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St Pete OpenSt Pete OpenSpearfishingSpearfishing

ChampChampAaron Sutcliffe Aaron Sutcliffe

with his 90-pound with his 90-pound ʻsea beastʼ grouperʻsea beastʼ grouper

2Page 12

September 2009September 2009

The The ReelReelHistoryHistoryof Fishingof FishingLineLinePage 14Page 14

XTreme RedfishXTreme RedfishTournamentTournamentPage 22Page 22

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P a g e 2 Wa t e r L I F E M A G A Z I N E S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9

Water LIFEMagazine inc.

Michael & Ellen Heller Publishers(941) 766-8180

e-mail (preferred) [email protected] Mail: 217 Bangsberg Rd. Port Charlotte, FL 33952

TOTALLY INDEPENDENTNot affiliated with any other publication

Vol IIX No9 © 2009 Water LIFENo part of this publication (printed or electronic) may be copied or

reproduced without specific written permission.

Contributing Editors:Photography” ASA1000.com

Senior Editor: Capt. Ron BlagoCharlotte Harbor Tarpon: Capt. Mark Bennett

Port Charlotte: Capt. Andy MedinaGasparilla: Capt. Chuck Eichner

Offshore: Capt. Steve SkevingtonCommercial Fishing: Kelly Beal

Sea Grant: Betty StauglerReal Estate: Dave Hofer

Inshore: Fishinʼ FrankDiving: Adam WilsonKayaks: David Allen

Sailing: Bill DixonOffice Dog: Molly

on the COVER THIS MONTH:Charter Captain and sometimes Water LIFE contributor

Aaron Sutcliffe with the 89+ -pound grouper that won him the 2009St. Pete Open Spearfishing tournament championship last month.

on our WEBSITE:WWW.waterlifemagazine.com

Fishing Resource Guide: Everything you ever wanted to know Don Ball School: Class ReportArtificial Reefs: Projects and progress lat/long for local reefsManatee Myths: Read the original plan to create sanctuaries andrefuges, as spelled out by the United Nations in 1984Kids Cup: Tournament Information.

This algae growth in a run off canal next to one of the phosphate stacks near Bartow made an interesting aerial photograph. We are not sure what caused it.

Photograph by Water LIFE Magazine

This is Phosphate Mining... This is Phosphate Mining...

S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9 Wa t e r L I F E M A G A Z I N E P a g e 3


Letters to: Water LIFE@comcast .net

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Good afternoon Captain Ron! I hope this findsyou well.

I read your article The Incredibly Durable Manateewith great bemusement. Some of my former colleaguesat Mote were insulted by some of your comments aboutme, but I actually found the story quite amusing, and atad flattering -- I donʼt think itʼs a bad thing at all to bewell liked and well respected by parties on various sidesof an issue. Forgive me for saying so, but I think YOUmay have missed the point. The reason that I am “wellliked” as you put it, is because I AM pleasant to workwith – in other words, I try to be open-minded, reason-able, and balanced. Yes, my priority is protecting marinewildlife (including manatees), but I am in favor of protec-tions that wonʼt put unreasonable restrictions on otherusers. I firmly believe that no reasonable boater wants toharm manatees, and likewise, no reasonable “environ-mentalist” supports unnecessary regulations.

As far as the articles on the Ocean Conservancywebsite and quantifying future danger to manatees: Iwish I could take credit for that elaborate scientific mod-eling but alas – those were not my data; I was merelyreporting the findings of a 5-year Status Review Reportprepared by the USFWS.

With regards to the Sarasota Local Rule ReviewCommittee and the Harrington bill, the intent of theLRRCʼs were for local stakeholders to have input andprovide guidance to the FWC when putting new manateespeed zones in an area. I do not believe there was anylanguage which stated they must be Current Residentsof that area. When I applied to the Sarasota Board ofCounty Commissioners to be appointed to the LRRC,they reviewed my background: 9 years studying mana-tees in Sarasota County while at Mote + performed

Masters Thesis research on manatees in Sarasota Bay(“Seasonal ecology and occurrence of manatees inSarasota Bay”) +, have published in scientific journalson manatees in Sarasota Bay (“Reproduction in femalemanatees observed in Sarasota Bay, Florida”) + my 12years as a resident of Sarasota County. Even though Iam currently a resident of Pinellas County (about 45miles to the north), they deemed I was fully qualified.The Sarasota BOCC Resolution creating the LRRCdoes not indicate residency is a requirement of being amember of LRRC. At the first meeting of the LRRC,some of the other members likewise questionedwhether it was appropriate for me to serve on the com-mittee. However, after reviewing my background withthem, they agreed that I was well qualified. In fact, theyhad so much confidence in me, the elected me as“Recording Secretary”, which basically means that I wasthe one who wrote the report with recommendationsfrom the LRRC (which all of the other members had toapprove).

At the end of the LRRC process, Iʼd like to think thateven those individuals most staunchly opposed to addi-tional manatee protections would probably agree thatnot only am I “likeable”, but that Iʼm also reasonableand look for balance when possible.

Once the FWC reviews the Sarasota LRRC reportand posts it on their website, I hope you note that theLRRC did not recommend an additional 20 miles of SlowSpeed; perhaps youʼll be quasi-relieved!

Feel free to give me a call and chat. Or if you domake it to any of the public meetings on SarasotaCounty manatee speed zones, please say hello – just nogushing.

Cheers, Jessica Jessica KoelschManager, Marine Wildlife, Ocean Conservancy

Editor Notes**Everybody should have a right to be heard, but a

paid employee of any environmental organizationshould not be a voting member of a public board.That was one of the reasons for LindsayHarringtonʼs legislative bill.

Any manatee rule review must ask how are themanatees doing since the new laws were enacted? Ifthey are worse off, then look at more regulations,but if they are better off the regulations should berelaxed. – Michael Heller

Reply to Capt. Ronʼs Manatee Article

Letter to D.C.Recently we had a customer come into Fishin Franks and buy a rod and reel, and vareious tackle, Thankfully this is not an unusal thing, However the

circumstances leading to this sale are somewhat note worthy. This man lived in Punta gorda for a few years. Working for a local Hospital and never foundtime to go fishing, then getting a better job in Washington D.C. moved. Years went by and now he was moving back to the area. before moving back hementioned to his friends in D.C. where he was moving to and he was thinking with more time off now he would start fishing. His friends in D.C. said ifyou are going to Port charlotte you have to go to "Franks" for your tackle and gave us great praise for being helpful and haveing really good prices onfishing stuff. So he moved to Northy Port and Came to Fishing Franks bought his trackle.

Told us this story, and said it was good advice. needless to say we were taken by surprise, So To the poeple of D.C. and the rest of you, Thank you somuch for thing of us it really means a lot. Customers are one thing but Friends willing to recomend us, is somthing specail.

Frank, Robert, Jeff, and everyone from Fishin Franks

By Michael Hel lerWater LIFE Editor

The days are getting shorter already.I went out Wednesday morning to put

the garbage down by the street at 7 a.m.and it was barely light. The humidity was97-percent. The air was still but cloudshad already formed both over theEverglades and out at the coast. Down the street, on the cul-de-sac at

the tip end of our block, a large orangeconstruction crane was idling, sending itspuffy black footprint into the air. I dragged the wheeled, green plastic,

trash container to the swale and swung itaround so the automated arm of a mecha-nized garbage truck could pick it up,move it around, and empty it all withouthuman contact. Unfortunately that truckhasn’t made it onto our route yet. Thetrash truck on our route still has the plat-form where a guy on the back jumps off,grabs the trash and throws it into the backof the truck. Then he hops back on thetruck and the driver pulls ahead to thenext stop.I could hear the truck a block away, so

I hurried to get the recyclables and thelawn stuff out and placed properly.Garbage placed improperly, sized, or con-

tainerized improperly receives a stick-on-rejection ticket – a warning that yourtrash has been refused by the refuse man.I have received a number of such rejec-tions over the years... but I digress.I watched the truck appear and disap-

pear slowly behind the houses across thecanal, stopping and starting over and overagain.

There was one particular house acrossthe canal that we almost bought 12 yearsago. It was owned by a woman namedLoraine. We called it Loraine'sHouse...until hurricane Charley took it.Then it just became Loraine's Lot. In this last month there has been some

action on Loraine’s Lot. First surveyors,then a scraper and now Loraine’s Lot hasa concrete foundation and the beginningsof some block walls. Loraine's Lot isthree houses up from the ‘tip’ of her deadend street. You can see the ‘big water’from there. It’s a great spot.I went back to get the last green con-

tainer of yard trash from out by the pool.I looked back at Loraine's Lot again fromthere. A few guys were now walkingaround. There was some action. Then asmall tarpon rolled in the canal and ittook my attention away. I dragged not one, but two more con-

tainers of palm fronds and lawn rakingsout to the street. Down at the end of ourblock, a pick up truck pulling a concretepump had pulled up. The crew on thecrane was swinging a section of new sea-wall into place.

