The Beautiful Swimmers by Mike Conner

Every fly tyer I know claims to have been an outdoorsy kid, which is hardly surprising. And when most kids go to the seashore, to either frolic or fish, which marine animal most fascinates them? Crabs!

They fascinated me, and nothing else in the water came close. Where I grew up in South Florida, a trip to a bayside public “beach” meant driving down a rough asphalt road cut through the mangroves. My dad did his best to maneuver our wood-paneled station wagon

(hold the age jokes please) around marching battalions of land crabs. I can still hear the crunching under the tires. Once there, wading knee-deep along the hard sand meant more careful maneuvering, but this time around defensive baby blue crabs that delivered one hell of a pinch. Little did I know then that one day I would be lashing yarn, fuzz and fur to hooks to make imitations of them to catch fish. 

Read the whole story and more The Beautiful Swimmers -- Fish a crab fly from top to bottom

Download the interactive reading experience to your iPad at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fly-light-tackle-angler/id567055298?ls=1&mt=8

GEAR 1.4

New products highlighted in issue 1.4 of Fly & Light Tackle Angler

Download the interactive reading experience to your iPad at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fly-light-tackle-angler/id567055298?ls=1&mt=8

On the Line

On the Line


Tie by the Trip

by Mike Conner, editor


It always seems to come down to rigging and tying flies at the last minute, though I do like to plan ahead. May is here, and in Florida, it seems that everything with fins comes on strong from May until mid June.

Running a publishing company and editing this iPad magazine demands carving out time to fish, and as I write this, tarpon are calling me to Florida Bay. So today I'm doing the office chair shuffle, wheeling  my chair across the "track" from my Mac to my flytying bench and back, about a hundred times so far today.

My host in Miami has found a nice bunch of fish, in the same places they were last May, and baitfish patterns on the small side, and white jigs for spin, are usually the ticket. Luckily, I have a few that I use for snook in my home waters, but its going to take another half dozen, or more like a dozen, to be on the safe side, before I drive south for the day. And it's a long day that means driving 250 miles in 15 hours if I don't spend the night. And that drive is across Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties on a weekday. Thats a daunting gauntlet, among the worst traffic in the U.S.

Just testament on the spell that big Everglades tarpon put on me, and it's understandable, if you've ever done it.  So I'm on a roll here, and passed a dozen 'poon flies as the noon hour passed. I'll keep tying until I empty this spool of thread. That way, I'll come back with a few flies, but I hope most of them make a one-way trip, and end up, as Billy Pate used to say, "garbaged" by some silver kings.

On the Line 

by Mike Conner, FLTA editor



'Yak Immersion 


Regardless of the relative explosion in kayak fishing in the last five years or so, I never got around to trying it. Just too much skiff fishing, wade fishing and surf fishing I suppose, and there are just so many hours in a month to fish.

But I decided it was high time take a few trips early this month, and then followed it up with a 3-day media trip hosted by Hobie Kayaks, in Port St. Joe, Florida. I had the chance to fish day and night, and in the company's impressive Pro Angler 12 boat. This one, like all Hobies designed expressly for fishing, has a a pedal system called Mirage Drive. I can't imagine kayak fishing without it, particularly where it is too deep to wade, and you have to battle wind and tide. And, big fish. You can always pedal into position for the optimum angle to make a presentation, and bring a fish to hand. That's big. Though paddling is a great way to cover ground, with or without pedals.

Kayaks are relatively stealthy, and during my kayak "immersion" tour, I managed to land a few quality fish: a 15-pound snook, 27-inch seatrout and a redfish pushing 20 pounds. So, I can see myself joining the Kayak Nation. In fact, during a few especially good fishing days, I didn't want to stop, though I had no choice in the photo below.

 

On the Line

Lure Allure and the Test of Time  

By Mike Conner

Who among us hasn't tried a new lure with near-miraculous results?

What do you take away from a few hours of off-the-charts fishing with said lure?

Well, I have learned that it is the "sample size" that counts in just about everything in life, and that applies to everything from public opinion to effectiveness of a fishing lure. This week, I headed to a neighborhood bass pond that I fish a couple of times a week. It's normally good for a half-dozen small to medium bass, nothing too spectacular. It's "new" manmade water, so that factors into it.

On this day, however, I left my fly rod at home, picked up a baitcasting rod but left my usual topwater plugs and jerkbaits at home. Instead, I carried along a few new soft baits, called Airheads, that my neighbor and DOA Lure company owner, Mark Nichols, gave me to test. It is a "wakebait" for lack of a better term, that motors along on the surface when retrieved "buzzbait" style. The previous day, Mark landed around 10 bass on it, and trout and snook before that. So I was confident, and knew how to fish it.

