I know, I know. It seems rather odd that Trout fishing may be the benefit from this freeze. January saw the worst freeze in perhaps a century. Lots of snook died. It’s all been rather dreary and the winter continues. But there is some good news out there. With the freeze came a purging of algae and old dead grass from the flats. The cold cleared up the water as it always does when such frigid weather and overcast days prevent algal growth.

There was a lot of loss to mangrove trees. Many of these valuable marine building blocks saw freeze damage that destroyed the leaves, and fallen mangrove leaves make up the first link in the marine food chain.

They grow bacteria (organisms also inhibited by the cold) which in turn is fed upon by microscopic plankton that provides food for juvenile baitfish. The denuding of mangroves also means a curtailment in structure for mature gamefish to hide amongst.

Blue crabs migrated upriver to escape the chill. Stone crabs hunkered down in muddy burrows on the grass flats. Meanwhile, many species of marine grass, notably turtle grass (Thalassia species), do not grow in the winter; particularly not during frigid ones.

This all sounds like gloom and doom but it does have a silver lining. Migratory whitebait could be found between the bouts of cold weather. But this bait source moved offshore or migrated south when the majority of the cold occurred. That’s one less food source for the estuary.

There are still tube and blood worms that stayed safe and warm beneath the mud of the grass flats. Snapping shrimp took refuge under old logs or manmade structure like tires or concrete blocks. Barnacles, clams, oysters and mussels endured as did the small oyster crabs that live inside such shellfish.

Shrimp buried in the sand, the way they always have. They sustained the cold weather. Meanwhile, despite all the snook kills reported there was virtually no mortality among spotted sea trout.

These popular gamefish range much further north and can withstand temperatures that snook can not. They continue to flourish, particularly after a harvest closure in November and December. They might as well have also been off the catch list in January due to the chilly weather. Few anglers ventured onto the water last month.
That means great trout fishing could be the panacea that winter weary anglers need when the weather begins to warm.There are still plenty of trout out there and they have precious few places left to hide; a paucity of foods to eat. That amounts to some really great trout fishing when the weather does let up.

Crevalle jacks, snook, pompano and even trash species like snake, or lizardfish, died during the freeze and that means few gamefish left to compete with trout for the meager food supplies left this winter. Baits will be easier for trout to see with the clear water and the lack of grass. Meanwhile, the grocery list remains below par. That should equate to hungry trout when the days warm enough to perk up appetites. Trout become targeted on non-migratory food sources in the winter anyway. Hence, it won’t be unnatural for them to eat a lure that resembles a marine worm, shrimp or small crab.

Best baits will be a live shrimp fished below a popping cork or free-lined. With the lack of grass you may not need that cork but trout will still be found around structure. It may not be lush turtle grass beds but look for shell bars or hard bottoms where turtle grass doesn’t grow anyway. If you fish this kind of structure, in shallow water, that cork might come in handy to keep the shrimp off the bottom and away from the trash fish that did survive the freeze.

Live shrimp will probably outshine lures until the water really warms up. Best rig to use is a 2/0 long-shanked hook. This is important because the long hook shank makes unhooking trout easier and results in more successful releases. The best leader for trout is a 15-20-pound test piece of fluorocarbon about 18 inches long. You might find the fish to be leader shy in the clear water and need to scale down accordingly. Unless there is a lot of tide a weight shouldn’t be needed. If you have to add one make it a small quarter-ounce rubber core sinker or split shot. You probably won’t need that except when fishing near the passes.

If you insist on using lures than the watchword is slow down. Winter lures simply can’t be fished too slowly. Jerkbaits, jigs and the smaller DOA lures all work well when fished very slowly. Next to a live shrimp these will be the baits of choice.

All indications point to spectacular late winter trout fishing. Now if only the weatherman will cooperate and provide a few days of sunny skies and seventy-degree temperatures. When that’s the case forget all about the freeze. It’s in the past now and there is good fishing yet to come.

So what do you think? What are you catching now? Let us know.

