I am currently down in Saint Petersburg FL. I came down for a short
visit with my parents. I was able to bring my rod and reel, a box of
flies and my waders. After helping my mom all day today I was able to
steal away for a few hours of fishing just after sunset and into the early
darkness. I returned to the waters of my youth where I caught many
fish about 35 years ago. The tide was nearing the end of its outgoing
cycle so the current was weak. I decided to wade a flat that I had
recently read about and remembered. When I first moved to Fl in '69
this flat at the mouth of Coffee Pot Bayou on the western side of
Tampa Bay was a good place to fish, but the water quality was on the
decline. During the '70's and early '80's the flat pretty much died due
to storm runoff and other bay pollution. Throughout the '90's Pinellas
county (where this flat is located) got serious about pollution control
and began mitigation techniques to deal with the strom water runoff
and sewage treatment. The state had helped the coastal waters by
implementing a commercial net ban in coastal bays and estuaries.
Tonight I witnessed what can truely be said had been a rebirth and
transformation. The flat was alive again. There were acres upon acres
of turtle grass and other sea grasses where for twenty plus years there
had been none. As it began to get dark and I waded around, I came
across numerous large and fat blue crabs. These had been all but
wiped out in the late '70's. As darkness took hold, my light began to
reflect of little round dots in the water - always in pairs. I took a close
look - Gulf Shrimp by the hundreds - all a good 3 inches long, I had
never seen shrimp of this quality in th bay since I moved here. I also
stirred up many silverside minnows and watched mullet jump with
abandon. The mullet fishery had been decimated by the commercial
netters in th late '80's in the quest for making a fast buck on mullet roe
- a delicacy in asian markets. While I fished for over an hour with no
strikes, I really became engrossed in observing the ocean life that had
returned to this flat. Additional companions included pelicans, a blue
heron fihing next to me at rods length, horseshoe crabs and numerous
other bait fish types. As the tide came almost to slack water I decided
to pack it in for the night. As I was driving home, I stopped at the
bridge that goes over to the island that my parents live on. It crosses
the Coffee Pot bayou that led out to the flat that I had been fishing. I
walked over the bridge and there was an enormous school of bait
feeding under the lights right in the mddle of the channel. The current
was still moving under the bridge, still on the outgoing. All of a
sudden I could see flashes of large (15-20") fish slashing through the
bait, they looked like mackeral. I figured I would give it a try with the
fly rod. As I was walking back to my car - the current times caught up
with me. Where I once could fish from the bridge when I was a child, I
noticed a sign recently erected - no fishing from the bridge. Oh well -
progress they say. I was able to cast from the approaches to the
bridge but it was a bit too far away from where the mackeral were
feeding. My casts were clean (last weeks tune-up had helped a lot) and
because the current was still moving I was able to make some good
presentation drifts. Tomorrow I will try earlier in the tide and hopefully
the fish will be feeding closer to the bank that I can cast from.
It was good to be back home - the waters welcomed me and while I
didn't catch any fish I enjoyed the fishing and all that came with it.
TLA
Paul M.
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