An hour before sunset, I fished a stretch of the pond and I could not keep the fish off of it! Not only did I catch a dozen fish out of 15 or more strikes, they were bigger on average than any I had caught there before. Three went over 4 pounds, and that's the biggest three I have caught there to date. Not only that, the strikes were downright explosive, so loud in fact that a man walking his dog about 50 yards away called out and asked, "What the heck was that?"

I was still getting blow-up strikes well after dark. "Man, this lure has some allure!" I thought to myself.

But could it be that the fish on that particular day were out for blood? A cold front was closing in, and just maybe they were juiced by the falling barometer? Hard to say.

It's a common thing I find. You show the fish something new, and they lose all caution. But I credit the lure with the results, and now will begin the test of time, a test that my all-time favorite lures and flies passed with flying colors. 

Stewardship

A Good Omen for our Fisheries

By Terry Gibson, Senior Editor

Last week, Mike Conner, John Kelly and I left the Jensen Beach boat ramp a little after sunup, for an ambitious day of fishing and filming offshore then inshore. Success depended hugely on the weatherman being right. He called for northwest winds to 5 knots, increasing to 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon, with seas one to two feet.

That fool didn’t just get it wrong; he got it “bass ackwards.” But in a way I’m glad he did. Thanks to float plan B, we saw something none of us had ever seen before, something that I’m taking as a positive omen for our fisheries along the Eastern Seaboard.

The plan was to cruise the beach and hit some nearshore wrecks in search of cobia, big jacks and tarpon. We’d stop by the mackerel hole on the way to catch dinner, plus a few for the smoker, and then we’d run inside the Indian River Lagoon in search of pompano and trout.

There was already a one-foot chop in the river as we headed south, with shrinking optimism, toward the inlet. As soon as I broke through the inlet and turned north my 23-foot Bay Ranger north, I realized that fishing the beach was a no-go. It was two to four, short and sharp, with filthy water. So, we ran south to the mackerel hole, which is somewhat protected from swells by the north end of the Great Florida Coral Reef Tract.

It was rough enough to keep me at the helm for safety’s sake, but I enjoyed watching Mike and John put a dozen jumbo macks in the boat. It’s nice to have two guys onboard that can sling a sinking line a country mile, and who pay attention not to snag each other, or me. Despite a rocking boat and gusts to 20-knots, the only things they hooked were fish.

We ran inside and began an almost fruitless day of inshore fishing. Lots of things were working against us: a bright moon, high pressure and cold water courtesy of the cold front that had passed through two days before. The small jacks we caught felt like they’d come from a freezer. Mike caught one nice trout mid-afternoon, and we skipped a handful of small “pompa—no.” We threw every jig and fly known to fly and light-tackle anglers without earning so much as a bump. Most frustrating of all, though, was the fact that the wind dropped to nothing early afternoon, once we were 10 miles from an inlet.

About 4 pm, we decided to head back to the ramp. A couple miles back down the Intracoastal Waterway, we approached a metal channel marker. We were about a long cast away from it when a fat tripletail came clear out of the water, through a shower of glass minnows and menhaden. John put the fly on the fish, but it took softly as it sunk and the hook didn’t find home. The fish never showed again. As we idled past the marker, we looked down at a tight ball of small menhaden.

None of us could recall ever seeing a tripletail jump that didn’t have a hook in its mouth. I thought about how rare it is to see menhaden here anymore. As if reading my mind, John, who spent most of his life fishing for stripers and blues in New England, said it was just plain nice to see a school of menhaden again.

“Up north, we just don’t get ‘em anymore. Bastards catch ‘em all,” he growled.

Complaints about the dearth of Atlantic menhaden echo throughout the southeast, Mid Atlantic and New England. That’s why, right before the holidays, FLTA encouraged anglers to tell the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to conserve menhaden immediately. The Atlantic population has been reduced, pun intended, to about 10 percent of healthy levels, largely by one company, Omega Protein, which uses giant seines to remove billions of what scientists call the most important fish in the ocean fish from the ecosystem. The fish are ground up at a plant in Reedville, Virginia, and used in a variety of products ranging from dietary supplements to feed for foreign aquaculture.

I attended the historic December 12 ASMFC meeting in Baltimore, along with more than 200 other fishermen and conservation activists. I have been to hundreds of fisheries management meetings, and some of them have really tense. But nothing like this one.

At several points, when it seemed like the ASFMC would cave to political pressure and kick the proverbial can down the road, we had to stand literally over the seated commissioners raising yellow signs saying, “Conserve Menhaden Now.” This after sending more than 120,000 public comments to them with that exact message.

We won a significant reduction in the harvest—25 percent—and many of the commissioners deserve huge credit for standing strong for our marine ecosystems. Still, many of us maintain that 75-percent reduction would have been appropriate, and that number is supported by at least one technical document. But for the first time, the fishery will managed in modern ways, according to the best science, instead of by the industry for the industry. A coast-wide cap was also set on the fishery for the first time.