I have to admit I was doozling, think-ing about the tarpon, when I heard therumble of the garbage truck coming downmy block. On our block, with the snowbirds

gone for the summer and 9 lots stillvacant from Charley, it doesn't take longfor the garbage truck to make it down thestreet. So on that hot morning with the big

green truck idling at the curb, and thecrane down the block swinging the lastsections of the new seawall into place;with the guys across the canal banging

hammers and stripping forms off freshconcrete... on that morning, while I wait-ed for the garbage man to dump my lastcontainer into the back of his smellytruck, I realized this could be a newbeginning. I’d like to think we're seeing some

action on properties with open waterviews, and on deep sailboat canal lots –I’d like to think that the locations thathave traditionally been most desirable willbe where we start seeing activity first.And I’d like to think we could be start-ing to see that now.


TrashTalking

XTReme Redfish Tournament winners Rick Jordan and Christiain Schilling werenʼt talkingtrash when they brought 13.56 pounds of redfish to the scale to win the August XTremeRedfish event at Laishley Park Marina. The 2009 XTreme Championship is 26-27 Sept., inTampa.


By Capt Ron Blago Water LIFE Senior StaffSay goodbye to the last free lunch

Florida residents got to enjoy- the right tosaltwater-fish from shore without the needto get permission from our government.As of August 1, 2009 everyone nowneeds to have a saltwater fishing licenseeven if they are only fishing from shore.The last great deal in Florida is now goneforever.It was back in 1989 when Florida

introduced its first saltwater fishinglicense which actually was a “fishingfrom a boat” license because of the shore-line exemption which said those fishingfrom shore or a structure connected toshore (pier) did not need a license. Thisset up a two-tier system that didn’t seemquite fair. I remember fishing a mangrove shore-

line from my boat early one morning andhaving a wader walk up to me and ask if Icould spare a few extra hooks. I needed alicense and he didn’t. I didn’t think thatwas fair, but he was quite satisfied withthe situation.This two tiered system probably would

have remained in Florida forever had itnot been for the Federal Government whodecided in 2007 that they wanted to beable to count all recreational saltwaterfishermen; and what better way to accom-

plish that than to count fishing licenses.This is where that shoreline exemption(free lunch) became a problem. The Feds said that if Florida didn’t

require everyone who fishes to get alicense then they would start a Federalsaltwater fishing license and they wouldkeep all the money they collected.Florida, with 2,276 miles of tidal

coastline and over 700 world fishingrecords to their credit, knew that therewere a lot of people fishing from shorewithout a license and that was a revenuesource begging to be tapped. The State reasoned if they didn’t get

the money the Fed’s surely would.Nobody was going to leave the fishermenunmolested. The State is estimating theycould sell up to 500,000 new shorelinelicenses at $9.00 each.Like all new laws this one has a few

strange provisions – Remember: whenone loophole closes a new one opens up. First off, this is a residents only

license; non-residents always were requiredto have a license to fish from shore oranywhere else and there is no special dealfor them. The cheapest license they canget is a 3-day license for $17. They alsocan get a 7-day for $30 or a year long for$47. If you are a Florida resident under 16

or over 65 you still don’t need a license.

If you have the regular residentannual $17 sal twater l icense youdo not need the Shorel ine License.And if you buy the shoreline license

but then decide you want to fish from aboat, you can not upgrade that license;you have to go get the regular license for$17- no credit for the $9 you alreadyspent.Here is a strange rule: You do not need

a shoreline license if you are on Medicaidor are receiving food stamps. And my favorite loophole is: Any resi-

dent fishing for recreational purposesonly, within her or his county of resi-dence with live or natural bait, usingpoles or lines not equipped with a fishingline retrieval mechanism (fishing reel)will not have to purchase a license. Thismeans that you can use a cane-pole or aCuban fishing yo-yo and not have to buya license.

How people react to this new $9license is the great unknown. So far saleshave been pretty slow. The benefit is that we get matching

funds based on the number of licensesissued. More licenses bought = moremoney for Florida from the Federal gov-ernment. In the end, how that money is spent

will determine if this is a good thing orjust another scam on fishermen. I do havea nagging doubt as to the motives of theFeds. They say they want a national reg-istry to improve recreational fishing dataon catch and effort. I hope they don’t usethis new data to implement even morerestrictions on recreational fishing. Iguess I’m just getting paranoid in my oldage; after all they’re from the govern-ment, they’re here to help us.

Capt. Ron can be reached for commentsor information at [email protected]

Capt Ron Itʼs all about Fishing from Shore

Perspective of the Month: We're going to pass a $Trillion-dollar health care plan writ-ten by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress thathasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president that also hasn't read it(and who smokes) with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's nearlybroke. What could possibly go wrong?

White House Ready to Unveil National Ocean PolicyFrom NACO theNat ional Associat ionof CharterboatOperatorsThe Obama administra-

tion is working to craft anew overarching nationalocean policy that couldchange how federal agen-cies address new projects atsea -- from offshore energydevelopment to aquacultureto marine conservation.Top administration offi-

cials last month kicked off

what will be a cross-coun-try tour of public listeningsessions on the plan, thefirst public events for agroup that has workedthroughout the summer inoverdrive, but under theradar, to craft new policy.Once completed, the

group's work could signifi-cantly alter marine plan-ning and set the stage for anew system of ocean "zon-ing" that would allocate

marine resources amonginterests such as fishing,boating, oil and gas devel-opment, shipping, renew-able energy and wildlife.The White House-

appointed group plans torelease the recommenda-tions for a first-of-its-kindnational ocean policy nextmonth and it plans to havea framework for marineplanning by the end of theyear.

Ita Desouza caught this tarpon from shore on July 31st. (the last day before the shorelicense went into effect) on the beach right in front of the Island House at Englewood withthe head of a freshly caught Spanish mackerel. He said he fought the tarpon for 20 minutesand then released it unharmed.


Capt S teve SkevingtonWater LIFE offshoreLet’s start off talking about the awesome

grouper bite that's been going on all month.These fish are hitting every bait we drop, theresuper easy to find, any hard bottom spot deeperthan 50 feet is loaded up with big fire truck sizedred grouper right now.We were only 45 minutes from the dock yes-

terday and these fish were all flopping around inthe cooler. My morning cup of coffee was stillpiping hot, and we were pulling up fish left andright!With all that action first thing in the morn-

ing, when we decided to take a break, we triedsome snapper fishing just a few mile's furtherout on a wreck.We had managed to load a castnet full of

small whitebait that we put out on 25-poundleaders and 2/0 circle hooks.These almost immediately were gobbled up by

nice 3- to 4-pound mangrove snapper. After abouttwo hours of flat-lining these fish, we had ourlimit.The permit are still on the chew, the deeper

wrecks have the bigger fish on them, while thePower Poles and some other "close to shorewrecks" have a lot of smaller permit still holdingon them.Once you find them, get your crabs in the

water. These guys are hungry.Kingfish are still around with limits of them

being caught out around 50-feet of water.Trolling has been the best on these fish.Offshore, the blackfin tuna and nice sized dol-

phin are still blasting live baits fished on top.And the deeper wrecks are still holding some

respectable amberjack and ‘cudas. Go Get ‘Em!

Capt. Steve operates out of Pineland Marina. Hecan be reached at: 941-575-3528 for fishing infor-mation or to book a charter trip – he is running a$125 pp full-day grouper/snapper special thismonth.

Offshore with Capt. Steve

Wading Species of the Peace RiverSeptember brings an end to summer, but not to the end of the heat. Up the Peace River, if the weather is good, things are usually busy on Labor Day Weekend.Also especially busy right now are the various rookeries along the river where eggs havebeen hatching and small birds are learning to fly. Seen to the left, an egret hatchling notlong out of his shell last month. Below, Wading birds of another species inhabit the sand-bar at the Horse Creek Cutoff.

River photo courtesy of Jimmy at All Fiberglass Repair


Water LIFE Div ing, Adam Wilson I didn't take these pictures, but this is

the team in the St. Pete OpenSpearfishing Tournament that sank on theSaturday morning of the event. The boatwas under power when one of the passen-gers thought something didn't sound right.The exhaust from the outboards was lowin the water and sounded unusual. They were well offshore, past 20 miles.

He alerted the driver/owner of the 30 footCentury, Craig Cavanaugh. Upon inspec-tion they discovered the bilge full of waterto the deck. The name of the sunk boat isNo Free Rides. A general consensus afterthe fact is a thru-hull fitting went bad. The guys were smart enough to quickly

call Coast Guard and pop their epirb beforeloosing battery power, and they tied alltheir gear to the boat for recovery. Theguys that picked them up were Chuck and

John aboard the Chucky 1. After deliver-ing the saved participants they returned off-shore to shoot the tournament! At theprize ceremony they were applauded. A couple of days later the crew returned

to where a salvage company deserted theboat due to rough seas on Sunday. Two2,000 pound lift bags were already in placeon the sunken vessel and several expensiveitems of gear (that couldn't have possiblyhave just disappeared) were missing, i.e.regulators taken off of tanks, but tanksstill there! The salvage company apparent-ly took some of the more expensive gearand was en route to remove the rest whenthe crew appeared. Lesson learned, sal-vagers are still PIRATES even today. The crew recovered their remaining gear

and the salvager’s lift bags and are holdingthem until someone coughs up their miss-ing gear!

