Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By CHAD CARNEY
Published March 19, 2005

Forecasters from NOAA say that a mild El Nino is weakening. If they're right, it could be bad news because, according to the the National Hurricane Center, it could help make for a busy tropical storm season. But observations from other scientists and fishermen cast some doubt about whether El Nino will fade away.

Roger Stone, professor of climatology with the University of Southern Queensland, and the Australian government's Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology are cautious. "Two things have happened over the last month or two," Stone said. "One is we've had very, very strong westerly wind bursts along the equator in the Pacific, and that can often lead - not always - to some sort of El Nino event developing two or three months down the track."

Fishermen in southern California are convinced we are in the midst of an El Nino because of the arrival of Humboldt, or jumbo, squid. They are being caught as far north as San Francisco and beyond.

Research on jumbo squid has intensified in California since the first mass stranding in 1998. Those were attributed to El Nino storms.

The 1997-98 El Nino was the strongest on record, and it changed our fishing. Divers saw and speared more rarely seen cubera snapper than ever before.

We saw two cuberas on the dive trip before this week's front.

Chad Carney teaches diving and spearfishing in the Tampa Bay area. Call 727 423-7775 or e-mail chadcarney@verizon.net

[Last modified March 19, 2005, 01:01:18]