Fishing report

[Shallowminded6]

Well the mullet are still around. Almost impossible to see in the chocolate milk canal we call the river. Fishing was pretty productive considering the conditions, caught a bunch of small snook, a ton of jack, 1- 27” snook and 1-28” red. The red was pretty, identical single spots on either side of tail. Picture perfect. Danced right around the slots. 

[Shallowminded6]

On a side note, really need to upgrade to flush mount push pole holders. 

[jh141]

That hurts just looking at it.  Nice catchin....

[johnd]

ouch!    Pea green no vis river. Fished mangroves behind Cocoa Beach the other day. Nothing. Water so high (starting to recede) my guess any fish there were way up in the roots.  Great day (last Sat) nearshore chasing huge schools of mullet (jacks, ladyfish, Tarpon).  

[Shallowminded6]

1 hour ago, johnd said:

ouch!    Pea green no vis river. Fished mangroves behind Cocoa Beach the other day. Nothing. Water so high (starting to recede) my guess any fish there were way up in the roots.  Great day (last Sat) nearshore chasing huge schools of mullet (jacks, ladyfish, Tarpon).  

Same thing here. Extreme high tide almost as high as the docks, had to struggle to get any fish out of the mangroves. 

[lil Bingo]

Super high water ! Had to do a long jump to get on the launch ramp dock Thursday. 

Water was a green I haven't seen before. Sad. But I did catch a couple...

[Shallowminded6]

17 hours ago, lil Bingo said:

Super high water ! Had to do a long jump to get on the launch ramp dock Thursday. 

Water was a green I haven't seen before. Sad. But I did catch a couple...

Is it run off or algae that makes the water green up there? Ours gets the brown color from them flushing out drainage canals and fresh water. Takes the inlets a few weeks to flush all of it out. 

[wthree3]

The runoff and other non point sources of nutrients cause algae blooms. 

[johnd]

Run off and what the scientists call 'atmospheric deposition" (rain).  Rain is high in Nitrogen.  We had no spring rain, water visibility was nothing short of amazing - doesn't mean water was healthy, just clean.  Most of the seagrasses (all in the Banana River) are gone.  Other than Culurpa (sp?) there is nothing to absorb nutrients.   Water temps rose to high 80's, then rains hit. Water tables high and thousands of old septic tanks, run off, organics in the run off = green bloom.    Dr. Jacoby (SJWM) recently did a presentation from their monitors that range from about Cape Canaveral to Vero..  spikes in chlorophyll immediately following May rains everywhere.  

Got out this morning and while couldn't site fish, landed a very fat 22" Trout (that's pretty big for around here), in fact my first over 20" this year in the areas I fish.  I didn't hook up but watched some kids jump some little tarpon.. fished edges of mangroves, but even as the water recedes its still so high, if there are fish there they must be so far back in you would need a chainsaw to get to them.  

[Shallowminded6]

2 hours ago, johnd said:

Run off and what the scientists call 'atmospheric deposition" (rain).  Rain is high in Nitrogen.  We had no spring rain, water visibility was nothing short of amazing - doesn't mean water was healthy, just clean.  Most of the seagrasses (all in the Banana River) are gone.  Other than Culurpa (sp?) there is nothing to absorb nutrients.   Water temps rose to high 80's, then rains hit. Water tables high and thousands of old septic tanks, run off, organics in the run off = green bloom.    Dr. Jacoby (SJWM) recently did a presentation from their monitors that range from about Cape Canaveral to Vero..  spikes in chlorophyll immediately following May rains everywhere.  

Got out this morning and while couldn't site fish, landed a very fat 22" Trout (that's pretty big for around here), in fact my first over 20" this year in the areas I fish.  I didn't hook up but watched some kids jump some little tarpon.. fished edges of mangroves, but even as the water recedes its still so high, if there are fish there they must be so far back in you would need a chainsaw to get to them.  

Is the chlorophyll linked to septic tanks or created from a mixture of what you listed? 

[johnd]

Chlorophyll is the quick measurement that (I think) we layman might call algae (in microscopic size).  Blue green is always present and brown may have been present (in minute quantities) for over a decade.  Plant life is part of the natural environment.  The 'problem' is the lagoons is EXCESS nutrients.  There is no single cause, no "point source of pollution' like they had with chicken farms in the rivers that fed the Chesapeake or industrial waste in Tampa (for example).  Fundamentally the cause is human population growth.

