Water LIFE June 2011

W a t e r LIFE

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Charlotte Harbor and Lemon Bay Keeping Boaters & Fishermen Informed Since 1997

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The official publication of the Charlotte Harbor Reef Association

SHARKS: Bigger & More of them

Fishing Access Page 15

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Tarpon Page 6

DIVING Chased by the Bulls!

Thrown out of Laishley Park again ... and not allowed back?

Commentary: Page 5

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CHARMING WATERFRONT POOL HOME 3/2/2 1,749 sq ft. Just a great private home on Como Waterway and a short ride to the Harbor. Fish from your dock and watch a beautiful sunset. This home features many upgrades as new roof, pool cage, all new wood cabinets with corian tops, new white wood cabinets in both baths, 2nd bedroom has dou. doors to nook area, new tile & wood floors. Don't wait!! $239,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

ROTONDA WEST GOLF COURSE/LAKE POOL HOME. Oversized deck & new heated pool 2008, lake w/dock to fish from, Home built in 1993 with 2,062 sq.ft. and the lot next door is also available for $35,000.

Large living/dining room off kitchen and nook. This home offers Central vac., security sys. and the list goes on. $239,900 Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

SALTWATER HOME This is your DREAM HOME 4/2/2+ with 2,264 sqft, built 2003 on oversized lot on a sweeping curve 70x183x170x142, what a view of intersecting canals, circular drive, 75 year metal roof, solid concrete walls, metal interior studs, every wall has R30 insulation, volume ceilings and lighted plant shelves thru out, 2 roman shower, huge Lanai. The list goes on. $299,900 A must see!

Call Ellen McCarthy 941-235-5648

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19700 Cochran Blvd • Port Charlotte, FL 33948

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Shark Tournament June 11 Pet Photo Contest! Last Month to Enter

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Contributing Editors:

Photography: ASA1000.com Senior Editor: Capt. Ron Blago Port Charlotte: Billy Barton Punta Gorda: Capt. Chuck Eichner Commercial Fishing: Kelly Beall Sea Grant: Betty Staugler Real Estate: Dave Hofer Inshore: Fishin’ Frank Offshore: Capt Jim O’Brien Diving: Adam Wilson Kayaks: David Allen Sailing: Bill Dixon Office Dog: Molly Brown

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Capt. Steve Skevington prepared to dehook a bull shark late last month. Shark fishing now is very good!

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Water LIFE i s the o ffi ci al publ i cati o n o f the Charl o t t e Harb o r Reef As s o ci at i o n, the o ri g i nato r o f the Ki ds Cup To urnament and the pro ducer o f the Do n Bal l Scho o l o f Fi s hi ng .

We don’t just count the people we reach, we reach the people that count

Your Civil Rights Are Now In Jeopardy June

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By Mi chael Hel l er Water LIFE Editor For the second time, I have been ejected from Laishley Park. After it happened a reader wrote me this:

I heard a rumor today from a fellow boat owner that you were refused entry to the public land at the city marina. I saw the two police cars and Officer John Kennedy, the marine officer along with the city fire ladder and county ambulance. Are you going to pursue this issue? Many boat owners are mad about the takeover of the marina by the people running these so called fishing tournaments.

Sometimes no parking for the slip renters, The grass being driven on by the trucks behind the marina office. No boat trailer parking spots for the city residents. Fisherman pulling into other people slips. The list just grows and the city refuses to take control. The city can't figure out why revenue is way down and half of the slips are empty. I sent the city manager a email complaining about the parking for the slip renters and got no reply. I hope you pursue this incident and everyone can enjoy the city marina.

Thanks, John Almeida.

Thank y ou, John. This time I wound up on the ground and the following weekend, Capt. Tom Lewis of the Punta Gorda Police wrote that I couldn’t attend the Shark Challenge either – that it was a ‘priv ate permitted ev ent’ and that I would ‘most lik ely be arrested for trespassing.’ This was a particularly egregious threat, coming from the police; when in fact the event was free, open to the public and took place on public property. Yes I am going to pursue this, on behalf of us all.

In 2009 the Punta Gorda police tried to

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throw me out of the same park but in the end the Punta Gorda City Attorney settled the matter and on 10/28/09 Teri Tubs from the Punta Gorda zoning department wrote me this: “The Police Department has been adv ised by the City Attorney that with the ex ception of the area immediately surrounding the Crab House as depicted on the Lease the City has with the Crab House, the remaining property of Laishley Park is a public park facility that any one has the opportunity to enjoy without fear of being arrested for trespassing. The one (1) ex ception to that would be a public ev ent where the ev ent organizer has been granted the limited right to regulate entry into the area designated for the ev ent. An ex ample of this limitation would be the recent concert whereby a portion of Laishley Park was fenced off and admission was limited to tick et holders.”

Apparently that decision didn’t get back to Capt. Lewis, or to Mr. Chris Evans. Mr Evans is both a Flatsmasters Tournament owner, and a manager of Laishley Park. Last week it was Mr. Evans who tried to physically remove me from the park. Mr. Evans maintains I am not allowed on park land to report on his events unless I only ‘hav e good things to say.’ The Punta Gorda police, by their actions, are supporting that position and the fact that Mr. Evans and Police Chief Arenal are reportedly ‘good buddies’ only complicates the matter.

The tactic the police have now twice employed is to have an officer arrive and usher me away from the event “to talk to me.” I am told I have to follow or I’ll be

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The Flatsmasters tournament stage is behind the Laishley Crab House on property designated as Parcel K-1 of Laishley Park. This parcel is also the only public access to the center dock of the city marina. It, like other public park land, must remain open to everyone.

cited for disobeying the officer. Mind you, I am doing nothing but taking pictures when this happens. After the first time, I wrote ‘shame on the Punta Gorda Police for getting involved.’ This time it’s shame on me if I don’t get involved for us all.

Freedom is no t ‘just another word,’ it’s a Constitutional right and no private entity, no city authority, no persons who-soever (police especially) are allowed to take our Constitutional rights away from us. No one gets special treatment and no one can regulate what you or I say, write or photograph. That’s rule No. 1, it’s the First Amendment to the Constitution and it applies everywhere, even in Punta Gorda.

If an event is held on public property, whether by permit or not, and you meet the requirements for entry (such as a ticket purchase) neither the event organizer, the police, the city, or its assigns can deny anyone entry because they wish to exercise their First Amendment right to take pic-

tures or report on the event. Doing so would be a prior restraint and would also be an infringement of the Fourteenth Amendment - the right to equal protection.

This is serious stuff, but no one in Punta Gorda wants to talk about it. The City Manager, the City Attorney and the City Council have all failed to respond to this and other difficult questions. We asked: Why this tournament has nev er paid a single permit application fee and why it has nev er had to obtain ev ent approv al as specified in the city ’s Ev ents Manual? We asked: How the city can propose spending public funds to build a permanent stage for this priv ate tournament ? And we asked: Why the High School, ev ery wedding, ev ery group benefit or priv ate party must pay an hourly rate to use Laishley Park facilities, but the for-profit tournament at the Laishley Crab House nev er pay s a dime.

We believe those are fair questions.

3 Days of Tarpon

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By Capt. Chuck Ei chner Water LIFE Punta Gorda Tarpon time is right now and there have been plenty of tarpon to chase. The silver king is one of the hardest fighting fish that swims and we are blessed with an incredible tarpon fishery. My friend Capt. Tim Reichenburg is a captain from West Palm Beach out of Sailfish Marina.

For a living, he charters for sailfish, kingfish, dolphin, big sharks and other formidable deep blue water gamefish.

There are very few fish he has not person-

ally caught and he will tell you that few match the strength and acrobatics of the tarpon. Like any good charter captain Tim goes fishing on his days off and he was able to join my brother Bob and I for a couple of days of fishing recently. We are friends from childhood and the threesome has fished countless hours for many species.

The night of Tim’s arrival typically involves excess libations and this night was no exception So leaving the dock at 11am instead of 6:30 came as no surprise.

The only problem is that the wind starts up between 1:00 and 2:00 which makes spotting tarpon tough.

We had collected about 20 live ladyfish

and then rounded up another 30-40 large threadfins. I positioned the boat to drift in the deeper waters of the harbor drifting at a speedy pace. A few fish showed themselves and we hooked up immediately!

Wild gyrations from a 150 pound tarpon are hard to describe, but multiple jumps were made and Bob worked the fish beautifully bowing to the king as needed.