No Free RidesBoat Sinks at St. Pete Open Tournament

Right: Checking it out two days later

P a g e 1 0 Wa t e r L I F E M A G A Z I N E S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9

Don Ball School Update7th Grade Classes start in October

S taff ReportWe’ve just finished unloading a pick-up truck

full of new Shakespeare Affinity rods and reels.Students in our 8-week course receive rods andreels, a full tackle bag and a copy of our FishingResource Guide for a $12 course fee. This will be the 7th year of the Don Ball

School. To date, over 700 children have graduatedfrom the program. The Don Ball fishing classesare taught by accomplished local fishing guides.Capt. Danny Latham is teaching the class at

Punta Gorda Middle school. Capt. Bart Marx isteaching the class at Port Charlotte. Capt. AndyMedina is teaching the class at Murdock MiddleSchool, Capt. Rod Walinchus is teaching at L.A.Ainger and Capt. Mike Mannis is teaching atHeron Creek Middle School in Northport. Wethank them all for doing this.Students in the program are exposed to eight

evening classes, one night a week starting inOctober. During the course of the classes studentslearn about tides, locations to fish, equipment andterminal tackle, chart reading, inshore and offshorefishing, cast nets, knot tieing, shrimp and livebait. All the instruction is specifically geared tothe Charlotte Harbor area environment.Additionally there are audio visual presenta-

tions by the FWC, Sea Grant and Mote Marineduring various class nights and our own AerialTour of Charlotte Harbor will also be shown.Classes are limited to 25 students at each

school. Starting the second week of Septemberwe will distribute application forms to the 7thgrade office at each school. Students pick up acopy, bring it home for parents to fill out andthen return the form to the school office. The $12class fee is due the first night of class.

The Charlotte Harbor FWC Field Laboratorypresentation included a shark jaw

By Fishin FrankWater LIFE Charlotte Harbor

First there was braided grass, or maybe braided hair –there is some debate which came first. Either way, it wasthousands of years ago. Where there is water people willfish and to fish you need line. This is a brief history offishing line as I understand it.In the beginning horse hair was used because the strands

were so long it was easier to braid and actually quite strongfor it's size. It could be woven with many strands at therod end then using fewer strands made to taper down smallat the hook end. Then silk became the high-end line ofchoice for those who could afford it. By the 1700s hempwas the primary string or rope. The only problem it wasnot as strong as silk or even horse hair in small diameters.Other lines were made from anything at hand such aswool, cotton or linen; all have been used for line. If youwant to fish you use what ya got.

The year 1938 brought about the biggest leaps in fish-ing line. DuPont came up with the synthetic materials:Nylon and Dacron. Mono-filament, Dacron line (because ofits strength and flexibility) quickly became the favoriteline of choice, and still is available today. Where-as earlymono was stiff, wiry, and would not cast, braided nylonlines became popular in fresh water and lasted until themid 1990s as a favorite of pan-fishermen. In salt-water,however, braided nylon rotted quickly and lost strength inweeks.

Because of the floating aspects of Dacron line, stain-less steel monel line made its way into the off-shore deepwaters. I was harder to work with and more difficult to usethan Dacron, but it would sink without lead weights andthat made it great for trolling deep waters. As steel line became more popular, Penn introduced a

reel just for steel line; a tall, narrow spool Penn # 49Super Mariner just for steel line. The down side: steel linedoes not cast.

Another company, seeing the market potential of sink-ing line made a lead core fishing line. It hade an inner coreof lead with Dacron woven over the lead and a plastic coat-ing over that. With lead core line you did not need a spe-cial reel, it would work well with any conventional reel.The down fall was it did not work well with spinning tack-le or cast much better than the steel line. 1959 was the year that really changed fishing into what

we know today. DuPont introduced "Stren" the first flexi-ble thin mono filament line, easy to cast with good knotstrength... everything you could ask for. From 2 poundtest to 200 pound test it worked great.

This was also the year the ZEro-hour-Bomb-COmpanyintroduced the spin-cast reel, later to be known as the

Zebco - push button. If Stren had not come out, spin-castreels would have failed miserably. The only other line thatworks well on them is today’s modern mono. Spinningreels with a bail could now cast mono and became the reel-of-choice.

DuPont had kept working on mono line because of itsknot strength. It was since the beginning the best materialfor breaking strength at the knot and still is to-day.

Enter the 90s and Spectra or Dyneema lines were intro-duced to fishermen, Super-Braids have arrived, thinner,stronger and 30 pound test is the size of 6 – WOW!However the first lines out were very rough just slidingthem across your fingers would lead to cuts. Early super-braids would actually cut through the guides of the fishingrods. Better manufacturing processes and heat-fusing madethe lines smoother, better for casting and not as apt to cutyou. The down-side of super-braid it is very visible to fish.You get less strikes and knot strength is very poor.

Mono is still the best selling line. It is inexpensive,has great knot strength and is almost invisible to fish,which brings me to the last up-grade to fishing line: fluo-rocarbon. It is made of more dense material and does notabsorb water the way mono does, so it bends light raysalmost identically to water. This makes it the most invisi-ble fishing line ever made. Fluorocarbon has one majordrawback: it casts like steel wire! So at this point in timefluorocarbon makes great leader and lousy line.

What the future will bring? Maybe a fluorocarbonsuper braid? Who knows? Contact: [email protected]

Itʼs Not the Same Old Line

Top: The old stainless steel monel line on a # 49 PennBottom: Lead core Dacron. Stop in Franks store to see this

16BitTst

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minum trlr, Just serviced. WAS$21,900 REDUCED to $15,900

2006 – 25' Pro-Line 250CC,twin 140 Suzuki 4 ST. Loaded!Windlass, Garmin w/radar,hardtop, outriggers, tabs,well/fsh boxes. Show condition.Aluminum trlr. Retail@$50K Yours for $35,900

1994 Mako 181 Flats, 2001Yamaha 150hp HPDI, hydraulicsteering, trolling mtr, livewell,READY TO FISH! $9,900

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By Capt. Mark BennettWater LIFE TarponWhile most anglers and guides alike arefishing for other species, Jenni and I arestill doing the tarpon thing. Sure, Ienjoy the thrill of catching snook andredfish on light tackle, but September isstill tarpon season for us. There will beplenty of time to fish for the little guyslater.This month I thought I would answer acouple questions I have been asked hun-dreds of times over the years.How big does a tarpon have to beto be considered a trophy?I really consider any tarpon, regardlessof size, a true trophy. Although wecatch tarpon over the 200 pound markevery season, my favorites are alwaysthe smallest. In our area the tarponaverage very big, 80 to 120 pounds. Afish 20 to 40 pounds are quite uncom-mon, for me anyway. I just admire thefight these smaller ones bring to thetable. They pull almost as hard as thelarger ones, but it takes just a coupleminutes to bring these little balls of fireboat side. Sure catching a fishapproaching the 8 foot mark is quite afeat, but I just love the smaller ones.

As far as trophy status on a larger fish, Ireally think that is up to the individual.Some people come down every year tofish for tarpon and have caught manylarge fish. For some who visit our areato fish for tarpon it is a life long dreamto catch one. There is not a fish in theworld, in my opinion, that possessesthe beauty, sheer power and the will tosurvive that our tarpon do. I really feelit is the pinnacle of an anglers fishingcareer to bring one boat side. The other question is: How do I go about getting a tar-pon mounted for the wal l?A quick length and girth measurement isall you need. Do not pull the fish inthe boat to do this. Bring them alongthe side of your boat and have one per-son hold on to the fish by the lowerjaw, put the boat in gear and idle aheadto revive the fish. Then have someoneeither with a tape measure or a piece ofleader line, measure the fish. I haveestimated fish lengths on the side of myboat and then measured the marks later. All this needs to be done very quicklyso the fish can swim away unharmed.A photo can also help to get the col-oration and distinct markings of your

particular fish perfect for a replicamount. Most beach tarpon have thedistinct green back and silver sides.While most from the backwater havebrown backs and a golden appearance.There is no need to kill a tarpon for amount. I don’t even know any taxider-mist that still does skin mounts ofsaltwater fish. I have used GrayTaxidermy with great results for years.They usually have the mount done inabout three months, a very short waitcompared to some others and I havenever had a complaint from a clienton the quality of their work. For anyone that wants absolutely thebest job available, I highly recom-mend C.E. Reed taxidermy. Theirbusiness is located in Bushnell, FL.C.E. Reed Taxidermy does the mostbeautiful work on any fish or othergame I have ever seen. They are quiteexpensive and you will wait a longtime to get your mount back, but Ifeel they are the best, bar none. C.E.Reed’s museum quality showroomsays it all. One final thought on get-ting a tarpon mounted; make sureahead of time you have a wall largeenough!Keep the line tight and bow whenthey jump...like in the picture to theright!

