Water LIFE Sept 2010

Charlotte Harbor and Lemon BayCharlotte Harbor and Lemon BayFFFFRRRREEEEEEEE!!!!

September 2010September 2010

Sailing theSailing theFlying ScotFlying Scot

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Grouper Grouper has been has been GoodGoodPage 9Page 9

St Pete Open St Pete Open Page12Page12

Keeping Boaters & Fishermen Informed Since 1997Keeping Boaters & Fishermen Informed Since 1997

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MYAKKA RIVER VIEW – Waterfront livingat itʼs best. If you are thinking of a home onthe River, this one is for you. 2,770 sq. ft.built 2006 home with all the upgrades youʼlllove. 3 bedrooms, 3 ½ baths. 3-cargarage. Walkway to dock and boat lift.Master downstairs with living, dining, fami-ly room, kitchen and nook. 2 bedrooms, sit-ting room and bath upstairs. Breath-takingdécor in all rooms, with ceiling fans, trays,molding, lighting, wood cabinets, corianthru out. This one is a charm at $574,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 235-5648

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SUCH A TERRIFIC BUY! – Beautiful3/2/2 home on freshwater canal on 1.5lots. Features of this 2,051sf bargaininclude new roof, hurricane shutters andlanai screening in 2005 and new A/C in2009. Master Bedroom suite with walk-inclosets, dual sinks and walk-in shower.This one won't last long! $119,900 CallEllen McCarthy 235-5648

DEEP CREEK BEAUTY – 3/2/2 with heat-ed pool, tile roof, nice landscaping withcurbing and stones to match pavers atfront entry and lanai/pool area. After youhave seen the rest, see the best. Thishome features great room and large coun-try kitchen open to dining room, with lots ofwood cabinets. And more. Come see it!$158,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 235-5648

ONE-OF-A-KIND Entertainer SeriesMobile Home in out-of-park Punta Gordaarea. Over 1,400 sf, this 3/2 home is allfenced in with 2 metal sheds, largeconcrete patio facing open pasture,inside laundry, open living area, break-fast bar, glass top range, recessed light-ing, built-in entertainment center andmuch more. $88,900 Call EllenMcCarthy 941-235-5648

ROOM TO SPREAD OUT – This lovely1,842 sf, 3/2/2 home is set on 2 lots withoption to purchase 3rd lot. Open floorplan, large lanai & caged patio, parquetflooring, carpet & tile. Inside laundry, over-sized Master Bedroom. Quiet neighbor-hood. Call for a viewing today. $149,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 235-5648

ATTENTION INVESTORS, SEASONALOR FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS!Home sold AS-IS. This 2/1 with carporthas been painted outside and yardcleaned up. So convenient toeverything. Priced at today's market.Don't wait -- this home will not last long.$39,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

HOME ON LARGE CORNER LOTin Grassy Pointe area with canal viewONLY NO WATER ACCESS. This 3/2/2pool home has 2,010 sf under air and fea-tures all new tile floors, cherry wood cabi-nets, granite tops and new paint.The living and family room areas are greatfor entertaining. $168,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 235-5648

Ellen McCarthy Broker AssociateEllen McCarthy Broker Associatewww.portcharlotte-pgi.c www.portcharlotte-pgi.c [email protected]@portcharlotte-pgi.com

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SHROEDER CUSTOM-BUILT HOMEshows like a model. Only lived in a fewmonths, this 3/2/2 1,614 sf home built in2007 features 17” tile floors (except inbedrooms), split bedroom plan, opengreat room, white wood cabinets &Corian countertops $159,900Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

BANK-OWNED 3/2/2 home sold As Is.Newly painted, this 2,830 sf bargain has ahuge family room with fireplace andaquarium, French doors, split bedroomplan and spacious Master bedroom suitewith garden tub, walk-in shower anddual sinks. Check this one out today!$189,000 Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

ATTENTION INVESTORS: SHORT SALEGreat compact home for rental use or first-time buyers. This 2/2/1 home needs someTLC (and perhaps new roof) and is soldAS-IS. Spacious bedrooms, 10x16 Lanaithat could be enclosed, new refrigeratorand water heater, glass top range, garagedoor opener. Check this one out! $44,900Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

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Contributing Editors:Photography: ASA1000.com

Senior Editor: Capt. Ron BlagoPort Charlotte: Billy Barton

Gasparilla: Capt. Chuck EichnerCommercial Fishing: Kelly Beall

Sea Grant: Betty StauglerReal Estate: Dave Hofer

Inshore: Fishinʼ FrankDiving: Adam WilsonKayaks: David Allen

Sailing: Bill DixonOffice Dog: Molly Brown

on the COVER A fine red grouper caught on a trip withCapt. Chuck Eichner, see page 9.

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Letters to: [email protected]

Another highly productive meeting of the Charlotte County Commissioners

Michael -I'm sending you a few car-

toons, use none or all.I hope that someone from

Charlotte County is taking noteson how BP is trying NOT to payfor the devastation in the Gulf.This will be the model thatMosaic will use when one oftheir dykes fail and it kills theHarbor.

Someone has to have thestones to be able to step on thecounty commissioners. They areout of control.

I don't mean to put you onthe spot. I know Water LIFE is abusiness and I will understand ifyou remain silent.

Best Regards,Harry Thomas

Editor notes*Thanks HarryHere is the first one. (we col-

orized it so it will stand out bet-ter!) Iʼd like to think we have theʻstones ̓... granite stones notlimestone!

It should get really interestingsoon, with two new commission-ers coming in. – MH


Michael Hel lerWater LIFE EditorCapt. Jeff Steele was affectionately

known as Capt. Clam. He was aCharlotte County fisherman, diver,clammer, shrimper and all around water-man. I had the privilege to have knownJeff before his untimely death two yearsago. But Jim Joseph and his wife Julie,owners of FantaSea Scuba in PortCharlotte, knew him much better. Theydived together a lot. “And we drank a lotof Margaritas together with Jeff and hiswife Barbara,” Jim told me last month,smiling warmly.

“When I die, my plan is to havethem put me in a wooden boat, set itablaze and send me off. A Nordic sendoff,” Joseph told me adding that Jeff hadtold him if he dies first “just put myashes in a 5-gallon bucket mixed withSakeret and sink it in the Gulf.” In case you don’t know the whole

Charlotte County reef story, JimJoseph, Jeff Steele, Jerry Trembly and(then) Charlotte County Sea GrantAgent Rich Novak were some of thefirst to work together to build artificialreefs in our area. It was a loose associa-tion of guys with the same interest ofimproving the fish holding structure off-shore. I was there as a friend and pho-tographer. When Jerry Trembly died, Novak had

a reef named for him. It was the firstpart of the old I-75 bridge. Novak hadoverseen its construction. The underwa-ter structure of the huge stacked concretebeams is very impressive and it holds alot of fish. Then when Novak diedwhile tuna fishing in 2004, the rest ofus got together to have an artificial reefnamed for him. Then two years ago Jeff disappeared

off the back of a fishing boat in Alaskaand his friends commissioned the Jeff

Steele Reef for him.Reef materials have been going

down on the Jeff Steele Reef foralmost two years now, the first beingthe old Kelly Brother’s 110-footbarge, sunk a year ago and the mostrecent, the concrete beams from theold Coral Creek bridge. In August amonument was placed there by Jeff’sfriends. Many of the county’s artificial

reefs have concrete culverts as part oftheir structure. In the good times therewas money and manpower to pour con-crete bases that big culverts were laid in.The result provided excellent structurefor fish and the flat base kept it fromsinking into the bottom. Fittingly, theJeff Steele Memorial (GPS: 26–55–935,82–35–809, the numbers are not yetpublished) is a small section of culvertpipe with a concrete base and a bronzeplaque. “Fish On” is inlaid in mosaictile on the top. Jeff’s ashes are mixedwith the concrete.Jeff had and old boat, a Sheffield, it

was a mullet boat, a utility vessel. Itsat at Eldred’s Marina in Placida since

his death and was now almost sub-merged. “We pumped it out, put themonument in the boat, and towed it outto the reef site,” Joseph said. “We had apump going all the time to keep itafloat.”“We put the monument in the water

with two lift bags and I rode it all theway to the bottom,” Joseph said. Whenthey got it down they moved it up underthe bow section of the barge, on thesoutheast side where it will be shelteredfrom a northwest blow. They came upand had Margaritas. “We poured one inthe water for Jeff and we drank the reston the way back home. Jeff would havedone the same for any of us.”

Itʼs What Jeff Would Have Done


The Don Ball School of FishingFor 7th Graders

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inshore rod and reel, atackle bag full of use-ful local-specific tack-le and a Don Ballgraduation T-Shirt

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By Bi l ly BartonSpecial to Water LIFEWell how's the fishing y'all?

