. And for the trout itseems a red and white clauser would bedoing real good. Fish never seem to learnthat red and white is not the best foodsource for them.Fresh water fishing is also doing real-

ly well. Bass should be going into theirpre-spawning dwellings soon. And specfishing is turning on. Specs in most ofthe Charlotte area canals are feedingNOW, with large numbers being caughtprimarily on minnows.

Capt. Andrew Medina can be reachedfor charter information by calling (941)456-1540 or on the web at:www.BentRods4u.com

Inshore Fishing

This parranah-looking fish is actually a Tambaqui ( Colossoma Macropomum also know asBlack Pacu) Native to the Amazon and Orinoco River Basin. They have been found in Florida,Hawaii, California and Texas. This one was caught in a Charlotte County Canal probablyreleased out of someone's fish tank.


PROVIDED BY:Dave & Marlene HoferRE/MAX Harbor Realty(941) 575-3777 [email protected] area news items:1. The Charlotte County

Conservation Program agreed to pay $11.3Mil to acquire 370 acres adjacent toHathaway Park on Shell Creek. The com-mittee is trying to create a wildlife pro-tected connection to Babcock Ranch and,at the same time, improve water conserva-tion by eliminating the current agricultur-al uses on the property.2. Sarasota County is spending $51

Mil to acquire the 12,376 acre MabryCarlton Ranch. This will insure that theranch will stay a ranch rather than be con-verted to their feared "urban sprawl".3. The City of Punta Gorda has

agreed to swap its 16.5 acre public workssite for a more convenient 19 acre parcelnear the airport. The Laishley Group willdevelop the Henry Street property intomixed use residential and retail planneddevelopment.4. Charlotte County Commissioners

are balking at the planned use of bondingcapability by the CRA to build the park-ing garage in downtown Punta Gorda.Since taxpayers outside of Punta Gordawill be shouldering a significant portionof the bond repayment obligation, they areconcerned that the repayment schedule willextend beyond the planned termination ofthe CRA in 2019. Both sides are appar-ently assuming that they will find a wayaround the required submission of theissue to Charlotte County voters.

5. The former Mercury Marine TestCenter was sold in November for $34Mil. A private developer of the site onPlacida Road will likely apply for devel-opment rights for a mixed use waterfrontcommunity.6. Maltese Development is well on

its way to obtaining permission to build a585 home boating oriented subdivision inthe Hunter Creek area. The project, whichwill include 390 dry boat slips, will notstart development before 2009.7. Sarasota County joined Charlotte

County in delaying the imposition ofhuge increases in impact fees to helpstimulate demand for new houses. Everylittle bit helps.8. In other news, EJ Fishbones

opened a new restaurant in Englewood.Punta Gorda City Council is strugglingwith the costs associated with its plannedinteractive fountain at its Laishley Parkdevelopment.Sales Statistics:Lot sales numbered only 36 for the

month vs 91 a year ago. Median priceshave slipped 35% below those levels,also. Home sales slid to 117 for themonth, also down 35% from a year agowith median prices down 16%.

These statistics are intended to assist inanalyzing trends in supply and demand andnot to indicate specific market values.Ending inventory is not always beginninginventory plus listings minus sales sincemany pending listings are held over frommonth to month, some listings expire andare withdrawn and, therefore, do not appearas sales and new listings includes pricechanges.Please visit us atwww.harborparadise.com to view anyavailable properties from Venice to BurntStore Marina

RealRealEstateEstateNewsNews

Staff ReportSo far, the downtown Sunloft Center (shown above), the crown jewel of the down-

town reconstruction, hasnʼt received much attention. Save for the one time it made thepapers when a young couple were apprehended while in the cab of the constructioncrane 100 feet in the air, being ʻintimateʼ, there hasnʼt been much to report. Then inlate December I was getting a flat fixed at a local tire shop and the guy there told mewhat he had just heard from one of the construction crew at Sunloft. So I fired off ane-mail to a realtor friend. Our correspondence went like this:

Hi FriendFYI: I heard a rumor that they are not going to finish the interior of the Sunloft

building. They plan to complete the exterior only, because THEY HAVE NO TEN-NANTS. Have you heard this? It would stand to reason that if they had a major 'an-chor' they'd be promoting it by now.

