Floating Turtle Grass

Anclote Key

There seems to be a lot more floating turtle grass up near Gulf Harbors and Anclote Key. Whenever I get a bunch stuck on my motor it starts cavitating. Between that and my lures getting all grassy it's a real pain in the grass. :wink The amount of grass seems to vary, and I used to think it was related to storms and wave action rippng it up. However, recently I read somewhere that it might me from the shrimp boats churning up the bottom with their nets. It did seem to get worse recently with the open of shrimp season. Is this the cause, or is there another reason?

captainrandy

I believe it is both the shrimp fleet and the traditional cycle of the grass from the winter months growth to the summer growth. It does seem to be more so far but that may be me getting frustrated with it as you are.

FastEddy

I always believed the bulk of it was created by the shrimping boats this time of year.
However,there is always a little bit around ,pretty much year round in some areas up that way.
That stuff can be a real pain up in that area at times and like you have noticed,when all that grass gets stuck to the front of the lower unit
cavitation will occur from lower water-pressure/air pockets.Even over heated a time or 2 with my TLR 90....
I would just stop every now and then put my motor in reverse or just trim it up and get the grass off and then hammer it again.

Fishing in it is even a bigger pain at times.
Even if you rig your stuff weedless you will still get some on your line & also down by the eye.
The Great late Steve Marusak who founded Cotee Lures came up with a pretty cool little top water bait
we used to fish up in that area that is some-what debris less that would scoot through that stuff alright ,called 'Reel Magic' http://www.fishing-boating.com/cotee/magic.htm.

Not sure if Cotee still makes them,but i did find some knock-offs from YUM a few years back that I would just add rattles & scent to that seemed to work alright for trout ,jacks & sight fishing reds when it was calmer
or when a school of fish was blowing up on top the water on schools of bait.

shemp

h8 floating grass. probably comes from multiple sources, including motors in too shallow a depth, and anchoring on the flats. Seems to be worse by me on the end of an outgoing tide. Usually there is one direcetion (compass heading) which you can cast & retreive on that leads to less grass snagging your hooks. Don't know why, just my observation. I replace trebles on topwaters with 2/0 or 3/0 owners and that helps immensely with the grass, but leads to fewer hookups per strikes

Anclote Key

Thanks for the tips guys. The Gulf Harbors area has been real bad lately. I was idling back in the north channel, and saw a boat that wass usually moored in clear water had about 10 feet of grass surrounding it on all sides. I just hope it goes away soon. I wonder what effect this storm is having on it.