Big Fun In Smaller Packages

Capt. Mark Bennett can be reached to booka trip or for comments or questions at:www.tarponsnook.comor at (941) 474-8900

Photos by Jeni Bennett


By Adam WilsonWater LIFE DivingThe world’s largest spear fishing tour-

nament, the 44th annual St. Pete Open,wrapped up in August with close to 300shooters despite the miserable weatherforecast of high winds and seas. The$50,000 prize table probably helpedturnout. Once again the tournament wasinjury free, even after a 30 foot boat sankin the early morning hours (see page 9).Luckily another boat in the tournamentoverheard the distress call on the VHF andresponded in minutes.The Open is a big-fish tournament,

not an aggregate style. The categories aregrouper, snapper, amberjack, hogfish, bar-racuda/cobia, lobster and sheepshead. Allthe First-place category winners have firstshot at the prize table, whether it’s a 100pound grouper or a sheepshead like thisyear’s winner a 5.25 pounder.Most of the big grouper this year came

from between Fort Myers and Venice outpast the 140 foot depths. Englewood’sown Aaron Sutcliffe, a first year partici-pant, took first place with an 89.6 poundblack grouper (see cover photo) while div-ing with Travis Ormond who took 7thplace grouper with a 33.1 pound blackgrouper. We started our trip out in 165 feet off

Venice looking for big amberjacks andgrouper. Jumping off the boat earlySaturday morning to wake up and cool offI was amazed at a school of rainbow run-ners that came right up to me under theboat. They were huge, close to three feetlong and 15 pounds, and even thoughthey weren’t a tournament fish I thoughtof grabbing my gun until I saw the hugebull shark that was closely following theschool. After gearing up to hit the bot-tom and rolling in we noticed our bigfriend was still there to follow us all theway to the bottom. He shadowed us forthe whole dive, but never invaded our

space enough to make us nervous.Hoping to find some monster grouper

hiding under the 10 foot ledge we onlyfound some mediocre sized mangs and 50pound jacks. After surfacing we had tomake the call to back dive and try to findsome bigger jacks or move. With the seassteadily increasing and a report of somecobia from our junior diver Paul, who hadgone down to get his amberjack, wedecided to give it a second try.

On our second drop we saw the bullshark had found us very interesting andinvited some of his buddies to join theparty. Back on the bottom again I justdidn’t see a jack worthy of a glass trophyand I hesitated to pull the trigger. Carldecided to start his own action and drilleda 45 pounder. Missing the sweet spot byan inch, his Nantucket sleigh ride began.The commotion was just enough to bringin some bigger jacks and I lined up myshot on a quality fish. I let the 60 inchesof steel fly and got a perfect 45 degreeangle hit in the jack’s head. Unfortunatelyit was two inches high and my ride beganas quickly as Carl’s. Instead of pulling

the line connecting me to the jack to fin-ish him hand to fin with a knife, Ireloaded with another shaft from the sideof my gun and let it fly. I was lower thistime, but now I had a shaft through hisgills. One more shaft to go. I was gettingtired of being dragged around the bottomof the sea. A quick pull of the trigger andthree shafts later green blood began pour-ing out of the jack’s now pincushionhead. Finally a decent shot and the amber-jack began to slow down and crashed nosefirst into the gulf floor. With a guttedweight over 70 pounds I thought I mighthave a chance at placing.

Seventeen long, rough miles laterand we arrived at our second spot, a patchof hard bottom in 165 feet of water offEnglewood. Stephen and Jerry were upand the bottom machine looked verypromising. Not 10 minutes later their liftbag pops the surface with a 55 poundblack grouper attached. Stephen was closebehind with a tale of bigger and moregrouper still down below. Needless to say

Carl and I were on the drop. There were some big grouper, but they

were stirred up like an angry hornets’nest. Realizing I wasn’t going to get agood shot on a trophy fish I shot twoscamps, one 15 pounds, the biggest Ihave ever seen and I was headed topside.

With a 60 mile run home and a maxspeed of 20 miles per hours against the20 knot east wind our diving was doneand it was time to make it to the weighin. After six years of struggling for oneof the glass trophies, my amberjack took3rd place. Showing how tough the com-petition is, Stephen’s big grouper, thatwould make most peoples’ year, took 5thplace. Our junior shooter Paul Wagenseilfrom Englewood took 2nd place in thejuniors division again this year with anaggregate weight of 29.2 pounds and Carltook 6th place amberjack. We owe a huge thanks to Laura at

Construction Supply of SouthwestFlorida inc. for once again sponsoringteam WreckReation III.

DIVINGwith Adam Wilson

Spotted Eagle Rays glide over the bow of a wreckClosing in on a grouper

S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9 Wa t e r L I F E M A G A Z I N E P a g e 1 3

By Betty S taugler Water LIFE / Sea Grant Last month I attended a session of the

Florida Natural Resources LeadershipInstitute (NRLI) which focused on theexpansion of Port Manatee. NRLI teach-es natural resource professionals to take aleadership role when dealing with conflictin the natural environment. Much of thefocus of this session surrounded balanc-

ing environmental resource protec-tion with the economic growthexpected as a result of the expansionof Port Manatee. Although the con-flict resolution discussion was good,I found the whole global marketconcept to be most interesting.As the closest deep water port to

the Panama Canal, Port Manateemay be a logical choice for pacificmarket trade destined for the UnitedStates east coast markets. The PanamaCanal project, which officially started in2007, will double the size of the canal’scapacity and allow for more traffic oncecompleted. The canal project, targeted forcompletion in 2014, will construct twolock complexes – one on the Atlanticside and another on the Pacific side, cre-ate new access channels to the new locks,and widen and deepen existing naviga-tional channels. The expanded canal willraise Panama’s importance as a transithub for Asian container freight destinedfor the eastern United States. Currently,70% of that cargo is offloaded inCalifornia or other western ports and thentransported by truck or rail to the easternmarkets. With the expansion of the Panama

Canal, the 95 year old canal will be ableto accommodate the very largest Asianvessels. Currently the canal locks allowfor passage of ships carrying up to 4,80020-foot-long containers. Once complete,the new widened locks will allow passageof ships carrying 12,600 20-foot-longcontainers. Given that Port Manatee is located in

close proximity to the Panama Canal, isclose to the highway (on U.S-41 and I-275 nearby) and has rail access on site, itis in a good position to benefit once the

canal is complete. But, economic gainswill only come if sufficient environmen-tal protection is ensured. There are a number of environmental

concerns that the Port must addressincluding stormwater runoff, dredge mate-rial disposal and loss of wetland habitats. As part of the Port’s expansion, dredg-

ing within the basin is occurring in orderto accommodate deeper vessels. Dredgematerial must go somewhere and thespoil material dredged to date is not suit-able for most activities. Currently thespoil is sitting on a mountain onsite. Itcontains a lot of clay and is too wet forroad or other construction projects. The

Port is exploring its options for dis-posing of the material including mix-ing it with topsoil to use as a landfillcover (landfills are required to covertheir piles daily). As mitigation, thePort has established seagrass beds andcreated a bird rookery. The rookerywas built in partnership with theAudubon who monitors it regularlyand reports successful nesting of overten shore bird and wading birdspecies.

As a side note, but equally interesting,during the NRLI session described above,we took a tour of the Port Manatee facil-ity to see the expansion plans and someof the environmental mitigation projects.While on the tour, I observed a couple ofsmall recreational fishing vessels withanglers’ onboard fishing very close to thedocks in the shallow water seagrass habi-tat which was created adjacent to the Portentrance. I thought it was peculiar sincemost ports will not let recreational craftthat close. We were advised that thefacility, at the request of citizens, and inpartnership with the Coast Guard, willallow access to watercraft if the captainhas completed a special course related tothe port and its environmental resources.The boats must fly a burgee and the cap-tains must carry a cell phone and agree toreport any suspicious activities. For more information about the Port

Manatee expansion, visitwww.portmanatee.com. For more information about the

Panama Canal expansion, visitwww.pancanal.com.

Betty Staugler is the Florida Sea GrantAgent for Charlotte County. She can bereached at 941.764.4346.

Sea Grant is a University of Florida IFASprogram.