Michael

Friend Replies:Yes VERY disturbing. A couple of months ago I went to their website to see what

they were up to. They touted sunloft as being in "SOUTH Punta Gorda"! They hadcondo floor plans, but no pricing. I called the agent as a potential selling agent whohad prospects for it. He said they were looking for 1 large restaurant operator and twosmaller resraurant/retail operators but all spots were still available. He quoted meprices of $600 /sf for the condos, all of which were still available.

I have been searching for high profile hi rise sites in downtown Boston, Chicago,Washington, and New York. Not one of the penthouse units in those prospectivebuildings can bring $600 today! But, Itʼs really none of my business how a privateparty chooses to invest hs money.

What is REALLY disturbing is that City Council is now trying to invest more than$10 Mil in a parking garage with 15,000 sf of retail space to compete with Sunloft, CityMarketplace and all the existing space on restaurant row.

If they weren't using taxpayer's $$ to do it, I wouldn't be as angry as I am.What is really appalling is that they are now trying to circumvent the state constitu-

tion to avoid bringing this decision to the ballott!Friend.


SnookSnookPredictorPredictor*Editor notes:Capt. Dave Jackson gave us this tide by tide, day by day look at the coming year ofsnook fishing in the Charlotte Harbor area.

Snook Season is open: March, April, September, October and NovemberSize slot: Not less than 28-inches nor more then 33-inches measured with the tailpinched.

March (Can be iffy - depending on bait, especially in early March)Good tides Mar 9-17; full moon 18-23 not so good;Good tides Mar 25-30

April (Usually some of the best fishing)Good tides Apr 5 -15 pretty goodAM tides; better PM tidesfull moon Apr 18-23 usually not as good bite, but some good tidesGood tides Apr 20-27

May (season closed)Good tides May 2-11 crappy tides May 12-15full moon May 19Good tides May 18-23; crappy tides May 24-28Ok tides May 30-31

June (season closed)Good tides June 1-7; crappy tides 8-14; good tides June 15- 23 with full moon onJune 18. good tides June 28-30

July (season closed)Good tides July 1-5; July 15-19; July 27-31full moon on July 18.

TARPON TIDESTARPON TIDESBest Tides and Dates for TarponApril 5-12; May 4-10; May 18-23; June 1-7; June 15-21; June 29-Jul 5; July 15-19

Book early!

Here's to Hot Fish and Cold Beer!Capt. Dave Jackson


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ntApril 19, 2008Punta Gorda

By Capt Ron BlagoWater LIFE Senior StaffIt’s a New Year and time to review last

year’s resolutions and think about replacingthem with new ones. Last year I promisedmyself I would do more fly-fishing and Idid more of it than ever before. This year Iwant to catch more fish while fly-fishing. Ifind fly fishing very frustrating. I know Ihave the right equipment and the right flies;and my casting is acceptable, but I justdon’t seem to get the number of hook-ups Ithink I deserve. The other day I was at myfavorite grass flat trying my best, and all I

got were a few small gag grouper to eat myfly. What really killed me were all the fishthat followed the fly right up to the boatwith out striking it. This year I promiseI’ll get professional help from my fly fish-ing guru, Bill Lowe.Another thing I failed miserably at was

taking care of my fishing equipment. Ishould have my entire boat re-wired. After10 years, all that factory-installed wiring onthe Action Craft is old and brittle, just likeme. I’ve patched up more corroded wiresthat go to my bilge pumps, live wellpumps and accessories last year that it’s

