FISHING On FIRE!

[Riley Smith]

SO...in the dynamics of things, the fish in the local reservoir that serves as a  heat sink for the nearby power plant just so happen to go nuts when it gets cold. I don't know why exactly, something to so with the interaction of warm water and cold air. I don't really care, all I know is that it happens. It is known far and wide for the bass population. Catfish too. And Tilapia. No, not your Asian raised in a pit tilapia, but natural. It is also a lost cause in the summer heat except for catfish. Now, if you're not going to be sailing, fishing to me is the next best option. At least you must have water! And so, being that I was convinced that a viscous strike was in the plan, one of those you KNOW isn't little, I ventured forth into the early morning for a test run this evening.

I kept thinking of the other evening, as the front approached through broken clouds and darkness was very close, the bass rising to the top after a school of bait. Two of my friends had caught several nice ones. There were several bass rising in the group and fish went like so many aircraft in a dogfight, but one of the largest came zooming right under my feet on the bridge. Amazing sight!

That was then, this is now after the front, and really this was just an expedition to look at the sky and taste the wind at the bridge right up the street. The wind has a knife this morning and neither man nor beast ought to be in it. Been there done that and it defeated the typical redneck cold weather clothing in short order. I came to that conclusion very fast, although I did manage a few casts. As I got in the truck, an eagle had been working upwind and watching me, drifted over and we looked at each other as we went our own way. Wait a bit yet with the fishing, but I might catch some ducks with the camera. Maybe even the eagle if a break in the clouds lets in a little light.

[Norm L.]

Ah. yes. Memories of the teenage years fishing at Hot Waters, the well-known name for the cove where the powerplant water enters Lake Erie.

[pgandw]

An old experience when I kept my ODay 25 at Homestead AFB Marina south of Miami.  There was a dredged channel off to one side of the creek that led to the nuclear power plant there.  Manatees loved the warmed water.  Coming slowly home under power in the late afternoon from a daysail, my new expensive polarized sunglasses got flipped over the side.  I dropped anchor immediately, and decided to search for the glasses on the bottom which was 6ft down with mask and snorkel.

You can guess the rest - a bump of some creature into my backside while I was searching the bottom shot me airborne, thinking it was a shark taking a bite of my a--.  DW laughed and laughed as I landed in the cockpit without needing a boarding ladder, and then pointed out the manatee that had goosed me.  Wasn't in any condition to continue the glasses search, so I just motored home embarrassed and angry at the same time.

Fred W

[Wayne Howard]

I was snorkeling near Key West several years ago. With the outgoing current, the visibility had dropped significantly. Suddenly, this large dark shape appeared in my vision. Just about the time I thought I was shark bait, I noticed the tail was horizontal and not vertical. Too late though, I was already trying to get all the salt water out of my mouth and snorkel and a bit down my lungs.

[rfrance0718]

Manatee encounters. In hindsight, I was lucky that my daughter failed to cinch the dinghy painter, and it fouled the prop on the houseboat. We were able to drift into the dock and I jumped in with a knife to try and make things right. At first, I thought that my foot had found the bottom, and I shrugged it off, and kept cutting. Then one of the advisors on the dock asked me about my assistant, and I looked over and found myself face to face with Mr. Manatee. I guess he wanted to throw his two cents in as well, and he stuck around to see the job completed. Nice experience. (I suppose it might have been Mrs. Manatee)

[Doug SC]

We had only been married a couple of years when we moved to FL to start new jobs. Before we had found a place to live and start the jobs (she would be teaching, and I would work for the Fish and Game Commission) we stayed with my parents in Orlando. I took the opportunity that summer to start collecting marine tropical fish to sell to aquarium shops again. Carol had never used a mask, fins and snorkel but she was an excellent swimmer. So, I used a neighbor's pool to show her how to clear a snorkel and get use to breathing with it.

The first place we went to was Singer Island just across the inlet from Palm Beach. The marinas on the ICW side were great places to catch what I was after. I later took her out to some of the reefs, but this was an easy and a good starting place. We would enter the water from a sea wall where Carol needed a hand up to get out of the water which we did for a lunch break. She really liked seeing all the brightly colored little fish and invertebrates. I had come to the surface with a fish in the dip net and put it in the bag of water I kept attached to a belt. With this completed I started back down and was startled by this huge grey creature. Yes, first thought was "Oh Crapp", but almost immediately I realized I was safe. It was a manatee! So, I came up to locate Carol so she could see this wonderful animal. What I witnessed was even more surprising! There was this rooster tail caused by a pair of swim fins in high gear, then a rocket launch, and Carol was suddenly sitting on the sea wall. I said come and see the manatee. She said, "I already saw it"!

Then there was the time I unknowingly paddled my sea kayak over top of a manatee. In spite of the fright, I manage to stay up right, but it sure was good at increasing the heart rate.

[Riley Smith]

Manatees are rare enough here that they even sometimes make the TV news! Not rare are alligators and once I was in the old skiff messing about on the river. I sort of got a little turned around and took a bayou by mistake. There are hundreds of them in the marsh and it's pretty easy to do. This one made a couple of curves and went shallow very quickly as I zoomed in and turned around when I made the discovery I had erred. As I made the 180, the water erupted in a froth. I had ran over a submerged alligator in the shallow water and it was NOT happy. No harm done to alligator or boat but I wouldn't want to be out in that marsh after dark.

 I ran into one of the security guys on a project on the bridge just at sundown at the ramp waiting on his boat ride. He was checking his gun carefully. I was sort of surprised as that ramp is not known for thievery or malicious actions. So I asked if there were problems with such actions and he replied..."Oh, nobody is trying to steal anything so far. But if you take a flashlight and shine across the water it is fully of red eyes." The river at that point is FULL of alligators. Way back when the rednecks had thinned the population WAY down but they're everywhere now.

[Norm L.]

Lake Pontchartrain has become a summer home for some manatees. Late in the season one has been discovered and is a concern to Wildlife & Fisheries and the public. The highest temperature now is 55 and it hasn't been seen for almost a week despite WLF and public searching.