Get Ready for Gag Grouper

Gag Grouper season opens July 1. Get the heavy metal ready.

Terry Tomalin of the Tampa Bay Times has all the details.

Offshore anglers have spent the months in port waiting for the chance to catch these prized bottom fish, once the mainstay for Florida's west coast charter boat fleets.
Grouper details

Scallop season set to open

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has announced the dates for the 2013 scallop season.

It’s that time of year again to unfurl the dive flag, put a mask on and head to the coast to collect some bay scallops. The recreational season is open in Gulf of Mexico state waters (shore to 9 nautical miles) from the Pasco-Hernando county line to the west bank of the Mexico Beach Canal in Bay County starting July 1. The season will remain open through Sept. 24, with the first day of the closure on Sept. 25.

Dates for scallop season 

The State of the Everglades

 A story in the Fort Myers News-Press examines a stretch of U.S. 41 and changes that could help the Everglades.


 The largest dam in Florida has sprung a leak, finally.
Actually the “dam” is the Tamiami Trail, the “leak” a one-mile bridge that will soon allow water to flow south through the Shark River Valley for the first time in nearly a century. The new bridge is just west of Miami in the Everglades, just east of Coopertown.
“Floridians and Americans can see where the dollars actually go and how this works,” said Eric Eikenberg, director of the Everglades Foundation. “In our view, it’s the most important road project in the U.S Park Service. It’s the lifeblood of Everglades National Park, which is desperate for water.”
The stretch of U.S. 41 that connects Naples to Miami is widely considered one of the state’s biggest ecological travesties. Built in a era guided more by draining South Florida for development than preserving the Everglades, Tamiami Trail choked off the famed River of Grass, severing Shark River Valley and cutting off freshwater flows to the creeks, rivers and lakes that flow into Florida Bay.

Glades Water flow

Gotta Love Doonesbury

My professional life in a nutshell. Doonesbury nailed it in this June 24th cartoon. Enjoy.

June 24th strip

Bonefish Decline Examined

Susan Cocking of the Miami Herald looks at bonefish and the species is declining.

A decline in prey like shrimp and crabs is not the main cause of the drop in bonefish populations in Florida Bay, according to a one-year study conducted by Audubon Florida and funded by the nonprofit Bonefish Tarpon Trust.
The study by researchers Pete Frezza, Shawn Liston, Jerry Lorenz and Michelle Robinson suggests other factors — the diversion and quality of freshwater delivered to Florida Bay; toxins in bottom sediments; pollutants from farms and yards; increased boating pressure; mercury contamination; and ocean acidification — might share the blame for the decline of a sport fish that pumps $427 million annually into the Florida Keys economy.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3453183/several-factors-suggested-for.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/16/3453183/several-factors-suggested-for.html

Picnic Island

Leaving the canoe launch creek.

Heading back to the launch.

It's been a while since I've been to Picnic Island. The tides weren't great, but I got out anyway earlier this week. Low wind. Not much water movement and it's too hot, even in the morning, for sight fishing with a fly rod. The reds and snook are either deep on the outside or camped under the mangroves to cool off. I can't say I blame them. Temperatures were in the mid 80s around 8, 8:30. Storms chased me off the water by 10:30.

Should Snook Season Re-open?

Neil Taylor weighs in. Good story. He believes snook season should stay closed another season instead of re-opening in the Gulf Sept. 1. I agree.
Snook season