Cold Weather Damage

It is hard to believe how much damage our cold winter has caused, the fish kill seems to get bigger and bigger everyday. Mostly because the water is warming up and now the dead fish are beginning to float and it is much more obvious the amount of fish that have died. The good news is, the fishing still remains pretty good, the trout and redfish were not affected too much. Seems that the only real sport fish that has been seriously affected is the Snook. A fish we all value and had just made a huge come back from the red tide from several years ago. So hopefully the season closure will help them again regain a strong footing in Tampa Bay.

Agriculture also took a huge hit with the strawberry season cut short, the orange groves have suffered and the vegetable farms got almost entirely wiped out. Another little know industry is the tropical fish farms, they were devastated. Most will be out of business as they had no way to keep their breeding ponds warm and lost their entire crop. So if you have an aquarium, plan on spending more for some of those little tropical fish!

I took my walk yesterday morning at Sunken Gardens, just to see how much damage there and it was depressing. This place is normally very lush and green and the sun barely shines through the canopy of the jungle. Sadly, they will have much planting to do and trimming before the spring wedding season as there are many weddings performed there. I was happy to see the resident flamingos were still in their glory and took a few pictures.





Then it was off to Sawgrass Park for my real walk along the boardwalk for my exercise. It was very dead there as well, but managed to see a nice squirrel and a baby gator, so it made the trip worthwhile...







I have finished hiring all the guides for the 2010 season at Yes Bay Lodge, we will have a great crew again, with all but one guide from last year returning. Sean (Shamrock) Hagen will be changing diapers while we are fishing, he and Ashton are expecting a baby soon and she refused to give him a hall pass to come back to Alaska. We are planning on a full crew for 2010 as bookings are very strong, so if you have yet to make your reservations you better get to phoning Kris. There are some great show specials right now, so make you plans and join me and crew at Yes Bay in 2010!

Capt Jim
Professor.