No scientist I’ve spoken with will say specifically when signs of recovery will appear. But they pointed out that menhaden begin reproducing early in their lives, are quite fecund, and should rebuild fairly quickly. Hopefully, if environmental factors line up, we’ll see big schools of menhaden, and really cool things like a tripletail vaulting through a pod, on a regular basis, within a few years.

Many thanks to all of you for weighing in on this crucial issue for our fisheries.

            --Terry Gibson

On the Line

Texas to Clamp Down on "Fish Herders"

By Mike Conner, editor-in-chief

Ever since many flats skiff builders touted the shallow-running capabilities of their boats, a lazy breed of angler has surfaced, and please don't count me among them.

Sight fishing to me involves stalking the fish the classic way--with a pushpole. Now there are quiet electric motors that allow for stealthy stalking, too. Anglers running their outboard motors over shallow grassflats to take shortcuts is bad enough. What's worse is running the flats to spook schools of fish before shutting down to cast to them. In many cases, props badly scar the grassflats, and in general, the practice puts fish on high alert and ruins things for anglers who work hard to pole the flats. In many regions, the fish no longer venture into the shallows as they normally would.

Happens a lot in Florida. In Everglades National Park, resource managers established a vast Pole and Troll (motor) Zone near Flamingo, the popular fishing outpost on Florida Bay. It works. Boaters don't run roughshod over the flats there to reach redfish anymore, attributed partly to peer pressure and partly to enforcement.  In my observation, the fishing has improved. Many agree. A similar pole-and-troll zone is established in Florida's famed Mosquito Lagoon.

In Texas, the "fish herding" practice is all-too-common, so the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is looking to clarify language in state regulations regarding "fish harassment."

Here's the current law (TAC Rule 57.972) : "It is unlawful for any person to use any vessel to harass fish."

Announced Jan 3, rule clarification is up for vote, and is as follows:

"It is unlawful to use any vessel to harry, herd, or drive fish including but not limited to operating any vessel in a repeated circular course for the purpose of or resulting in the artificial concentration of fish for the purpose of taking or attempting to take fish."

 Texas can't make it any clearer than that, right? I just hope the lazy fish-herders can read, or even care.

Stewardship

Cartoon by Matt Wuerker 12/11/12 http://politi.co/TSu9iP

More B.S. out of Omega Protein

During lunch today, FLTA Senior Editor Terry Gibson weighed in against Omega Protein spokesman Ben Landry, on the Hearsay Radio Show, broadcast by WHRV Radio in Norfolk, VA. Panelists included Landry, Chris Moore of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Peter Baker of the Pew Environment Group, Rep. Wittman (R-VA) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Chair Louis Daniel, who serves as director of North Carolina’s Division of Marine Fisheries.

Gibson called B.S. on Landry, pointing out that the most recent peer-reviewed stock assessment reflects what generations of anglers have witnessed. Menhaden have virtually disappeared from the edges of their range, especially in New England and off the southern states of Florida and Georgia. And Gibson made the case that it isn’t fair to risk thousands of responsible fishing and other tourism-related businesses on the Atlantic Seaboard.

Landry tried to judo-flip the argument for conservative management by pointing to “uncertainty” in the stock assessment as an excuse not to take action, even though the peer-reviewed stock assessment shows Atlantic menhaden are down to less than 10 percent of an un-fished level, and that overfishing has occurred in 32 of the last 54 years—due primarily to Omega’s intensive fishing practices. Landry said that they saw no need to support more than a 10-percent total reduction in harvest, since the stock had remained stable since the 1980s. The biologists on the call cut the knees out from under that argument by explaining that in fact menhaden populations began their steepest decline during those years.

Consider the source. Here’s a guy who represents a company that hires foreign fisheries biologists to bully American scientists and managers charged with assessing U.S. fish populations. Read the Public Trust Project report entitled “Scientists for Hire: What Industry’s Deep Pockets are doing to our Fisheries.”

Landry also re-introduced Omega workers facing layoffs, in a year when Omega earned tremendous profits, executives took home huge bonuses, and while Omega hire hundreds of foreign workers. Click here for the Public Trust Project’s latest investigation into their hiring practices, which reports that, “Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that Omega Protein has employed hundreds of foreign laborers through H2B visas, a federal program that allows American companies to hire foreign nationals to fill temporary jobs.  In order to be awarded H2B visas, a company must prove that “there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do temporary work.”

Stay tuned for news straight from the ASFMC meeting Friday in Baltimore.

--FLTA

Stewardship

Stop the Menhaden Mismanagement Madness

By John Kelly

I’m encouraging every veteran angler to take a look at this graph, which shows the decline of Atlantic menhaden since the mid-1980s.

