Monthly Archives: January 2021

Snook, Bass and Other Species Thrive in Florida Stormwater System

Hayley Rutger, Mote Marine Labs

from The Fishing WireMote’s Dr. Jim Locascio holds a juvenile snook from a Sarasota County canal. Credit: Dr. Nate Brennan/Mote Marine Laboratory

Dozens of fish species — including common snook and largemouth bass — use certain parts of the upper Phillippi Creek system, according to the first fish survey of this urbanized network of canals, retention ponds and wetlands in Sarasota County, Florida.

The survey — led by Mote Marine Laboratory and funded by Sarasota Bay Estuary Program (SBEP) — found the highest numbers and diversity of fishes around upper creek areas mimicking natural habitat: curving canals or ponds with wetland vegetation and sections of slower-moving water. Less naturalistic canals, with shorelines straightened for optimum drainage, generally hosted fewer fish of fewer species.

Urban waterways can lose ecosystem value — for example, ability to support economically important sport fish — due to pollution, altered water flow and loss of natural habitat. Scientists around the nation are investigating how to help these waterways better serve wildlife, ecosystems and communities. Phillippi Creek drains approximately 60 square miles (145 square kilometers) of Sarasota County land, with downstream waterways richer in natural habitat and upstream waterways bearing a clearer human fingerprint: more straightened, channelized canals, sediment traps and retention ponds.

“We want to understand how to balance the role of these waterways between stormwater management and ecosystem function,” said Mote staff scientist Dr. Jim Locascio. “Can upper Phillippi Creek be enhanced to benefit fish without sacrificing its performance as a drainage system? That’s what we hope our survey results will lead into. First we needed to learn how the system is functioning and understand whether some creek areas are more productive in supporting fish.”

“Typical stormwater drainage systems were designed to transport excess water directly from residential areas to the sea; this concentrates flow through a narrow area,” said Mote Staff Scientist Dr. Nate Brennan, who was also involved in the project. “Such systems can experience flash-flooding as well as very reduced flow, and they can transport nutrient-laden sediment downstream, all of which affects how many species can survive in the canals themselves and in downstream ecosystems such as estuaries and seagrass flats. However, slower and more consistently flowing waterways can be refuges with higher diversity of prey animals as well as high-value, predatory fish such as snook and largemouth bass. Upper Phillppi Creek is dominated by straightened canals, but it also includes good refuge areas and sites with potential to create more; that really interests us.”

Since the 1980s, Sarasota County has significantly enhanced its measures to prevent floods and enhance water quality, most commonly using wet ponds. Ponds help delay the discharge of runoff, capture sediments and protect downstream ecosystems. County officials and Mote scientists each want to know whether further enhancements will help support fisheries.

Based on discussions with Sarasota County and SBEP staff, Mote scientists surveyed fish and select invertebrates (such as shrimp) at about 70 sites – most along upper Phillippi Creek, north of Bahia Vista Street and east of Beneva Road, and one downstream from this junction: Red Bug Slough preserve. Sites represented three habitat types: canals with generally straightened shorelines maintained to drain storm water; secondary stage canals with more bent shorelines, restored wetland areas, a natural preserve and sediment traps; and retention ponds known as the Celery Fields.From left: Mote scientists Dr. Jim Locascio, Dr. Nate Brennan, and Greer Babbe use a seine net to survey for fish in Sarasota County’s stormwater canal system. Credit Conor Goulding/Mote Marine Laboratory.

“Canals are a common feature around Florida and around the world, which means the results of this study could be far reaching,” said John Ryan, Environmental Manager for Sarasota County’s Stormwater Environmental Utility. “Nature friendly drainage designs could add value to the lives of a great many people who live on the world’s coasts.”

During March-May and September-November 2016, Mote scientists and interns used purse seine nets to catch, identify, count and release fish and invertebrates, measuring a sample of them. The scientists documented temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and the presence or absence of vegetation.

