Where are the Pompano??
SCFD rtrd.
Posts: 1,388 Officer
This is the time of year when I fish for Pompano. For the last month, I have fished every Pompano hole that I know and have not caught a single one. Anyone have any ideas about what happened to them. Do you think the Red Tide scattered them north, south or out deep?.
Replies
I'm serious, name one.
But don't worry the Gov is going to fix the environment.
These are two of the most ignorant and ill informed statements i have ever read!
And you are going to cry because he gets called out on it???
As to the statement about the Gov., the Gov. wouldn't be able to fix all of the problems regardless of who was elected. For anyone who actually is truly informed about these issues, they are incredibly complex with numerous stakeholders on all sides and they are not going to be easy to fix regardless of who you voted for.
...and I don't see the problem in having the optimism in the Capt's post.
The divers have reported complete void of life on almost all near shore to close offshore reefs and sunken boats from
Naples to Venice! Not even a shrimp or clam is alive on those reefs! The coast was full of snook. A huge amount of them along with Redfish have been counted dead on the beaches. Fortunately a good number of snook went upstream where they have been congregating. Offshore fishing inside of 20 miles has been crap! The marine biologists are saying this red tide is as bad or maybe the worst in recorded history.
Your comment about the Scientists is dishonest at best! They have not even agreed that red tide is over yet!
Nobody had a better chance or opportunity to fix this as Rick Scott! He chose to Enrich himself instead. He spent
$60 million of his own money on his campaign. He knows he will get it all back and much more! How do you think he will get his money back? Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results. Florida deserves what it gets. As for what most have observed on this forum you clearly have not
been paying attention! I encourage optimistic viewpoints if they are sincere!
Also, we had crabs in our stone crab traps (in only 20ft of water), it wasn't great, but there were keeper claws and an assortment of the usual shrimp, small crabs, etc. This was off Sanibel, well within where the anoxic zone was. It wasn't good by any means, but it was not devoid of life. I also generally agree that 15 miles in, it is going to be sparse in many places. However, at around 20 miles, the several times I have been out, we found the bottom fishing to be real good. Not epic in terms of larger keeper grouper, but plenty of them and more numbers of larger snapper than we typically get. This certainly can lead one to the conclusion that many of the fish in the anoxic zone moved out to these nearby areas....which has also been supported by the scientists I have spoken with directly...its actually an informed conclusion and it logically makes sense.
Also, please provide evidence of marine biologists stating this is the worst in recorded history. I have not seen that and find it hard to believe any scientist studying this subject would make such a blanket and unqualified statement. There are headlines that say that and everyday people (usually who haven't even been here a decade). I am not sure where you are from or how long you have lived here, but from my observations 2004/2005/2006 was definitely worse and that is the general belief as well (based on length of bloom in particular)....sometimes it is hard to lose perspective over time.....I have lived in Florida my entire life and, while these events get more media coverage each time, it would very difficult for someone to make that statement based on what we know and, more importantly, what we don't know.
...and no disrespect to anyone on here, but on these complicated subjects, when people use absolutes like "dishonest at best", "ignorant", "absolute fact", or "its all the governors fault" for all these issues, it pretty well demonstrates a lack of understanding and perspective on the matter, IMHO....which is why so few original people still participate on here. Instead of thoughtful and well reasoned dialogue, its just people making these blanket inflammatory statements....if I wanted that, I can easily get that type of commentary elsewhere on the internet.
I also participate in the sampling with local biologists and appreciate your participation of a voluntary basis. My knowledge is not second hand and I have lived here for nearly 40 yrs and work the water as a profession.
I went north to sister keys, same. Virtualy no mullet. As I continued north to palma sola it seemed to get better, a lot of small snook. Then to the bulk head nothing. I saw not one bait fish.
My kid is very sad about this. It's funny, I told her I saw no bait fish. She said that's not good, you always know where the bait is. It made me feel proud that she said that but so said because she was right.
larrywitt