Think about your own fishing experiences along this timeline. The data it reflects match up exactly with my own observations across more than 40-plus years of fly and light-tackle fishing. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission needs to close the fishery or at least make sufficient cuts in the harvest, before it’s too late for bunker.

I have been fishing since I can remember. The first fish I ever caught was a weakfish at age four. Weakfish are an almost non-existent species these days in southern New England, no thanks to a combination of overfishing and poor menhaden stocks. Along with our current stocks of Atlantic menhaden their northerly and southerly range has shrunk.

When I caught that weakfish, I was with my grandfather who passed his love of the marine world and fishing onto me. He would revel in stories of massive schools of menhaden that would choke the Niantic River mouth and adjacent Connecticut beaches and all the large striped bass and bluefish that would feed on them during the fall migration. By the time I was old enough to learn to fish, menhaden had already declined.

But still what I enjoyed as a boy was impressive, compared to the sad state of things today. I remember the massive numbers in the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. Menhaden schools stretched from one side of Niantic Bay to the other. I stood at the point at McCook’s Beach in Niantic and all the water I could see, in every direction, was boiling with them as they were pounded by schools of 15- to 20-pound bluefish. I've not seen anything like that since the mid-1980s. The sad thing is how when I was a boy you heard stories of the “good ol’ days” and now with the situation worsening I find myself telling younger fisherman “good ol’ days” stories as I had witnessed. We are clearly headed in the wrong direction.

Of course, my boyhood days growing up on Long Island Sound in Niantic, Connecticut coincided with the mid 70's to mid-80's peak in the “modern” menhaden stock. Besides stripers, blues and weakfish, giant bluefin tuna also came within a short run to feed on bunker. Over-fishing of those predators was a major problem in those days, and I’m very concerned about the downward trajectory of striped bass, weakfish and bluefin that we’re seeing today. But, their declines in the 80s and 90s were also related to a lack of forage—namely menhaden. Nothing provides them with a better source of nutrition than menhaden, which they need to eat to have the energy to make long migrations and to reproduce effectively.

My fishing friends in Florida say the big menhaden pods have disappeared from southeast Florida while the pods are shrinking in size off East Central and Northeast Florida. Improved fish finding technology coupled with the recently increased demand for fish oil are strong contributing factors to the demise we see on the graph and on the water. The bait needs a break, plain and simple. It is time to “err on the side of the resource” and not some well-funded special interests with tremendous clout in the form of campaign donations.

Both recreational and commercial fisherman, as well as those who derive their income from the waters of America’s Atlantic seaboard, depend on healthy stocks of menhaden in order to be successful. It is time to take a stand and do what is right and what is logical. Protect the menhaden from overfishing, period. Enough of this boom-to-bust fishing. Let’s set and enforce science-based annual catch limits that prevent overfishing on everything subject to harvest in state and federal waters. That way, we can make the “good ol’ days” the near future.

John Kelly is a native of Niantic, Connecticut, and has fished in New England for more than 40 years. He has dedicated his life to fishing, and traveled extensively.

iCandy

Stewardship

    Capt. Scott Wagner

Low Country Fisheries Suffer without Menhaden

If you want a small picture of what recreational fishing will look like along the Eastern Seaboard without menhaden, just come on down to the Savannah River and I’ll show you what we’ve lost here already. The “pogies” are gone. As a consequence, we’ve lost our striped bass fishery in the estuary, and the populations of our most popular inshore fish, speckled trout and redfish, are hurting. These species can and did stand a lot of fishing pressure when they could get the nutrition to reproduce successfully. But not now that the best source of nutrition—menhaden—are virtually gone.

About 15 years ago, when I cut my teeth as a fly and light tackle guide in this area, I learned quickly that I could count on the beautiful Savannah River for great winter striped bass fishing, even on the rankest days of winter. Any fishing guide that has such a spot will tell you how grateful they are to have protected water where you can catch trophy fish pretty much regardless of the weather Mother Nature throws at you. You don’t have to cancel nearly as many trips, or risk losing a client because rough water beat them up, they’re soaked, and the fish didn’t bite.

Scientists and fisheries managers will back up what I’m saying. The state of Georgia has spent tremendous amounts of time and money trying to maintain the Savannah’s striper population through stocking. But as usual, stocking hasn’t worked without the necessary forage to support the hatchery fish. I hope that the state will look into suing Omega Protein and/or the Atlantic States Fisheries Commission—the entity that’s supposed to manage coastal, interstate fisheries sustainably. They owe us big time. Omega has pillaged the ocean of these essential fish, costing us untold revenues, while the ASMFC hasn’t managed menhaden at all.