In all, the researchers counted 36,136 fishes and invertebrates in 37 scientific groups. Overall, the most abundant species were the native eastern mosquitofish (scientific name: Gambusia holbrooki), which were 46.5 percent of all animals counted. Also abundant were non-native tilapia (Oreochromis spp., 13.3 percent), native grass shrimp (Palaemonetes spp., 11.5 percent), and native sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna, 9.2 percent). Native blue killifish (Lucania goodei), native least killifish (Heterandria formosa), and native Seminole killifish (Fundulus seminolis) were semi-abundant.

The highest biodiversity sites — with the most species and the most evenly distributed numbers of animals in each species — were secondary stage canal habitats. Their complex curves, vegetation and flow patterns can mimic natural habitat. Less biodiversity was found at retention pond sites, followed by the least naturalistic sites: canals.

Common snook (Centropomus undecimalis) — a favorite Florida sport fish — were found at 15 sampling sites in seven areas. Among those areas, 61.6 percent of snook were in secondary stage canal habitats, especially two sediment traps. All snook were juveniles that had completed their larval, or baby, stage within the past two years.

“Of the juvenile snook we found, a notable number were in sediment traps, which are used to keep sediment from moving downstream but also appear to mimic the natural systems where the snook larvae settle and become juvenile fish,” Locascio said. “In wild tidal creeks, snook may settle in terminal ponds with reduced flow. Sediment traps may be creating similar habitat as a byproduct. However, we need to better understand how the snook are affected during maintenance, when the sediments are removed. This is one good opportunity for follow-up research.”

Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) juveniles and/or adults were found at 30 sites in eight areas, with 69.2 percent in secondary stage canal habitats.

According to Mote’s report, “…secondary stage canal habitat which included preserves, sediment traps and restored wetlands were most important for snook and largemouth bass and maintained the highest levels of diversity.”

“Some engineered habitats are mimicking natural habitats and functioning as recruitment areas for these fish in upper Phillippi Creek,” Locascio said. “That is a very positive finding, and there is more that could be done if additional areas can be enhanced and then monitored through future surveys.”

Locascio continued: “Some fish-friendly enhancements might even save money; for instance, say you have an area that’s difficult and costly to manage. Why not use that as a habitat restoration site, ultimately improving conditions for fish and decreasing maintenance costs such as removing vegetation?”

Other recommendations from this report include:

Build fish-friendly features resembling the current sediment traps but varying in design to enhance their appeal to snook and bass. Then follow up with a monitoring program and fish-tagging studies to determine which designs help support fish.
Find even more options for fish-friendly upgrades at multiple scales along Phillippi Creek by applying the current results to a mathematical model published by others in 2015. If the model applies to Phillippi Creek fish habitat, it could provide a wealth of additional ideas for fish-friendly, waterway management.
Make better use of non-native tilapia, which are abundant in the Celery Fields retention ponds but may not travel far due to weirs that limit water flow. It the weirs could periodically release a pulse of water — and tilapia — safely and strategically, those tilapia may provide additional food to native, predatory fish downstream.

“The next steps are exciting,” added Brennan, “because they can involve eco-engineering where we consider stormwater management goals but add components like ecosystem health and societal benefits. Places like stormwater canals that are often hidden from society can actually be transformed into attractive, productive urban ecosystems that improve property value and natural productivity.”

Spalding County Sportsman Club at Lake Sinclair in January

Last Sunday 15 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair. After eight hours of cold casting, we brought 28 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 45 pounds to the scales. Two people caught five fish for a limit but seven people did not land a keeper.

Wayne Teal won with four bass weighing 9.89 pounds and had a 3.81 pound largemouth for big fish. Jay Gerson had five weighing 7.46 pounds for second, Chris Davies five at 6.41 pounds was third and Niles Murray had three weighing 6.33 pounds for fourth.

Chris fished with me and we started where I caught my two the weekend before but never had a bite. After

two hours I decided to do what I thought I should have done last weekend and went to clearer water.

The first place we stopped Chris caught a small keeper on a rattle bait. I kept casting a bladed jig to grass and docks, thinking that would attract a decent fish. A little later Chris caught another keeper on a crankbait, then one on a jig head worm.