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best to rip it all out and replace it withnew stuff. With all the talk of pole and troll

zones, I think I will finally install mynew 24-volt trolling motor that has beenin my shed for over a year. Another thing I really have to do is

clean up my fishing lures. I must have atleast 50 fishing lures that need the hookschanged. The other day I was out in mycanoe and I retrieved two original ZaraSpooks and a MirroLure Catch-2000 stuckin the mangroves. Clean them up and putnew hooks on them and they’re good togo. I also found a few new spots to fish:after all, the plugs didn’t get in those treesby themselves – somebody must of

thought there were fish there.Trout are finally back in season and

there are plenty around. Rememberyour limit is 4 per day with a sizelimit of 15 to 20 inches. You areallowed to keep one trout over 20inches as part of your 4 fish baglimit. There are a few other fish thatare available this time of year thatalso have regulations. Sheepsheadhave a minimum size limit of 12inches and a daily bag limit of 15fish. Tripletail has a minimum sizelimit of 15 inches and a daily baglimit of only 2. Most of our local baitshop have the fishing regulationsavailable or you can find them atwww.MyFwc.com, look under fish-ing, then regulations. Also, for our

out of town guests, remember the cost ofa non-resident fishing license hasincreased. And remember too, that the costof the license is a lot cheaper than the costof the ticket you might get if you arecaught fishing without one.The Placida and the Port Charlotte

Beach Complex boat ramps are still closedfor renovations. They are scheduled to beavailable for use again by Feb 1. If youare coming from out of town to fish inCharlotte County you might want to calla local bait shop to see what ramps areavailable.Capt. Ron can be reached at: cap-

[email protected] for fishing information


By Bi l l Di xonWater LIFE SailingPGSC had one of two annual reverse

start races this past December. The

annual Santa Sail was a great success byany measure. Beautiful weather, 32boats entered, great decorations, and alivelyparty afterwards. Reverse start races are great for

novice racers. Each boat gets a startingtime of its own, so there is no conges-tion or yelling at the start. Slowestboats start first and if every thing isequal, you all finish at the same time.Everything is never equal, so you don’t

all finish at the same time, but becausethe slow boats start first, they finishmuch closer to the fast boats, and are‘in the pack’ for most if not all of therace. Bob Knowles’ Bamma Sl ammer

was the top spinnaker boat. JerryPoquette’s Fancy Free was the top nonspinnaker boat. Roger Rommel’sDesert Fox II was the top cruising boat.But everyone won by being out on the

harbor on such a great day.Next month, sailing action kicks off

with the Golden Conch regatta put onby Platinum Point YC at Burnt StoreMarina Jan 12, 13. The first PGSCspring series race will be Jan 27.Notices of Race and Entries for both areavailable on the PGSC web sitepgscweb.comGo! Sail! Enjoy!

Bill Dixon 941-637-2694 or

So far in front it looked like Bama Slammer wasnʼt even in the same race. December Winter Series race from the Punta Gorda Sailing Club


By David Al lenWater LIFE KayakingThe Triple Lakes area is one of the

best, yet probably one of the least known,paddles in Charlotte County. Why thisis, I’m not quite sure. The north entranceis only a mile or two from Port CharlotteBeach Park, an easy paddle acrossAlligator Bay to Muddy Bay, then into themangrove channel south of Lewis Creek,one of the main boat channels to the Bay.The south entrance (or exit) on the northside of the Myakka Cutoff is a little moredifficult to locate, but a couple of promi-nent landmarks, and/or GPS coordinates,can help identify the opening.‘What makes the Triple Lakes such an

interesting paddle?’, you may ask. Well,the variety of the scenery, and the paddlingexperience for a couple of things. On thissingle paddle you first get to experiencethe broad, open expanse of the PeaceRiver, often choppy and rough. Then aquick transition to the relative quiet of themangrove area on the southwest side ofAlligator Bay. The mangrove channelopens into a fairly wide, shallow pond,but staying right of center gets youthrough without touching bottom – mostof the time. The mangrove channel makesstill another transition, at the south end ofMidway Boulevard, into the ManchesterWaterway, with beautiful homes, lawnsand boats on the right and more man-groves on the left. After a mile or so on

the Manchester, a hardleft turn takes you intothe Triple LakesChannel, 20-30 feetwide, and usually withan abundance ofwildlife. As you con-tinue on a generallysouthern course, youwill pass through, inrapid succession, thethree wide, open pondscalled the Triple Lakes.Better make sure thatthe tide is reasonablyhigh for this transit, oryou may have to dragyour kayak through some of the veryshallow spots in the ponds and channels.As you exit the Triple Lakes channel,