By Guest Writer: GB Knowles

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Trout Fishing May Benefit From Freeze

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Trout Fishing May Benefit From Freeze

Sand bream (mojarras) died today in the upper reaches of the Manatee River near Fort Hamer. With one more night of even colder weather and a hard wind gusting to 25 from the north, a lot more snook are sure to die.

If they perish in the upper Manatee River it will represent a major snook kill; probably the worst such event since the early 1960s. On Sunday afternoon there were still some snook left alive but the extremely low tide on Monday morning (caused by the north wind) could well finish off the bulk of the snook population in the Tampa to Charlotte Harbor area.

Snook are already dead in Placida and around Burnt Store south of Punta Gorda. So the freeze kill appears to extend over most of the range of Gulf Coast snook.

Many snook will not be seen for several days as they die and sink to the bottom and it takes time for them to decompose and float to the surface. By mid-week the carnage could well prove disastrous to this popular gamefish. In the event that a massive kill occurs it’s possible that the state may step in and close harvest on this already vastly restricted species. Snook harvest is already closed for most of the year.

The Christmas Eve freeze in the 1980s prompted the state to close the entire month of December to protect cold-stressed snook. The state has never had to respond to a 60s style kill. Intense scrutiny of this one-time commercially harvested gamefish only began during the late 1970s. As Florida’s most popular gamefish dies en masse there is only speculation just how bad it will get and what measures such a kill will merit from fishery managers. The freeze of 2010 could well put snook off the catch list; perhaps for many years to come.

By GB Knowles, Guest Writer

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Florida Snook Need a Break from Cold Weather

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Florida Snook Need a Break from Cold Weather

It’s been colder in Florida. The freezes in the early 1960s killed citrus groves en masse and decimated tropical animals like snook and manatees. It’s snowed more. In 1977, on January 17, my young cousin made a snowman in Tampa. It snowed in Miami that year and was the first recorded instance of snow in Bahamian history.

But there has never been a period of such prolonged cold in Florida. For two weeks the temperatures haven’t climbed out of the 50s and many of those nights saw lows in the 20s.

Possible snow flurries and the coldest weather yet is due for this weekend and into the first of next week. Temperatures are forecast to drop to 27 in Tampa, in the city, and that means frozen teens in the outlying country.

Snook and manatees, a pair of tropical creatures that are always at risk from dire cold, are already greatly stressed. Two days ago Captain Scott Moore reported massive kills of Crevalle jacks in the canals in Anna Maria city.These fish are usually the first to die in cold weather. Unlike snook (or manatees) jacks have to swim constantly to survive. This habit prevents them from seeking out and remaining in warm water outlets such as underwater springs, drainage run-offs or deep water pockets.

Jacks were also stressed and dying at Port Manatee, according to Captain Joe Webb. That deep water shipping port is a notorious death trap for tropical animals during freezes. Joe said huge snook are already turning belly up and struggling to survive and the worst of the cold is still to come.
Pockets of cold-stunned snook were reported all over the Gulf Coast. In the canals of Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island they are massed for warmth. But water temperatures there are already below 50 degrees. More stressed snook were reported from the canals of Snead Island.

With this many snook congregating near the open waters a large kill, perhaps the worst in a lifetime, is probable. Late Friday afternoon there were no stressed jacks or snook in the Fort Hamer region of the upper Manatee River. But that may be the only good news.
Snook once traveled far up the rivers to escape such killer freezes. In the freshwater reaches of the rivers and creeks they found natural artesian springs and heavily forested narrow streams that cut down on wind. But the building of power plants, artificial canals, deep water marinas and ports near the coast has led to many snook forgoing the journey upriver.

When an Arctic front is coupled with freezing air and high winds it cools off open waters very fast due to the wind chill factor. Hence, the current lengthy cold has led to a large number of snook becoming trapped in these areas. It’s too late for them to make the trip up the rivers and creeks.

Friday afternoon snow flurries were reported 100 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico as the Arctic front surges south to the Florida peninsula. With so many already-stressed snook close to the coast there is little hope against a major kill on Sunday night when the worst part of the freeze occurs. It might still snow in Florida this winter. But the cold air and the high winds alone are enough to cause great concern that a massive snook kill is in the offing.