It’s sad to say, but these days, I don’t even bother taking customers up river for stripers, and there are far fewer trout or reds in those marshes either. Beyond all the lost charters that hit me hard in the wallet, it’s just tragic watching such a gorgeous ecosystem fall apart. The cormorants and other birds we enjoy seeing, and showed us where the bait was, are mostly gone as well. So if the bigger predators are disappearing, I shudder to think about all the ways their absence is impacting the food web. And I shudder to think about the future of great jobs like mine, and the jobs related to the tourism industries that fishing and wildlife viewing drive.

Fortunately, last year, ASMFC commissioners voted 14-2 to get serious about managing menhaden sustainably. They ought to shut down the fishery for a few years. A lot of other people, including scientists, coastal business owners like me, as well as individual anglers, wildlife lovers and citizens, have told them to close it or at the very least make major cuts in the allowable harvest. They received about 120,000 public comments weighing in on behalf of the fish. If that doesn’t send them the message that we’re not going to take any more excuses, I don’t know what will.

December 14, 2012, the day of the vote, is a gut check for those commissioners. Are you going to cave into political pressure from one bullying company that isn’t smart enough to develop a business plan based upon sustainability? Or will you save thousands of responsible businesses like mine, along with the magnificent ecosystems that they depend upon? Your vote will be a reflection of the strength or weakness of your character.

Capt. Scott Wagner is the owner of Savannah Fly Fishing Charters, and is widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and successful guides in the Low Country. He will contribute regularly to FLTA.

Stewardship

Menhaden in Crisis along the

U.S. Eastern Seaboard

Editorial

On December 14, 2012, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will hold a vote that could determine the fate of recreational fishing and the ecosystems that our fisheries depend upon along the United States’ Eastern Seaboard. The vote is in regard to the future management of Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), commonly called “pogies,” “bunker” or “moss bunker.” Whether you target tarpon in the Florida Keys, or stripers in Maine, or virtually any U.S. East Coast predators that feed primarily on fish, this vote will strongly impact your fishing future. Leading up to the vote, www.flyandlighttackleangler.com will publish perspectives from notable anglers from affected states, and post links to blogs and editorials provided by other outdoor enthusiasts and experts. This mosaic of perspectives demonstrates clearly how serious the situation has become, and how imperative it is for the ASMFC to take dramatic actions to restore this most essential of species.

The Situation Room

Atlantic menhaden stand at ten percent or less of the historic population and are at an all-time low, thanks mostly to a rapacious company called Omega Protein, whose Atlantic factory is based in Reedville, Virginia.

“Omega” seines upward of 80 percent of the catch, and grinds it into dietary supplements, fertilizer, pet food, and feed for aquaculture, chickens and pigs. The publicly traded, vertically integrated company has largely caused overfishing of menhaden to occur in the population in 32 of the past 54 years. Overfishing is defined as the taking of a population out of an ocean ecosystem faster than it can reproduce itself.

The situation has become so dire that for the past two years it’s required “all hands on deck” advocacy by recreational fishing groups such as several Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) state organizations, for many Audubon Society Chapters, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Menhaden Defenders and a slew of the nation’s most respected conservation groups.

Hundreds of coastal businesses have weighed in, as did dozens of leading PhD scientists, and more than 90,000 individuals in 2011 and some 120,000 leading up to the December, 2012 vote. To rebuild the population and return the biomass to somewhere in range of what a healthy northwestern Atlantic needs, the commission must adopt a coast-wide annual catch limit and support measures that reduce the catch by at least 50 percent below recent levels. It should commit to meet that goal within five years.

The Facts about Atlantic Menhaden

Menhaden provide a most essential source of nutrition for a tremendous variety of predators. Notables include: striped bass, bluefish, most mackerels, all tunas, tarpon, cobia, many drums including redfish, spotted seatrout and weakfish, snook, billfishes including sailfish, whales, ospreys, eagles, gannets, and other seabirds. These are the species that drive the economies of coastal communities, supporting sustainable recreational and commercial fishing, as well as diverse wildlife watching opportunities, not to mention the massive tourism-related businesses that benefit from these industries.

Menhaden, which are often called “the most important fish in the ocean,” provide several profound ecosystem services. Foremost, they provide organisms higher in the foodweb with vastly superior nutritional elements, including proteins like Omega 3 fatty acids.

Without such nutrition, or even with less of it, animals struggle in many ways, from making long-distance migrations back to spawning grounds, to fending off infections, to actually having the energy to produce viable eggs and sperm.

Perhaps the most alarming direct impact is the impact on reproduction. But many striped bass, especially in the Chesapeake region, are suffering from skin lesions linked to weaknesses in their immune system caused by malnutrition. “Trophic cascades” are also being documented. For instance, weakfish have virtually disappeared, and it is likely a consequence of striped bass and bluefish eating them instead of menhaden. There are plenty of other examples. Finally, menhaden, as filter feeders, play vital roles in maintaining water quality.