This was no average fish and antics of running around the boat took Bob off guard as he hustled after the fish. A huge jump in the midst of the scramble freed the monster – bowing to the king was hard to do as he chased the fish around the console. Ahhh yes, this is tarpon fishing! Back to fishing and we met with 2 other hook ups and a nice 75 pounder boated.

Another late start on day two essentially began with the same bait catching duties. Fishing tandem jigs and catching ladyfish is a blast and sabiki jigging threadfins is a hoot - who doesn’t like fast action? Our game plan for this day was to catch the high outgoing tide at Boca Grande (often referred to as the hill tide) as we were only 3 days before the full moon. Sliding into the eastern region of the pass we noticed 4 boats hooked up away from the crowds and an occasional tarpon rolling. Bob, Tim and myself counseled on how to approach the fish. As history would prove true, all 3 of us were in disagreement on what angle to approach by, how close to get to the fish and what is considered a courteous distance to fish from another boat.

With no agreement, I played the captains role and pursued multiple groups of fish.

We casted, drifted and had tarpon literally

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tail splash water into the boat, but no hook ups. Two boats around us were able to hook up, but not us. Of course the lack of action was my fault and I was taunted - two against one - as I tried my darndest to get a bite. As tension mounted amongst the crew, we moved further into the pack of boats drifting the pass.

Certainly not our style of fishing, we watched as the old style Boca boats horsed on tarpon from 60 feet of water. Brother Bob commented that if we wanted to fight deep water pullers we should go offshore after amberjack.

Tarpon in Boca Grande Pass spend most of their time pulling deep.

Shallower water tarpon jump more and zing more line which is what tarpon fishing is all about to us. With that said we ran back into the harbor and set up some drifts across the deep holes. A hammerhead shark made the day as it followed a drifted ladyfish for hundreds of yards, slashing wildly and zig-zagging around the bait. The antics of the hammerhead were like nothing I have seen from a shark. Bob hooked the fish and a short fight ensued before the bite off.

Our day three adventure began in similar fashion and we decided that we would fish in a remote area of the harbor avoiding the hordes of fish and fisherman at

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the pass. Easing into what I hoped would be the right spot, tarpon were spotted rolling. In this scenario we saw so much tarpon activity we set the anchor and pitched threadfins and ladyfish out, free- line style. Be careful using ladyfish as they will zig-zag across other lines creating chaos! A cork helps keep the ladyfish in line and lets you know where it is at all times.

The first hook-up came immediately with an 85 pound tarpon eating a thread.

A wild fight and Tim was the champion of this battle as the fish was released.

Two more tarpon hook-ups and many shark catches and bite offs were the tally for this day. The funny thing about all three days was that the hot bite only seemed to last 2 hours or less and the rest of the day was spent hoping, praying and wanting in anticipation. That is what tarpon fishing is all about. The incredible bite and hook-up of this mighty fish defies words on the first couple of runs and jumps. If you don’t get excited when a tarpon is hooked then you need to have your pulse checked by a doctor regardless of who is holding the rod.

Capt. Chuck Eichner operates Action Flats Back country Charters and can be contacted at 941-628-8040 to book a trip or v isit his website at www.back country -charters.com.

Side Scanning the Harbor June

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By Betty S taugl er Water LIFE / Sea Grant Every so often cool things just happen. While I was in Hawaii in March I met a professor (Kirk) from Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS).

Kirk told me about work he was doing in Chesapeake Bay using side scan sonar to identify and remove blue crab traps from the water.

In Virginia, there has historically been both a trap fishery and a dredge fishery. The dredge fishery occurred during the winter months when blue crabs burrow in the mud. A few years ago the dredge fishery was closed. Because of the economic loss, Virginia applied for and received federal recovery funds to restore fisheries and habitats and also to enhance marine debris removal efforts. The marine debris project entailed the state of Virginia buying 70 side scan units and hiring 70 commercial fishermen (displaced by the dredge fishery closure) to be trained

by VIMS researchers on the use of these units.

The commercial fishermen are paid by the day and are allowed to work up to 50 days during the closure.

Their work entails navigating in assigned areas and marking the waypoints of every trap they see on the screen. Later they go back out and recover the traps using a weighted line with hooks (bent 12- penny nails to be exact), a method developed by the participating fishermen. They photograph each trap removed and fill out a data sheet that includes the trap waypoint, whether it was fishable or not, any by-catch and other pertinent information. At the end of each day, the fishermen save their track and waypoints to a memory card which is turned into VIMS. This data demonstrates that they did indeed do what they were assigned to do. The project now in its fourth year has turned out to be a huge success. The program has now removed over 28,000 traps from the Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay. So I told Kirk that in Florida we also have a blue crab fishery and that in the past I have worked with our commercial fishermen to conduct volunteer cleanups of trap gear. Here we have focused only on the traps we can see. I mentioned that unlike Chesapeake Bay, Charlotte Harbor (and the Peace River) is a very shallow system and asked if he thought the side scan would work here. To answer that question, Kirk said he would be happy to loan me one of his units. He also offered to send one of his researchers down to train me on its use if I

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thought that would be helpful.

I received the unit two weeks ago. Capt. Ralph Allen offered the use of his boat for field testing.

Ralph told me he selfishly wanted to see if he could find out what one of his tour boats hit a couple weeks earlier causing considerable damage to the prop. I selfishly wanted a boat to put this cool hummingbird unit one, so this arrangement was a winwin.

Like two kids with a new toy we hooked it up and set sail. We navigated close to pilings, seawalls and sailboats to see what they looked like on the screen. We checked out the rocks outside of Fishermen’s Village then we headed out to explore.

Our first encounter outside the marina was a pod of dolphins. We circled them twice before their silhouette appeared on the screen. We went a short distance further and found what appears to be a small vessel near Gilchrest Park. This may have set some unrealistic expectations of finding sunken treasure of gold and rubies.

So far none of that though. We have however found what appear to be the remains of another small vessel in the Peace River, a bunch of crab traps, the debris piles that snag cast nets at Marker No.2, rubble piles from the old US41 Bridge, a school of bait fish, a tire and remnants of the docks at Liverpool. We found that the unit (a Hummingbird 1197c) worked in water as shallow as two feet.

Last week Kory, a VIMS researcher came down and showed us many of the unit’s features. We rewarded him with his first glimpse of a dolphin on the side scan…and of course a boat ride in sunny southwest Florida. Kory set me up with some software that will allow me to bring waypoints and tracks into Google Earth. I’m still a bit green on this, but it will be really cool when I figure it all out. Hopefully I will be able to use the waypoints collected to recover traps that may be navigation hazards during this year’s rotational closure for trap gear. Our area will be closed (to both commercial and recreational blue crab trap gear) from July 1019th. In the interim, I’ll be out on the water looking for a gold medallion inserted with ruby or maybe Fishin’ Frank Sr.’s lost anchor…regardless, it’s all good.

Betty Staugler is the Florida Sea Grant Agent for Charlotte County. She can be reached at 941.764.4346 Sea Grant is part of of the Univ ersity of Florida IFAS Ex tension

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Crab Traps are shown in the red boxed area of the screen

The shape to the left of the thick black line is a school of fish

A sunken boat in the red boxed area of the screen

Shark Page 8

By Cayl e Wi l l s Water LIFE Inshore Right now the shark fishing is like Dr. Seuss out there! One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. Big sharks, little sharks, every species of shark, they are all active and easy to catch.

Let’s start with the little guys, the bonnet heads. They are just about everywhere in the harbor. They’re really stacked up on the flats along the East and West Walls, around the 41 bridge and in the mouth of the Myakka River near Marker No. 8. The bonnetheads will eat a live or dead shrimp on the bottom and I’ve been hearing reports of them coming up and taking them under a bobber, but bottom fishing for them is the preferred method. Small spinning gear with light metal leaders, a lead weight is optional as you’ll probably be in shallower water. And let’s not forget how good eating those bonnet heads are.

Next size up is the black tips. The black tip puppies are almost as thick as the bonnet head. The mouth of the Myakka River near Marker No. 8, the 14 foot hole, and the deeper flat out in front of the West Wall seem to be holding tons of black tips now.

Mullet and bonita filets under medium wire on the bottom are the best producing baits.

I took some family out to the 14 foot hole

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the other day and it was one black tip after another. We caught 4 black tips on the first rig before I could even get the second rod rigged up and ready.

They were smashing the bait that fast. Early morning ‘till noon is the best time to target the black tips.