Everybody out there gettin’ em? It'sfunny looking at the boat ramps this timeof year. You get there at 5 or 6 a.m. andthe parking lots filling up already, then by2 or so in the afternoon that baby’s clear-ing out and only the strong survive! It's so damn hot! The fish are hot too

and they get on the same schedule, theyreally do. But in a few months you'llnotice the parking lot is virtually empty at6 a.m. and everybody will be waiting tosee the sun before they get out there.You'll also notice once that water temper-ature cools down below 60 or 70 degreesthe fish don't wanna’ come out till theysee the sun either. I personally wish itcould just be May all year round thatwould be great! Anyhow, there's stillplenty of fun to have out there this timeof year. The moral of the story, if youhaven't gotten it, is just get out thereearly.The tarpon fishing is on fire in the har-

bor still, and it should continue through-out the month of September and intoOctober. These fish are fairly easy tofind. The best way to find ‘em is to getout there and just run until you see theschools of lady fish. They tend to be outin the middle of the harbor, and the bite isusually on more in the early part of theday, or in the evening time rather than inthe middle of the afternoon. Most successfishing for these fish is achieved by get-ting out there and catching yourself somelady fish. The ladies are what the tarponreally want this time of year. Dead oralive, large or small, it really doesn't mat-ter. If you have some large finger mullet,big pin fish, or some thread fins they canalso give you a good chance of hookin’up with a silver king. I had a couple fun days of fishing

these fish early in August. In two days offishing (by myself) I jumped seven fishand got three to the boat. I caught thesefish on medium action spinning tackleand I was using large finger mullet forbait. The biggest one I got to my boatwas, I'm guessing, a little over a hundredpounds, but really a handful when you arefishing alone. Being that most tarponfight to the death, it is very importantwhen you land a tarpon to take propercare in reviving him. The best way to dothis if you're in a boat is to idle slowlywhile holding the fish in the water andmoving his head back and forth forcingwater through his gills. Don't let him gotill he wants to go. Killing fish for noreason is just ignorant! Ah yes and I alsotook pictures of myself with these fish, soI have proof! I have officially masteredthe art of taking pictures of myself withthe self timer on my digital camera. I canset it for ten or twenty seconds, then putit on a bucket in front of my console,push the button, and pose. Now nobodycan say I'm just telling fish stories. Itreally stinks catching the fish of a life-time, knowing that you have to release it,and not having a camera. Ha ha, but youknow what's worse than that? How abouthaving a camera, with nobody to takeyour picture! As far as the flats and under the bush-

es goes, you want to keep getting an earlystart, and remember that this time of yearthe fish want an easy meal. Cut bait ispreferable for the red fish this time ofyear. I like to use a medium size pinfishwith his tail cut off on a 1/4 ounce goldMission Fishin’ jig head. This proves tobe very effective for quality red fish inthe months of August and September. The fresh water in the harbor is just

off the charts right now, and the watertemperature is up there too. I know peo-ple are fishing in it, and catching fish, but

I feel more confident when fishing downby Boca Grande, Whidden Creek, BullBay, or getting down south a little bit dur-ing these hotter months. September is atransitional month. You will start to hearmore and more stories about the harbor inthe next month or so. September andOctober are two key months to look forschooling red fish. Some of these schoolscan hold up to 500 hundred fish. I'm

already hearing the stories too. They’recoming from pretty reliable sources tooso I know they're true. I would tell youbut I’m sworn to secrecy! Well I guessI'm gonna’ wrap it up for this month,y’all. Tarpon and red fish, that's whereit's at! Go catch ‘em and don't forgetyour cameras. Good luck out there!


So Damn Hot!

“I have officially mastered the art of taking pictures of myself and a fish with the timer onmy digital camera.” – Billy Barton Editor notes: The next step is mastering ʻautofocus.ʼ


PROVIDED to Water LIFE BY: Dave Ho fer RE/MAX Harbor Realty(941) 575-3777 [email protected] www.harborparadise.com Recent area news i tems:1. The mistakes made by Florida

cities and counties during the landboom of the 20s appear to have beenrevisited by the City of North Port.During that land boom, dozens ofFlorida taxing agencies defaulted onbonds that their taxpayers couldn't sup-port. The land boom encouraged manyof them to install roads and utilityservices with the expectation of beingpaid back from taxes generated fromnew housing construction. When theboom turned to bust, the bonds wentunpaid, prompting state legislationrequiring voter approval before majorbond issues were placed. This month, Fitch (the highly

regarded municipal bond rating service)lowered its rating on North Port bondsfrom "stable" to "negative". They citeda chronic budget imbalance and a reluc-tance by their board to address theissues. This will likely produce a lidon the "cookie jar", or, at the veryleast, much higher interest costs forthe city. For years this publication hasrailed about the impractical expendi-tures from skate board parks and show-case baseball fields to the recent acqui-sition of the Warm Mineral SpringsResort. Hello, is anyone listening?2. Jeff Weiler and his 1775, LLC

is still pitching to get CharlotteCounty to lend them $3 Mil to buildan intermodal industrial park on 3acres on Rt 17 at the I-75 interchange.Although County Board membersresoundingly discouraged taxpayer'sinvolvement, they did, mysteriously,offer to pay for an appraisal and analy-sis to be performed for the concept.

3. Job creation is the buzz wordof this year's election season.Charlotte County is trying everythingit can to create new job openingsfrom firing seven of its departmentheads and publishing a hit list on therest of them, to offering tax incen-tives for targeted businesses. Ratherthan letting the marketplace determinewhat businesses should locate in theCounty, the Commissioners havevoted to invite only renewable energyand transportation companies to enjoytheir incentives. For some puzzlingreason, "big box" retailers have beencited as being undeserving of thesame treatment. Commissioners areproposing a 10 year real estate taxholiday for those that they deem wor-thy of the award. The tax abatementwill, through some complicated for-mula, insure that new companies willadd to the employment rolls in signifi-cant numbers.4. The luxury RV park in El

JoBean was approved by CharlotteCounty. The 30 acre resort will fea-ture swimming pool, putting green,tennis courts all overlooking theMyakka River.5. Post Falls Management, LLC

will get permission to build a marinaon Harborview at I-75. The plan callsfor the construction of 269 wet slipson a new 600 ft freshwater canal.Boats will be lifted across a berm tothe Peace River. The marina will alsohave room for 192 dry boat slips.6. Charlotte County Utilities is

facing a precedent setting $6.3 millionlawsuit because it failed to provideuseable services to Rotonda Villas andSprings. Rotonda Project, LLC wasplanning to develop 150 homesiteswith water and sewer services.Blaming the lack of services thoughtto be available to it from CCU, theproject is now in foreclosure. CCUwill now spend $6.9 million to redo

the water and sewer infrastructure forthe community. 7. The Flood Insurance Reform

Priorities Act of 2010 passed theHouse. Maximum coverage fromFEMA will be raised from $250K to$335K and will come with an overall10% price increase. Deductibles willbe raised from $500 to $1000 and canbe increased to $5K with reduced pre-miums. Coastal counties will bepenalized less severely than they havein the past, so premiums may actuallygo down in our area after theSeptember renewals take effect.

In other news: The owners of thevacant Publix store on Rt 41 in NorthPort are negotiating new leases for aroller rink and a Goodwill store.Tapas One Restaurant is now open for

business in the old Bin 82 building onMarion St in Punta Gorda. A priceynew restaurant, Table 209, has openedat 209 W Olympia next to Presseller's.A ceramic studio has joined withSubway to negotiate a lease in thePunta Gorda Parking Garage.

Sales S tatistics: Unimprovedvacant lot prices appear to have bot-tomed out in the $5-$7K price range.Activity in PGI waterfront lots haveflattened out in the mid to upper$100s. Median prices for canal frontPGI/BSI homes dipped under $300Kfor the first time since January. TheCharlotte County foreclosure ratejumped 61% in July vs. June. Newbuilding permits in Punta Gordareached 24 for the first 7 months vs.only 12 last year. The normal con-struction pace would be about 35.

The plan calls for construction of 269 wet slips and a 600 ft freshwater canal. (See Item 5)

Harborview Rd

Peace River

NewMarinaSite?

