A Look at Boca Grande

 My story for The Drake on jigging in Boca Grande. A condensed version ran on the website.

After months of discussion and debate, bickering and banter, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission delivered a firm message: No more jigging in Boca Grande Pass.

Last week, the FWC voted 7-0 to ban bottom-weighted jigs. The new rule, which goes into effect Nov. 1, was celebrated by a handful of conservation groups following the Sept. 5 meeting in Pensacola, Fla.

“There’s not going to be a huge impact from this one ruling,” Save the Tarpon spokesman Tom McLaughlin said. “It is kind of groundbreaking for the FWC. It paves the way for more appropriate management of the tarpon fishery with a focus on pressure that comes not just from attempting to catch the fish, but how we attempt to catch the fish.”

Last week’s ruling provided closure to an issue that has divided Boca Grande residents and those who visit the water referred to as the tarpon capital of the world.

“The actions taken today by the commission represent a historic move to further protect this iconic fish,” FWC Commissioner Kenneth Wright said in a statement. “One day, there will be a chapter on these conservation measures in a book on proactive fishery protection.”

Conservationists hope that the no-snagging rule will allow tarpon to resume their pre-spawn ritual, which may have been in disrupted by jigging and excessive pressure on the popular fish.

“During the last 10 years the Boca Grande jig became popular and extensively used, the behavior of the tarpon in the Boca Grande/Charlotte Harbor area definitely changed,” said Aaron Adams, director of operations for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. “Fishing, more importantly catching, wasn’t as good with each passing year. The thought was the way the jig was fished vertically and using fish finders to stay over the fish didn’t really give them any down time and that affects their behavior.”

Still unclear is the fate of the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series, which has held its big-money event in Boca Grande the past 10 seasons. Many of the PTTS competitors use weighted jigs to hook tarpon, but since the FWC has implemented gear restrictions and re-defined snagging, will the PTTS continue? Apparently so.

PTTS spokesman Joe Mercurio said tournament anglers will merely adapt their rules to conform to state guidelines.

“Our 2014 schedule is set, and our events and (the PTTS) television show will continue,” Mercurio wrote in an email. “In anticipation that the rule would be passed, many of our world-class anglers began developing new lures and techniques that would be effective vertical presentation baits. Many have created new designs.  Others have used current lures and techniques such as butterfly jigs, traditional jigs, drop-shot rigs, and carolina rigged soft plastics. All have proven to be effective. I’m confident as time passes and we enter next year’s season more designs will be unveiled.”

Mercurio disagrees with the FWC’s decision and believes “political positioning” and “propaganda” dictated its thinking, not scientific proof.

“This regulation will do little to solve the user-group conflict that exists in Boca Grande and even less to preserve tarpon,” Mercurio said. “It is a widely held belief the greatest impact on the sustainability of tarpon has little or nothing to do with fishing methods and rather hinges on water quality and stemming the further loss of habitat.”

The no-jig rule is the second tarpon ruling the FWC has implemented since last spring.  In April, the FWC proposed that tarpon be catch and release, eliminating all harvest except in pursuit of an IGFA world record. The proposal was formally approved in June, the first of several recent victories for BTT and its supporters.

“It’s definitely been an improvement in conservation,” Adams said. “Even though they’re primarily catch-and-release species, there are impacts that we as anglers can have on them. As long as we address those impacts, we should have a healthy fishery for quite some time.”