Down three to nothing I decided to go to a jig head worm just to try to catch a keeper and landed two. Chris then lost two keepers, the first one the biggest we saw all day. I caught my third keeper and we were tied.

With a little over an hour left to fish, I caught my fourth keeper on the worm then, before I could get it in the livewell, Chris got his fourth one. A few minutes later he got his fifth to fill his limit.

I tried hard to catch another one but did not. My four weighing 5.16 pounds was good for fifth.

I don’t know if we got to the right area after lunch when we had almost all our bites, or if it was the time of day. Whatever it was, I am glad it happened.

After weigh-in Wayne said he caught all his fish in the muddy water on a bladed jig. It drives me crazier to find out the winning pattern was something I tried but never head a bite!

Epic Fall Bites for Coastal Anglers

Where and How To Catch February Logan Martin Bass, with GPS Coordinates

Although winter still has a firm grip on fishermen, bass are responding to longer days. They are starting to feed up for the coming spawn and venture from deep water to nearby shallows to eat. At Logan Martin this means they are on deep rocky banks that have shallow cover and on shallow points that drop into channels.

Logan Martin is on the Coosa River east of Birmingham and I-20 crosses it near Pell City. It is full of fat Coosa Spots and quality largemouth. Rocky river channel shorelines with docks and points at mouths of creeks and coves line the lake and both species are feeding on them this month.

Tim Ward grew up fishing Logan Martin. He and his family stayed at a campground in Clear Creek often and he had a small boat to explore the nearby area and learn to catch bass. He really got into bass fishing when he was 13 and fished his first tournament when 18. His experience club fishing led him to join the Auburn Bass Team and he fished with the team from 2011 to 2015.

Now Tim fishes with the Marathon Bassmasters in Birmingham and is working on fishing on the pro side of big tournaments by fishing as a co-angler in BFLs. He placed second in a Bass Nation tournament and won a couple of BFLs on the co-angler side. He also fished the ABT Southern Division.

Logan Martin is Tim’s home lake and he fishes it often. He knows that the bass start feeding more and more in late January and all during February, even if the water remains cold. Toward the end of the month when the water does start warming they are even more active.

“All during February Logan Martin bass still want to be near deep water, but will move shallow to feed,” Tim said. Rocky river channel banks with a shallow ledge along it is a good place to find them, as are points that drop into deep water. Rocks are the key but wood cover on them helps.

To cover those kinds of places, Tim relies on a variety of baits. A jerkbait, crank bait, rattle bait and chatterbait all allow him to cover water and find feeding fish. If he is not finding active fish, a shaky head will always catch fish on Logan Martin under any conditions.

The water is usually a brownish stained color this time of year, with clearer water in some creeks. The water color controls his choice of colors. Shad colors are good in clearer water but brighter colors like chartreuse are better if the water is stained. In muddy water Tim says red is hard to beat.

We fished on a cold, cloudy windy day in early January and caught some spots and largemouth on several of these places.

1. N 33 29.288 – W 86 14.998 – Going up the river from Cropwell Branch the river makes an “S” bend and Powel’s Campground is on the left bank going upstream. The right bank across from it is an outside bend with docks on it and wood cover washes in. It is a good example of the kind of river bank he likes.

As the river turns back to the left there is a big bay on the right with a smaller bay just upstream of it. Start at the upstream point of the upstream bay with a dock on it. The dock has a covered boat slip and there is a matching smaller covered deck on the bank. There is a small private ramp on the upstream side of the dock.

Start at the point and fish upstream, casting to the bank and covering any wood cover and all the docks along this bank. Your boat will be in 20 feet of water or deeper a fairly short cast off the bank, but there is a small shelf the docks sit on, and bass move up out of the channel to feed all along it.

Tim will fish all the way up to the next pocket if he is getting bit. But if he fishes a hundred yards of this bank without a bite he will move to another place. He does not expect to catch a bunch of fish in one spot. He is looking for individual feeding fish holding on the cover along this bank.