   Along the Space Coast in the 60's large numbers of people arrived and with that development (often in wetlands), loam from sod, organics, use of septic tanks, roads (that often drained directly to rivers), back then even city sewage plants dumped somewhat treated effluent directly into the rivers.  Over time this changed the composition of the water, the chemistry and importantly the types of life.  By the early 80's a very few fisherman and scientists begun to recognize the changes.  The freeze a decade ago (in my view though others argue previous dates) was a tipping point.   There has been a measurable loss of seagrasses - estimated as much as 70% of the seagrasses died (lack of sunlight due to algea blooms).   According the some studies 'muck' (thick black oozy material that covers the bottom - it's mostly organics from runoff) holds nutrients and as it is disturbed it releases N back into the water column.  Nothing grows in it either.  That's why a major part of the Save The Lagoon funding is to remove muck.   Septic tanks absolutely contribute, they were not designed to remove N and in sandy soil and high water tables they are worthless.  That's why Brevard had a moratorium then issued new rules where they can not be used.  It's why local and State funding is being used to remove septic and connect people to community wastewater systems (which by the way need improvement!).  Roads and storm water runoff was addressed by drains to rivers during the hey day of development.  Today you see ponds along roadways, new homes surrounding 'lakes' with natural grasses - these are ways to capture stormwater and nutrients before it goes into groundwater or rivers. Large and small projects to build catch basins, to retrofit, are underway.  When my kids grew up we waded and the grass was up their waists and we caught trout & reds and ladyfish and trapped crabs etc etc.   Took us 50 years to screw up our lagoon and with billions of $ and new attitudes maybe, just maybe, it will return to some semblance of health before my grandkids have their kids.    Off my soapbox.   

[Shallowminded6]

2 hours ago, johnd said:

Chlorophyll is the quick measurement that (I think) we layman might call algae (in microscopic size).  Blue green is always present and brown may have been present (in minute quantities) for over a decade.  Plant life is part of the natural environment.  The 'problem' is the lagoons is EXCESS nutrients.  There is no single cause, no "point source of pollution' like they had with chicken farms in the rivers that fed the Chesapeake or industrial waste in Tampa (for example).  Fundamentally the cause is human population growth.

   Along the Space Coast in the 60's large numbers of people arrived and with that development (often in wetlands), loam from sod, organics, use of septic tanks, roads (that often drained directly to rivers), back then even city sewage plants dumped somewhat treated effluent directly into the rivers.  Over time this changed the composition of the water, the chemistry and importantly the types of life.  By the early 80's a very few fisherman and scientists begun to recognize the changes.  The freeze a decade ago (in my view though others argue previous dates) was a tipping point.   There has been a measurable loss of seagrasses - estimated as much as 70% of the seagrasses died (lack of sunlight due to algea blooms).   According the some studies 'muck' (thick black oozy material that covers the bottom - it's mostly organics from runoff) holds nutrients and as it is disturbed it releases N back into the water column.  Nothing grows in it either.  That's why a major part of the Save The Lagoon funding is to remove muck.   Septic tanks absolutely contribute, they were not designed to remove N and in sandy soil and high water tables they are worthless.  That's why Brevard had a moratorium then issued new rules where they can not be used.  It's why local and State funding is being used to remove septic and connect people to community wastewater systems (which by the way need improvement!).  Roads and storm water runoff was addressed by drains to rivers during the hey day of development.  Today you see ponds along roadways, new homes surrounding 'lakes' with natural grasses - these are ways to capture stormwater and nutrients before it goes into groundwater or rivers. Large and small projects to build catch basins, to retrofit, are underway.  When my kids grew up we waded and the grass was up their waists and we caught trout & reds and ladyfish and trapped crabs etc etc.   Took us 50 years to screw up our lagoon and with billions of $ and new attitudes maybe, just maybe, it will return to some semblance of health before my grandkids have their kids.    Off my soapbox.   

Thank you for the reply, very insightful. I remember the water and grass as you describe growing up here. If you ever want to continue your soap box and fish some brown water with no grass instead of green let me know.

[lil Bingo]

Very well said Johnd, you are spot on.

 

Above you said the water was "clean" in the spring.  I never say clean anymore, just clear.