Real Estate News


By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE InshoreA great fishing day is generally a combination of

skill, perseverance and luck. In recent weeks a bit ofluck has come my way offshore. My fishing partnerMickey Kieferle got this all started when we dis-cussed what type of fishing we were going to do thefollowing day. He suggested we go offshore andfocus only on grouper. My first thought was that Iwas not prepared for a big offshore adventure, notackle prep, no chart study or fresh reports. But at 6:00 a.m. the following morning we were

loading the boat and by 7:30 a.m. we had two dozenpinfish and hundreds of white bait in the well. For abonus, we had a dozen ladyfish iced down from anunsuccessful tarpon trip days before. Heading towards Boca Grande Mickey declared

that we do not even stop the boat until were in 80feet of water, and then look for fish. So onward wetraveled aimlessly in the westerly direction. Afterseveral miles I stopped the boat and declared wemust pick a point on a chart as a place to stop. Ilooked into my logbook and pulled out an ancientwaypoint that looked to be at the right water depth.This number was given to me from a fishermanfrom 25 years ago and was never checked out. At 35mph it took over an hour to get to the

waypoint. Viewing the sonar, the bottom was notimpressive so we drove under plane, watching thesonar for a good bottom and fish. Baitfish began toappear in large pods over a hard bottom and the first linewas dropped. Mickey had his lines rigged the night beforeand feathered a pinfish into the depths. As I dig for leaderhe yelps with a fish on! A gag grouper just undersize.Ordering him to put his rod down so that I could rig metwith a big grin as he dropped a fat pilchard to the bot-tom. Game on again, this time a 6 pound red grouper! The winds were out of the northwest at 5mph and a

perfect drift persisted. With two lines overboard, the next4 hours proved to be the best offshore fishing I had everexperienced, at least for grouper. In an area of one square mile we managed to hook and

release nearly 50 red grouper! Four fish made it into thebox and releasing 6- to13-pound fish became common.

This was not rocket-science fishing. A good lookingbottom, baitfish located on the bottom and slow driftingpinfish, cut ladyfish, squirrel fish and pilchards convincedreckless red grouper that dinner was being served. Thebite was nearly non-stop the entire trip. The rigs weresimple- bottom rigs with sliding sinkers or a bucktailtipped with bait. I even fished a 7 inch bass assassin onthe back of a bucktail and whacked plenty of fish. Thesefish were super fat and coughed up small minnows andshrimp at boat side.The following week our enthusiasm for this new sport

led us to plan another trip. A handful of other anglersjoined us to offset costs and after catching bait we headedoffshore. Excellent sea conditions allowed us to makegood time to land in the same area as the week before.

I cautioned the anglers not to expect a repeat of theweek prior but I was sure we would connect withsome fish. With our first drift under way I quickly realized that

the wind and tide had us moving in a different direc-tion than anticipated. As I shouted out that we missedour mark, Mike infront of the boatgrunted with anice fish on.Within seconds weeach struck on anice fish and fouranglers began towork their fish offthe bottom. Mike’s fish was only 6 pounds, but way above the

legal 20-inch mark. I told him that he might end upreleasing 12 pounders if he kept the small one, soback in the drink it went. As we continued on thisdrift pattern we caught fish all along a 1/3 of a milestretch. For the next three hours we set the hook onmany fish – all grouper! With 6 big ones in the cool-er, Ken Ice had the big fish at an estimated 16 pounds.On the horizon, a storm cloud pattern had set up for asfar as the eye could see to the east. Meanwhile, to thewest, a less threatening, but equally large, storm grew. With the pressure on we began to catch sub-legal

fish over and over. As the captain, I was challenged tomake the decision to leave or hang on to get ourlimit. Meanwhile, I was constantly reminded aboutthe legal fish we had been releasing….of course, allmy fault. So we fished on a little longer and had a sailfish show

up at the back of the boat. A first for all of us and ofcourse we did not have a free line rig ready to pitch tothis beautiful pelagic. On this day we had live squidswim past the boat, had witnessed flying fish break fromthe water with big fish in pursuit and seen lots of activi-ty on the end of the stick. With the throttle down andheading east bound we estimated we had boated 40grouper and perhaps lost another 20 in about three hoursof fishing. Without a doubt lady luck had been with ustwo weeks in a row. A small bit of skill, good bait andan area that apparently has everything a fish could want.Fertile waters, calm seas and gentle breezes are the timeto go offshore and explore.

Capt. Chuck Eichner operates Action Flats BackcountryCharters and can be contacted for charters at 941-505-0003or v isit www.backcountry-charters.com

This red grouper was caught ʻsmokin ̓a ladyfish!

RedGrouper

P a g e 1 0 w w w. Wa t e r L I F E m a g a z i n e . c o m S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 0

Special to Water LIFEfrom Capt George FrantzNot only is the heat turned

up, so is the redfish bite.Even though our own back-yard is considered the mostdifficult place to catch thesesport fish, using the rightbait at the right time of yearwill help you land this chal-lenging species. The kind of bait I have

been using this season is cutbait. My weapon of choice iseither blue crab or ladyfish ona 3/0 hook tied to 3-feet of25-pound fluorocarbon leaderand 15-pound braided line.The fish in the picture to theright was one of many caughton a hot August day. A decentsize school of fish was piledup in a small basin on theEast Wall of Charlotte Harborand caught on chunked lady-fish using the 'bait & wait'

technique. This time of yearyields very high tides, mak-ing bait & wait a quite com-mon tactic. On the other hand, when

mother nature deals you a lowtide and a glass calm morn-ing, these same schools canbe spotted tailing on bars inthe shallow water. It will certainly test your

skills to target these tailingfish. You have to be superquiet as to not spook them,and take your time cautiouslyworking into them. Don’tcast right on top of them, butaim at least 2- to 3- feet awayand let the fish work towardthe bait.

'Til the next adventure! Capt. George Frantz, Reel Salty AdventuresOur website is:

www.reelsaltyadventures.comCaptain George and Krista Tucker with a nice redfish

The Heat is On

By : Pete ThomasA professional angler found to have

stuffed lead sinkers down the throats of fishhe submitted for weigh-ins during a presti-gious bass-fishing tournament has beenbanned for life from that and other competi-tions in a scandal that has rocked the tight-knit and passionate bass-fishing communi-ty.Mike Hart, a successful Southern

California pro whose career earnings totalmore than $200,000, was accused of cheat-ing in this manner during the recent$100,000 U.S. Open held at sprawlingLake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border.An official with the Western Outdoor Newsbass tour said Hart confessed after he wascaught virtually red-handed. WON Bass will not pursue criminal

charges against Hart, but the episode hastournament organizers around the countryspeaking out against cheating and seekingways to prevent their events from beingsimilarly tarnished."On the one hand it was a day of infamy

for organized bass fishing in America," saidHarvey Naslund, director of the WON cir-cuit. "But on the other hand it was a majorvictory for all who have long cared for, andtaken steps to protect the integrity of bass-fishing tournaments."Catching a cheat is difficult becausetournaments are catch-and-release, sobass are kept in aerated wells on theboats and weighed live at the end ofeach fishing day, then released.

However, sometimes bass die after beingcaught and Hart had offered three dead fishduring the weigh-in on the second-to-lastday of the U.S. Open. They were filleted sothe meat could be delivered to a charity, andfound to contain the weights.Officials waited until the final day to

confront Hart, who turned in a full limit offive bass. All five were found to containlead sinkers. In all, nine sinkers were removed from

bass turned in by Hart. Naslund said eachsinker was torpedo-shaped and weighed twoounces. Each was attached to a short lineand tied to a small treble hook, presumablyto catch in the throat and hopefully keepthe weights from entering the belly andbeing detected if the bass were cut open.

WON Bass determined that Hart actedalone, even though he had a lower-tier"Triple-A" fishing partner aboard his boatduring each of the three days of the U.S.Open. Naslund explained that the Triple-A part-

ner fishes from the back of the boat whilethe pro stands at the bow, driving Naslundsaid, Hart asked his partner to changeplaces while he rigged some tackle andchecked on the fish in the live-well. "The same scenario existed on Day 1

and Day 2 of the U.S. Open," Naslundsaid. The angler, who would have sharedpart of whatever purse Hart had been enti-tled to after the third and final day, wasgiven a refund for his entry fee.

Cheating Continues to be an Issue in Fishing Tournaments

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NOT VERY CREATIVE: Tournament angler Mike Hart, left, being disqualified. Right: One ofthe sinkers Hart stuffed in his tournament fish at the $100,000 U.S. Bass Open.

Edi t o r No t es *The following article appeared in

the Yahoo Grind TV fishing publica-tion in mid August.

We were talk ing about it at thelocal bait shop not long after it cameout. Yet another fish-box , the k indused to contain fish secretly before atournament, had been found hidden inBull Bay last week . That makes foursuch dev ices I know about beingfound locally this year. I am willingto bet there are others.

One observer noted: Fish that arecontained in such fish boxes oftenshow signs of bloody fin tips fromwhere they are rubbing against themesh walls of the cage they are keptin. ‘You have to know what to lookfor,’ a knowledgeable local captainsaid.