2. N 33 30.754 – W 86 15.618 – Going back down the river there is a double creek entering on the outside bend on your right. There are two islands in the mouth of it. The downstream point runs way out to the creek and river channels and fish hold and feed on it until moving in to spawn.

We rode over this point and Tim’s electronics lit up with baitfish holding near the bottom in 20 to 25 feet of water. Baitfish are always a good sign that bass are in the area. We did not stay long since the wind was blowing strong but if you can fish a place like this you should stay on it and cover it carefully.

Keep your boat in 25 feet of water off the end of the point and fan cast all over the point. Cast toward the bank will be in eight to ten feet of water and you can cover it out to about 12 feet deep with a crankbait that dives that deep, Tim’s choice this time of year. He likes a chartreuse and cream color and wants his bait to bump the bottom from 6 to 12 feet deep.

Also try a rattlebait in places like this. Cast it to eight feet deep and work it out to 15 feet deep, the range Tim expects bass to hold right now. Work it back by slow rolling it near the bottom or pumping it up and letting it fall back.

3. N 33 29.529 – W 86 17.354 – Going down the river past the mouth of Cropwell Creek the first opening on your right is a cove with docks in it, and there is another smaller pocked just downstream of it. Fish stage on the points of both these pockets and spawn in them.

The downstream point of the downstream pocket is rocky with a dock on it. The upstream side is flatter with docks along it, too. Tim likes to fish both sides of this pocket this time of year. Cast a chatterbait and squarebill crankbait to the dock posts. Try to bump the post with the squarebill. Tim uses a Strike King 1.5 in chartreuse and black. Bump it off dock posts and any other wood cover on the bank.

Also work a shaky head around the docks and wood cover, and probe for brush around the docks with it.

The first dock on the upstream side has a yellow bench on it and there is a good brush pile out from it.
We missed a couple of bites in that brush pile, the wind made it hard to fish a shaky head.

4. N 33 26.822 – W 86 17.321 – Run down into Clear Creek to the bridge. The riprap on the bridge holds fish all month long and more move to it as they work up the creek toward spawning areas. Fish both side of the riprap on both ends of the bridge.

Fish the rocks with a jerkbait and crankbait. Tim says a Megabass 110 in sexy shad is hard to beat. The water in here is usually clearer, as the creek name implies. A shad colored crankbait bumped along the rocks in 8 to 12 feet deep will also catch fish. Both baits allow you to cover the riprap quickly.

Work the rocks with a shaky head, too. On the rocks a fairly light head will get hung up less. Tim uses a three sixteenths to one quarter ounce head and he puts a green pumpkin or Junebug Zoom Trick or Finesse worm on it. He also dips the tail of the worm in chartreuse dye. Fish it with a drag and shake action.

5. N 33 26.928 – w 86 16.688 – Going up the left arm of the creek a long point comes off the right bank and runs over half way across it. The creek channel runs along the upstream side and the end runs out to where the channel swings around it. There are big rocks and a danger marker on the end of the point.

Keep your boat in 25 feet of water and fish the end and upstream side with a jerkbait and crankbait. Try different cadences with the jerkbait but Tim says the typical jerk, jerk, pause works well most days. Pause the bait longer in colder water. Also try your shaky head here. We caught a keeper spot here on a shaky head.

6. N 33 26.839 – W 86 18.577 – Going down the lake from Clear Creek there is a big cove on your left. Arms run off both sides in the back. There are good channels running into them and there are a lot of docks along the banks. Bass move into this cove to spawn and hold along the channels, moving up to the shallows to feed this month.

Tim said this is one of his favorite places and we fished all the way around it, and caught a good largemouth and two spots, as well as missing several bites. Start on the left as you enter the pocket at the dock on your left in front of a brick boat house at the mouth of the arm that goes back to the left. There is a flag pole on the bank beside the dock and a cement boat ramp going to the boathouse.

The water is shallow along the banks here and Tim choses chatterbait and squarebill around the docks and gravel banks. The largemouth hit a chatterbait and the spot hit the crankbait here. Hit any cover along the bank.

