□ Environment Deterioration from a Fisherman's View

When I was young, 10-12 years of age, I had a few fishing poles and a few fishing holes. I would ride my bike a few miles down the road and go bass and catfish fishing. These tributaries of the Myakka River where I fished from in Florida, are called canals, and they teamed with so much life and a abundance of wildlife, that it was hard not to catch a few fish and spot a few animals.  There were times I spotted fish that I still to this day boggle my mind. Like a 6 foot sturgeon, a 4 eyed fish, Tilipia the size of tires, Alligator Gar over 6 feet in length, Mullet in schools so large you could almost walk across the water on their backs, not to mention Alligators and Painted Turtles of sizes beyond belief. I can recall seeing a Florida Panther, that I still think was looking at me like lunch, and a female Bobcat and her cubs once walked along side of the opposite bank in plain view one day. All of these memories still remain in my mind, because they were great and wonderful memories.

Water Lettuce

Not too long ago I returned to several of these fishing spots in my youth and not one held a mirror of resemblance to what I remembered and saw in my youth. The waters were dark and almost lifeless. There were no Egrets or Great Blue Herons stalking the sides of the canals, there were no Turtles popping their heads up, and moving along in front of me. Most importantly there were no fish. No Gars, no Tilapia, no Bass, nothing. This held true in both the fresh waters, brackish, and some of the Salt Water holes I fished as a kid. There were some tell tail signs of Mullet, but nothing even close to the numbers and sizes we once tried to snag, there were no bass, just Bowfin in the murky horrid waters. The only waters that had life, because they are so vast, were the salt water areas.

Great Heron

The contrast of what I had seen, smelled, and did in my youth as a fisherman had changed. A old spring fed pond that I fished as a kid, that used to hold hundreds of Blue Gill and Bass, was reduced to a Oscar hole. Meaning, someone tossed in their over grown Oscars and turned the pond into a scum suckers paradise! It was fun to catch Oscars the size of foot balls and they actually tasted pretty good, but the life in the pond had been reduced to just Oscars and catfish, nothing else could survive, spawn or grow.

7 Foot Alligator

18 out of the 20 Fresh Water Canals I fished were filled with Bowfin, huge predatory Air Bladder breathing behemoths, capable of reaching 25-30 pounds. The worst thing about these fish, is they can live in places that bass are getting choked out of by over growth, whatever bass remained, were certainly eaten. Bowfin are both day and night hunters, they fish at night using a sensory lateral line that can detect a fishes heartbeat in the dark waters, they have a great sense of smell as well. They are the greatest fresh water hunter, their skin is similar to Gars, they eat anything that swims, and they are wicked mean creatures, capable of tearing into basket wells filled with shiners hung over the side of a dock.

Besides the take over by muck fish and the such, the water quality had deteriorated horrendously. Talking to a Biologist one day when I was fishing the Myakka in a boat by Snook Haven, we talked over a few beers and he highlighted the reasons for the poor water standards in these man-made canals.

He explained that Hydrillia, Water Hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes), and Water Lettuce (pistia stratiotes) clog and reduce water flow, residents of these waters then complain about mosquitos, and the State sends out a crew to spray the plants for both mosquito and the plants themselves. Being the ecologists these State Crews are not, they kill off these plants, which then return burn off all the Oxygen in the water as they decay, killing all the Gill Breathers, and leaving behind the Bladder Breathers, who can survive without Oxygen in the water. If even some air breathers do move to these waters, they only become prey to these Bowfin. A full adult 25-30 pound Bowfin can easily eat a 5-10 pound bass. All due to the fact that these fish are supreme hunters, and while the bass float around at night in sleep mode, these monsters go after them. The reason though for all of these water weed pests to bloom so fast and quickly is because of human waste and farm land run off, mostly though he explained, human sewage.

Florida Bass

Sewage tanks for home owners in Florida during the building booms 0f the early 80's-late 90's were substandard. They over flowed and crept into fresh water springs through the sand aquifers that many of these communities were built on. These rich fluids helped fuel the aquatic nitrogen needs for these water weeds. Creating substantial massive blooms and over growth.Many communities were also built along the banks of many of these man made canals, and the sewage flow directly fed into these waters.

Florida Panther

23 years ago these places I fished were huge ecosystems, containing a beautiful assortment of wildlife and natural fisheries. There was a time when it was all I could do to not catch a fish, and fill a stringer with bass and catfish. Now though all that remains are the memories, and unless the State of Florida takes the time to change how things are taking place in these wonderful places, all will be lost. What once was a teeming and beautiful landscape, filled with health and beauty, is now reduced to gloomy lifeless mud holes, that are from the actions of an uneducated Florida Government, who refuses to acknowledge their hand in destroying and ruining a great water supply from the mighty Myakka.