What happen to the Redfish????

[captpn]

I bet just restricting on plane operation within 100 yards of shoreline (except in marked channels) would help a lot.

Should be the rule everywhere.

[whichwaysup]

Now you have the baby boomers retiring as well.   More time to fish, more disposable income, more boats.   

I hear the fishing in N. Dakota is at it's all time best, though.

[Josh B]

My opinion... 

2010 was the big freeze which killed a ton of snook. The years following... 2011-2014 were really really good for both redfish & trout. With the lack of snook, the competition for food sources allowed the reds & trout to flourish. Now, 2015-2017 the snook have rebounded solid and that certainly plays a role.

That being said, the fall of 2015 we had some bad red tide along our coast. In my area (Manatee/Sarasota) we had big areas of redtide along the beach. I believe the redfish were on their fall migration when they hit those areas of red tide and high-tailed it to cleaner waters. Redfish are migratory and will often return to the same areas year after year. But when they hit that bad water they shifted and went elsewhere. Northern Tampa Bay has been much much better for redfish compared to Manatee/Sarasota. 

Hopefully the migration patterns of those fish didn't change permanently and we will see a return of redfish this fall, like in previous years.

Water quality is certainly the most important aspect, but boat pressure and competition from other species is also a contributing factor. 

 

Josh B.

[Capt. Troy]

On 8/8/2017 at 5:05 PM, nicecast said:

I am in no position to disagree with Capt. Troy, but I fear by tagging "pressure" as the culprit we may be missing some other issue. The fishing down south in the Goodland area has also been increasingly terrible year over year for several years. There certainly is "pressure" around Marco, but you don't have to go far south to be the only boat around - and the fishing is terrible there, too!

What is the issue? I have absolutely no idea. I do know there used to be a lot of grass in the area and now there is virtually none. Maybe the food chain has been interrupted or corrupted somehow? I'm no scientist or biologist, but clearly there is a problem. 

Pressure comes in many forms but it is all related to humans. The water quality, harvest and just to many of us is the problem. We keep going down this road we are on with what we are doing to our water a total ban on fishing will have no effect. The run off, use and plain old polluting from 20 million people sitting on a sponge surrounded by salt water is gonna get us some day. And yes, a good part of the 20 million want to be as close to the salt as possible.

The other thing noticed by me is that no matter the cause, be it a freeze, red tide or some other occurrence, is that plain fact due to us humans the recovery times are taking longer and longer and the frequency of anomalies are increasing.

 

I took a ride the other day to look at the construction taking place in the Head waters of the Anclote River. My home waters for my entire life. Thousands of acres of pasture, hard woods, pine flats that surrounded this water shed are all being turned into brick and mortar in the way of homes and shopping centers and roads. The water that would sit for weeks in the low lands/pastures are being ditched and drained for a straight shot to the Anclote River Basin. The river and it's filtering head waters have been turned into a big drainage ditch. I know I'm on a rant today but I just got off the water. The mouth of the river water looked so bad I wouldn't put my hands in it. This, just from finally getting some average rain the last month after being in a severe drought. Not to hard to figure out how it got nasty so fast. Sounds just like an episode from Mouse Town.

[mustang190]

I probably should stay quiet about this but,, we can walk on the redfish here. I'm sure it won't last long though. Development and population growth is fast coming.

Luckily for us most of the tourist and transplants mostly stay on or around the beach or the backside of the island, leaving most of the backcountry alone.

But with Facebook and other media the guides and big mouths post everything and every good spot.