Also fish your shaky head here. Some of the docks have brush in front of them where the fish feed. Probe for the brush and work it thoroughly with your shaky head. Fish all the way to the last dock on the right side.

7. N 33 26.927 – W 86 18.704 – The upstream point of this big cove has riprap around it, a white bird house on the bank and big rocks up shallow. Rocks also run out to deep water on the point that runs across the mouth of the cove.

There were fish and bait fish on it when we rode over it and we caught a largemouth out in 15 feet of water. Stop out in 25 feet of water off the end of the point and fan cast it with a shaky head, crankbait and rattlebait. Then work toward the bank, covering the shallows around it with square bill and shaky head.

8. N 33 26.659 – W 86 19.208 – A little further down the lake toward the dam a long point runs out from the left bank, drops into a saddle and comes up to a small island. There is a yellow smiley face flag on it and there are rocks all around it and a big tree off the bank on the downstream side. The river channel runs right off the outside point of it.

Start at the saddle on the upstream side and work around the island with your jerkbait. When you get to the outside point keep your boat in 15 feet of water and cover the point with both jerkbait and shaky head. This point is one of the few places Tim expects bass to school up and he says you can catch a lot of fish on it.

9. N 33 26.469 – W 86 19.673 – Across the lake a big island with a causeway sits near the right bank going toward the dam. The outside bank of this island drops off fast with rocks and docks on it. There is a small pocket half way down the bank.

Tim starts on the upstream side of the pocket at the dock in front of a house with red umbrellas by it and fishes around the pocket. Tim says this is a good place to catch a big fish this time of year. Fish all around the pocket and docks on both sides with chatterbait, jerkbait, squarebill and shaky head. Tim uses the Z Man half ounce bait with a chartreuse and white skirt.

10. N 33 27.487 – W 86 17.826 – Back up the lake on your right at the mouth of Clear Creek, Clear Creek Harbor Marina has a riprap breakwater point running off the right bank. Bass hold and feed all along this riprap on both sides, and concentrate on the end. We lost a decent fish that was right on the edge of the water.

Fish all the way around the riprap point with crankbait and jerkbait. Get in close to the rocks and parallel them, especially if there is wind blowing in on them. There was a good chop on the water here when we fished, perfect for this time of year.

If the wind is not blowing stay off the rocks and cast a shaky head to the edge of the rocks and work it all the way back to the boat. This is a good spawning pocket so fish gang up along the rocks as they get ready to move in and spawn.

All these places are excellent this month, and many similar places hold fish right now. Check Tim’s favorites to see when he looks for and you can find many similar spots all over the lake.

Fishing South Carolina’s Lake Thurmond

It will always be Clark Hill to me! And most of the lake is in Georgia

Cutting Firewood

I miss cutting firewood. A “memory” popped up on my Facebook page from just three years ago. A picture showed my pickup loaded with wood. The comment from that day said, “not a bad hour’s work, especially since I had to gas up and change chains.”

I had cut down a dead red oak, cut its trunk into sections about 26 inches long to fit into my wood burning insert, and loaded them in the truck. They were big enough that three filled the bed across, and there were about 21 pieces total.

In 1981 when I moved into my current house it had a wood burning insert. I bought a Sears chainsaw and learned to use it; I had never used one. I also learned a lot about different kinds of wood, how much effort it took to split wood with a maul and the best way to load my insert and get a good fire that would last all night.

The first five years here I did not even light the pilot light on my furnace. We put a sheet over the stairwell to the unused upstairs and used a fan in the doorway to move warm air into the bedroom. Then one March while I was gone for six days to fish a Top Six tournament, Linda got pneumonia and could not get wood or build a fire.

I lit the pilot light as soon as I got home.

Splitting wood was always my least favorite part of the process. After I turned 60, using a hand maul hurt! A gas splitter solved that problem and made it go much faster.

I liked red oak wood since it cut cleanly, split evenly and burned down to good coals that lasted a long time. White oak was similar but the grain was not quite as clean. Hickory was great but I did not have many hickory trees I could cut, and I saved them for grilling. I mostly cut trees that had died in the past year, the wood was still good and I did not remove live trees from my land.