Of course nobody in the bait shopwanted to have their name appear inprint.

Tournament organizers must be theones to take definitive steps to stopthe cheating. The fact that the WONBass Tournament (in the followingarticle) chose not to press charges isa disgrace. This was fraud, it’s a scam,it is illegal.

And I think it sends a really badmessage to the nex t generation oftournament fishermen. – MH


By Betty S taugler Water LIFE / Sea Grant On August 14th, 126 citizen-scientists

participated in the 2nd Great Bay &Sound Scallop Search in CharlotteCounty. The search is a way of assessingbay scallop distribution and trends inabundance over time in local waters. TheCharlotte County event was the first offour volunteer based scallop searchesscheduled in southwest Florida. The oth-ers occurring in Sarasota Bay (August21st), Tampa Bay (August 28th) and PineIsland Sound (August 28th).Volunteers who participated in the

search attended a required training sessionwhere they received monitoring gear andinstructions on how and where to sample.The methods we use are designed to pro-vide uniform data that can be used tocompare different areas of the bay, differ-ent areas of southwest Florida (Tampa toPine Island Sound) and one year to thenext. A total of 36 teams went out in the

Charlotte event. That comprised 32 boatsand four groups of kayakers. Each teamwas assigned an area to sample. Sitesranged from just north of the Tom AdamsBridge down to Boca Grande and then eastto Turtle Bay.This year’s event documented 163 live

scallops during the search, an increaseover the 94 observed in 2009. Althoughthese numbers are still low, the increaseis a positive sign for our area.Unfortunately, bay scallop search resultsin Sarasota Bay were less than encourag-ing this year. They counted 15 live scal-lops during their search this year, downfrom 180 in 2009 and almost 900 in2008. We monitor bay scallops in southwest

Florida because they are an importantspecies to both humans and the environ-ment. When coastal waters are able to

support bay scallops it is a sign of rea-sonably good water quality conditions.Many volunteers participating in theSarasota and Charlotte searches this yearcommented about how healthy the sea-grass looked. Healthy seagrass is impor-tant habitat for bay scallops, but obvious-ly that alone is not enough (as indicatedby the low Sarasota Bay count). Bay scallops are also monitored

throughout the year by counting spat (alarval phase when scallops first settle onseagrass blades). If you see yellow andred floats together, chances are you arelooking at a spat collector. Spat is moni-tored from St. Joe’s Bay to Pine IslandSound, with twelve sites in coastalCharlotte County. Eleven volunteers inCharlotte County are also monitoringscallops at their docks in cages. Thecaged scallops are part of a communityrestoration program where bay scallopsare placed in areas to spawn, thus addingadditional recruitment potential. Monthly,volunteers who have adopted the cages,collect data on their scallops. We use thisinformation to determine the percent ofsurvival and growth rate of the scallops. The results of these combined monitor-

ing programs provide resource managerswith information needed to effectivelymanage and hopefully restore bay scalloppopulations. Bay scallops are extremelysensitive organisms and so short livedthat their success depends upon large pop-ulations in large areas over a long enoughtime period to ensure one red tide event orone rainy year will not result in a col-lapse of this species. Hopefully, somedaywe will see a sustainable bay scallop pop-ulation in southwest Florida. Until then,it’s nice to know there are a few happyones out there.

Betty Staugler is the Florida Sea GrantAgent for Charlotte County. She can bereached at 941.764.4346. Sea Grant is aUniversity of Florida IFAS program.

Scallpop Survey Results

Judy Ott (brown flippers) and Tracey Hawk (pink flippers) scour the bottom of GasparillaSound looking for scallops last month.

Below: A local scallop found near Sandfly Key. One of several found there.

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LEE COUNTY RESULTSBefore the mid 1960s, Pine Island Sound supported a healthy bay scallop popula-

tion, which, in turn, supported a million-dollar commercial scallop industry, but asFlorida's human population and coastal development increased water quality declined,and scallop populations crashed along the Gulf Coast.Since then, restoration projects have helped bay scallops come back in some areas.Pine Island Sound responded to the first restoration effort in 2003 - it was the best

area in the state for scallops two years later. Then after red tides in 2005 and 2006 thescallop population in 2007 and 2008 was zero or near zero. But they came back quick.Last month, Lee County volunteers counted 335 scallops in Pine Island Sound,

compared with 163 from Charlotte County, 32 from Tampa Bay and 15 from SarasotaCounty.


On the Line By Capt Ron Blago, Water LIFE Senior StaffIt’s been a terrible year so far.

Extremely cold winter, hot summer,heavy rains, oil spill and economicdown turn. It’s enough to make anyfisherman irritable; and it doesn’t takemuch to get my blood boiling. Just mention the word manatee and I

can just feel my blood pressure goingoff the chart. Last week there was anarticle in the local paper about the poormanatee. Now after 15 years of writingabout manatees I get pretty use to thesame old arguments, using half truthsand distorted data to back them up. This article wasn’t much different

than all the others. It started out withthe “pity the poor manatee approach”pointing out that a record number ofmanatees have died so far this year. Thisis true; so far up until the end of Julythere have been 607 deaths. An all timerecord; already breaking last year’s recordtotal of 429. We will probably see over700 dead manatees in 2010.Then the article goes into the boater

bashing, pointing out that watercraft col-lisions is the single greatest humanthreat to the manatee. This is a half-truth at best. Year after year, watercraftdeaths account for approximately 23% ofall manatee deaths. As a matter of fact itis amazing how consistent that numberhas been over the 30 years of data theFWC has generated. So far this year,there have been 56 watercraft relateddeaths as compared to a 2009 total of97: but when you compare the numberof watercraft deaths to total death so farin 2010, you only get 9.2%. But believeme no one is going to point that factout because it would make the boaterslook too good. Do you really think youwill ever see a headline that saysPercentage of manatee deaths due to

watercraft reaches record low? Probablynot. The real unusual fact of 2010 is therecord number of manatee cold stressdeaths. To give you a little perspective,in 2008 there were 27 cold relateddeaths, in 2009 there were 68, in 2010there were 243 deaths. Talk about anoutliner data point. Unless you consider Al Gore’s failure

to deliver on his promise of globalwarming; you can’t blame boaters forthis mess. What really set me off was aquote in the article from someone at theFWC who said thank goodness for ourwarm water discharges or there wouldhave been even more deaths. I can notdisagree more with that statement.There are two types of warm water

discharges in Florida. Natural discharges,which are rivers and streams where man-atees will congregate like the CrystalRiver up north; and artificial warm waterdischarges which are power plants. Before the power plants were built,

manatees migrated as far south as theyhad to go to stay warm during the win-ter. They headed for the Everglades andFlorida Bay, and as we now know mana-tees travelled in deep water off shore toCuba, Porte Rico and even furthersouth. But after the power plants were built

each year hundreds of manatees stackedup in the power plants’ artificial dis-charge of warm water during the winter.But at the power plants there was nofood for the manatees to eat and theunnatural exposure to warm water low-ered their resistance to infection and dis-ease, all while people watched themfrom observation platforms built withtaxpayer’s money. Now there’s a monu-ment to man’s stupidity. This problem was pointed out to state

officials over 30 years ago, but theychose to ignore it. The power plantswere more important than the manatee atthat time. As the years went on they

slowly shifted the public perception onthe greatest threat to manatees as beingthe boater. “Boaters are the easiest part of the

equation to control,” Kip Frohlich of theFWC said and they put their efforts andour money into controlling boaters withmiles of useless manatee slow zones. It’s time to start undoing the mess we

have made of manatee protection. We

have to start slowly turning down thetemperature of these artificial dischargesand eventually phase them out altogeth-er. I know that at first many more mana-tees will die, but unfortunately that isthe price for our arrogance and stupidity. It’s time for the manatee experts to

find other jobs and return the protectionof the manatee back over to MotherNature.

Manatees vs. Warm Water Discharges

Manatees are born wanderers and explorers, like this pod that made its way up to a flood-ed field off Horse Creek last month. Manatees will easily find their way south in the winterif the warm water discharge from FPLʼs power plants is shut off.

By Adam WildonWater LIFE DivingTeam WreckReation covered a lot of ground last

month, scouting in preparation for the St. Pete Open,the world’s largest spearfishing tournament put on by theSt. Pete Underwater Club. With over 300 skilled shoot-ers entered, this year’s competition was the secondlargest in the events 45 year history.

We had our choice of deep spots to dive fromSarasota to Fort Myers. We decided to run southwest outof Stump Pass about 60 miles to an area of ledges andhard bottom in 170 feet. With good weather in the fore-cast we left after the Friday night captains’ meeting sowe could be in the water at daybreak. You can shoot any-where in the world for this tournament, aslong as you are back in the weigh-in linebefore 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.