They seem to shut down around 1 p.m. If you’re using the filets of a soft fish like the bonita make sure you double hook them, but do it shallow so you don’t foul the hook.

Having a bad day? Well you know the saying…”If life hands you lemons, go catch lemon sharks.” We’re getting some pretty good sized lemons out of the deeper holes in the harbor. The 14 foot hole, 20 foot hole and the middle hole are all good, as is the East Wall down around Pirate Harbor. Whole mullet and whole catfish on heavy wire are working great. Both dead and live bait work equally well. With

whole bait I like to hook them through the bottom of the mouth and then slice them open as if you were going to gut them out.

To hook them in the bottom of the mouth I open their mouth then go DOWN through the bottom lip. I do this because there will be plenty of hook exposed and the skin under the mouth is soft which will let the bait slide up the line when fighting the shark. This keeps the bait from leveraging the hook out.

Let me take a moment to interject here.

I DO NOT use circle hooks on shark. I’m

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sorry, I don’t care what tournament or science group says what, circle hooks, even with their barbs flattened are not easier to get out of a shark. I use a normal “J” hook with the barb flattened out. To release the shark simply slide an Arc De-Hooker down the line and smack the handle with your hand. Hook pops out, shark swims off.

With a circle hook you have to rotate the hook out due to its design. I’ve yet to see a de-hooking device that will remove circle hooks with a handle long enough for me to continued on facing page

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continued from facing page

attempt it on the chewing end of a shark.

Sure, the circle hook is great because it hooks in the corner of the mouth but if you do your part right the shark won’t swallow a “J” hook either. But the key is doing your part right.

Ok, back on track. Next up are the bull sharks and the hammerheads. The bulls and hammers are following the tarpon. That’s going to put them in Boca Grande Pass, the offshore flats and the deeper holes in the harbor. I’ve had many reports from other captains saying the big bulls and hammers are wolf packing the tarpon .They’re catching in groups of three and four so there’s one of your better producing baits if you have your tarpon tag. (Yes, a lot of people frown on using tarpon for shark bait. Obviously, I’m not one of them.) They’ll both also take down live or dead stingray – either whole or chunks.

Whole bonita and large bonita chunks are also good bait for the bulls. Heavy gear, heavy leader, heavy line and heavy hooks are necessary.

I’m pretty particular in my methods for shark fishing. First, I like to anchor the boat and have the rods out the back of the boat. I run as few lines as possible.

Remember, chances are you’re going to end up chasing the shark so keep in mind how long it takes to reel in 7 different lines, get the rods put up, and get ready to run. Can you do all that before you get spooled? Another simple tip is to keep a crab trap buoy on the end of your anchor line that way you can just toss it all overboard if you have to chase the shark. It’s much quicker than trying to pull the anchor up along with those 7 rods.

Once the boat is clear of the anchor line I’ll back down to give the angler a chance to get some line back and I’ll turn while backing. While the boat is backing in its turn, the angler should be moving to the front of the boat while retrieving that line as fast as possible to prevent slack. The angler and the driver need to stay in constant communication with each other. The driver needs to tell the angler when he’s going to speed up or slow down or if he’s going to turn or if there are waves coming.

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The last thing you want is to slam it into reverse and throw your angler off the bow.

I’ve seen it done…

The angler needs to be in constant communication with the driver too. The easiest way he can do this is to keep the rod and his body facing the shark. This helps the driver gauge where the shark is and what it’s doing so he can adjust his track. Tell that driver if he needs to slow down or speed up. As the driver I like to keep the shark in front of the boat between 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock. It puts good pressure on the fish and it keeps the line from touching the hull or anything else that might cut it.

When fighting a shark the best advice I can give you is to relax. Slow steady pressure is what you want. Here is a comparison between two big sharks I’ve put people on recently. One was caught by a 65 year old man on his own; the other was an 18 year old and a 20 year old that had to tag team the fish switching on and off three times each. Both were 7 foot lemon shark.

Why? Because the distinguished gentleman took his time and kept that steady pressure on the fish. The younger guys tried to out muscle a fish you can’t out muscle. If you can out muscle a shark all you’re going to do is bring a dangerous fish to the boat that is much too green and now you’ve possibly put people in danger. Slow and steady wins the race.

I’ve helped all I can, now get out there and catch some sharks!

Capt. Cay le Will s work s at Fishin Frank s Contact him at 625-3888

941-628-4746 Half Day & Full Day

From Sun Up To Sun Down There Is Always Time For A Big Hit

bighitcharters.net

Capt. Wayne Kerry

USCG licensed

Bring Back Free Parking

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On the Line

Wi th Capt. Ron Bl ago Water LIFE Senior Staff Recently I had the misfortune of watching the May 24th Charlotte County Commissioner’s meeting on their web site. I was told that they were going to finally get rid of the electronic pay-meter stations at our local beaches and boatramps. It seems that the old equipment has been wearing out and the time has come to either replace with new equipment or go in a new direction. I was told that the county was going to go to the same system used at the state parks namely you put a few bucks in an envelope and drop that in a box.

The Beach and Shores, Park and Rec; and the MAC all voted to give this plan a try but 4 out of the 5 commissioners did not see things the same way.

The first question that came up was how much money do we make in parking fees. The head of Community Services told the board that they bring in about half a million dollars a year. One of the commissioners said he had a report that the figure was less than $300K last year.

As a member of MAC, I have been trying to get an honest accounting on parking fees for three years. The last report I got from Park and Rec was for the first

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9 months of fiscal year 2010 which showed $154,885.68 – Total Meter Revenue for Beach Parking and $47,122.50 – Total Meter Revenue for Boat Ramp Parking. Boy that's a long way from a half a million bucks.

What amazed me about the discussion was the lack of information about what the cost-side of the equation was. The repair cost on the existing equipment is about $30K per year. The replacement cost for the equipment is $152K with an estimated life of less than 10 years. Plus there is the collection cost. Currently the county sends two employees in a county van everyday to pick up that money. I have seen them on rainy days when there were no boats on the water; picking up the money. I have seen them on weekends and holidays picking up the money.

Where is that cost in the equation?

When it comes to boat ramps the situation becomes more ludicrous. I heard one of the commissioners say that she could see removing the parking fee at the beaches but not at boat ramps. After all she said, boat ramps are so expensive and the users should pay. Let me tell you something; boaters just want a ramp and a flat piece of land to park the truck. On a good day you spend less than 15 min. at the ramp. It was the county officials that wanted to pave and landscape every-

June

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The flooded south, where when the going gets tough, the tough go fishing

thing so now we have parking spots at an average cost of $20,000 each. When it comes to paying our fair share; remember that we pay to register our boats and for us Charlotte County residence, we pay an extra fee that is supposed to go to boat ramps. We pay to register our trailers and we pay to register the vehicle that hauls them both. We pay for our fishing license and we pay a special tax for gas we buy on the water. We even pay an extra tax on every piece of fishing equipment we buy. When does paying your fair share turn into gouging the boater?

One of the commissioners said the problem was that we make it to hard for people to pay for parking. He sees a system where you can use a credit or debit card even an app for your I- phone. I'm not even going to explain the effects on electronics in a salt water environment or

the probability of computer hacking. It's a parking lot, people, not a space shuttle.

If you want a high tech problem to solve how about the 11% unemployment problem in this county or the hundreds of properties that are in foreclosure, or the thousands of homes that are upside down.

Remember, taxpayers already paid for the land and the facilities on it; and we are currently paying the salaries of those who maintain that property. Why do we have to pay to park? That's like paying off your mortgage and then having the bank tell you: Now you have to pay rent.

One of the commissioners made a very astute observation. He said in Englewood all the locals just drive to the Sarasota part of town. After all parking is free there. Come on Charlotte County, Bring Back Free Parking.

Capt. Ron Blago captronb@juno.com

June

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P a g e 11

Punta Gorda

Pi rate Harbor

Call the Captain! COMPLETELY REMODELED! 150 ft. of Waterfront, gulf access, deep sailboat water. Over 1,900 sq. ft., hand laid stone fireplace, enormous family room. Waterfront extras are a dock, boat lift, davits, ramp, seawall and concrete patio right on the waterfront! $279,000

Punta Gorda Isl es

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Burnt S tore Isl es

Call the Captain! DEEP SAILBOAT WATER! Build your Florida dream home or vacation get-away on this gulf access lot located in a golf course neighborhood. Concrete seawall and dock already installed.