Port Manatee Gearing Up for Panama Canal Traffic

Concrete at Port Manatee

Seagrass mitigation at Port Manatee

By Capt. Andrew MedinaWater LIFE Charlotte HarborLast month the ladyfish were just piled up on the east

side. While most anglers consider this fish a trash fish, tome they are gold for a number of reasons, so while theyare in and feeding in herds we like to load up our freezerswith as many as we can stuff in and still get the doorshut. The day started out as normal. We got green backs,

then while running to the area we were going to fish wenoticed the ladyfish. Stopping, grabbing lines and lures,we began to fill the cooler up with ladies. Now if youever caught ladyfish you know they jump around and puton a bit of a show in the water. And if they make it tothe boat they continue to carry on. Well, catching them,unhooking them, and putting them in the cooler, some-times is more difficult than it seems. I grabbed hold of one to get the plug out of his

mouth, and somehow ended up with the trebles burieddeep in the top of my hand. Now, this in itself is some-thing I would not wish on anyone, but when you tack onthe element of a fish flopping around while attached tothe hooks it sort of gives a whole new meaning to theword ouch. After we got the fish off of my Sebile, then came the

task of removing the hooks. I tried pulling them straightout, but that was impossible. Then from teaching the DonBall classes I remembered a trick, where you use a smallpiece of fishing line to pull the hook out while keepingpressure on the shank of the hook. To my surprise thehooks came out. Now, I always try to “keep it real” and Iwon’t tell you it did not hurt, because it did, but it felt alot better than having a Sebile stick-shad buried deep inyour hand, with a flopping fish on the other end. Now Iknow firsthand this technique works very well. I will con-tinue to teach this.The fishing in Charlotte Harbor has been nothing short

of incredible for the last month and should continue to stayon the same track for the month to come

Tarpon fishing in our harbor is on fire. We have beenon a lot of large pods of fish in the center of the harbor.There have been a few days where there has been no oneelse on them, or we are sharing them with just one otherboat. It’s been pretty nice. We have been jumping most of the Tarpon on a pinfish

under a float, or a ladyfish free-lined. What we do is fisharound the deeper holes starting at the up tide edge, andjust drifting through. Give your bait a chance to get somedistance, away from your boat. This technique I have foundworks the best. If anchoring up and soaking bait on bottom is your

thing, catfish tails have also been working well eitherweighted or on a drift, which gives more fish a shot at thebait.

The inshore fishing has been equally hot. Redfish,snook, and mangrove snapper, have all been on fire. Inboth bays Bull, and Turtle, and down the east wall to a lit-tle past Burnt Store, the redfish action has just turned on.There have been great numbers of fish, perfect slot fish arenot uncommon and they are willing to eat. We have caughtthem on artificials, greenbacks and cut bait. It just did notseem to matter, once they turned on and decided to eat thatis what they did. For a while I was worried. After spendingso much time on tarpon I forgot how to catch a redfish,But it’s like riding a bike, you may get rusty, and a fewbruises, but it all comes back to you. Snook fishing will open up on the first of the month

with the legal slot size being 28– to 33–inches. A lot ofanglers tend to miss out on the slot window; after all, it isonly 5-inches. If you’re fishing in an area that has beenproducing a lot of undersize fish, my suggestion to you isleave. All though you are catching fish and it’s hard toleave fish, to find fish, the chances of you catching a keep-er out of that group is slim. Snook are what I refer to as“comparison fish.” I have found that small fish will tendto stay with other small fish, while the larger fish, willstay with larger fish. Snook in themselves are an ambushfeeder, that’s why you find so many around docks andbridges. The structure gives them a great advantage point.This is where you will primarily find your larger fish.Instead of throwing 3” green backs, give them somethingthe small fish will have to think about twice before eating.Try throwing an 8- or even a 10-inch finger mullet. Thisway the shorts will leave it alone long enough for a largerfish to get a chance at it. If you are fishing artificials: same theory – larger plugs.

I like throwing the Bomber Long A, model number16AXS104, in red and white. This has been my go to lurefor years, when it comes to fishing structure. It has pro-duced countless numbers of keeper and over slot fish. Youwill need to purchase a snook stamp for $2.50, if youintend to keep a snook for dinner. The fines are steep forshort fish and for oversized fish and fishing without astamp can also cost you. You probably will see more officers out checking the

hot spots this year; rumor has it an additional three officershave been assigned to Charlotte harbor.

Till next time, be safe on the water, and treat a child toa day of bent rods and stretched lines.

Capt. Andrew Medina can be reached at (941)456-1540or on the web at www.fishfloridatarpon.com, to book atrip or fishing info.

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By Capt. Chuck EichnerWater LIFE InshoreIn the southern waters of Florida the

abundance of fish is created by the abun-dance of the food that they have to eat.Each fish has its preference on what itlikes to eat at any given time and itvaries by season with different migrationsof crustaceans, migratory baitfish and seacreatures that enter the Harbor. With sucha variety of forage in the Harbor for thefish to eat you never know from day today what their preference will be. In thepast two weeks I have fished for Tarponand on one day they will just crush pin-fish and the following day they will havenothing to do with them. So the savvyangler will have a variety of baits onboard. Redfish, snook and other species are

no different. They have their preferencesand it varies from day to day. Often youjust can’t tell what the best bait will beother than to experiment. For instancewith the abundance of pinfish in the grassbeds you would think that all fish wouldwant to eat pinfish at any time becausethey are so easy to get. Redfish love toeat pinfish but they are not up for a chasewith the warm summer waters approach-ing 90 degrees. Often a piece of cut deadbait laying on the bottom will be moresuccessful or even a piece of pinfish willout fish a lively one under a float. If you throw the cast net multiple

times in any grass bed in CharlotteHarbor you will find many sea creaturesincluding scaled sardines, threadfin shad,multiple species of shrimp, pipefish, bal-lyhoo, pinfish, grunts, snails, seahorsesand a variety of crabs. What a smorgas-bord the fish have this time of year andpart of your luck or success will dependon not only the bait that you choose butin how you present it. Here are somegeneral suggestions on what baits to useand how to fish them this time of yearfor a variety of different species:

� Snook – Snook will be found nearthe beaches and many have alreadymigrated back into mangrove shallows.

Their preference seems to bescaled sardines and thread fin her-ring. You may wish to experimentwith your presentation as some-times bait under a cork will outfish a free swimming bait.

� Redfish – Redfish will eatjust about anything this time ofyear but they don’t really want tochase it. Preferred baits are pin-fish, cut ladyfish, live crab orpieces of crab. There are a hugenumber of ballyhoo and smalljacks in the harbor. These mightmake terrific cut bait - still someexperimentation left on my part!Many anglers wish to use freeswimming or white bait and willfind that their catches will go waydown this time of year becausethat is not the preferred bait of theredfish even thought they are seen nearlyeverywhere in the same habitat.

� Speckled Trout – Located primarilyin the deeper grass beds on the outside ofthe sandbars in the southern regions ofCharlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound.Trout love any type of small white baitfished under a cork with a little bit ofweight or a jig head tipped with ashrimp. Experimenting with odd-ballplastic baits on jigheads will result introut fillets. Trout are munching andcrunching things we can’t even think of.

� Spanish Mackeral – Spanish mack-eral are off the beaches and trolling withsmall spoons and white bucktail’s will bea very effective way to catch these fish.Primarily the Mackeral are feeding onhordes of small bait fish and anythingthat imitates them will make you suc-cessful.

� Tarpon – Tarpon will be found trav-eling in many different areas of CharlotteHarbor and on the beaches for the monthof September. Every day is an experimentin what the fish would like to eat. Beprepared to have large threadfin herring,ladyfish, crabs, grunts and pinfish onboard and vary your techniques from fish-ing on the surface to free lining to

weighted baits on the bottom. � Sharks – These are the easy ones. A

variety of sharks including blacktips,whitenose bonnetheads and long nosesharks will be found in 3 – 7 feet ofwater on the outsides of sandbars thistime of year. The good new is that thesefish are hungry and will eat just aboutanything as long as it’s fished on the bot-tom. Chumming with cut fish will defi-nitely attract the sharks to your boat.Strong outgoing tides will produce thebest results.

� Offshore Species – Bonito, barracu-da, snapper, grouper and kingfish willstart to appear in bigger numbers thismonth. Their focus is on one thing andthat is the large bait pods of the whitebodied finned fish we call whitebait.Cast-netting threadfins and scaled sardinesor trolling silver spoons jigs and swim-ming plugs will produce explosive strikesfrom these hard fighting fish. The majori-ty of these fish can be found within 15miles of shore and any type of structure,reefs, weed lines or current breaks willreveal congregated bait pods and thepelagic species will not be far behind.Grouper will be found on live patches onthe bottom and also on public reefs andpinfish are their preferred bait.

Some of the best fishing of the year iswinding up right now as we transitioninto the fall months. It’s hard to notice abig temperature change on land but thefish detect the reduced sunlight hours anda few degree temperature drop is a signalfor them to feed. On your fishing tripsyou should always be on the lookout forany kind of bird life. Birds dipping on thesurface usually mean some form of baitfish beneath the surface. If you are nearthe bait the fish that you are looking tocatch are not far. One of the great thingsabout fishing this time of the year is thatbait is easy to catch. Fill your livewell,put a few fish on ice for cut bait and headout. If you just enjoy catching fish thenchange pursuits if your target speciesdoesn’t cooperate- they might just be eat-ing an influx of grass shrimp or perhapstheir on a pipefish diet that will be hardto compete with. It may sound absurdbut your cast net will reveal many smallaquatic creatures that must look like fishfood to a fish.