Seas were flat calm as we cruised westand watched a big red moon rise. Anchoringup near our first spot we did manage a fewhours of sleep before sun up. Our first prob-lem arose shortly thereafter. When we wentto pull the anchor we soon found out it wasfirmly stuck on the Gulf floor. Ordinarilythis is not a big deal, but in 170 feet withonly a certain amount of bottom time andbreathing gas, burning up either shortens theamount of time we can spend shooting fish.

Rolling off the back of the boat Iinflated my rig and discovered I was already20 feet behind the boat. The current was rip-ping and it took everything I had just tomake it to the anchor line. I advised my divebuddy Carl to get a tow to the anchor linefrom someone onboard after taking theplunge. We fought the current down theanchor line all the way to the bottom. Even though itlessened slightly at depth, seaweed and other debris wasstill floating by us at a good clip on the bottom. We had

anchored inthe sand a fewhundred feetaway fromour ledge andI discoveredour anchorhad managedto find theonly rockyhole in sight.The hole wasjust big

enough to grab our anchor, what are the odds on that, Ithought, as I checked my pressure gauge before leavingfor the surface.

With such a strong current, trying to descend downa weighted buoy marker line wasn’t an option. CaptainCharlie zeroed the GPS and then drove us up currentabout 100 feet before yelling GO! Carl and I dropped likea rock with our double-tank setups. At 130 feet I couldsee a few good sized black grouper sitting on top of theledge 40 feet below me. The closest one to me was onlyabout 35 pounds and nowhere near big enough to reallyplace anywhere high, but he just wouldn’t turn and run.Ten feet away and I just couldn’t resist. I pulled the trig-ger and made him a unicorn as he turned white and rolledover with a 5/16th inch shaft protruding from his crani-um.

Slamming another shaft into my gun, Carl and I

met at the undercut part of the ledge at the same time. Ishined my light into the 20 foot deep cavern and wecould both see the groupers stacked up. Like most fishbehave, the larger ones had the choice location in theback and the smaller fish were near the opening.

I pulled the trigger first and all hell broke loose. Inan instant the cave exploded like an i.e.d. had been deto-nated. Instantly I could hear my shaft clanging off therocky ceiling. Carl let loose with a shaft not realizing heforgot to attach his line and it disappeared into the siltcloud. I pulled hard and got my fish out after it com-pletely pretzeled my steel shaft as if it were a coat hang-er. The power of a big grouper, or any big fish for thatmatter, is too hard to explain until you feel it for your-self. I cannot bend one of my shafts with just my hands.Only after putting it in a vice and using my body weight

can I make a slight bend. I tried to pull my fish closer toget a grip and use his own thrashing mass to severe hisspine with my knife. He had other plans and broke my

spear in two and ripped off the flopperkeeping him attached. I loaded my finalspear and watched carefully to see if hebolted across the sandy expanse or wentback under the ledge. Fortunately forme, but not him, he chose the latter.This time a well placed shaft dispatchedhim.

Meanwhile Carl discovered wherehis free-flung shaft landed as a 60 pluspound black grouper came out of thecavern looking like he had seen bettertimes. Carl’s fortune had been better andalthough he didn’t stone his fish, it washighly handicapped. I strung up my twosmaller fish and watched Carl’s groupergently roll over and lay on the bottom.With both of his shafts already expelledand no sign of them anywhere, he wast-ed no time in jumping on its back andturning out the lights with his knife.

With the majority of our breathingmix used up on anchor retrieval and wrestling king sizedcarbos, it was time to go. After 20 minutes on the bot-tom we had already compiled a near 30 minute decom-pression and ascent time. There were more and biggergrouper under that ledge. The temptation to just take onemore look is strong, especially on tournament day. Selfcontrol differentiates bold divers from old divers.

Carl’s fish weighed in at 62.3 pounds and took 2ndplace in the grouper division. 1st place grouper was MattJoswig’s 63.4 pound monster. Mine was smaller and ona typical year would have been way down the line, but Imanaged to pull off a 6th place finish with my 40.7pound black. It was great to see so many local faces atthe weigh-in. The prize table was so fat, people pickingin last place, or with no fish turned in at all, were snag-ging prizes worth around $40 and everyone was smiling!

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St. Pete Open

The wreck Fantastico


By Michael Hel lerWater LIFE EditorYou can pay me now or you can pay

me later. That was the concept for a suc-cessful oil filter commercial. You can’tput off the inevitable. Charlotte Countyshould reflect on this concept.The canals and more importantly the

seawalls in Port Charlotte are 50 yearsold and most tie-backs are rusted out. In2003 we saw what a significant amountof rain did to our seawalls. Five miles ofthem fell in. But Punta Gorda had acanal maintenance district so the canalfront lot owners didn’t have to pay, andthe City of Punta Gorda was eligible for

Federal assistance because they hadalready established a maintenancedistrict. In unincorporated CharlotteCounty, where there is no maintenancedistrict, Federal funds were not availableso it affected property owners who paidbig. In 2003, there was a 20-inch rain-fall in one weekend. The hydrostaticpressure built up behind the seawallsknocked them over when the tide wentout. The same thing could easily happenwith a storm surge that topped the sea-walls and saturated the ground. A stormsurge on already saturated ground wouldbe a very big disaster.At of the end of last month’s rain

numerous homeowners not on the sewersystem were reporting they couldn’tflush their toilets because their septictanks were backed up by the high groundwater. That is a telling warning.

I sent the Charlotte CountyCommissioners an email asking whattheir plan is? Are they going to wait fora disaster and then hope the Feds willbail them out? What if that doesn’t hap-pen, what is plan B? I have yet to getan answer. With so many vacant canal front lots

and so many vacant canal front housesand foreclosed bank owned houses themoney probably won’t be available fromthe property owners. So would the coun-ty fix the seawalls themselves and assessit back against the property taxes? Couldthey do that? Do they have the money to

fix things in an emergency?This is important because when a

seawall falls out the land behind it wash-es into the canal. I have seen a 4-footwide three foot deep area 125 feet widedisappear in less than two tides. Leftunattended such erosion is likely toaffect the infrastructure. The culverts, thesewer and water system become at risk.Even the roadbeds could be affected. So what is the county’s plan? How

will they handle this?? I think that is afair question. I think we are entitled toan intelligent and well thought out planin advance. Taxpayers shouldn’t have topay more later because our elected offi-cials didn’t have a plan in advance.

Whoʼs Gonna Fix This?

What about the deterioating docks? Thatʼsanother good question.

By El len Hel lerWater LIFE PublisherSometime during my most impres-

sionable years, probably in the 1960’s, Isaw an ad, TV special or maybe just acolorful bumper sticker wired on to a sta-tion wagon for Weeki Wachee Springs inFlorida. Somehow they reached this littlegirl in the very small town of ClintonHollow, NY and I was gob smacked. Theidea of women dressed in green and bluesequin scales, posing as mermaids andperforming underwater ballet, gave megoose bumps. I envisioned them withpearl encrusted tiaras in flowing manes ofhair, ample bosoms held in place withscallop shells, in a pristine tank of blue. Italked about mermaids and Weeki WacheeSprings until my entire family hadenough. Okay I vowed silently, but I'mgoing there when I grow up. Little did Iknow how very grown up I would be.Forty years later, 13 years of them in

Florida, I finally went to Weeki WacheeSprings, and dragged my husband withme. Today it is a State Park but back inthe day it was privately owned. The under-ground springs keep the tropical water aconstant 74 degrees. The pond that thesprings form had several water slidespouring adults and children alike into thecrystal clear water. The swimming areaneatly overflowed and created a slow mov-ing Bahama-blue river that served asanother way to enjoy the water, by tourboat. The park was built in the 40’s andstill maintains that period feel. Low cin-der block buildings housed kitschy gift

shops, ice cream and fudge shops, and atable cloth type sit down restaurant. Pathsmeandered around an outdoor ampitheaterfor special shows and local wild life scur-ried around with imported peacocks.While we were strolling the grounds Iplayed it cool, but I was extremely anx-ious to get on with the show. This wasnice, but where were the mermaids? Thenext show was at 1:30 and I made sure wewere near the front of the line.Soon, but not soon enough for all the

rambunctious kids swinging on the rail,climbing on adults and squealing withdelight, the doors opened. The entrance to the theater was below

ground level and the seating was belowthat. It took a minute for our eyes toadjust to the dark, but it was easy to see awall of glass holding back the spring. Itwas veiled first in a theatrical cloth cur-tain, then a curtain of bubbles rose behindthat. We headed to the front close to theglass. Not long after we were seated 2 flat

