Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By CHAD CARNEY
Published August 4, 2005

Saturday is the opening of the regular season for spiny lobster in Florida. Reports from around the state have been mixed following last week's 2-day sport season. Many divers on the central east coast reported the usual huge lobsters, but fewer numbers due to visibility of less than 5 feet, making them tough to find. The southeast coast and Keys have the best visibility, and many divers easily filled their 6 per diver/per day limit. Besides knowing where to go, the difference is often the willingness to dive in stronger current areas and less visibility, like in the passes and on the gulf side of the Keys.

There are virtually no reports of lobsters found on the Gulf coast, thanks to Hurricane Dennis. We had a clear water window under a hazy surface layer along the 10 fathom line, where most of the ledges and lobsters are found, but few gulf divers had heard about it. In deeper water, visibility was often less than 5 feet, except in the middle grounds and deeper. We speared 5 gag groupers freediving on shallow wrecks covered with lots of bait and stacked with snook. By Sunday the window closed and the Red Tide hit hard. The bottom was littered with dead bait, small fish, crabs and invertebrates. There was almost nothing alive. A friend found a single shovelnose lobster; these tasty spineless lobsters have no season or size limit. From 40 miles and in, big fish, including goliath groupers, are floating in thick concentrations.

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

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 01:05:20]