Capt. Chuck Eichner is a local chartercaptain. For information or to book aguided fishing trip call 941-505-0003

or go to his website: www.backcountry-charters.com

What Eats What?

Even this crusty crab looks tasty to something out there in Charlotte Harbor


By Bi l l DixonWater LIFE SailingThe Sarasota Sailing Squadron’s LaborDay regatta will be Sept 4, 5, 6. Theregatta will provide racing for PHRFmono, in Spinnaker, Non Spin, TrueCruiser, Pocket Cruiser and multi-hulls. One design fleets includeOpti’s, Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, plainLasers, Sunfish, Flying Scotts, and420’s. The regatta starts Friday at6pm with a registration party. Moreregistration will be available Saturday9am till 10:30. Skippers meeting11:00, first warning signal 12:30,refreshments and entertainment 5:00,6pm dinner. Sunday first warning sig-nal 11:00, no race will start after 2:30.Awards to follow.

A link to SSS’s Notice Of Racecan be found on the PGSC web site at

pgscweb. com. The PGSC fall racing series starts

Sept 13. Contact Tom Scottsoccerfan9@comcast. net

The Caloosahatchee Marching andChowder Society Summerset Regatta,

their 44th will be October 3, 4 off

Ft. Myers Beach. Used to be a LaborDay regatta, Last year hurricane warn-

ings pushed it back twice to earlyOctober. I guess they liked it there.

Also, the regatta used to be logistical-ly difficult for CH boats with Friday

night in Ft Myers Bch, Saturday nightat Naples and cars left everywhere tofetch after a looong trip back fromNaples with a bad hangover. This

year as last, the offshore race will startand end off Ft. Myers Beach. All thecars will be there, the return Mondaywill be 25+ miles shorter. The party-

ing will still be intense. A link to the NOR and entry formcan be found on the PGSC web site

at pgscweb. comThe Summerset has historically

been the first of the Charlotte HarborBOTY regattas, and I expect it still is,but I have been huddled in front of my

air conditioner for 2 months and Idon’t know that, but BOTY Guru

Dave Cleverly sai lr1946@aol . comdoes know.

William Dixon: [email protected]

2008 JOHNSON OUTDOORS

Key Paddlesports Dealer – East Coast

From the Journals of The Constant Waterman

We all know about electrolysis.Electric current found in the sea – proba-bly produced during the mating seasonof electric eels – is responsible for theionization and re-deposition of what weterm precious metals – bronze or stain-less steel – onto the scales of passingfish. What, then, of the electrolysis thatoccurs when waves, or even salt air,pass over a boat when someone is atthe helm?

There can be no dissent aboutwhich is more precious, the boat ormerely the helmsman. Consider thecheapness of human life versus theexorbitant amounts we pay to own andmaintain our boats. There can be nodoubt that ocean spray ionizes our sail-boats and deposits them, atom by atom,upon us sailors.

People say we grow to assume theattributes of our pets. I say we grow toassume the attributes of our boats.Portions of our boats replace those ofour bodies. I knew a man who spent thegreater part of his life at the wheel of hisTartan 34, sailing down east to Maineevery summer with the wind abaft hisbeam. This fellow has grown a huge bil-lowing thatch of white hair that haswoven itself into the prettiest spinnaker,and the spinnaker sheets are led throughthe hoops in his ears.

A Lady I know spends nearly all hertime in a Whitehall pulling boat. Not onlydo her fingernails and toenails gleamwith eight or ten coats of spar varnish,but her arms and legs have grown toresemble lovely teak rails and the var-nish work continues until it disappearsinto her sleeves and up her trousers. Iʼmtold by someone who claims to know thather seat is also well varnished. Itʼs saidthat her shear has so greatly improvedthat all the dinghies in the harbor turn towatch her every time she rows by, andthey say sheʼs grown a small bronzemooring ring in the end of her nose.

Another Lady I know spends nearlyall of her time on the foredeck. The name“Wung-out” is painted on her transom.When she spreads her arms before thewind, the mainsail flies from one side, anumber two genoa jib flies from theother. If only her sheets werenʼt soinclined to snag on the foredeck cleat,

weʼd invite her aboard more often. Lasttime we were out, it was blowing twelveknots, but gusting more, and she let thewind get behind her main for a moment.We jibed so hard she nearly popped hergooseneck out of her socket.

You can tell an old salt not only byhis mannerisms but by the way heresembles the boat he sails. When helifts the cover of his starboard oilskinpocket and takes out some mooring linesand a couple of fenders, you know heʼsbeen aboard his boat for a while. Justwatch him as he stows his winch handledown inside his port boot. When heʼsready to anchor he makes a hawse pipeof his thumb and first finger; the rodesnakes out of his sleeve. I knew a skip-per whoʼd fifty fathoms of three-eighthsgalvanized chain in his trouser pocket.But by then he drew nearly six feet andhad an over abundance of lead in hispants.

Thereʼs an old man I met whoʼsspent the better portion of his seventyyears at sea. His nose always pointsdirectly into the wind. Itʼs said that hissloop had a fearsome weather helm. Hisears are both triangular and grown sohuge that he had two sets of reef pointsewn into each. When he takes threeturns of double braid round his midriffand cranks his arms, he can take up ona jib sheet like nobodyʼs business. Hegets along most famously whenever hewets his rail and can make nine knots ifhis bottomʼs been recently scraped. Theyused to race him, when he was younger,from Newport to Bermuda. Now heʼsused mostly for coasting by a couplenorth of Boston. They tell me he spendsmost of his time in a slip now, and has anasty habit of spewing his oakum. But hestill shows indications of wanderlust, andthey need to keep extra spring lines onhim, especially when the breeze blowssouth, southwest. Constant Waterman has published a col-lection of Mathew Goldmanʼs articles in abook “Journals of Constant Waterman”which is for sale nationally. He continuesto contribute regularly to local boatingmagazines. His sketches adorn his bookand are also available for sale as cards.See his websitewww.constantwaterman.com,

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By David Al lenWater LIFE KayakingEven with all the beautiful and interest-

ing places to paddle in Charlotte Countyand beyond, now and then it's fun to trysomething a little different. But what?Over the course of a year, we do the man-grove tunnels many times, paddle theEverglades and the ever-present alligators,marvel at the beauty and wildlife in thecrystal springs north of Tampa.The Gulf isa regular venue with its always changing,always beautiful sky and water colors, notto mention the playing dolphins and theoccasional tarpon or sea turtle. We even doan occasional "moonlight" paddle when themosquitoes are less pesky than usual.What's left to do on the water that wehaven't done at least once?I've got it! How about a "Kayak Poker

Run"? You've all played poker, right? You

know the rules, how to bet, and all that.But have you ever played poker from thecockpit of a kayak? I'll bet not. Now youknow the "twist" part of our paddle.It was time for our pre-Labor Day

Picnicat Harbor Heights, so we decided to includea Poker Run in the festivities. A couple ofdays before the picnic, we sealed 25 play-ing cards in envelopes, placing fiveenvelopes in each of five water-proof con-tainers. Then we hid these containers infive different locations in the mangrovesand beaches around Harbor Heights. Eachlocation was marked as a GPS waypoint. Five teams, each with a GPS, were

given a list of the latitude and longitudecoordinates of the five card containers, butwith the locations in a different order (soone team couldn't follow another team tothe waypoint). The teams were not to openthe envelopes until they returned to thebeach. The highest poker hand would bethe winner.

On picnic day, eachplayer contributed $1 to the kitty, and awaywe went. The cards were hidden over a cou-ple of square miles of the Peace River, andin the mangroves to boot, so it was a pret-ty challenging exercise. Two hours later, everyone returned with

their envelopes, some of them prettysoggy but still usable. Interest was highas the envelopes were opened; a pairshowed up here, an ace high there, but the ultimate winning hand was two pair.

And the winning team split $18; how about that! Not exactly a Las Vegas

sized pot, but it added to the fun.We finished the day with grilled Angus

Burgers and all the trimings...wonderful.

All agreed itwas a fun day,that we would repeat soon.