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Call the Captain! CUSTOM BUILT LAKEFRONT HOME! Pool home - Deep Creek, 3 BR, 2 BA, 2,000+ sq. ft.Numerous upgrades including cultured marble vanity, dual sinks and garden tub in master bathroom, Too much more to list here! White hurricane storm panels, bevel cut glass entry. Home is wired for surround sound. Built in 2007. $249,900 Port Charl otte

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Burnt S tore Isl es

Call the Captain! DEEP WATER IMMEDIATE HARBOR ACCESS! Intersecting canal views, 7 lots from harbor. Expansive deck and beautiful tropical lanai overlooks pool, multiple docks, lifts and open water. $289,000

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Call the Captain! IMMACULATE GOLF COURSE HOME! This 3/2.5/2 pool home with over 2,000sfAir is located on the fifth hole of the Twin Isles Golf Club. Immaculate $249,900

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Call the Captain! SAILBOAT QUICK ACCESS 4/2/2 POOL HOME Excellent condition, 5 minutes to open water with dock. Nicely updated. $189,000

S outh Gul f Co ve

This home boasts over 2600 sq. ft. Gorgeous tile on diagonal and 18 ft. ceilings in a spectacular great room. Huge master suite with Jacuzzi style tub, large 2nd master on opposite side of house. Alarm system in place. $250,000

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Stunningly beautiful, ‘2007’, 4/4/3 with over 3,400 sq. ft. of living space. Prestigious Burnt Store Marina, rich wood cabinetry, island kitchen, stainless steel appliances. $549,999

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Call the Captain! WIDE OPEN WATER VIEW OF PIRATE HARBOR BAY! Fully sea walled with composite dock decking with lift pilings. Lot is cleared and ready to build. $175,000

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CHARLOTTE HARBOR! Walking distance to the Beach Complex from this 4/2/2, 3000sf under air, home.

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Only 5 minutes to open water, 20 minutes to the Gulf, no bridges. $249,999

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NA & GOLF COMPLEX! Panoramic lakes views, enormous loft, designer granite throughout in this 4/4/3, 3400sfAir, Country Club Living. Brand New. $549,999

Page 12

Hot Time to Fish

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Consignment Boats Wanted

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By Capt. Bart Marx Water LIFE Inshore Hello out there in the fishing world it is summer time and it is a hot time to fish. Growing up here in Charlotte County my Pops would do some shark fishing in the harbor. I think I was too young back then for him to dare take me along - it can be dangerous. He had some friends that all moved here from Clinton IA. on the west side of the Mississippi and on the east side Fulton Ill. Like here where one side of the river is Punta Gorda and the other is Port Charlotte.

They met boating on the river and became very good friends.

Lyle and Pop's were the fishermen.

They were very avid and they learned how to catch sharks early in their transition from fishing up north. Depending who you talk to they both were called sharkman. The neighbors knew when they had a shark they would have a shark fry and invite every one over. There was a time that Pop's would go alone fishing in the boat and he had a method as to how he would drag the big sharks by the tail to drown them and then get help at the boat ramp to put the shark in the boat so he could bring it home to clean it.

Sometimes I was able to go and we mostly caught big sail-cats. He helped me to grow my passion for fishing.

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ITʼS GONNA BE A HOT ONE – Chumming for bait at sunrise on the Bokellia Bar.

When I was old enough to start fishing on my own I had a day job and could only fish at night for snook and sharks.

That is how I learned to fish for these big toothy critters saving all kinds of fish for chum and getting blood from the slaughter house. At night, your lines get tangled and it can be frustrating, or maybe a tarpon comes by to mess things up. Now that I am a fishing guide and fish in the day time it is the same with the chum and all but in the daytime you can see your lines and keep them straight. It is so much easier fishing in the day time!

I have encountered some good size fish in the last few weeks – black tip and sharp nose mostly – a few bonnet heads.

I feel that a three to four foot shark is best for food value and amount. Black tip being the top for flavor: fried, grilled, however you like your fish, it is good.

On one of my trips - two guys and myself had an awesome thing happen.

We had a nice run on a four-ought reel with 50-pound mono and a 250-pound leader. I picked up the rod and set the hook and the handle almost fell off in my hand. Wow! So I gave the fish some slack and fixed the handle back on the rod and set the hook but it felt like the hook was spit out. I reeled in the line only to find that it had been cut just as if someone had a pair of side cutters - clean as could be. Later that week, I stopped at Fishin’ Franks to get a report as to what the experts said cut the two hundred and fifty pound steel leader like nothing. I

shared my story and they were all a little surprised that it was cut so clean and explained that their best guess would be a bull shark. That makes me want to go back and hunt this big boy down and see just what it really was. In Boca Grande those hammer heads get big and fishing out there is not for beginners. It takes some serious preparation to tackle those big ten to twelve foot critters. You could easily be in an 8-hour battle or longer.

These are the things that some fishermen do not think about - can you take it and can the tackle you are using take that kind of abuse? It could be like running a marathon if you know what I mean.

Up in the harbor there are some big sharks too. The other Monday I had two ladies from our church office out fishing and we saw what I feel was a hammerhead that was about eight feet or so. That trip we brought a three and a half foot blacktip in to clean for them to have a fish fry.

This is the time of year to fish for the big ones – shark tarpon and goliath grouper. But you need to have some good equipment – spinning rods for some of the smaller sharks and tarpon and conventional reels for the bigger ones. The drags are a very important thing so learn as much as possible about what you are fishing for.

If y ou would lik e to contact Capt. Bart he could tak e y ou out and get y ou hook ed up on one of the big game fish. Call Capt. Bart 941-979-6517 Alpha & Omega Charters.

Singing drags and tight lines mak e me smile. Tak e a k id fishin.

June

2 0 11

DIVING

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Page 13

Playing Wack-a-Mole ... with Bull Sharks!

By Tommy Davi s Water LIFE Diving We got a late start and arrived at the Bayronto around noon. There was a boat on the wreck when we got there. The people on the boat were pitching live blue runners off the back and I watched a huge shark come up and nail one. We asked if they caught any snapper and they told us they caught blue runners and sharks and that they spearfish too, but there was no way they would consider diving the wreck at this time of year. We left and went fishing for reds but after a while we decided to take our chances.

Heading down the anchor I saw two 7foot bull sharks swimming around.

Once we got to the top of the wreck I started to see soooooo many gag grouper, I can honestly say that there were over 50 keeper gags on the wreck. I shot 2 mangroves but then we saw a shark come in to our vision about once every minute or so and I could feel that we were being watched.

Going up was not that bad. We only got circled by 3 sharks but they kept a 15-foot distance from us. We decided to go back down and take one last chance for an A.J. – we didn’t shoot one on the first dive because we saw the sharks.

On our second dive I shot the biggest A.J. I saw, but I did not stone it. For those of you who shoot AJs you know that sucks for two reasons; one, you now have to fight the fish, and two, everything in the water is now paying 100% attention to your fight.

The sharks appeared “out of the wood work” and they were huge “ and I mean HuUUGE Caroline, Huuuuuuuge.”

My diving buddy Jeff kept them off of me, but they were way too big and way too close for comfort. I gave the ‘up’ signal and began to ascend out of the big green cloud we stirred up and away from the sharks. Then, on the surface, I made the mistake of saying I guess we can go back down.

The whole dive was scary! Every fish I shot was accompanied by a shark coming in. Jeff later said it was far more heart pumping excitement to keep the sharks off me than to shoot fish. Things were not that bad until we started going up, then we had 5 or 6 bulls on us and the closer we got to the surface the more sharks we saw. When we were 10 feet from the surface I counted 12 sharks, way more than I have ever seen in the past 20 dives combined.

I had no idea how there could be so many sharks until I hit the surface and saw that we were around 150 yards down current from the boat, meaning for the past 2 dives every drop of blood had also

drifted this way.

I looked down to see more sharks than even before. Now there were too many to count, over 20 at least! I honestly felt like I was going to be eaten, which is something I have never felt before, especially when another diver was with me.

This time it was different, the sharks were not only unafraid of two divers, but they seemed happy there was more meat in the water.

I couldn’t swim 5 seconds before the sharks were at my fins and I would slow down to hit one. Jeff yelled at me “Fin swim.” He was keeping himself between me and the sharks.

I looked back to see him playing whack a mole with 7 to 10 foot bull sharks. I know they were bull sharks because of their three huge fins. Bull sharks look like something out of Star Wars – when sharks are facing you underwater they all look like a space craft.