screen TVs on either side of the smallcurved seating area came to life and alarge voice boomed a welcome from aspeaker in each corner of the room. I wasthrilled with the anticipation of hosesucking mermaids and a little annoyed athaving to hear the history of WeekiWachee. Although hearing that the currentMayor of Weeki Wachee was once a mer-maid did catch my attention. When thefirst curtain went up and the bubblesstopped bubbling I couldn't believe myeyes. This was so totally NOT what Iexpected at all. This murky, muddy bottomed underwa-

ter cave with moss covered rock walls and

grecian statues was not the sterile aquari-um I dreamt about. Where was the pris-tine tank with bright lights and glitz,shinny like an aquarium? I was quietlyswallowing my disappointment when analgae covered "rock" moved off the bot-tom and swam towards the top, followedby three or four convict fish. Anotherrough looking turtle swam to the windowin front of me then did a graceful turn andalso headed up for air. And fast as that tur-tle I realized this was so much better thanwhat I had expected. This was the realMcCoy and the true inhabitants were notthe visiting mermaids but these real waterdwellers who were free to come and go asthey pleased. In and out of the show ordown the lazy river away from the crowdsif they chose. They were not trained orcontained but they still hung out with themermaids and became part of the show.Would they have enjoyed my Hollywoodset? I think not.The mermaids were enchanting in their

grace and poise, performing water balletswhile releasing air from their lungs, smallbits at a time to change altitude, muchthe way a diver uses a buoyancy vest.These women must learn to breath fromhoses gushing out air bubbles withoutbreaking the dance routine or the serenemood. It was not unlike watching pen-guins underwater in a dark zoo exhibit,calming and the natural surroundingsenhanced the feeling. Even the mermaidcostumes, though lacking sequins andpearls and a little tattered, lent themselvesto the underwater surroundings. Justmaybe over the years I have learned toappreciate genuine beauty and see throughthe sleek, slick and sequined. Although the landscape and buildings

had seen better days, Weeki WacheeSprings State Park is far better than theglitz, glam and over the top commercialfeeling new theme parks are offering fami-lies elsewhere in Florida today.

Day Trip:

Weeki Wachee



NEW MARINA AT I-75 In case you missedthe news on Page 8, a new marina is slatedfor the parcel on Harborview just east of theI-75 southbound on ramp. A 461 boat marinathat will lift boats over the berm to put them inthe river. Weʼre not sure how this is going towork, but somebody must have a plan. Thisis shallow water and allegedly a favorite spotfor manatees... so this could get interesting.-ALL TACKLE RECORD 41-POUND 7-OZBROWN TROUT CAUGHT IN WISCONSIN

BOAT HOUSE OPENING IN ENGLEWOODThis has to be a good sign for the economy.The Boat House of Cape Coral which oncehad a dealership on US 41 just north of thePeace River bridge is coming back toCharlotte County with a second location onPlacida Road near Stump Pass Marina inEnglewood. They claim to be the largestHurricane and Sweetwater boat dealer in theworld. We wish them luck.

SPATTERDOCK, NAIAD & MUSKGRASSThe canal near Cape Coral's Hancock

Bridge Parkway is virtually lifeless andpacked with aquatic weeds. Boaters havetaken their boats out of the water becausethe weeds clogged the motor. "We hadducks before, huge turtles, otters and ananhinga. They're all gone. We can't even fishhere. It's ugly," a resident said. Many of CapeCoral's freshwater canals are in the sameweedy situation, with massive infestations ofsuch plants as cobamba, spatterdock, south-ern naiad, muskgrass and hydrilla. At the rootof the problem are excess nutrients from fer-tilizers and septic tanks.

WHAMMO Officers responded to a boatingaccident that occurred involving a 23QfootNautic Star. The boat had seven occupantson board and was towing a skier. The boatstruck a dock causing the dock house to col-lapse on top of the boat. One of the femalepassengers was air lifted and transported tothe hospital. The female passenger sus-tained several facial fractures and damagedteeth, but no life threatening injuries. It is pos-sible alcohol was involved.

AW SHUCKS FWC officers conductedinspections of commercial shellfish har-vesters at Cat Point oyster bar near CedarKey. The officers boarded several vesselsand conducted size tolerance inspections onthe shellfish. Seven misdemeanor citationswere issued to harvesters for possession ofundersized oysters.

MORE SHUCKS On the evening of July 30,officers responded to a complaint of a com-

mercial shellfish vessel parked at a dwellingthat appeared to be loaded with oysters. Theofficers located the vessel and harvester athis home and conducted an investigation.They found that the harvester had returned tothe mainland late in the evening after hisseafood dealer had closed. The harvesterstated that he intended on selling the oystersthe following morning when the dealerreopened. The officers explained the dangerand associated health risks of selling shell-fish that had not been properly cooled. Theofficers found that the bags of oysters hadnot been tagged. The harvester was issued amisdemeanor citation for possession ofuntagged bags of oysters and the sevenbags of oysters were seized and returned tothe water.

CHARGED WITH POSSESSIONWhen the sheriffʼs deputy arrived at the resi-dence, he found the couple had a spottedfawn deer in the living room. The followingday, Officer Troy Starling interviewed the sus-pects at the jail and both admitted to pickingup the deer approximately two months ago.They were charged with possession of aspotted fawn.

CAMPER HAS ROOM FOR A MERCEDES

FLIPPER FOOD An officer observed an indi-vidual feeding cigar minnows to dolphinsnear the east jetties of the Panama City pass.The officer observed the dolphins swimdirectly to the individual's personal watercraft(PWC) while other personal watercraft werein the area. The individual noticed the officerand entered the water as he approached.When the subject entered the water, the dol-phins immediately swam around him. Theofficer picked the subject up from the waterand transported him back to his PWC. Theofficer located cigar minnows in the vessel'sfront hatch. Further investigation revealedthe subject was a commercial tour guide. Headmitted to entering the water with bait in hispockets to feed the dolphins because he saidhe got better tips from the people on the tour.The officer issued a citation to the subject.

PAY FWC FOR INVESTIGATION The fatherand son commercial fishermen, convicted offelony trap molestation, were sentenced tofour years probation, eight hours of commu-nity service, their fishing licenses revokedand they are banned from the waters of thestate in Monroe County. In addition, thefather, a former Key Largo elected official,was sentenced to four months in jail. Bailwas set at $50,000 each. The judge orderedeach subject to pay FWC $5,000 for the costof the investigation and $8,392 to the judicialsystem for the cost of prosecution.

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By Capt. Jim O'BrienWater LIFE Englewood

Hey y-all, how has your fish'n beenthis last month? Great I hope. This lastmonth has still been awesome for fish'n.The weather hasn't changed, 87 to 89degree water temp. and 5 to 10 kt.breezes. Night time snapper fish'n’salmost dead calm most of the time.The redfish action has been best

around Gasparilla Pass and around theupper part of Charlotte Harbor. Gold 1/4oz. spoons and live shrimp have beendoing the best job.The trout bite has been slow, from

talking to a few avid trout fishermen.They said they’re catching a few troutaround Pine Island Sound and they arecatching some trout in Turtle Bay also.Tarpon are all over most of Charlotte

Harbor, and around the bridge's at ElJobean and the Peace River U.S. 41bridge. Look for tarpon in the deeperholes of the Harbor.The report's on snook fish'n has been

pretty good. The beaches and StumpPass are holding some nice fish. ( DONOT FORGET SNOOK FISH'N ISSTILL CLOSED)

There are still a lot of sharks just off

the beaches and on most of the inshoreand offshore reefs and wrecks – mostlyblacktip and spinner sharks. They’re alsoin the Harbor and just outside Bull Bay.The grouper fish'n has been real good

out 90 to110 feet of water. The man-grove snapper and the yellowtail snapperare still chewing in 60 to 85 feet ofwater. The greater amberjack (a.k.a. reefdonkeys) are still on most of the offshorewrecks.This month we have no reports on

cobia or permit, maybe next month wewill have something to say on them.The picture for this month is this ol'

Capt. here catch'n a goliath grouper and,man, I mean to tell ya, these bad boyswill test your strength and every musclein your body. They are on about everypiece of structure in the Gulf. We aregetting them from 150 to 600 pounds. Ifthey ever open a season on goliathgrouper, I have places in the Gulf thathave 75 to 150 of these big bad boys,places that I call my house of pain. Yesmy friend, if you want to test your mus-cles out, I have just the place for you.I have an interesting story I'd like to

share with y-all. I had a call about twoweeks ago from an avid fisherman that

reads the Water LIFE every month. Thereal twist to this story is the fisherman'sname is John Chistianson and he isfrom Kenosha Wisconsin, over 2,000miles away. John told me he looks for-ward to reading my article From the ol'fish'n hole every month. Now I want totell ya, that made ol' Capt. here feel pret-ty dag-gum good. I have been writingarticle's for about 7 years. I have onlyhad two other calls that was farther away.One was from British Columbia, and theother was from Canada, so John your in

the top 3. I think it's great. Thanks! Well, I guess I have flapped my lips

long enough, so until next month,Remember: Get out and snort

some of that good clean sal t aircuz - i t's good fer ya!