Down to the Wire

FLTA Senior Editor Terry Gibson will attend the December 14 ASMFC meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, and keep us apprised of the proceedings via social media. If you are in the Baltimore area or care to travel, you’re encouraged to attend. The meeting is open to the public. Gibson will follow up with a thorough report on the implications of whatever the commissioners decide. The FLTA editorial board sent a letter to the ASMFC stating our position on the issue, which is that a moratorium would be the most appropriate action and that at minimum the harvest should be cut in half, with a fair allocation going to the bait industry. Stay tuned for on-water perspectives about the menhaden crisis.

--FLTA Editorial Board

On the Line

Misery Loves Company

By Mike Conner, Editor-in-Chief

A bad day of fishing can be more impressionable than a good one. After a bad day, you torment yourself over what went wrong, and what you could have done differently. On days that you flat out clobber 'em, you just chalk it up to your skill, don't you? Admit it.

And while you're at it, also admit that you get a twisted kind of satisfaction when your fellow anglers blank out on the days when you do. I will right here and now.

A few days ago, I fished my home water on the Indian River Lagoon, and hit at least 10 spots where I fully expected to find seatrout, pompano and a few redfish. After 7 hours of hard fishing and no distractions (I fished alone) well, I won't mention my tally, okay?

I went home at 4 p.m. with my tail between my legs. Just two nights before this trip, I had a banner night of fishing flies and soft plastics around bridges and dock lights. So what happened in 36 hours? I mean, come on! Two strikes in 7 hours, and shallows devoid of any life forms at all?

That night, a friend in Miami called to say he saw zero bonefish in 6 hours on Biscayne Bay that very day. ZERO! And this guy is an expert on the Bay. And a local guide buddy said his fishing for pompano, snook and flounder absolutely stunk, during the same hours, just south of where I fished.

Okay, I was feeling better now. Their collective failures and misery was salve for my wounded ego.

Just out of curiosity, I emailed a guide friend in Texas. "Redfishing on the flats was tough, today," he wrote back. "Didn't see squat until late in the day, and then only a couple."

Alright, something universal was afoot. Looked at a facebook post from a guy who I talk to occasionally in North Florida, and alas, he was floored that he failed to catch a mackerel in the surf that afternoon. They had been thick the previous day.

One more call--to a commercial hook-and-line surf fisherman in town. One pompano, 4 rods, 8 hours. Wow.

With just a little sunlight left, I grabbed a baitcasting rod from my garage rack and headed for my neighborhood pond. My wife said, "Haven't had enough, sport?" as I headed out the door. The pond's usually good for a few bass at dusk.

You know the rest of this story. I didn't get a sniff, even after casting well past dark as the moon rose.

But who cares? It wasn't me. I felt fine. Because misery loves company.

On the Line

One Fish, Two Fish Grammar
By Mike Conner, editor-in-chief

Maybe I am thinking too much, but as a fish mag editor I obsess over the following:
Is it snapper or snappers when referring to more than one snapper? When do you add the "s" and when do you go without it?

Wait, don't laugh yet. Consider that there is no firm rule, and what sounds right to you may not jive with your fellow angler.  The English language is a mess in general, and inconsistent at best as far as usage.

Whenever an old fishing buddy would tell me that he caught five "snooks" on fly, or on lures, whatever the case, I would roar with laughter."You mean SNOOK!"  Five SNOOK. Snook is both singular and plural," I would explain. "And you say there were a dozen TARPON in that school. Not a dozen TARPONS. You follow?"

He responded with, "What about pilchards or crabs? You don't cast net a bunch of pilchard or buy a half-dozen crab, do you?"I was stumped. He had me there. But there has to be a rule, just not sure what that would be.

An editor of a highly regarded fishing magazine once corrected my use of SHRIMP as a plural. He preferred SHRIMPS. We talked about it, and both chuckled. But in my opinion, you chum for bonefish with fresh shrimp, not SHRIMPS!

And you can cast FLIES to them, and if you land one, you caught it on FLY. On the flip side, if you caught three bonefish (NOT BONEFISHES) on jigs, you couldn't very well say you caught them them on LURE, right? Sounds stupid.

Three GROUPERS? No. Two SAILFISHES. Hardly. A limit of SEATROUTS? Really?

But, "We caught a mess of GRUNTS, CROAKERS, PUFFERS, SKATES, SARDINES, JACKS, BLUE RUNNERS or STRIPERS" rolls off the tongue without offending the ear.

Think about it, go down your mental list of gamefish, and get back to me with your opinion. Email mike@flyandlighttackleangler.com.  I promise not to laugh--though I might have a few LAUGHS in private.