Jeff found that hitting at them would only keep the sharks at bay for so long and the only way to make it out alive was to get out of the water ASAP. It was only a matter of time. I will never forget the sight of the beautiful setting sun above the water and then the sharks coming up from the depths. It was feeding time.

To make things worse Jeff ran out of air in the first 2 minutes of the swim back to the boat. This was a huge deal because he could no longer keep his eyes on the sharks, he had to breathe. As he said “ Every second you spent looking away from the sharks you had to pay for by the sharks becoming much more ‘detailed’ when you looked back ” Jeff started pulling me. I held my ring as close to me as I could with my left hand while playing whack-a-shark with my gun in my right hand.

I am not very religious, but for the rest of that swim I was doing some talking to the man upstairs. The sharks started to back off once we got within 20 feet of the boat and I have never been so happy to grab a dive ladder in my life.

We left and spent the night at the Box Cars and dove again in the morning. The only thing I could think of before I made that tough roll off the boat was: I really hope the scenery has changed.

That dive sucked and there was nothing to shoot at all. I shot one 14-inch man-

A gag grouper with a shaft in him, drops to the bottom like a ʻstoneʼ.

grove (more out of frustration than anything else) and 2 bulls came right in. It was just stupid, the damn sharks even followed us right up the anchor line.

On the way in we dove a ledge in 40 feet where I shot 4 nice mangroves and one 23 inch hog snapper and Jeff shot a

28 inch grouper. Best of all there were no sharks, and the best dive of the trip turned out to be the shallowest.

Tommy Davis can be reached at 941809-7942 for questions or information.

Editor Notes** In 2005 Tommy Davis was the Water LIFE Kids Cup winner.

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June

2 0 11

Crystal River

By Davi d Al l en Water LIFE Kayaking Paddling at some of the beautiful streams in other parts of Florida is always an adventure. New sights to see, new people to meet, and new restaurants to sample, all add up to a great experience. So we decided to take three days off and paddle two of the best springs in north-central Florida; Rainbow Springs and The Three Sisters (Crystal River).

Early Tuesday morning we packed the car and started on the three hour drive to Crystal River. Arriving at the Best Western Resort about noon, we checked in, and unloaded the kayaks for a paddle in the Crystal River. The Best Western is a great place for kayakers to stay as they have a boat ramp on Kings Bay, a fullservice dive shop and other amenities that make kayaking easy and pleasant. And, the resort is a short walking distance from two of the best restaurants in

Crystal River; Charlie’s and Crackers.

Both feature wonderfully prepared seafood fresh from the Bay and the Gulf.

We launched from the boat ramp, pushing the algae aside, and paddled west into Kings Bay. The Three Sisters are a group of three pools of clear, blue water at a constant temperature of 72 degrees.

They are located about one mile from the ramp on the east side of Kings Bay. The water flows from small limestone openings into the white sand bottom of the spring, although it is hard to spot the flow. Access to the spring is blocked by three concrete posts so that only kayaks, canoes and swimmers can enter. The spring is home, particularly in the winter, to manatees due to the warm, constant temperature water.

We paddled to the entrance, surprised by the number of kayakers and tour boats that were in the area. Slipping between the barrier posts, we explored the beautiful clear blue water and the rock formations below. No manatees on this day, however, we did see small fish and a lot of birds.

Day two was another perfect Florida day and we left early to drive the 20 plus miles to Dunnellon, Fl, where Rainbow Springs is located. The Rainbow River is fed by Rainbow Springs, a first magni-

tude spring that discharges half-a-million gallons of water a day through numerous vents the length of the River. From spring-head to Dunnellon, where the Rainbow River empties into the Withlacoochee River, is about 6 miles.

The clear water attracts many species of fish and wildlife and the vegetation along the river banks is most attractive.

According to archaeologists, the area surrounding the spring has sustained human inhabitants for over 10,000 years.

We decided to launch from the KP Hole Park, some two miles south of the spring, and paddle upstream to the recreation area located at Rainbow Springs Park. KP Hole Park has made lots of recent improvements in the kayak launch ramps and other facilities, and is a great place to start your paddle. We paddled upstream with many other kayakers, and of course, a few sightseeing boats. When we arrived at the spring, there were many swimmers enjoying the 72 degree

water in the recreation area. We explored the spring-head area, then paddled back downstream, past KP Hole Park by about 2 miles toward Dunnellon. The stream banks were lined with tall, stately cypress and live oak festooned with Spanish moss. More anhingas than we had ever seen were diving for lunch. A few fishermen were anchored along the banks, casting for their lunch. Birds of all description flew past as we paddled. On the return paddle upstream, we saw an otter fishing and playing along the bank.

After about four hours of paddling, we were ready for some lunch, like the anhinga and fishermen. But what a great paddle in one of the most beautiful rivers in Florida.

The Port Charlotte Kay ak ers meet each Wednesday ev ening at 5:30 PM at Port Charlotte Beach Park . All are welcome to attend. For more information, contact Dav e Allen at 941-235-2588 or dlla@comcast.net.

OFFICIAL REPORT: Officers responded to a search for an overdue kayaker near Estero Bay. Officers located the 87-year-old individual near Estero River and safely returned him to shore.

The kayaker had become tired and thirsty and was having difficulty paddling.

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Texas Tournament Cheating Law

S peci al to Water LIFE Ft Worth Star Telegram Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been pushing his list of emergency bills, and finally lawmakers have sent Perry a bill that addresses what they apparently consider one of Texas' most crucial needs.

If Perry signs House Bill 1806, it will be a criminal felony to lie about the size of your fish.

Apparently, cheating in bass tournaments has reached such whale-size proportions that Texas will throw liars in prison for up to 10 years for altering the weight of fish or misrepresenting where they were caught.

Fishing guide Steve Schmidt of Mansfield said that's not enough. "These guys who come out of nowhere with a 25-

pound bass -- they're ruining the sport for everybody," he said.

This fish-fraud thing all started last year, when a Garland man fishing at Lake Ray Hubbard added a 1-pound weight to a bass.

He was trying to win a $55,000 bass boat.

Rockwall Republican Dan Flynn, who represents the lake area, wrote the bill. The House passed it 142-4, the Senate unanimously.

Fishing guide J.R. Howard of Lake Ivie near San Angelo said he's seen a "lot of little cheating" in tournaments. "It'll be easier to convict somebody with this law," he said. Schmidt, a Richland-Chambers Reservoir guide, said the law is "absolutely" needed. "Cheating in fishing is ridiculous," he said.

Fishinʼ Frankʼs Unique New Boats

Port Charlotte’s Fishin’ Frank has designed two new specialty boats. One is a Carolina Skiff transformed into a kayak transport vessel. The boat has a swing-in water level kayak launch platform and elaborate retracting superstructure that allows Frank to carry kayaks outboard when on the water and then swing the kayak arms inboard for easy trailering. The kayak boat is designed to carry up to six kayaks and could be used to expand kayak access to spots like Bull and Turtle Bay, Whidden and Catfish Creek or the Two-Pine area, all of which are currently out of easy paddling range.

The other boat, also in its sea-trials stage, is a wheelchair friendly vessel. It is a modified flat deck Lake and Bay with an offset and extremely narrow console that came from an Action Craft. The flat deck allows a wheelchair to move freely around the boat when at anchor and has special flush tiedown provisions for securing a wheelchair when the boat is under way.

Help Support Kids Fishing Page 15

Port Charlotte cartoonist Ron Bates drew this original cartoon for last monthʼs Shark Challenge event and then had Guy Harvey and Wendy Benchley sign it. Whatever funds we raise with it will go to the Don Ball School of Fishing, a program that teaches 7th graders about fishing, ethical angling and the environment. The 10x12 image is hand drawn on watercolor stock and is unframed. For a $9 Pay Pal donation to the Don Ball School Program anyone can have an electronic high resolution copy, suitable for printing. For a $250 donation you can take home the original. Go to: www.waterlifemagazine.com for more information.

Also this month, to benefit Kids Fishing, will be the June 11 Marina Day event at Fishermenʼs Village featuring a boat show, and displays and hot dog cookout with all the proceeds going to the Don Ball School of Fishing. Thanks to everyone at Fishville!

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SCUTTLEBUTT

June

2 0 11

Sometimes Unsubstanciated, But Often True

HEARD AROUND THE MARINA:

“Definitely a big crop of comb jellyfish this spring.

Catching many messy pounds of them in some cast net throws. There are also a few stinging jellyfish around, I got stung on the inside of the lower lip by one Saturday morning when I loaded the cast net for a toss. Guess I need to learn one of the non-mouth methods of throwing a net.”