suddenly you find yourself in the relative-ly open water of the Myakka Cutoff. TheMyakka Cutoff is fairly wide at thispoint, with Hog Island directly south ofthe channel opening. A hard turn to theleft, a mile and a half paddle, and voila,the Peace River (Charlotte Harbor) onceagain.The remainder of the paddle north, back

to Port Charlotte Beach, can be quite achallenge, depending upon the directionand force of the wind. Still, the 2 + milepaddle along the beaches and mangroves isinteresting and there is always somethingunusual to see. A series of beaches along

shore of the mangroves is about the onlyplace on this entire route to stop for abreak and a snack. But pick your spots toapproach the beach carefully, as the waterclose to shore can be quite shallow! Ingeneral, stay several hundred yards east ofthe beaches on the northbound trek, toavoid the shoals. Overall, the Triple Lakes paddle covers

about 9 miles, so allow about 3 hours forthe outing including the break. One of our club members, John

Keaveny, has explored other routes fromthe Manchester Waterway to the MyakkaCutoff, and has found an excellent varia-tion to the route described above. Theroute John has found adds some variety tothe paddle, as our club does the Triple

Lakes several times a year. And, theremay be still other undiscovered ways tocomplete the paddle. Aerial maps, such asGoogle Earth and others aerial charts, helpidentify potential, new routes. Then,GPS coordinates can be used to locateentry and exit points for the routes.If you are looking for an interesting,

sometimes challenging paddle, try theTriple Lake route. You won’t be disap-pointed. The Port Charlotte Kayakers meet each

Wednesday evening at 5:30 PM, at the PortCharlotte Beach Complex . All paddlers, orpotential paddlers interested in finding outmore about the sport and our club, are wel-come. For more information, contact DaveAllen at 941-235-2588 or:[email protected]

Triple Lakes -- Always an Interesting Paddle


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By Capt. S teve SkevingtonWater LIFE OffshoreThe fishing last month has been nothing short of

spectacular and this month should be more of thesame.The grouper have been doing their best to tear our

arms off and that's whenever they can get past themangrove snapper that have been all but chewing thebottom of the boat out.If you don't want to mess with the snapper, just

troll, the grouper are hitting deep diving plugs with apassion.The mangrove snapper have been hitting live sar-

dines and large live shrimp, fished on a small hookand light leader. Kingfish have been just about everywhere for the

past month. We are finding them tight up on thebeach as well as on wrecks as far out as 50 miles ormore. Almost every method of fishing for them has been

working; trolling, live baiting, kite fishing, at themoment they’re everywhere and they’re hitting every-thing.My favorite way to fish these guys is to anchor-up

and live chum them.This means getting a lot of live sardines and toss-

ing hand fulls of them overboardto get the fish crashing baitright behind the boat; once theystart that..... it's all over but thecrying.You can catch them on just

about anything they can fit inthere mouths at that point.Abottle cap on a hook wouldprobably work!Now is a really great time to

bust out with the fly-rod.If you fish the same way over

the deep offshore wrecks thismonth you’ll have the amber-jack feeding the same way too.Right on top & right behind the

boat, it's some of the most exciting fishing you canimagine.

Capt Steve can be reached for charter information at,(941) 575-3528 or at www.paradisefishingcharters.com

Offshore Report

Hereʼs a healthy AJ caught late last month.


Charters20–50 mile trips

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NowNow

Booking forBooking for

2008 2008

SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated, But Often True

White Christmas - We (the publishers) drove toDenver to see out daughter for the holidays. On the wayup through St Louis and Kansas City we had beautifulweather. In Denver the weatherman predicted a slightchance of snow flurries for Christmas : We got 8 inchesand another foot two days later. “We didn’t expect that!,”the weatherman said – he must have been related to theweather guys here. The southern route was supposed tobe clear for the trip home, but there was snow and slushdown to New Mexico. Amarillo was supposed to benice, but the wind was blowing 40-plus, which kept thehorizontal snow from sticking. Temperatures were in theteens and 20’s until we hit I-10 in Louisiana where therain pitted ABS cars against non-ABS cars in 7 differentthree-car- wrecks on one two-mile stretch. Traffic on theFlorida Interstate was the heaviest across the nation.The lowest overpass on the interstate from Denver toPort Charlotte was 15-feet 3 inches, and gas priceseverywhere (except in Florida) were between 2.65 and2.85 per gallon. Glad to be home!