If you have any questions or if you havea good ol' fishin’ story or a recipe for cook-ing fish that I can share with our readersgive me a call.

To book an offshore charter with us -aboard the Predator II call (941) 473-2150

From the Olʼ Fishʼn Hole

By Peter SandersonSpecial to Water LIFEOn Saturday July 31st I set off at 6 a.m. for a day’s

fishing. A friend was unable to accompany me, so I wasalone.After a good morning fishing some favorite spots for

snapper and redfish, I headed for Charlotte Harbor to fishfor sharks. I picked a spot 3 miles from the pass and asimilar distance to land both East and West. Water depthwas about 12 foot with a 10 knott westerly wind and anoutgoing tide. I put out the customary chum bag, withtwo shark poles, each baited with hefty lumps of cutbait. Then it was time for lunch and the waiting game tosee if the chum slick would attract anything interesting.After only 10 minutes I looked over the side of the

boat and saw a hammerhead, which was around 10 feetlong and was coursing around the boat like it wasurgently looking for dinner. While I was wonderingwhether I wanted to get involved with a fish that size, Inoticed another large hammerhead a few feet behind theboat and even more sharks a bit further back.I realized that if a shark that size took my bait and I

wanted to bring it to the boat, I would need to gentlychase it down before it stripped all my line, so I startedthe engine.Within seconds the bait was taken and the shark head-

ed forward past the bow. I was now mid-ships with thecenter console just behind me.I felt the shark pulling me towards the edge of the

boat, so I instinctively reached for the grab rail on theconsole to steady my balance. Instead of the rail, I acci-dentally grabbed the throttle and pulled hard. In less thana second the boat shot forward and I was in the water.

My motor is a 225, 4 stroke Yamaha, so the boat wasinstantly racing at 30 MPH. The steering was hard over,so the boat raced around in circles missing me by a fewfeet every 40 seconds. Each time it passed, a 4 footwave of white foam passed over my head pushing meunder the water and choking me.After 10 minutes of fighting this nightmare, I was hit

on my hip by the propeller, resulting in a fracturedpelvis and a gash which would later require 16 stitches.I was now pouring blood and became an injured chum-bag in shark infested waters. (Have you ever noticed thatwater is only considered to be infested if there are sharksin it?) After a further 10 minutes of fighting to avoid myboat, my luck finally changed.I was weakening fast and realized it was likely I was

going to die. A few boats had passed, but they were atleast a mile away and didn’t even slow down. At last aboat slowed and came within a ¼ mile distance. Theydid not see me but actually stopped to see why my boatwas constantly going round in circles.Then my real stroke of luck came. I always wear a

big floppy white sun hat on the boat. When I fell in itdisappeared off my head. After 20 minutes of turmoiland finally an opportunity to be saved, I saw the whitehat floating just a few inches from my hand.I picked it up and waved and shouted with renewed

energy and within a few minutes I was saved. My res-cuers later admitted they were about to go on their waywhen they saw the white hat. They did not see my armor my head.While I was being repaired at the ER the Sheriff

phoned to say that my boat had been saved undamagedand was tied up at the dock awaiting collection at my

convenience.I hope to be fully recovered and back at work in a few

weeks.This is the first time I have described this experience

in writing and I assure you it is factual. Others haveexchanged this story on the Internet and Facebook and ithas reached the stage where I was in the water for yearsand was eaten by Moby Dick!

Postscript:I was lucky that I did not drown.I was lucky that I was not eaten by sharks.I was lucky that I was not killed by my boat.I was lucky that my white hat appeared by my hand at

the most opportune moment.Hindsight i s a wonderful thing: The moment I hit the water I realized that all my

forms of communication were still on the boat. The boatwas fully equipped with safety equipment, but I was notwearing a life jacket. There is a kill switch on the igni-tion which you can attach by a lanyard to your belt. Ifyou fall from the boat the engine immediately cuts out.I had not done this. Most people don’t.I will go fishing again. I will go shark fishing again.

I will not go alone.My white hat is now laundered and ready for future

use. I am having a label sewn on the front which willsay: - Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky idiot!I am hoping that this story will be made into a book

and a film. I am looking for volunteers to play the partof me!

A Fishing Trip to Remember and Why I Am Now Called ʻLuckyʼ

By David Al lenWater LIFE Kayaking

The day couldn’t have started off much worse. Theevening weather forecast said “Rain, Rain, Rain” for theearly morning hours and sure enough it did. We hadscheduled a club paddle starting at 8:30 a.m. and at 7:45it was still raining hard in Port Charlotte and PuntaGorda where most of our members live. Then itstopped, at least in Port Charlotte. Since it’s about 20miles from Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte to OysterCreek, we didn’t expect many to make the trip and sureenough, only a few paddlers decided to take a chance thatthe weather would clear up. Some members did make thetrip, and those that did were rewarded with a great paddleas the weather changed from rainy to sunny.So exactly where is Oyster Creek? It’s not easy to

find even with detailed directions. The Oyster Creeklaunch site is in Englewood, but don’t confuse it withthe 420 acre Oyster Creek Regional Park with anentrance on San Casa Drive. The entrance to the launchsite is off Placida Rd. immediately south of the LemonBay High School. It is also almost directly acrossPlacida Rd, from the Cedar Point Environmental Center.There has been a lot of construction at the school sitemaking the entrance even more difficult to find. Once you enter the park, the launch area has been

improved with gravel roads and a gravel path down to thewater. The sandy beach is ideal for launching a kayakwithout scraping-up the bottom. The parking is some-what limited, but there is enough room for about 10-12cars. There are no restroom facilities at this site.No sooner had we put our kayaks into the Creek and

the sky started to clear up and blue sky appeared. Great!Now a short paddle, about 0.75 miles, and we were in

Lemon Bay. The rain had kept many of thepowerboats off the water, so we could paddletoward Stump Pass with few wakes to rockour boats. Stump Pass is one of our favorite places

to paddle because the beaches are pristine.There is usually lots of wildlife in the areaand it gives us a spot to beach the kayaks,have a snack and take a swim in the warmGulf waters. How can you beat that for apleasant outing? We were all surprised by theamount of shoaling in the inlet which hadnarrowed the main channel down to about 150feet. And the incoming tide was really caus-ing some strong currents and tidal waves inthe pass. We did see one paddler enter thepass and make his way east into the quietwaters of Lemon Bay, but his kayak had anoutrigger for added support in the rough water.More power to him….it was a tough paddle.We took our time on the beach, had an

energy bar and did some shelling. By thistime the sun had come out in full force andwe were ready for a cooling swim. Very refreshing!On the return trip, we took the route due north along

the east shore of Manasota Key, just west of WhiddenKey. This route took us past Stump Pass Park on thesouth end of Manasota Key and then past the beachhomes that dot the shoreline. This is a little longer wayhome, ending just west of the Cedar PointEnvironmental Park, but there are several bald eaglenests at the Park and we hoped to see one of those beau-tiful birds.The paddle to Stump Pass is only one of several good

paddles that can easily be reached from Oyster Creek.Palm Island and Thorton Key are the nearest, just southof Stump Pass. But a little further south is Don PedroIsland with its beautiful un-crowded beaches. All in all,it turned out to be a beautiful day and a good paddle withfriends.

The Port Charlotte Kayakers meet each Wednesdayevening at 5:30 PM at Port Charlotte Beach Park at theend of Harbor Blvd. All are welcome to attend. Foradditional information contact Dave Allen at 941-235-2588 or [email protected]


Oyster Creek Paddle

The launch site is between Lemon Bay high school and Placida Road

Charlotte County ̓s CompleteSwimming Pool SupplysPool Repair and Maintenance Store

575-2525575-2525Located in the Punta Gorda Crossing Shopping Center Next to Publix Mon-Fri 9AM-5:30PM Sat 9AM-3PM

Specializing in Heaters andPool Pumps

“Green Pool” “Green Pool” Clean Up & MaintenanceClean Up & Maintenance

S taff Report :There is a move afoot to develop a Flying Scot

fleet here in Charlotte Harbor. Martin Holland isthe man leading the charge. The Flying Scot is a 19-foot day sailer with a

6’9” beam that is sailed throughout North America.It is a quality boat. The large, deep cockpit is idealfor family sailing, providing safe, comfortable sail-ing for, (they claim) up to 8 people. Realistically,for local racing, a crew of two or three would findthe Scot a great boat for competition. The FlyingScot is easily trailered and rigged in about 20 min-utes; and can be launched in as little as 12-inchesof water. The Scot's performance offers thrills toeven the experienced sailor and provides for tight,competitive racing. There are more than 100 fleetsracing Flying Scots in the USA and Canada.The Flying Scot was designed in 1957 by

Gordon K. (Sandy) Douglass and new Flying Scotshave been in constant production ever since. Thenew Scots are all identically constructed by FlyingScot, Inc.. Strict class rules prevent changes thatcould make older boats obsolete. With over 5300boats built, used boats are usually available. In1998, the Flying Scot was included in theAmerican Sailing Hall of Fame.