FROM VENICE: I was advised this weekend that the new manatee zone signs are going up. Zero tolerance enforcement to follow. BTW in 2010 NO manatees were killed by boats in Sarasota county. For that diligent effort on the part of the boating public we are rewarded with......NEW SLOW SPEED ZONES. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't!

MORE THAN 1 5 , 0 0 0 LBS. OF ILLEGAL SAILFISH MEAT SEIZED FROM COSTA RICAN SEAFOOD EXPORTER Investigators from two Costa Rica government agencies seized 7012 kilos (over 15,000 lbs) of whole sailfish carcasses from a seafood exporter. The shipment was bound for Peru. The company had falsified documents as striped marlin, which is a legal billfish for exportation, while sailfish are a protected species in Costa Rican waters.

FIRST REPORT: Just after dark, officers responded to the Skyway Bridge to coordinate a search for a man who had jumped from the center span of the bridge. The Lieutenant relayed information to another officer who responded by boat. Within a few minutes they located the jumper, who was still alive, lying on the granite rocks of the bridge abutment. Rescue swimmers from a St. Petersburg Fire Rescue boat recovered the man from the rocks and transported him to the hospital.

NEXT REPORT: For the second time in two days, officers responded to the Skyway Bridge to search for a subject who jumped from the center span of the bridge. The victim’s body was recovered just west of the bridge by St. Petersburg Fire Rescue.

QUESTION: Was it the same guy?

WHO ARE THEY KIDDING? In a rare mass shark attack, last year, a swarm of sharks surrounded and killed a 38-year-old kite board surfer in the Atlantic off southern Florida. Martin County officials said Stephen Schafer of Stuart, was the first shark attack fatality since 1882. A lifeguard who pulled Schafer from the water said the veteran kite boarder was encircled by sharks about a quarter mile off-shore and had been bitten many times. Schafer was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Shark experts say 90% of shark bites are accidental, and people familiar with Stuart Beach said this was the first multiple shark attack in memory, although the east coast of Florida has more than 200 shark attacks on record.

Rel ated Shark Attack Graphi c Bel o w:

OFFSHORE PATROL Last month, five FWC patrol vessels, one FWC aircraft, 15 FWC officers and one NOAA special agent worked an operational detail, performing boating safety and fisheries inspections of commercial and recreational vessels in state and federal waters off of Duval, St. Johns and Flagler counties. FWC officers from Charlotte County inspected our dive columnist Tommy Davis, while 32 miles offshore. Is this a new trend?

Latest Weather Product : 3D TRMM Vertical Radar precipitation depiction.

MONROE COUNTY: Numerous officers assisted federal workers after 21 pilot whales stranded themselves on Cudjoe Key. Fourteen of the whales died, two healthy whales were released, and five were relocated for treatment.

Officers provided patrol and protection during the recovery and transport of the five surviving whales. It is unknown what caused the whales to strand themselves or what kind of police protection was provided.

TOWER TOPPLES: While working a waterborne security detail for visiting Governor Rick Scott, an officer responded to a boating accident involving a vessel that had overturned. Several fishermen had been riding in the tuna tower of a 24-foot vessel when it overturned outside a sandbar off Shell Island. No one was injured, but there was significant property loss.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY

An FWC Nuisance Alligator Trapper was called to remove an alligator that was crossing U.S. Highway 301.

The alligator bit the trapper in the ankle and foot and when it would not release, it was subsequently shot by Hillsborough County deputies who were on the scene. A preliminary report was taken and an investigation is ongoing.

ACHEING BACK: Officers and a FWC Biologist responded to a beached manatee on Anna Maria Island. The manatee was photographed, measured, and micro-chipped.

With assistance from Holmes Beach officers, the manatee was lifted on a stretcher and transported to the water.

Elephants and crocodiles donʼt mix

No Customers June

2 0 11

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Just the Captain and the mate

By C apt S teve S kevi ngton Water LIFE Offshore Heading out fishing before sunrise has always put a big stupid smile on my face, but this time it was going to be special.

I have...perhaps only one time in 10 years, ever left the dock to fish for myself!

As a charter captain for the last decade or so I have not had the chance to do a whole lot of "fishing for myself," but this morning I am headed offshore, at last, not to fill a fish box or to even try, but to do what I love to do,.....pull on the monsters!

This morning my deckhand has already loaded 50 pounds or so of chum on board, as well as been tying wire leaders up to 6feet long. I was - with good reason - very excited.

Today we will hopefully be playing with the big dogs, and it will be on relatively light gear. We decided that 25-pound spinning gear will be the weapon of choice today. And three to four hundred pound sharks are the target.

I haven't done a whole lot of research or "pre-fishing" at all going into this trip.

After all, we routinely run into these big guys offshore this time of year whether we are looking for them or not.

Besides, running a hundred or so shark fishing charters every year, is plenty of "research". Finding these big guys shouldn't be too hard. Almost anywhere you find fish this time of year you WILL find sharks nearby. With this in mind, and my fuel bill very fresh in my mind, I headed for some bait pods just offshore in about 50 feet of water. There were sure to be big sharks around.

Running right out of Placida, and through little Gasparilla Pass, I barely had time to get that second cup of coffee in me before I was approaching my intended fishing spot. Bait was "dimpling" for at least an acre wide stretch, with the occasional mackerel busting through. This is exactly what I wanted to see this morning.

I don't know if it was the Dunkin’ Doughnuts coffee, or just pure excitement, but I was more than ready to tie into something big.

We dropped the anchor and grabbed two spinning rods from their holders. In our excitement we had two baits out before the first ounce of chum went in the water.

After a moment of silence for what was about to happen to both of those spinning rods and our arms, we deployed the first bucket of chum over the side.

As I turned to find the safety of my shaded cabin, the first bait got slammed!

And of course when I picked that rod up, the other one started to scream out line like it had just snagged a torpedo!

Capt Steve with mate Ryanʼs big bull shark

So now we had done what we set out to do, we came, we saw, and we hooked up.

And now of course we had to fight not one but two huge sharks at the same time, and God only knows how we intended to land those guys.

In the past trips we always had both a captain and a mate to assist whoever was fighting the fish. But this time it was the captain and mate who were hooked up!

We saw the second fish as it took the bait. It was a bull shark that was every bit of 300 pounds, but I still had no idea what was on the other end of my line.

We decided to go ahead and just muscle my fish to the boat, get a release, and chase Ryans fish. We knew we were going to have our hands full with his.

At just about the same time we had made this decision my fish cleared the water by at least six feet. It was a spinner shark, five to six feet in length.

As this wonderful fish landed it did what most jumping spinner sharks do, it broke my line and oddly enough, I was not the least bit upset. At least now I could help land Ryan’s fish.

Finally, after an hour long fight, we were able to subdue the 8 foot bull shark long enough to get a good release.

These two fish were the start of what ended up being a beautiful morning full of huge sharks, one hook-up after another. We had to head for the dock a bit earlier than planed, as we ran out of bait and coffee but this kind of fishing should now be available all summer long, for those souls that like this sort of thing.

Capt. Steve Skevington can be reached at 941-575-3528 for charters or fishing information

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Real Estate News

Page 18

PROVIDED to Water LIFE BY: Dave Hofer RE/MAX Harbor Realty (941) 575-3777 dhofer@remax.net www.harborparadise.com Recent area news i tems:

1. Leisure and entertainment entrepreneurs continue to show promise of bringing reality to the development of Murdock Village. Cal Ripken's "Ripken Experience" baseball camp is the latest to adjoin the prospective water park resort and music park. In it's sixth season of providing baseball tournament facilities in suburban Baltimore and Myrtle Beach, Ripken is eyeing the Port Charlotte location across the street from Charlotte County Stadium where his Class A minor team, the Stonecrabs now call home. They will likely propose to build 8 first class youth and college fields to host as many as 1200 teams each year.

Teams consisting of 15 players and coaches typically shell out up to $8,000 to spend five nights in their facilities. All are hoping that the proximity of other recreational activities nearby will help attract teams and their families from all over the east and midwest to visit Charlotte County. Ripken is asking the county to front half of its $71,000 due diligence costs.

2. The Charlotte airport will soon be expanding its terminal.

When completed, square footage will double from 19,000 to 40,000. Vision Air will start flying its 30 seat turboprops from its home base in Ft. Walton Beach to Punta Gorda.

3.