Hats Off toDoug Buuck (inthe white shirt)for puttingtogether anotherwonderful lightedboat parade.Residents on bothsiders of the riverand boaters

anchored in between were thrilled by the show and thecrowds along the shore seemed like the biggest yet. Fishing Hal l of SHAME Maverick hull number 2,the firstflats boaton thewater sitsro t t i n g ,chained toa dump-ster outback ofthe IGFAF i s h i n gHall of Fame in Dania. The boat has been there for fivemonths now.

New Manatee Plate ReleasedWith the followingwords, the FWCreleased this newlydesigned manateelicense plate in lateDecember “This is an excitingday for the FWC and the Florida manatee. With thesales from this plate, we hope to generate revenues thatwill sustain valuable manatee research and conservationfor years to come.”Revenue is key the Governor’s motivation for instruct-ing the FWC not to reclassify the manatee from endan-gered to threatened as the state’s own scientists had rec-ommended. After all, the manatee staying endangeredmeans job security for a whole lot of people.


The Water LIFEWater LIFE Distributorʼs Club

Cooks Sportland

4419 So. Tamiami TrailS. Venice493-0025

Pick up a copy of Water LIFE at any of these and 120+ other locations. Water LIFE is not affiliated with any newspaper or other publicationPick up a copy of Water LIFE at any of these and 120+ other locations. Water LIFE is not affiliated with any newspaper or other publicationand is distributed at select locations around the state. These free ads to our loyal distributors rotate on a monthly basis. and is distributed at select locations around the state. These free ads to our loyal distributors rotate on a monthly basis.

If you would like this publication for distribution at your business please call us at 941-766-8180If you would like this publication for distribution at your business please call us at 941-766-8180

TheCommercialPerspectiveBy Kel ly BealPeace River SeafoodWater LIFE Punta Gorda

As you can imagineI eat a lot of fish.Besides being too poorto eat anything else, Ieat it because I love it!I love the texture, thefreshness, and the factthat it's the healthiestthing I can put in mybody. I also love thefact that eating fish isjob security for theworking fisherman. I will eat almost

anything out of thewater, but there is one thing I will not eatand that is farm raised fish.

The concept of fish farming seemsgood, but the reality is frightening. Theusual fish that are farm raised are salmon,catfish, tilapia, cod, carp and trout. Themost talked about is farm raised salmon. Ieat salmon three to four times a week,mind you it's wild caught. This fish isextremely good for you – fish oil helpsfight the number one killer; heart disease.In addition it makes your skin look mar-velous! There are a multitude of reasons I won't

eat farm raised fish. Three reasons arehealth, political and spiritual.

Let’s go over the health reasonsfirst. Eating farmed fish increases yourchance of cancer. Farm raised salmon forexample contains 13 pollutants includingdioxins and PCB's which are stored in theirfat. To be fair, the farm raised industrypoints out that they are well within theFDA legal limits of pollutant levelsallowed and that other foods eaten moreoften than fish such as beef have greatersources of exposure to pollutants. Farm raised fish are kept in concentra-

tions never seen in the wild. Some farmshave as many as 50,000 fish in a two acrearea. With so many fish in one area manyare injured and prone to disease. Thisforces the farmer to dump huge amounts ofantibiotics into the water to keep the fishalive. Such large numbers of fish in onearea also means a lot of fish ‘ca-ca’ in onearea. Nasty stuff to be leaking into thelocal waterways. In the wild, salmon feedon colorful crustaceans, plankton and algaewhich gives their flesh a beautiful orange

color. Farm raised salmon lack the healthywild diet and therefore don't have the sameamount of Omega 3 oils or the orangecolor flesh. There are two red food dyes used to