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Freeze of a Lifetime Threatens Florida Fauna

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Freeze of a Lifetime Threatens Florida Fauna

The men and women who stalk big game do so now with primitive bows and arrows, cameras and even paintball guns.They’ll be reduced to spears and slings before it’s done and the entire reason for it is to put sport back into the hunt by handicapping the modern practitioner. Fishing, on the other hand, seems to be moving the opposite direction.

We’ve all seen it or been a part of it. They advertise robotic fishing lures on television as a can’t fail technique. You and I realize this is a scam and doesn’t work. But that doesn’t keep Madison Avenue from probing the current “fish at any cost” way of thinking.
Closer to home we now have braided line that virtually can not be broken. This modern technology is the darling of the fishing guide. Few modern anglers are skillful at casting a lure or bait, hooking a fish or avoiding mistakes while fighting one. That used to be part of the game and anglers spent hours reading and learning how to tie knots, practicing casting and mentally rehearsing mistake-free battles with big game fish.

But the growing number of fishing guides and the birth of braided lines has changed that; as has our busy world. Anglers no longer need to learn to cast or become skillful at fighting fish. Any klutz can cast the super thin braided lines. Meanwhile, because of its small diameter, a guide can load heavy braided line on a reel and it will still cast like silk thread. Most guides cast for their clients so angler casting errors are negligible. Hence there is no need to practice this once-vital art. The heavy test braid fools the angler into thinking they are fishing with light tackle yet they are free to make all the mistakes they want. The braid is so strong and tough that even the biggest clown can’t screw up and break a big fish off.

In this process light line class world records have fallen by the wayside and that was long the mark true sportsmen (and women) sought to attain.It’s hard to blame the guides. A lot of them have inadvertently spoiled anglers. Consequently, clients expect to put a bunch of fish in the boat. Arming them with unbreakable line insures that. But it does diminish the sport.

“That stuff casts so well; you can drag it over things that will cut monofilament; it’s so tough it ought to be illegal,” legendary fishing guide Scott Moore said in a weaker moment.Still, he’d probably be right there in the line of protesters if a proposal to ban the braid came down.There are drawbacks to the magic braid, however. It tangles around guides and billows in the wind. Pinpoint casting that allows a bait or lure to be cast and worked to a specific fish or spot can’t be done with this line. It’s also expensive.

Braids would never work on a bonefish flat where casting the bait to one small area and keeping it there is important. The wind would blow belly into the line and taking up this slack would move the bait away from where it needed to be. Florida Keys fishing guides can’t use the stuff; nor would they. Anglers there still believe in chasing world records and catching huge fish on very light lines.
There is still hope out there as fly rod anglers are growing and these outdoors enthusiasts are using the ultimate handicap just to make things more sporting. But everything was more fun – and more sporting – when we had to practice casting and tying knots and dreaming of how we would do battle with the great fish; never knowing just who would win the game.

So what do you think?

By Guest Writer:  GB Knowles

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Where Has the Sport of Fishing Gone?

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Where Has the Sport of Fishing Gone?

We’re seasoned travelers. Can pack for a three-week trip in five minutes flat. We’ve learned what works, and what doesn’t. And we always, always take our red, insulated, soft-sided Cannons Cooler. Indispensible if a cold beer is what you want after a long, hot day of hiking and the car is parked in the sun. It’s our refrigerator away from home. More than once its iced-down the catch of the day. It’s also good looking.

London. Gainesville. Capetown. Idaho. Toronto. Bahamas. Vancouver. The beach. Alaska. Montana. Jimmy Buffett concerts. If we had stickers for all the places it’s traveled, it would be covered.

It’s quality. But then it came from Cannons Marina. It’s like the boats they sell, only more compressible.

Guest Writer and Photo:  Michael Riter, Longboat Key

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

The Traveling Cooler.

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

The Traveling Cooler.