I liked burning pine and popular during the day since I didn’t need to produce good coals. Both split easily, were light weight to carry and easy to light and get burning fast. The smell of burning pine is my second favorite burning wood smell. And the “pop“ of burning popular was not a problem in my enclosed fireplace insert.

I never cut down a cedar tree on my land, but after having some timber clearcut there were a dozen big cedars that were damaged. I cut them and used some trunks for posts, but cut most of it up into two-foot-long sections. I would add one to the fire during the day and make the yard and house smell wonderful!

Sweetgum was just about impossible to split by hand but my gas splitter handled it fine. Sweetgum really doesn’t split, its twisting grains just tear apart with enough pressure. It burned without producing coals, but it was the most plentiful type of tree on my land and was pretty useless for wildlife. So I cut and burned a lot of it during the day to produce fast, hot first that warmed the house quickly..

I haven’t been able to cut wood for two years now and have not had a fire for the past two winters. Maybe again someday.

Virginia’s Prime Trout Streams for 2021

Fishing A Lake Sinclair January Tournament

Last Saturday catching bass at Sinclair was very “hit and miss” for the 21 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters in our January tournament. In 7.5 hours we landed 35 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 58 pounds. There were two limits and seven people did not land a keeper.

Shay Smith won with five weighing 14.50 pounds and Mitch Cardell came in second with five at 12.68 pounds. Tom Tanner had three weighing 7.65 pounds for third and Frank Anderson had one fish for fourth, but it was the right one and was also big fish at 5.65 pounds.

There were three largemouth weighing more than five pounds each, and two more between 4.5 and five pounds weighed in.

I thought I started my day right with a good 1.75-pound keeper on my second cast with a crankbait, but my next bite came seven hours later, on the same crankbait in a similar place as the first one. I tried just about everything I could think to do except make a long run to clear water. The wind was howling, and I just did not want to beat myself to pieces in the waves. And it waw cold!

We put in up Little River at Dennis Station and the water was extremely muddy. Downstream, if you went up the Oconee River it got a little clearer and a decent color to fish, if you could get out of the wind. After the tournament I heard the creeks at the dam were the clearest water on the lake, as is usual this time of year, and where I should have gone, I think.

Even with just two fish I felt pretty good as the first five people weighed in. Nobody had more than three, and I hoped I might place. When Mitchell put a 5.05 pounder on the scales, then added a 4.9 pounder, my hopes sank. Then Shay showed up at the scales.

I did place – eighth with two at 3.62 pounds!

We are fishing Sinclair this Sunday in the Spalding County club. I hope the wind isn’t bad and I can go to clear water!

NC Study Indicates Some Fish are Caught Repeatedly–Possibly Skewing Population Estimates

By North Carolina State University
from The Fishing Wire

A new study reports that, for several species of oceanic sport fish, individual fish that are caught, released and recaught are more likely to be caught again than scientists anticipated.

A new study reports that, for several species of oceanic sport fish, individual fish that are caught, released and recaught are more likely to be caught again than scientists anticipated. The findings raise some interesting questions for policy makers tasked with preserving sustainable fisheries.The study makes use of data from tagging programs, in which researchers tag fish and release them into the wild. When those fish are caught, and the tag information is returned to the researchers, it can give scientists information that informs fishery policies.

“Fisheries researchers who work in tagging programs have long noticed that certain fish seem to get caught repeatedly, and we set out to determine the implications of this phenomenon,” says Jeff Buckel, co-author of the study and a professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University.

To that end, researchers examined decades’ worth of Atlantic coast tagging datasets on four fish species: black sea bass (Centropristis striata), gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), red grouper (Epinephelus morio), and Warsaw grouper (Hyporthodus nigritus). Using a computational model, the researchers determined that—for the black sea bass and both types of grouper—survival was significantly higher after the second, third, and fourth release as compared to the first release.

“Think of it this way,” says Brendan Runde, first author of the study and a Ph.D. student at NC State. “Let’s say you tagged 1,000 fish and recaptured 100 of them for a first time. After re-releasing those 100 fish, you would only expect to recapture 10 of them a second time. But that’s not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing much higher numbers of fish getting recaptured after the second time.