Eye Candy

What makes Fly & Light Tackle Angler different? Watch video of the free sample issue to find out more about navigation and Fly & Light Tackle Angler magazines features.

To download your free FLTA sampler and to purchase or subscribe to Fly & Light Tackle Angler magazine visit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fly-light-tackle-angler/id567055298?ls=1&mt=8

STEWARDSHIP

Voters Take Conservation Funding Issues into their Own Hands
By Terry Gibson, Senior Editor

For sportsman and other outdoor enthusiasts, one of the most troubling aspects of the 2012 election race was the near absence of constructive discussion about the role that conserving and restoring our natural resources plays in economic recovery.

With a few exceptions, the presidential candidates, as well as those vying for office in U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, assiduously avoided the subject of our great outdoors and the health of environment. Worse yet, some thought that they could earn points with scared voters by blaming the recession and national debt on those of us who work to put sound, enforced policies and regulations in place—policies and regulations to protect the natural resources that sustain us economically, and in terms of our outdoorsy way of life.

Scariest of all, rule-makers around the country seem to think that the shortest road to economic recovery is to remove protections on some core economic engines—our fish, wildlife and the habitats they depend on—and slash the budgets of the agencies in charge of protecting those treasures. What a road to ruin.

Fortunately, they’re not getting away with it. In the months leading up to November 6, voters in many states took vital conservation matters into their own hands. Voters in 21 states approved ballot measures that will provide over $1 billion overall, including $767 million in new funding to support water quality protection, parks, natural areas and working farms and ranches. For anglers, the water quality component is really inspiring. It demonstrates that our community is profoundly aware that polluted water is the number one threat related to healthy ecosystems and recreational fishing access in this country.

Most of these ballot measures earned their spot on the ticket the hard way, thanks to Herculean petition-signature collection efforts that surpassed the respective state’s minimum number requirements. These are called “popular referendums,” essentially measures placed on the ballot because hundreds of thousands of registered voters felt strongly that the state’s citizens themselves should get to decide whether to accept or reject funding for fish and wildlife. The electorates responded tremendously in favor of dedicated funding in support of our resources. An 81-percent overall approval rate topped the long-term 76 percent approval rate for ballot measures. Now that’s government for the people by the people, and for the wildlife that can’t vote.

Props go to The Trust for Public Land and the Conservation Campaign, which funded and helped organize many of these ballot initiatives. Complete results can be found on The Trust for Public Land's LandVote website www.LandVote.org

Notable wins include:


Alabama Forever Wild: Alabama voters statewide approved a 20-year
renewal of the state's successful Forever Wild land conservation
program by 75 percent.  This will provide $300 million to for
conservation over 20 years.

Land for Maine's Future: Maine voters also approved additional
funding for the Land for Maine's Future land conservation program,
voting 62 percent in favor of a $5 million bond.

Houston, TX, Prop. B - Houston voters overwhelmingly approved a $166
million parks bond to fund completion of the city's bayou greenways
network, voting 68 percent in favor of the bond.

Gunnison County, CO - Gunnison County, Colorado voters approved
renewal of the sales tax supporting their land conservation program by
80 percent.  The sales tax will provide nearly $5 million for land
conservation.

Bozeman, MT - Voters in Bozeman overwhelmingly approved a $15 million
bond for land conservation, which will fund a key TPL project, Story
Mill.  The margin of victory was 73-27.

Bend and Willamalane, OR - TPL won both Oregon park district
measures in Willamalane and Bend.  Together, these bonds will provide
$49 million for parks and natural areas.

On the Line

Now You Know Before You Go 

I've long used the saying, "You don't know unless you go" when it comes to fishing conditions. 

I once lived 20 miles inland, but could look up at clouds before dawn and tell if the wind was strong on the coast.  I could look at heavy the dew on my truck windshield and know that I may need a raincoat. 

That was way before sophisticated home computers, and the Internet. And smart phones. 

Weather was unpredictable, and still kinda is, but now there is less need for guesswork.

You're less likely to get blindsided, unless you're wearing blinders.

Every day, whether I am going fishing or not, I run through a quick check of  four or five web sites, and now apps, that tell me what to expect. Or, that tell me to go back to bed. 

From behind a cup of Joe and my iPad, I can remotely see the coast, the beach, the inlet, and even a main launch ramp in town every five minutes, thanks to web cams. Better yet, I can determine sea, wind, and other weather conditions thanks to Doppler, sea swell charts, you name it. If its a no-go today, well, what about tomorrow, or even a week out?  

These days, you can know, even before you go. 

 

                                                                                --Mike Conner, Editor-in-Chief

On the Line

By Mike Conner, Editor-in-Chief

We've Got "App-titude!"