The PortCharlotteKayakers meeteach Wednesdayevening at 5:30pm at Port Charlotte Beach Park . All are wel-come to join us to learn about kayak ing.For additional information, contact DaveAllen at 941-235-2588 or emailto:[email protected]

PaddlePaddlewith awith aTWISTTWISTKayak Poker RunKayak Poker Run


PROVIDED BY: Dave Hofer RE/MAX Harbor Realty(941) 575-3777 [email protected] www.harborparadise.com

Recent area news i tems:1. New proposed tax assessment

letters were sent on 8/20. In the absenceof meaningful sales data, the CharlotteCounty assessor's office made somemajor efforts to make assessments moreuniform among various classes of realestate avoiding the historically wide fluc-tuations caused by speculators and, morerecently, by bottom feeders. For singlefamily homes, tax valuations have beensplit between the lot value based onstandardized values and improvement val-ues generally based on the age and sizeof the home. Some examples lot valua-tion changes from last year are:

Standard sailboat canalfront lots -20%Standard powerboat canalfront -22%

Corner sailboat canalfront -28%Corner powerboat canalfront -37%

Golf course -62 %Non waterfront or golf course -64 %

Because of this methodology, older,smaller home values were much moreheavily influenced by the steep declinein land values. Combined lot and housevaluation decreases ranged any wherefrom 1% to 37% depending on the ageof the home. Median decreases wereabout 12%. Overall millage rates wereup slightly for the year which will resultin only minor changes in tax bills thisyear. 2. Charlotte County has applied for

11 stimulus grants totaling $17.5 mil-lion in windfall funds. Though it isunclear if any will be approved and fund-ed, it's a little distressing to see local

poloticos go after our Federal pocket-book for projects that can't be justifiedfor our local pocketbook!Commissioner Starr opposed the appli-cation for $1.2 million to provide secu-rity for the new Punta Gorda parkinggarage, while supporting $5.1 mil for anew dock and park at the northeast cor-ner of the Peace River and northboundRt 41. 3. Sarasota and the Baltimore

Orioles have finalized plans to bringtheir spring training to our area.4. To the delight of local mer-

chants, whose employees now have cov-ered parking, The Punta Gorda ParkingGarage opened on July 23.Negotiations are ongoing for leasing ofthe commercial space. No leases haveyet been finalized. 5. County Commissioner, Adam

Cummings announced his retirementafter 15 years of service to the County.Mr. Cummings has made it clear thatbeing the only board member with anyexperience in management during afinancial crisis has made him the oddman out on too many board decisions.Being the loan dissenting vote on somestaff cuts has limited his ability toremain an effective member of the board.In other news: The huge new Laishley Crab House

made it's grand opening on the HurricaneCharley anniversary. The Smuggler'sGroup added another waterfront touristdestination to their inventory. If youlike Harpoon Harry's and The Captain'sTable and have a few extra bucks tospend, you'll enjoy The Crab House.Our ever supportive local daily media

is doing its best to create a reversal inour downward pricing spiral. On July 24the Charlotte Sun headlines read "Lightat the end of the home sales tunnel...Charlotte County is the only MSA inthe state to show a rise in both sales ofhomes and median prices for June com-pared to last year." Too bad it's nottrue. Charlotte County median home

prices fell more than 20% from a yearago! And on August 19 headlines read"Home construction STAYS up... Julynumbers rise for fifth straight month."What they didn't mention was that theyare bouncing along at a rate that is still38% below last year's depressed level. An interesting case study of how

misleading median prices can be: take a

look at the chart below:The year over year change of Port

Charlotte/NorthPort condo sales priceswere up 46% to $80,000 from last year's$56,000. What these stats don'tshow is that this year's median$80,000 condo was built andsold for $240,000 in 2006!

Real Real Estate Estate NewsNews

Charlotte Countyʼs CompleteSwimming Pool SupplysPool Repair and MaintenanceStore

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

Specializingin

Heaters andPool Pumps

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

Finally! These new bathrooms are being constructed at the Spring Lake boat ramp andpark on Edgewater Drive in Port Charlotte. This bathroom allegedly cost just over$100,000 (no kidding!) and has been 5 years in the ʻwaitingʼ. Now if the county could justget itʼs act together to get bathrooms built at Placida, that would be an accomplishment.


Delay Tactic TheFWC has postponed theirinitial review of the mana-tee rule for Sarasota untilDecember. Bad Sign!

Redfish CupAccording to the countyʼstourism department theRedfsih Cup produced$320,000 in direct spend-ing for Charlotte County.To date, the tournamenthas reportedly generated3.7 million impressions inprint and electronic publi-cations and was broad-cast into 650,000 house-holds.

Scallops in the NewsOfficers Randy McDonaldand Clay Huff were con-ducting fisheries inspec-tions at the mouth of theSteinhatchee River whenthey found two individualsin possession of 18 gal-lons of bay scallops in theshell. The scallops wereseized.

More Scallops in theNews The numbers arein. Scallop Counts are:Sarasota Bay 131 andTampa Bay 674. It doesnʼtsound like much, but theTampa count is the high-est on record for the 13years they have done it.

Homeless to theRescue FWC notified byCharlotte County Sheriff'sOffice of a fisherman in acanoe robbing blue crabtraps. A homeless personhad observed the fisher-man paddling along a lineof blue crab traps, empty-ing the contents into acanoe. The suspectadmitted to robbing thetraps and was bookedinto the County Jail.

Extra Donoughts forThese Guys OfficersSam Cohl and BarryShaw (who was on histhird day in the field offi-cer training program)

were patrolling near thePort Charlotte BeachComplex, when theyobserved an individualdrive through the parkinglot, hit a curb, then exitbehind some mangroves.Officer Shaw looked overthe seawall and observedthe completely sub-merged vehicle in thewater. Officer Cohl swamto the vehicle, pulled theunconscious female driverout and brought her backto shore where Shawadministered CPR andgot her breathing beforethe paramedics arrived.

The Deadly Dozen : Charlotte HarborThe Deadly Dozen : Charlotte Harbor FISHING GUIDESFISHING GUIDES

SCUTTLEBUTTSometimes Unsubstanciated, But Often True

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

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

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

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TarponTrips

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Guide CardOne Space Available

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HURRICANE WATCH:ABOVE: A Nova Scotia highwayovertaken by Hurricane BillʼsRIGHT: Sea Surface tempera-tures at the end of August.Local divers report much coldersub-surface water right now.


The Water LIFEWater LIFE Distributorʼs Club

Cooks Sportland

4419 So. Tamiami TrailS. Venice493-0025

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

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By Kel l y BealWater LIFE Commercial Fishing

When my husband Jimmy and I opened PeaceRiver Seafood 8 years ago we had two crabbers.Jimmy and Alph (James McPherson). Alph hasbeen with us since the beginning so he willalways have a special place in my heart. Manycrabbers and fishermen jump back and forthbetween buyers over a nickel, but never Alph.I love it when Alph comes in from crabbingbecause he almost always has a joke for me andhe's never without a smile, even on the dayssomebody has robbed his traps.

Kelly- So Alph, when did you start crabbing?Alph- When I was 18 years old in 1955, I moved

here from Alabama and took up crabbing.K- Why crabbing?A- I came down with my brother in law , he was a

pastor and he crabbed. His name was Arnold Gibbs.K- So did you sell to the Hendricksons then?A- No , we started out selling to Daniels Seafood

in Ft Myers.K- What kind of boat were you working with?A- I had, or I should say we, my brother and law

and I, a 13 foot plywood boat with a 6hp Wizard. K- That was 1955 - what were you getting paid?A- Well we were getting five cents a pound. That

was good money. To put it in perspective, a goodcarpenter was only making $70 a week and we wereaveraging $100.K- You were using the wooden barrels.A- Yes and we went everyday but Sat and Sun.

We pulled about 100 traps. Each barrel held 200pounds and we averaged 2 barrels a dayK- So did you stay crabbing from then?A- No. I crabbed for a year and then I went to

the military July 30, 1956. Eight Years in the airforce. You know everyone thinks if you join theairforce you'll get to fly, but really there’s otherstuff you end up doing. I was a radar operator.K- So when you got out what did you do?A- In 1964, I went right back to crabbing. At

that time I sold to Ed Hendrickson. I fished a littlebit - you know we had those stop nets back then.K- Oh yeah how was that fishing with those

nets?A- You know, when we had those stop nets

sometimes a manatee or a dolphin would get inthere and you could just go over to the net andpush it down and lead them right out, they werejust as docile as could be.K- What kind of fish did you catch?A- Oh , trout, redfish, mullet , even barracuda.

Some of those fish you don't hear much about theymade fish sticks with.K- So where did you sell the fish?A- I sold my fish to Walter Gault. I used that

stop net for about a year and half - I think that wasabout 1970.K- So when did you go to Alaska?A- I left for Alaska in 1972.K- What did you do there?A- I trapped Lynx, wolverine, wolf, fox , coy-

ote, martin, mink, beaver, muskratsK- All kinds of stuff, huh? Did you kill any

bears?A- I killed several bears. One day I was walk-

ing up a dry creek bed, when I came around thebend this bear came at me so fast - I could believehow fast - I got my rifle off my back - he came to astop and looked at me over some brush - slinginghis head side to side - making this sound like

something between a hiss and a growl - I was onlysix steps away - I figured one jump and he'd be onme so I shot him.K-When did you come back here?A- In 1991 I came back and fished and crabbed

for David Godwin. The crabs had dropped off a lotthen, I saved my catfish so I wouldn't have to buybait. I was only running 60 traps at that time.K- Yeah, the crabs are cyclic.A - It's up and down, but because of the pollution

I don't think it'll ever be like it was. K- Do you love crabbing the most.A- I like being outside. I just love the outdoors.

I rather be outside looking in..K- So you think the crabbing will get better?A- I've seen it come in cycles, I've seen it so bad

I had to get a job on the hill just to get by. I'mstarting to see some shedder crabs - so maybe we'llhave a good season. Think they have crabs figuredout - just then they'll do something different. Youcan make an educated guess, but they’re going to dowhat they want to do.