color the flesh of farm raised salmon. Theyare canthaxanthin and astaxanthin. Swisschemical giant Hoffman LaRoche makesboth from petrochemicals and providessalmon farmers with a ‘salmofan’ - muchlike an artist’s color wheel but all in vari-ous shades of pink - this helps salmonfarmers balance the chemicals to find thebest color so the fish sell well. Nice huh?Politically, I don't condone fish farming

because I believe in supporting the wildcaught fishing industry. Too many jobsare outsourced as it is. Right here in ourhometown Punta Gorda we have workingAmerican commercial fishermen bringingin some great wild caught fish. The easi-est way to get fresh fish is to buy local.Some examples of healthy local fish aremullet, pompano, sheepshead, sand brim,snapper, grouper and of course all the localshellfish. Farm raised clams from Floridaare fine. They are grown in mesh bags indesignated waters offshore, they are safeand absolutely delicious!

Spiritually I don't like to eat any-thing that wasn't active. I believe you arewhat you eat. The energy you get from afish that worked for its food has to be bet-ter than that from a fish with low activityliving in stagnant water.

Make it a point to eat wild caughtfish from Florida at least once this week.Support your local fishermen, be healthyand be happy! Enjoy seafood - thank acommercial fisherman!


Fish Farmingvs Fresh Caught

Workers at this catfish farm in southern China prepare to feedthe fish.The fish are being raised, however, in a country whosewaterways are an ongoing environmental problem, tainted bysewage, pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants. Many ofthe "Southern-style" catfish fillets on U.S. grocery shelves thesedays are indeed from the south of China.

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F i s h i n gF i s h i n gR e p o r tR e p o r tCharlotte Harbor:Robert at Fishin' FranksPort Charlotte: 625-3888January, hopefully, will be a year

that adheres to fishing tradition. Withmore cold fronts, the sheepsheadshould move into the upper part of theharbor soon. It’s been so warm, so far,they have been staying down southand offshore. Sand fleas and fiddler

crabs are the best bait when fishingfor ‘convicts’ around structure. Whenit does cool off, El Jobean will be aphenomenal place for sheepies. Thereare already a few fish there now.Speckled trout opens Jan 1 and that’salways a good fish. They are a littlemore concentrated now and foundmore towards the southern end of theharbor, but that too will change whenthe water cools off. There are a lot oflittle fish up here now but the biggerones will follow soon...I hope.Drifting is always a good way of find-ing sizable trout. Try the east wall andin Turtle Bay. The smaller fish tend to

be the schooling fish whereas thelarger ones tend to swim alone or indoubles. A rattle float with a liveshrimp or an artificial will work verywell, long about January.Redfish are abundant but small.

It’s usually harder to find the biggerfish here in the harbor. This is thetime to use circle hooks when target-ing redfish because there are so manysmaller fish around now. Live orfrozen shrimp are the best choices forbait, especially when fishing thecreeks that come out on the sides ofthe harbor.January is a good time to practice

with artificials– 3-to 4-inch soft plas-tics on a jig head and small top waterplugs like the Zara Spook or theMirror Minnow. Pompano are along the surf and

along the beaches. Up in Lemon Bayand down to Little Gasparilla Pass arethe traditional places for pompano.Another place really good for them isthe Myakka side of Hog Island on thebig mud flat there. That’s a good spotfor pompano that not many peopletalk about. A tiny piece of shrimp ona tiny bucktail or a sand flea on a jighead will serve you very well. That’sthe only way I know how to fish forthem!Offshore, the mangrove snapper

and the yellowtail snapper are stillhappening. Grouper are doing fair,mostly red grouper, but you have togo out to 40 or 50 feet of water to getto them. A key is to use lighter tackle

on grouper. It seems like a lot ofthose bigger fish are ‘leader shy.’Spanish mackerel and kingfish

are still offshore along with somebonita. If the water stays the samethey will stick around: they like 74-to76-degrees, so unless it really coolsoff suddenly they will be here for alittle longer. When you think about itwe have had April fishing conditionshere, now, since the middle ofNovember!