“Our hypothesis is that this increase in catch rate stems from selection for robust individuals,” Runde says.

In other words, because some fish don’t survive the first release, and you can’t catch a dead fish, the fish that were robust enough to survive their first encounter were more likely to survive following catch-and-release events.

The finding could have a significant impact on stock assessments, which inform fishery policies.

“One might assume that every catch and release in a recreational fishery is a unique fish,” Buckel says.

“So that if 5 million black sea bass were caught and released in a given year, that would mean there were at least 5 million black sea bass in a fishery. For these three species of fish and likely many others, that’s just not true. At least some of those 5 million catches were the same fish getting caught over and over again.”

“Reliable estimates of how many unique fish are released are critical to accurately assessing the health of the population,” says Kyle Shertzer, a co-author of the study and stock assessment scientist at NOAA Fisheries.

“On the positive side, the study also suggests that for many species fish mortality from being released appears lower than we thought,” Buckel says.

“For those species, if a fish survives its first release, it has an even better chance of surviving subsequent releases.”

“We think that the issues raised by our findings are likely relevant for many marine fish stock assessments that rely on catch-and-release data—though this will vary based on the species and the details of how each stock assessment is performed,” Runde says.

The paper, “Repetitive capture of marine fishes: implications for estimating number and mortality of releases,” is published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.

Sandboxes and Eating White Dirt

Do any kids still play in sandboxes? I see plastic sand boxes advertised online, and they even come with bags of sand. My sandbox was different.

Daddy nailed four six-foot long 2x6s into a square, put a lip on top with 1x4s and filled it with sand. To get the sand we drove to a sand road a few miles south of the house and filled the bed of the pickup with sand from the ditch.

I spent hours making sandcastles. Many times they were made for toad frogs. Tunnels were dug big enough for a toad and sometimes I would put a quart jar at the end so they had “windows.” We caught toads and put them in the castles and tunnels and watched them move around.

The most amazing sand structures I have ever seen were on the Baja Peninsular on a trip to the Sea of Cortez. We stayed overnight in Loreto Mexico on the sea. There was a big festival and part of it was a contest making sand statues on the beach. Everything from forms of people that were very lifelike to airplanes, cars and buildings had amazing detail.

A pier there was closed off and people were grilling different kinds of food to sell. Across the entrance to the pier was yellow police tape with the words “Caution, Men Grilling!”

I lived on Iron Hill Road, so named for the red clay and rocks everywhere. Our farm was near the fall line where Georgia’s topography changes from rolling hills with lots of clay and rocks to flat sand lands.

On the farm we never bought anything we could get for free. “Free” meant no money, much of that free stuff, like sand, required a lot of work. Many times I helped shovel sand into the pickup to take to the farm for everything from making cement for chicken houses to filling in depressions in the yard.

The difference between the farm and the area a few miles south is amazing. Sand Hill road is only a short drive from Iron Hill Road in McDuffie County. We never saw rattlesnakes on the farm but they were common in the sandy areas a few miles from us.

What brought all this to my mind was seeing “white dirt” for sale in a local store. Growing up, some of my friends at school from the sandy area brought chunks of this white dirt to school to eat. It is a form of chalk and many very poor people ate it just to fill their stomachs. And it helped stop diarrhea.

In the early 1960s mining companies came to my area and dug pit mines to get the seams of white dirt. We found out it is kaolin and is used for everything from making medicines and cosmetics to making the slick covering for magazine pages.

Many of those mines were very deep. When they stopped the mining, the pits filled with water. I have never seen water that clear anywhere else. It was a very light blue and seeped in so there was no sediment. You could see the bottom 25 feet deep.

Unfortunately, with the steep sides, they were very dangerous. Every year it seemed someone drowned in them on a swimming trip when they could not get back out of the water.

Its almost scary the memories seeing something as simple as white dirt for sale can bring.

About Fishing

Welcome To About Fishing