Cycle of Life
Despite last year’s devastating freeze, snook and tarpon are on the rebound in the ’Glades backcountry.
Text and photos by Dave Lear T 36
HE GNARLED GREEN AND BROWN WALL of mangroves looked impene- trable. Yet, as Capt. Bill Miller slowly nosed his 18-
foot skiff forward, a small gap revealed a narrow tunnel through the leafy maze. With the channel barely wider than the boat and limbs interlaced just above our heads, we slowly idled up- current, accompanied by the occasion- al squawk of a disturbed heron or chat- tering kingfisher. Finally the dense canopy parted, giving way to open water and blue skies. Up ahead, a pair of baby tarpon rolled on the surface. “There you go, guys,” Miller told us
matter-of-factly, as if he fully expected to find those fish waiting. As he sat
down in front of the console to operate the trolling motor foot pedal, we cast plugs into the zone. Mine made it to the boat unmolested. My partner, Dave Hall, was walking his back with a steady twitch when it suddenly launched skyward, impaled in the tar- pon’s lip.
After a couple of
summersaults and a short sprint or two, the 15-pounder surrendered. Hall removed the wooden B-29 lure but before I could grab the camera, the fish flipped again and was gone. “That sure is a sight for sore eyes,” Miller said with a smile. “It’s good to find those lit- tle guys. They’ve had a rough year.” For someone who has been guiding in the Everglades backcountry and 10,000 Islands for the last 35 years, that is quite an understatement.
DEADLY COLD Flashback to Jan. 2, 2009, as a deadly
cold front dipped down into South- west Florida. Three days of hard north wind blew four feet of water out of the backcountry surrounding Choko-loskee and Everglades City. Freezing temper- atures set in. For the next six days, the thermometer never got above 28 degrees and it dipped as low as 20. For 14 consecutive days, it never got above 32 degrees, according to Miller. With no water and no warming, the back- country became a kill zone. Longtime guides like Miller and Steve Huff witnessed unprecedented die-offs. Hundreds of thousands of juvenile snook and tarpon succumbed to the cold, along with goliath grouper,
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