Evening star., 1940-03-19
Tarpon, Sai|fish Gone
From Spots Anglers
Once Favored
Chilled Water DESTROYS
Fish or Drives Them
Far OFF Shores
BY WALTER McCALLUM,

BY WALTER McCALLUM.
Fishing in Florida this year prac-
tically has been a complete flop.
From Key West, far to the west,
through Miami, Palm Beach and
Stuart, and up along the west coast,
piscatorial addicts have done little
but crab about the lack of fish, the
finny tribes unwillingness to bite,
and the generally poor sport around
the winter hot spot of all fishing
activities in the United States.
Reason has been the cold wave.
Floridians laugh about it, but they
can't laugh off Drowned palm trees,
ruined by frost, millions of dollars
of damage to fruit and vegetable
crops and mangrove trees-usually
to crisp brown. And,
worst of all, chilled water that either
has killed millions of fish or driven
them offshore into deeper water,
where the temperature remains con-
Stant
You could scoop up snook and
small tarpon by the boatload any
where along the keys right after
that bad cold spell in January" said
one captain.
Fishing Poor Everywhere.
The offshore fishing this winter
has been lousy" said Jess Conyne,
one of the captains of the swanky
fishing fleet out of Miami.
1--WE haven't seen tarpon around
Everglades this year." said Capt.
Cliff Boggess. one of the captains
of that usually red-hot tarpon spot.
And there have been very few in
Shark River. which usually is full
of them at this time of year"
The situation, along with cold
and windy days, has played a dirty
trick on the various fishing tourna-
ments held all along the Florida
coast, chiefly around Miami, where
more than $4,000 has been set up
in prizes. Key West had a tempera-
ture of AZ degrees-lowest in 30
years. Miami had subfreezing
spells, and all through South Florida
you could see evidence of the frost.
In previous years the fishing fleet
out of Pier in Miami counted as
bad day when they didn't put from
S to Is sailfsh on the dock Nu-
merous days this winter these skilled
captains more than 40 of them
have failed to bring in a single sail
fish. The kingflsh have been run
ming, along with bonito and dolphin,
but the sailfsh either have gone
far offshore, or aren't taking the
bait.
No Luck in Shark River.
With a party of six we spent
three days in Shark River, down
in the Cape Sable country, where
tarpon usually are thick as rockfish
IN Chesapeake Bay. We saw one
small tarpon in three days. Where
such party usually gets 100 strikes
or more, we didn't get one from
fish we knew was a tarpon. The
usual grist of shark, snook and red
fish were around, but no tarpon.
Il think they run offshore into
deep water when cold weather hits"
said Boggess. I'VE haven't been
able to find them anywhere. away
up the rivers or in the bays and
river mouths. But they'll come
back when we have continuous
stretch of warm weather" In be-
tween blows and cold spells, Florida
has had a few warm days. But
they've been broken up with north
ars" and high winds which muddy
the waters. Tarpon don't come
into muddy water and don't like
cold weather.
Even sleepy Key West, where
tarpon usually hang around II
in the year, is complain
ing. Fishing is the main sport
around that part of Florida and
along the keys south of Miami on
that scenic drive ITO miles south.
But in three days around Key West
we saw very few tarpon and caught
only One-a 75-pounder.
Tarpon Refuse Bait.
Up at Stuart, l08 miles north of
we ran across a big school
OF tarpon playing around the jetties
at the entrance channel to the har-
Dor. But they wouldn't take
trolled bait, and the captains said
1t was waste of time going after
them. 1t was. A few tarpon have
been caught at night in Govern
ment Cut, main entrance to Miami
Harbor, but they've been small.
Strangely enough, Miamian
caught 100-pounder off a COM
fishing pier in the ocean
north of Miami Beach. Entered in
the Miami angling tournament are
a number of record fish. At least
five tournament records have been
broken by big fish, but the num-
bers. have been lacking.
Florida can't do anything about
cold spells, but a lot of gents who
went down from the North expect
ing gobs of great fishing were
bilked this year. For a multimil-
hon dollar sport it was a complete
finn