JanuarJanuar

These are my friends (l-r) Dana Blewett, Ludvik Kacirek and myself (Lester Kuhn) after afishing trip out in the Gulf in late December. They live down the street from me in HarbourHeights. We were crying because we caught at least 18 more keeper reds and had to throwthem back. Also a couple of big fish that broke us off. Probably sharks. We couldn't find agag grouper all day.

This is Chris Park with the 47-pound AJ hegot spearfishing on one of the M reefs inthe Gulf last month!! WOW!!!

The near shore reefs arestill producing some niceflounder, bigger ones,around 22- to 22-inches.There are a few flounder onthe edges of the intracoastaland on the edges of the nicergrass flats.

Lemon Bay:Jim at Fishermen’s Edge,Englewood:697-7595Fishing has been good. There

are a lot of redfish around. Allthe guides and recreationalanglers are catching them on liveshrimp, DOA shrimp, spoons ....overall it’s been good redfishing.The bigger ones, around 15 to 20a day are no problem. The tideswere low so lately you had toknow where you were going, butif you did, there were a lot ofsnook around - a lot were smallsnook, but there were some big-ger ones too. A friend got a 40

incher on a hand picked shrimp,last weekend. There are also a lot of pom-

pano around. Lemon Bay hasbeen over run by pompano. Anyslough, pothole or depressionnorth of Stump Pass has pom-pano. Jigs like the Silly Willy theKey Largo, the Nylure pompanojig with a gold head, or the onewith a chrome head... that allwork. Laydyfish, trout or pom-pano Try the 1/2 or 3/8 ounce jig.The Spec right is a fish hair bodytied on to a love lure head - Trythat one!Trout are scattered around the

whole area, guysare getting goodnumber of fish intothe mid 20 inchrangeSheepshead are

around but thewater is still a littlewarm for themsome have beencaught already onon tube worms andfiddler crabs butnot the number weshould have.Offshore it’s been really good

too, anywhere from 40 feet on

out. Some guys have hadgrouper up to 50 or 60 pounds.And there are still some kingmackerel and tarpon around.

BIG-4 BIG-4 Januaryʼs Target Species Januaryʼs Target Species

POMPANO are in the Gulfpasses and along the surf

SHEEPSHEAD are right at theedge of the near shore reefs

REDFISH and a slew of ratreds are in the Harbor

TROUT are all over andmany are of good size

FishingFishingRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:

weather permittingweather permittingExcellent!Excellent!

n Jan. 4-6: Key Largo Sai l fi sh Chal lengeContact Tammie Gurgiolo at (305) 852-9337.n January 10th: Andrew Medina, Cast NetSeminar, Port Charlotte West Marine. Free andthe public is welcome. Call for time 625-2700.n Jan. 11-13: 23rd Annual Holiday IsleSai l fi sh Tournament. Contact Ed Kinkelaarat(305) 664-2321.n Jan 13-14: Bartender's Sai l fi sh Open.Contact Jack McCormick at (305) 664-8400.

n Jan 17-20 Charlotte County Boat Show,Charlotte County Fairgrounds (954) 570-7785.n Feb 14-18: Miami Boat Show. WestMarine accepting reservations for the annualbus trip to Miami on February 15th. 625-2700.n April 19: Water LIFE MagazineKids Cup Tournament at Punta Gorda.Applications online NOW! atwww.kidscuptournament.com. Limited to 120 jranglers age 10 through 16. $100 entry fee sup-

ports the DonBall School ofFishing program.(941) 766-8180n April 25-27:Oh Boy!Oberto RedfishCup at PuntaGorda. $50,0001st place prize$3,000 entry fee.

C a l e n d a r o f E v e n t s

THE ALL NEW 2008 F-450 KING RANCH SUPER DUTYTHE ALL NEW 2008 F-450 KING RANCH SUPER DUTY


KIDSKIDSCUPCUP

April 19April 19

Angel Torrez and Kayle Wills with nice red snappers

MIAMIBOAT SHOW

West Marine is now accepting

reservations for the annual bus trip

to the Miami BoatShow, February 15th.

625-2700


Water LIFE Jan 2008

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