Just when we thought we'd already seen the poorest use of Federal stimulus money yet, along comes the "Florida Hardest Hit Fund" on April 18. Well meaning Federal bureaucrats have allocated over $1 billion to the Florida Housing

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Finance Corp. to aid unemployed homeowners to stay in their homes. Those who qualify will first receive up $6,000 to pay their lender for delinquent mortgage payments then will receive six months of mortgage payments of up to $12,000. So, let's see now, who really benefits from this program? If not for this hair brained idea, the unemployed homeowner, who is deep under water and behind on his mortgage, would other wise milk a few months out of foreclosure proceedings and finally give up his house sticking the lender with a big loss.

NOW, he'll get to turn over up to $18K of taxpayer money to his lender before giving up his house...any wonder why the banking industry has so many lobbyists in Washington?

4.

Jackson Labs is depending on $50 Mil coming from (Gov Rick) Scott approved state money (not likely) and $100 Mil from Sarasota County before it can proceed on its ambitious new laboratory project. This project has already received thumbs down from Collier County.

5.

Although Charlotte County was unable to garner any commitments from the State of Florida for its wish list, Sarasota dug deep to come up with another absurd reason to put further strain on the State's budget. It won approval to fund $5 Mil towards a $20 Mil project to create a world class rowing facility in Sarasota Lake at Benderson Park. Since the State has a deep deficit, this grandiose project is likely to fall solely on the shoulders of Sarasota taxpayers.

6.

Creative Circle Studio and Gallery opened for business in Herald Square in downtown Punta Gorda. Creative offers do-it-yourself pottery as well as professionally created ceramics.

The controversial Subway franchise will be opening this month, as well.

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Charlotte Harbor Water Atlas – A new web site is being developed by the University of South Florida for the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program with a goal of providing a comprehensive data resource, eventually covering the State of Florida, that helps citizens and scientists alike make informed decisions concerning our vital water resources. The Charlotte Harbor Water Atlas is currently in a beta test version with a full rollout planned for the end of July. You can visit the developmental site, at http://dev.chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/ Water Atlasʼs currently exist for many areas including the Tampa Bay Estuary, Sarasota, Hillsborough, Polk and Orange counties.

7.

The Florida state senate is still tweaking the "Save Our Homes" real estate tax valuation system. Real estate valuation increases had been limited to 3% per year for owner occupied homes, but no limitation on valuation increases for vacant, commercial or second home properties. A proposed bill will limit increases for investors to 5% per year.

Investors, of course, are hoping that limitation will mean something some day.

In other news: Punta Gorda airport traffic was up 140% for Direct Air and 18% for Allegiant last month vs. the

prior year. Ft. Walton Beach based Vision Airlines will soon be serving the Punta Gorda market with twice weekly trips to it’s home base as well as Savannah. Vision serves 24 cities from its home base in Ft. Walton Beach.

S al es S tati sti cs: Lot prices continue to run some 25% below last year with only modest volume. Condo activity in west county where prices have reflected a newer mix of properties with close proximity to the Gulf have stabilized.

Median home prices are consistently running 10 per cent below last year's level.

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By Bi l l Di xon Water LIFE Sailing The Hi bi scus Cup was a great time for all. Gentle but steady winds, sunshine, warm, but not too hot. Even the Race Committee enjoyed the day. Big Sunfish fleet, Nice sized Flying Scott fleet, and 3 Hobie 16's.

Wi nners were: Sunfish- Phil Mehwinney from Ft Myers 1st, CW BeiteCook, also Ft Myers second, Damien Lin Ft. Myers 3rd. Kids and novice adults from the sailing center hung in for the 4 races but couldnt beat the pros. whooped our Sailing Center gang, they did.

Fl yi ng S cots: Doug Shore 1st, Martin Holland second and Avis Sunter Third. Looks to me as though the F/S fleet is off and running here on the Harbor. I look forward to the local fleet hosting some regional events.

Jack Kartz topped the 3 boat Hobi e fl eet. I personally was glad to see the Hobies out there. Had one 30 years ago when I was middle aged. Great fun on a warm day. Nice to know that the Sailing Center has two.

On another front, Jerry Poquette's Fancy Free won the Bone Island Regatta in non Spinnaker class. George Buckingham's Learning to Fly took a third. Nice showing for PGSC. Two boats, two trophies.

Dennis Peck, the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center, and before that the Red Cross have taught thousands to sail over the last 30 years here on Charlotte Harbor. I know there will be learn to sail programs when School ends, I just don't have any dates or time at this writing.

Dennis can be reached at 941-456-8542 for more info. Charlotte Harbor YC had learn to sail programs open to the public last summer. My guess is they will again this year too. Try charlotteharboryachtclub.com

Right: Jerry Poquette took home the first place non spinnaker trophy in the Bone Island Regatta

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OFFSHORE REPORT

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Page 21

The Olʼ Fishʼn Hole

With Capt. Jim O'Brien

Water LIFE Englewood Hey ya- all I hope you have been doing a lot of fish'n this past month. The fish are everywhere. My fish'n buddies said the cobia are just off the beachs. Throw these guys a black an silver eel or a black hogy or throw a live blue runner at them brutes and hang on. Whew! I mean, these guys are reel screaming rod bending action.

We had a 50- to 60-pound cobia on two charters ago. We got him to the boat six times but he eluded the rath of the gaff six times and he broke off. He was over 4-feet long and his girth was unreal.

SHARKS .. the BIG- UNS .. are here. Boca Grande Pass, the harbor and the shipping chanel are all a good place to look for one of these bruisers King mackerel and Spanish mackerel are running together in 15- to 45-feet of water from Boca Grande to Stump Pass. I use big king spoons on the kings and the smaller spoons on the Spanish mackerel.

As I said in my past articles you can get up current of the Spanish and cast 1-oz. diamond jigs to them – after making your cast let the jig fall for 2 to 3 seconds then reel as fast as you can. We call this burning the line and the Spanish can’t resist.

Tarpon are on the beach's and in Boca Grande Pass now. The best baits are small mullet, large pin fish, big shrimp and the ole’ faithful artificial, the DOA bait busters that I put pro-cure mullet super gel on. Now, that’s a dynamite combo.

The snook are on the beaches, a lot of them, but remember catch an’ release only.

Amberjack, the BIG- UNS are out on the further out wrecks and reefs that are 20 to 30 miles out. The Box Cars, the Bayronto, and Twin Barges are all producing some nice- uns. Best baits are blue runners, but they won't turn down a big

pin fish either.

Grouper, both the red and gags are turning on good. The gags have been good size from 20- to 30-miles out. They have been running 24 to 28 inches. The red grouper are on hard bottom Swiss cheese surface.The best baits are small chunks of mullet and squid combos or whole sardines.

Mangrove snapper are all over the place, in Boca Grande Pass, on all the near shore and offshore wrecks and reefs like Marys and Novak.

The BIG-UNS are still on the 30-mile reefs and wrecks. We are getting some nice yellow tail and lane snapper. The last few years we have been getting some flag yellow tail snapper. If we get them again they should be here by the end of this month.

Be sure to use a lot of chum. If you get them up to the surface use a hank brown jig 1/4 to 1/2 oz. in fluorescent pink and fluorescent lime green. Tip the jig with a piece of shrimp and hang on. It’s a blast if you’re using light tackle.

On our charter last week was Joe Charles Edmonstin, Jim Thompson, Olie McGraw, Mac McDonald and Dave Hunter.

We caught some nice grouper, some yellow tail snapper and some nice lane snapper, we all had a lot of fun. Olie turned 90 the Sunday after we fished. HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIE AND MANY MORE. And Dave Hunter had a cast on, he broke his ankle 2 weeks before we went fish'n.

Joe kept the rest of the guys and me in stitches with jokes. Whew! What a crew, HA!

If y ou hav e any questions or if y ou hav e a good ol' fishin’ story or a recipe for cook ing fish that I can share with our readers giv e me a call. To book an offshore charter with us aboard the Predator II call (941) 473-2150

On a quick trip to Denver last month we found this Manatee Clubber ad in a Denver free publication. Apparently now that the SMCʼs manatee extinction myth has been thoroughly debunked (from less than 800 to more than 5000 manatees in Florida alone) the SM club is looking for other new unsuspecting and uninformed contributiors to pay their salaries.

Openings and Closures

Special to Water LIFE From Betty Staugler/Sea Grant American Red Snapper Season set to open June 1st . The federal fishing regulators are at it again with regard to the very abundant, yet "overfished" American Red Snapper. This year, the A.R.S. season will last 5 weeks, beginning June 1, 2011.