The sail plan consists of main, jib and spin-

naker. The rigging and deck layout are deliberatelysimplified, which shifts the focus away from tun-ing and boat speed and toward the excitement of tac-tical racing.The Flying Scot Sailing Association sponsors

many national, district and regional events eachyear. In addition to the North AmericanChampionship (open to any Scot sailor who wish-es to attend), there is a Wife/Husband NationalChampionship, a Midwinters, a bi-annual CanadianNational Championship along with many regional,district and local events with distinctive individualcharacter. The Flying Scot has been used for many of the

US Sailing events including the Mallory, Adams,Sears Cup Championships and Championship ofChampions. The Scot helped premier sailing to theSpecial Olympics World Games in 1995 as the offi-cial two athlete boat.Racing fleets, however, only account for about

one-half of the Flying Scots sailing. The boat is anexcellent gunk hole cruiser and family day sailer.There are frequent non-race events in popular cruis-ing areas. Sailing a Flying Scot, owners say, canbe like joining a large family -- the class is wellknown for welcoming new sailors and helpingthem improve, strong friendships and great socialevents.

Martin Holland can be reached at 286-0722


The Flying Scott

Don Gasgarth of Charlotte County Ford fame (in the colorful shorts) wasone of the sailors last month, putting in a Flying Scot class boat atCharlotte Harbor Yacht Club. The club has a new lift designed for just thiskind of popular trailer sailboat.


The Water LIFEWater LIFE Distributorʼs Club

Cooks Sportland

4419 So. Tamiami TrailS. Venice493-0025

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F i s h i n g F i s h i n gR e p o r t R e p o r t --Charlotte Harbor:Robert at Fishin' FranksPort Charlotte: 625-3888This is going to be a guessing

game for the next week becauseof the excess rain. I think we aregoing to be set back a week onredfish moving into the harbor. There will be a heavier con-

centration along the ICW now,but as the rain subsides and thesalinity balances out we will seemore of those redfishfish break-ing into separate schools andmoving into the harbor.Shrimp has been working well

on redfish and that should holdtrue into September. Cut ladyfishand cut mullet should be goodbait too. The warm dark waterwill keep the fish smelling morethan looking for food.The early morning bite should

be fairly productive with a smalltop water plug like a Spook or aZippin Ziggy. Soft plastics will

be a great lure over-all, something likethe Gulp shrimp orthe Exude dart or theMirrolure producerscented baitsThe Mirrodine a

suspending bait thatyou can work veryslowly is goodbecause the fisharen’t very aggres-sive in the heat. It isalso a great locatorlure for finding theschools because youcan cover a lot of area quickly.The fish should be in 4- to 5-feetof water where you won’t seethem. You have to look for aslight push on the surface. Keyspots, like down around Useppaand Patricio are where they willbe through this month and intonext. I think this month isalmost as good as October forschools of redfish. The areaaround Sandfly Key and the barbetween Bull and Turtle Bayshould all be holding redfish thismonth. We have had reports ofmixed sized redfish from 20- to32-inches. It’s getting to thattime of year when you have scat-tered sizes from 20- to 34-inches.

You’d have to work at it to findthe rat reds right now.Tarpon are scattered because

of all the rain too. The ladyfishare really starting to school upright now and the tarpon are tran-sitioning from glass minnows toladyfish for food since this is thetime tarpon start to bulk upbefore they migrate south. Lookfor birds diving and rolling or freejumping fish. The really goodspots are at the upper end of theharbor: Whorehouse point, upinto the Myakka to El JoBean,and around in front of Ponce andPort Charlotte Beach.

Fishing Report Continued on following page

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DDIISSCCOOUUNNTT!!

Full Six-Pak: A hatless guide with five clients fishes the channel at Placida on a hot August morning

Fishermenʼs Village Pirate InvasionSaturday, Sept 11 high noon

Your decorated boats (pirate ships)armed with your favoritewater weapons (great possibili-ties!) will be encouraged to parade byand soak everyone alongFishermenʼs Village west dock and restaurant.Major Prizes will be awarded ALL VESSELS MUST OPERATE UNDER POWER.NO CANOES, ROW BOATS, OR KAYAKS, ALLOWED

Mandatory SKIPPERSʼ MEETING ON SEPT. 9th AT 7:00 PM

CALENDAR�� September 11 Purate Invasion Fishermen’sVillage. Watersports, Free.575-3000

�� September 11 & 18 About Boating Safely ,USCG Flotilla 87 ,$25, 697-9435

�� September 24-26 Caloosa Tournament Series,Summer Slam Shootout, Fort Myers Beach,239-671-9347

�� September 25- Snoopy Pole FishingTournament, Port Charlotte Beach Complex,Heaviest legal Fish Wins! $10 entry,1st Place $350, 941-2780-7823

�� Oct. 1-3 Conservancy of Southwest FloridaRedSnook Charity Tournament, Registration formsonline. e-mail: [email protected] Send your calendar events to:[email protected]

F i s h i n gF i s h i n gRR e p o r te p o r t .

continued from page 21Tarpon are also in the

middle of the harbor in thedeep holes. And there willstill be some tarpon in thePass and along the beaches.The fish on the beaches seemto be likeing threadfins, 4- to6-inch long pinfish andD.O.A. Bait Busters.Snook season is still

closed. Theoretically thesnook are moving off thebeaches and will continue todo so for the entire month.There should be a constantflow of snook coming infrom Sarasota Pass down to10,000 Islands. The nightbite is better if you are fish-ing from along the beach,but if you are in the passesand at the ICW docks orstructure inside, the snookwill chew during the daytimetoo. Big pinfish, whitebait, suspending baitsare the pan and then let the current do the workfor you. Snook will be feeding for the winter.Out along the beaches and in the passes,

there are whiting and still a few oddball pom-pano. Pompano should get nothing but bet-ter toward the end of this month. Snappershould get even better this month toward theend too, especially in the passes. The inshoreones tend to get pushed out by the fresh waterand the offshore snapper move in chasing thebait and other stuff being flushed out by theriver. They’s all moving now.There are still quite a few small sharks

Mostly blacktips and spinners all around theHarbor and still a few big bul l sharks andhammerheads . It seems like they are follow-ing the ladyfish. The bait fish are concentrated into balls

because of salinity. The fish are tight togetherand following the tide line. It’s all about salini-ty, it brings all the fish together into one small

area. That’s my theory anyway.Lemon Bay:

Jim at Fishermen’s Edge,Englewood: 697-7595Not a lot of guides have had any trips at all.

Some havent fished a paying trip since the mid-dle of July. But everybody I know that is goingfishing is catching all the fish they want. A guycame in and showed me his cut up hands yester-day. People are leaving me nice packages of fil-lets. There are a lot of fish being caught.There has been decent trout around, from

Matlachea to Pine Island. Towards the backcountry here there are snook and redfish.There are pompano around the Tom Adams

Pier and along the beach front. One guy said hecaught 60 the other day with a Silly Willy jig.We have had Snaper and grouper, still

some mackerel and big kings... gigantickingfish – 60 pound kings! Travis Ormondlost a giant from the boat while trying to take apicture. And there are plenty of tarpon still up in

Charlotte Harbor. The guys that are going arethrowing Bait Busters or big pinfish to keepaway from the catfish. The catfish have evenbeen biteing topwater baits; big 128 Sammytopwater – a 5 inch long lure... by catfish!They ought to make catfish a game fish andthen nobody will ever catch one!

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

SNOOK coming in from off-shore but season is CLOSED

SHARK smaller ones arestill everywhere

REDFISH are showing up inschools, holding to the south

TARPON ARE all still aroundthe Harbor and the passes

FishingFishingRIGHT NOW:RIGHT NOW:

Big Fish!Big Fish!


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Blacktips and spinners continue to be prevelant around the area.They are great fun on light tackle.

Water LIFE Sept 2010

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Transcript of Water LIFE Sept 2010