Captain Nick Angelo, Photo by Rusty Chinnis

[by: Guest Writer, Rusty Chinnis]

One of the prime times to fish during the “dog days” is at night or in the early morning hours before the sun crests the horizon.  The myriad dock and bridge lights that illuminate the waterways from St Petersburg to Venice are prime targets.  These areas hold schools of snook as well as trout, redfish and a host of other species.
Captain Nick Angelo of Land of Lakes fishes the areas from Saint Pete to Clearwater Beach. In these areas he targets a variety of fish including; snook, trout, redfish, tarpon, mangrove snapper, ladyfish, small grouper and bluefish. Although there aren’t as many snook as in areas to the south, the ones he does find are much bigger. There are usually plenty of redfish that average from rats (under slot) to over slot size.  For less experienced saltwater fly fisherman, Angelo finds that trout fishing can provide hot action, sometimes nonstop, all night long. Angelo looks for lights near a pass on docks, bridge fenders, boats, or even the shadow lines created by street lights on the area bridges. He uses a 9 or 10 weight rod with a 9 foot section of 40 pound fluorocarbon. He prefers a strong incoming tide just after dark, around the full and new moons.
The same strategy will work in the waters around Anna Maria Island as well as south through Sarasota. In all areas, docks with a water depth in excess of six feet are best. Tidal flow is another indication of action. Lights on the up tide side of a structure are best, allowing you more latitude when making a presentation, preventing hang ups and allowing flies, lures and bait to swing to the fish naturally. With a little attention to detail, it’s possible to target some docks on the incoming tide, and others on the outgoing tide.
The presence of hard bottom near a bridge or dock is another indicator of good fish habitat. The presence of bait is directly related to structures like ledges, oyster bars and seawalls. These areas attract the bait that lures the fish.  The type of light on the dock can also influence the action. Lights that sit low to the water seem to have a more distinctive shadow line, an area where feeding fish concentrate. In any case, the fish seem to hang on the dark edges of the shadow lines.
Captain Rick Grassett of Sarasota has pioneered night snook fishing from Sarasota to Venice. He regularly catches good numbers of snook when conditions are prime. While there are large numbers of snook under the best lights, they range much smaller than their more northern cousins. Recently Grassett has had excellent pre-dawn action on tarpon around lighted bridges in Sarasota. These fish range from twenty pounds to over one hundred.  He has found the tarpon to be selective and hard to catch unless he is matching the hatch.
When the rising sun lightens the horizon, anglers can move to the flats to target redfish, snook and trout. Concentrate your fishing around flats with good grass cover. In addition look for flats that feature channel edges, pot holes, sand bars and oyster bars. Strong tide will also increase your odds.
In the hottest months, from August through September, most of the early morning tides are from one to one and a half feet, so anglers will seldom see pushes or tails. Instead, concentrate on scattering bait, working birds and schools of mullet. One of the most productive strategies is to fish “seams,” demarcation lines that separate grass, sand, and other structure.
While pre-dawn or early morning is generally the best time during sweltering weather, there is one exception. The late afternoon outgoing tides that correspond to the full and new moons provide some fast action with a variety of species. Areas to concentrate on include the slues and channels that drain the inshore flats, and the passes where the funneling effect concentrates game fish and their prey. Passes that have flanking seawalls and rock groins can be particularly productive. These areas attract and concentrate the baitfish on which the predators feed.  Work lures and flies close to the structure.
Fishing the “doldrums” can be productive no matter where you fish as long as you follow a few rules. First and foremost you must find conditions that are acceptable to the species you seek. A snook and redfish are much more tolerant of high water temperatures than trout. In general, water temperatures must not be excessive, and you can count on early mornings and deeper water to moderate conditions.  The exception to the rule will be those areas and times where the presence of food overrides the fishes’ desire to locate comfortable conditions.  Fishing the “Summer Doldrums,” can be challenging, but master the rules and you’ll have a lot of productive fishing to yourself.

To connect with Captain Nick Angelo: 813-230-8473

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Dog day doldrums? They don’t have to be. Savvy anglers know to change their strategies, tailoring their efforts to maximize comfort and opportunities.

This post originated at Cannons Marina which offers used boats, and more!

Dog day doldrums? They don’t have to be. Savvy anglers know to change their strategies, tailoring their efforts to maximize comfort and opportunities.