A.R.S. are extremely abundant in our Gulf waters, especially at depths exceeding 125 ft (about 35 miles).

Gag Grouper Closure - The FWC Commissioners approved rules that would close state waters of the Gulf of Mexico, excluding Monroe County, to the recreational harvest of gag grouper from June 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011, with the exception of a fall harvest season September 16 November 15, 2011.

Amberjack Closure - The Gulf of Mexico state and federal waters will be closed June 1 through July 31 for recreational harvest of amberjack each year.

Bay Scallop Season Opening - For the second year in a row, the Bay Scallop harvesting season will be opening early. This yearʼs season will begin on June 25th and run to September 25th. Recreational harvest of bay scallops is ONLY permitted in waters north of the Pasco-Hernando county line up to the West Bank of Mexico Beach in

Bay County. Recreational harvesters need a Florida saltwater fishing license to harvest scallops, even if scalloping from shore. Bay scallops may not be harvested for commercial purposes. For more information visit: http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/regulatio ns/bay-scallops/ Blue Crab Trap Gear Closure – In 2009 the FWC established rotational closures for blue crab trap gear to allow lost and abandoned traps to be identified and removed from the water. Six closure regions were established. In 2010 the rule was modified to allow for an every other year closure with the east coast closing on even years and the west coast closing on odd years. This rule applies to both the commercial and recreational fishery and only applies to standard blue crab traps. Other gear, such as dip nets and fold-up traps will still be permitted.

Also, traps attached to private property (such as a dock) are not included in the closure. The closures for 2011 are: Waters of Broward through Pasco Counties from July 10-19. Waters of Hernando through Wakulla counties including waters of the Ochlockonee River and Bay, from July 2029. Waters of Franklin County to the Florida/Alabama state line however, excluding all waters of the Ochlockonee River and Bay, from January 5-14.

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Charlotte Harbor:

Fishing

Robert at Fishin' Franks Port Charlotte: 625-3888

Right now, fishing is what ever you want. Most people are concentrating on tarpon and sharks. There is a variety of size, with three or four species on any day. With the right tackle it’s a blast.

Most sharks are in the 2- to 4-foot range.

Fishing sharks with your snook tackle, or even lighter, is absolutely a riot. Anchor in the harbor anywhere from Fishville to the Gulf and there will be an abundance of sharks around. For the smaller sharks anchor or drift with a chum bag, throw out some small baits; cut mullet, cut sardines or live threadfins. The majority of sharks out there are small bl ackti ps or Atl anti c sharp nosed. The sharp nosed sharks tend to come around in small schools, like 5 to 20 fish, all little guys with a few bigger black tips mixed in. All over the harbor it’s like that.

The bigger sharks are offshore around the reefs with a few bigger l emons and an oddball bul l shark inside the harbor or along the intracoastal.

The bigger guys need bigger baits– live jacks or mullet – something that’s tougher for the smaller sharks to ge to.

Report

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The price of gold is so high, some tackle companies are discontinuing gold lures.

The gold 3/8 oz Hobo (shown above) is our favorite shallow water lure – Hobo we have been told now only makes silver spoons.

Johnson is talking about silver-only as well. Some spoons are now single gold coated instead of triple coated. Bagley will probably cut back on gold spoons. What is the fishing world coming to?

Catching big sharks takes patience and a lot of chum.

Next is the tarpon. Right now they are being really finicky, especially in the pass. The hill tides start this month early so we should see a lot of fish that are feed-

ing more as the hill tide happens. I think, by the middle of the first week of the month, we should see a lot of tarpon move back into the harbor. Crabs have been a really big part of their diet lately and for the last two weeks of May the tarpon only wanted crabs. They haven’t wanted threadfins yet. On the positive side, the bait shops have been able to get crabs pretty consistently this year so crabs are available.

I’m not hearing of any tarpon up river or even at the bridges at night. All the fish are hanging in the intracoastal or offshore, but that should all change this month. We have so many threadfins, so much whitebait even some reports of menhaden. The harbor is coming to life it’s just a matter of the fish makeing up their mind.

Cobi a are one of the winners this month and are fairly consistent in the harbor at Marker No. 1, mixed in with the threadfins at the 20-foot hole, or on the Alligator Creek reef. If you want to really target them, run the west wall outside the bar on a flat morning looking for cobia cruising with the sting rays. Or you can just go shark fishing and wait for the cobia to come to you.

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Robert from Fishin Franks, holds what we estimate to be a 600/0 circle hook. He is aboard the vessel Ocean. The custom hook was made by Mustad for catching great white sharks for tagging. The shark boat Ocean was at Boca Grande last month as part of its worldwide tagging project

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Continued from facing page

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The The BIG-4 BIG-4

June June

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Water

You need a pole ready with Temps a bucktail or a live bait for in the when the cobia come sneaking up to you in two to four mid 80s feet of water out on the grass flats. You gotta be ready.

REDFISH The better fish BIGGER SHARKS More and SPANISH MACKEREL Moving TARPON in the Pass and Redfi sh: Most of the betseem to be to the south more right with the tarpon to follow the bait on the beach ter redfishing is in the ICW, at Matlacha or Pine Island or in the Lemon Bay, Whidden Creek area. These fish are hanging in the bushes or in the early morning in the 3 to 4 foot deep sandholes. A top water in the morning is what they want. These fish are June 3 Venice YMCA Family chasing the mullet and white bait. They will Fi shi ng Tourney (941) 234-2041 take a shrimp and a few guys are throwing small blue crabs at them. I have been getting June 11-12 Welcome to the Water Expo, Seminars, contests: Ft Myerrs mixed reports of redfish on the edges of the Yacht Basin, Free passes from Sanibel to Venice inlet. In the night time to early morning the guys there are hooking redfish to 20-pounds. There are June 12 very few slot fish, mostly the oversized FISHERMENʼS ones. These fish are also sharing the area VILLAGE celebrates with snook. Remember, the water is very warm already and it is time to start resusciNational Marina Day the red nose on this redfish shows itʼs been in a livewell for tating the bigger fish before you release Top: a while. Below: A lemon shark wants no part of being captured with a boat show benthem. efit for the Don Ball The snook are getting ready to spawn.

Turtle and Bull Snook are moving to the Gulf, starting to school up, School of Fishing.

Bay, right where with mixed size fish on the beaches. Mullet, baby Stop by check out whiting and whitebait are working best on the snook the bars come the displays, have a at the beach. Use a light leader in the gin-clear water out.

There are still of the Gulf beach areas now. hot dog and all the The snapper bite should be unbelievable, the some S pani sh proceeds go to support snapper spawn in June and July, on the full moon. mackerel Kids Fishing!

You can get big groups of fairly large mangrove around, and redsnapper at the reefs. Ameri can reds, muttons, fi sh in Lemon yel l owtai l and vermi l l i on are a little further out Bay closer to the June 14-15 About Boati ng pass. Since the but all snapper fishing should be good this month.

S afel y Coast Guard Auxiliary Fi s h i n g Flotilla 87 is offering a 2 day pass has been ri g h t n o w: About Boating Safely program at cleaned out the Lemon Bay Park, 941-697-9435 water is fresher Jim at Fishermens Edge, and the fishing Englewood: 697-7595 has been good. “It The action has been good. We’ve had a lot of tar- has picked up pon, yin and yang, one day and not the next. In the markedly,” everybodys says. pass, on the beach, all in all fishing is reasonably Offshore is good too. A lot of guys snapper fishSnook remains closed good. The best baits have been threadfin, squirrel ing for mang and yel l ow snapper and AJs have to harvest until Sept 2011 fish, and crabs. A lot of fly fishermen have been been good. Now the AJs and gags are closed out in doing good out on the beach with the tarpon. On the the Gulf. I can’t keep up with all the changes. There hill tides some guys have been fly fishing for tarpon are still some pompano and a lot of permi t; 20in the pass. There have already been 205 and 208 to 35-pounds is big for a permit. pound fish weighed in the weekend tournaments.

There have been some bl ackfi n tuna caught offAnd there are a lot of sharks, when tarpon get shore, 50 miles out. They caught a couple of them here the sharks are not far behind. Bul l sharks and the guys said there were more out there. bl ack ti p... Just a lot of sharks around. A lot of American red snapper fishing out that far has been guys wrestle with the sharks when the wind blows awesome. All in all, the fishing has been very good. and they can’t tarpon fish. A lot of bullsharks around Fish Fish to to expect expect in in

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