Fourteen months ago we had an idea. The core staff of Mean Tide Media, publisher of Fly & Light Tackle Angler magazine--me, senior editor Terry Gibson and creative director Ron Romano--casually bounced around with the idea of re-entering the sportfishing magazine fold.

The first rule was no print. No way.

Been there, done that, we were all laid off by print magazine companies at a time when frankly, the public's taste for print was souring a bit. That trend continues, and many print pubs are gone. Those that refuse to embrace change are failing fast, drawing their few last breaths.

Don't get me wrong . There will always be a place for print journalism, because there will always be readers who prefer print magazines. But speaking for all of us, we have no desire to have a place in it. Not anymore.

When we decided that digital was the only way to go, and more specifically, full-blown, interactive digital on the revolutionary iPad, the fire was lit. We were enthused again.

Enthused, but intimidated. Could we actually build an app? It looked daunting. It seemed too technical.

So today, as I gaze at our first issue, just released for sale this week in the Apple app store Newsstand, I am proud.

I am also relieved, and not that we actually turned out a damn good first magazine. I am relieved that we were able to tackle the task of learning the process, and better understand the nature of this growing technology.

And we are blessed to have the talents. support and commitment of expert angler-writers and photographers such as Bob Stearns, Kenny Wright, Steve Kantner, John McMurray, Zsolt Takaks, Drew Chicone, Pat Ford, Scott Sommerlatte, Joe Mahler and a promising list of other vets whose bylines will grace our pages soon.  

Mobile content and delivery is here to stay.

And now that this team has "app-titude" chances are good that we are, too.

On the Line

Florida Snook Slot is a Hot Topic  

By Mike Conner, Editor-in-Chief

In fisheries management, slot limits are a commonly used tool in both fresh and salt water. The main purpose is to allow a controlled number of specimens to be harvested by anglers while protecting breeding size females and juveniles so that they may reach spawning size. In many cases, these sub-slot juvies do get a chance to spawn at least once before going home in the cooler.

Anglers have mixed opinions on slot limits, and Florida's Atlantic and Gulf coast slot limits for snook are very much a hot-button topic, especially today, September 1st, as the 14-week fall season opens on the Atlantic coast. The Gulf coast harvest season will not open until September 1, 2013, to further protect stocks that were especially knocked back by the historic deep freezes of 2010 that killed millions of snook statewide.

The slot is definitely restrictive, at 28 to 32 inches on the Atlantic coast, and 28 to 33 on the Gulf. The bag limit is conservative, at one fish per person per day. It can be a tough nut to catch that slot snook during open season, and many anglers feel that a 27- to 34-inch slot would be more reasonable.  Many go as far as to claim that the snook have recovered to the point that even more relaxed regs are in order. The slot stood at 27 to 34 inches as recently as 2009.

Today, my local newspaper's outdoor columnist, Ed Killer, covered the subject, titling his column, "Time to Widen the Snook Slot." He claims he likes to eat a snook every now and then, and with the 4-inch window, the odds are stacked against that. He is not wrong about that.

Anglers may have a better chance of a payout at a Vegas slot machine than catching that coveted slot snook.

I have to ponder: Would doubling the 4-inch slot to 8 inches jeopardize the chances of this fishery's rebound to pre-freeze numbers? Some say yes, others say no. Fisheries biologists definitely say the current slot is necessary, and say only future stock assessments will provide the tale of the tape.

Here's what I especially wonder about: Does the current 4-inch slot limit, which makes it harder to land a "keeper," in reality force anglers to fish harder and longer, and catch and release, and thus handle (and stress) more snook in the long run?  This may have merit, when you think about it.

I will say this: On the surface, it would appear that snook are plentiful where they typically congregate, such as the spawning aggregations in passes and inlets, and around structure such as bridges, docks, jetties and the like. But, I will argue that there is far less "spill over," or the typically wide distribution to habitat such as grassflats, beaches and other places.

You can't judge the fisheries' health by observing a small segment of it. It is that simple.

In Martin County (Stuart/Jensen Beach area) many anglers I talk to say that they catch far fewer snook while fishing for seatorut, reds or other targets in the Indian River Lagoon since the freezes. I can attest to that--my personal fishing logs reflect that. And those smaller juveniles, which were especially hard-hit by the cold kill, are still thinned out. It is by no coincidence that we have had two of the best years of spotted seatrout fishing (both for numbers and size average) in this region in recent memory. When one predator declines in number, other predators flourish.

The snook will come back in time, though no matter how regulated the recreational snook harvest is, habitat health will probably be the ultimate deal-maker or breaker.

Visit the following link to read up on snook and current the stock assessment, and please leave comment here, or email me at mike@flyandlighttackleangler.com

visit http://myfwc.com/media/2202449/14Snook-Presentation.pdf

--Mike Conner, Editor-in-Chief