AlphThe Commercial Perspective

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Call the Captain! Call the Captain! Fantastic PoolHome, Quick Harbor Access inExcellent Condition! Beautifully updat-ed, 3/2/2, 1920sf Air, “1975”, new hur-ricane shutters, chair rail molding,remodeled master bath with a claw foottub and wood cabinets & the largeguest bath with Jacuzzi tub. $370,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! Deep WaterGulf Access Sailboat Home! 110’Water frontage, 10 minutes to openwater. Views of the water from allrooms & 2 master suites! 4/2/2+,2463sf Air, “2000”, oversized lot, largedock, 9’ ceilings, Hurricane Shutters &more. $239,000

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Call the Captain!Call the Captain! Incredible WideWaterviews with 150 Feet of DeepSailboat Water Frontage! 4/2/4, 2000sfAir, "1960", newly updated great roomand kitchen, summer kitchen, modernpool with waterfalls, a huge deck, largedock and room for an RV! $299,500

Call the Captain!Call the Captain! Absolutely Beautiful and Newly Remodeled WaterfrontHome! This large home boasts a deep water canal with no bridges and hasbeen beautifully remodeled inside. This is a 3/2/2, 2125sf Air, spa, huge deck,dock, boat lift, workshop and is on an oversized lot. $329,000

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Call the Captain! Call the Captain! SailboatWaterfront Key West Style Home!Great upper & lower deck, 3/2/2,2184sf Air, approx. 3800sf total livingspace, "1986", RV pad, dock, 2 boatlifts & fabulous brick pavers drive.$449,000

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! BeautifulCountry Home Situated in LuxuriousWoodland Estates! This home is on3/4 of an acre and is in a cul-de-sac.A 4/3/3 with, 2800sf Air, "1996", pool,wood floors and huge master suiteoverlooking the pool. $324,900

Call the Captain! Call the Captain! ExtraordinaryCustom Built Home! Remodeled in 2006with no expense spared. This homeboasts all Brazilian Cherry Wood fullCommercial Bar, floors, trim & doors. A3/2/2, 2518sf Air, two 5’ etched glass port-hole windows, custom kitchen & amazingwood deck just to start. $499,000

James ʻAlph ̓McPherson

S e p t e m b e rS e p t e m b e rF i s h i n g R e p o r tF i s h i n g R e p o r tCharlotte Harbor:Robert at Fishin' FranksPort Charlotte: 625-3888Snook season is finally open – five

months and five inches is what snook has

become. Snook stamps are

going up to $10from $2.50. Buy a 5-year snook stampnow and save $40.Placida and any-

where along thebeaches andIntracoastal is thebest bet for snookright now. As themonth progressessnook will get intomoving into the har-

bor, but not until October. Live pinfishand shrimp are the snook bait this time ofyear. Many soft plastics or jigs will worktoo. The fish are not super aggressivebecause the water is still pretty hot.Night is still, by far, the best time forslot size fish – undersized fish can becaught almost anytime.

Redfish are finallystarting to show prettygood and starting toschool up a little too.They are scattered downby the Intracoastal. Startconcentrating in the 4-to5-foot of water depthsoutside the bar fromPirate Harbor down toPine Island. Look forschools of baitfishwadded up, you won’t see the redfish, butthey are underneath the bait and they willeat a cut-bait like a ladyfish or sardines orpinfish ... and also frozen shrimp. Fish iton a jig or a hook with a split shot. TheGulp shrimp has also been producing red-fish. Try the New Penny or the Naturalcolor on either a very slow jig or sittingit still on the bottom. Fish Bites shrimpis also another good choice.Tarpon are still

plentiful. They are a lit-tle harder to find becausethey are breaking up alittle, but from the ElJoBean Trestle downthrough the middle ofthe harbor to a few fishin Boca Grande, tarponshould be here throughSeptember or until thefirst cold front in October. Fish from 50-to 120-pounds are all mixed in together.The two baits of choice are ladyfish andcatfish tails. People use the tails in theriver, but they work pretty darn well inthe harbor too! D.O.A. Bait Busters arestill the artificials for tarpon.Mangrove Snapper It’s been a ban-

ner summer for mangrove snapper. Theyare everywhere. Any artificial reef, bothinshore and offshore, is loaded up withthem. A lot of the canals and even thebushes have mangs on them. The key togetting the big ones is lots of chum and asmall silver-dollar-sized pinfish. That willalmost guarantee a 15 to 18 inch snapper.It’s been a fantastic summer for decent tolarge sized mangs pretty much all over

the whole state.Trout are pretty much an incidental

catch since there is so much fresh wateraround, but Pine Island has some.Sharks the big ones are gone, but a lotof smaller blacktips, spinners and bonnetheads in 2-4 foot range are still on theinshore flats. Offshore, on the reefs,there are a lot of the larger spinners andblacktips with the occasional bull andlemon shark mixed in. Grouper has been tough. The snap-

per and the yel low tai l have been themost common thing. If you are willingto go 30+ miles the fishing turns todolphin, sai l fi sh, blackfin tuna andthe occasional wahoo.

Continued on facing page


Top 10 Finishers1) Rick Jorden and ChristenSchilling 6.64, 6.92 total 13.56 $950.002) Dusty Hormann and MattParra 6.79 , 6.51 total 13.30 $400.003) David Lassey and MikeGarcia 5.84 , 7.21 total 13.05 $150.00 and big fish $200.004) Neil Hampton and RobbieFisher 6.59 , 5.77 total 12.36 $100.005) Bing Blackburn and GeneSantini 5.97 , 5.84 total 11.81 6) Brett Ezell and Greg Ezell6.09 , 5.52 total 11.617) John Perry and TravisMcMillen 6.82 , 2.90 total 9.728) Steve Smith and Jeff Boyett4.57 , 4.72 total 9.299) Jeff Watkins Sr. and JeffWatkins Jr 6.33 , 2.82 total 9.15 10) Clint Webster and JustinSolomon 3.23 , 4.77 total 8.00

August XTremeRedfish Tournament

Weighmaster Capt. Andy Medina weighs JeffWatkins Sr. and Jeff Watkins Jrʼs 6.33 poundredfish. The team finished 9th out of 20 teams

F i s h i n gF i s h i n gR e p o r tR e p o r t .

Lemon Bay: Jim at Fishermen’s Edge,Englewood: 697-7595Mostly all the fishng is

good right now. There are alot of mangrove snapper inthe passes and in the potholes andunder the docks. We’ve got snapper. Most guys going south to Pine

Island for their trout. The successfulguys are using prop baits and top-waters. They are just searching thewaters all over. Trout aren’t that hardto find.Snook are all over now. Fish in

the 36 -38 inch are around just teas-ing anglers before the season opens.Spoons have been good for snook. Ihave some guys doing pretty well onthe Johnson Sprite spoons right now.The snook are down in Placida onsome of the docks on LittleGasparilla island. Ski Alley has somesnook too. There has been quite a bitof grouper around, and some scattereddolphin on floating stuff. Mosteverybod y is at least 14-15 milesout and some guys are even18- to 20-miles looking for grouper.There has still been some Spanish

mackerel on the change of the tideand some guys tell me they are catch-ing some kingfish offshore. I thinkthat’s because the amount of baitthat’s still here. Finally, there arescattered smaller tarpon mostly up inthe Harbor. All in all, the fishing hasbeen pretty good.

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

b r o u g h t t o y o u b y :b r o u g h t t o y o u b y :

� September 11-13 Summer Slam, $250,Pink Shell BeachResort, Fort Myers Beach, Televised tournament on WorldFishing Network, Wade fishing is ALLOWED. 239-671-9347 � September 11-13, 2009 RedSnook Challenge Tournament� September 19: Fish for the Fund CharityTournament, Cape Harbor, Cape Coral 239-541-4185 � October 3: Charlotte Harbor Challenge, $300 entry,$2500 1st Place Prize Money for 3 species; Redfish, Troutand Snapper. (Based on 50 boats). $500 Mystery Fish,Live Bait and wadding allowed. Weigh In on stage duringthe Utimate Rib Fest at Laishley Park. Benefits theCharlotte-DeSoto Building Industry Association and BigBrothers Big Sisters of Charlotte County(941) 625-0804 � October 16-18, 2009 Flatsmasters ChampionshipSend calendar information to: [email protected]

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

MANGROVE SNAPPER:Showing up all over the place

TARPON: Plenty of fishare still up the Harbornow

REDFISH: Are starting toshow back up and someare beginning to school

SNOOK: Coming in from off-shore, populating the shore-lines and docks by the ICW

FishingFishingRIGHT NOWRIGHT NOWBest Time:Best Time:

Early & LateEarly & Late


4265 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte941 - 625-2700

GoGoFishing!Fishing!

Fishing photos courtesy of Capt. AngelTorres, Vicious Strikes Charters

That’s little Angel to the right with a snook

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