Now's the time for cobia

Capt. Mike Myers battles a cobia to the boat

Capt. Tom Chaya of Dolphin Dreams Charters reported on Tuesday that cobia were around in 60-plus feet of water. Nearshore reefs are likely candidates for cobia, a strong gamefish that makes powerful runs and frequent jumps.

Cobia can be caught on spinning tackle with 15-to-30 pound test line. Cobia feed on shrimp, crabs, and assorted bait fish. Other standard baits are large plugs and 1- to 3-ounce jigs with white or yellow skirts. To prevent cut-offs, a 3-foot wire leader (No. 7 - No. 9) or a 60-to-80 pound leader is necessary.

Adult cobia are typically found in shallow waters of the gulf around buoys, anchored vessels, and floating debris.

Chaya caught his cobia to 30 pounds as he was chumming for kingfish. He free-lined a pinfish out of the boat. Cobia typically are spotted milling around a boat and resemble a shark. A cobia can be distinguished from a shark because of its dark color.

Of course, cobia deep fried in fingers or chunks, or smoked, can be excellent.

Supreme taxidermy

A blank of "The Mad Snooker" Capt. Dave Pomerleau's unofficial state record snook


If you have trophy game you'd like to have mounted, Fins to Feathers Wildlife Art has some of the finest around.

Check out http://www.finstofeathers.com/.

Irv Karlhofer has made taxidermy a long-time hobby. If you've ever seen "Hooked on Fishing" with Bill Miller on CATCH-47, you'll see Miller speaking in front of one of Karlhofer's tables. It has two redfish mounted in a marine scene that includes blue crabs and whitebait.
Cost is $12 per inch for fish. Marine habitat is extra.

"The Mad Snooker" Capt. Dave Pomerleau had the above cast made of his unofficial state-record 44-pound, 11-ounce snook landed in Fort Myers in 1995. The picture is of the blank. Karlhofer adds the art. To see the snook, head to Discount Tackle on First Street where the snook is mounted.

"He does all my customer's taxidermy," said Pomerleau, whose Web site is www.madsnooker.com. "A lot of people catch big trophy snook with me and Irv mounts them up for them."

Rough day on the water

Capt. John Guy, owner of Fisherman's Headquarters on First Street, said it best: "We just come out here to fish. We're not on the water everyday. Sometimes, we don't catch anything."

Not that's fishing. You can't always be on a charter with a captain who is almost certain about the recent hot spot beucase he or she has just fishing the hole a day prior. We would have to work for every fish.

Last Sunday, April 20, Capt. John took myself and two other men about 10 miles offshore to target kingfish. The kings had apparently moved away during a recent cold front, but after three straight days of warm temperatures, we figured they might be back around.

In about 50 feet of water, the kings did not show. We threw Rapala lures and scored with a couple bonito, which we could see slicing through the water from a distance, possibly smelling our chum combination of jack mackerel, and chunks of Berkley Gulp baits.

Earlier, we had a tough time getting baits on the flats and in the passes. Finally, though, we went about 5 miles offshore near a marker and used a Capt. Jon Guy blue runner rig, each hooked tipped with a piece of shrimp, to boat about 12 blue runners.
The blue runners, of course, did not produce any kingfish. Instead, we anchored over a bait show and a hard bottom in 45 feet of water. We landed about five undersized red grouper and about eight grunts. The grunts were caught on a jig/shrimp combination.

Just before dark, we motored to the Skyway to take our shots at some mangrove snapper over the rubble under the Skyway. With the light of a full moon lighting up the bay, our pole bents almost nonstop - because of snags.

The mangrove snapper, to our surprise, were not biting.

So we called it a night, content with just being out on the water.

It certainly was a tough day of fishing.

Skyway snack bar opens

A snack bar with a screened-in patio with 10 big picnic tables that seats 50-60 people opened two weeks ago at the north Sunshine Skyway fishing pier.

General managers Race Tyson and Jamie Foster are still playing with the open hours, but temporarily the bar will be open Friday from noon-11 p.m., Saturday from 10 am. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The bar serves hot dogs, chili dogs and nachos. The general managers are working on obtaining a beer license.

"We will have one soon," Foster said.

They also hope to add small pizzas.

The general managers also are planning on constructing a similar snack bar on the south pier.

The piers already have 24-hour bait and snack shops with about every amenity an angler could need.

A lone tree in the middle of Lake Manatee State Park managed to avoided perishing in this recent prescribed burn

If you've ever jogged, biked, or ridden a horse across one of the sugar-sand paths on the east side of Lake Manatee State Park, you may have been in awe of the wildly-voluptuous trees and vegetation.

After a while, it feels like your backyard.

Quite the shock when you come back one day, as I did, and realize that a huge section, maybe 50 acres, tops, had been burned.

At first, I thought it was disaster. I was wrong. It was just another "prescribed burn," which basically is an intentional fire started by forest rangers. It's used to get rid of the forest's natural "fuels," so that a lightning strike, for example, would not cause a wild fire that could consume the entire forest.

About seven years ago, Smoky the Bear used to say, "Only you can prevent forest fires."
But after rangers realized that "forest" fires were necessary - a forest fire meaning one that is controlled or prescribed - the wording changed. Now, Smokey's mantra is "One you can prevent Wild Fires."

The good news regarding prescribed or controlled burns is that within a couple weeks, or up to a couple months, the area already can become lush green once again.

"It depends on how dry the ground is," said Florida senior forest ranger Andy Lee.

So if you're ever in a park, or anywhere in the "wild" and you come across a burned area, remember that it's not necessarily the result of a wild fire. And, after all, fires are a natural - and surprisingly helpful - part of the ecosystem.