It's hard to believe that Hurricane Milton is just over a year in our rear-view mirror and we also passed the third-year anniversary of Hurricane Ian. Unfortunately, Matlacha and Pine Island are still showing the scars, but this month I'd like to talk about how things are looking out on the water in their aftermath.
For starters, there's a lot of good news on that front. Our water and the fishery have been and continue to remain in really great shape. When we start talking hurricanes, I always tell my customers who've never experienced one is that they are natural disasters, and you really need to emphasize the natural part of that phrase.
Just like a tsunami or a tornado, hurricanes are all spawned by nature and have been happening long before humans ever came on the scene. It's not pleasant to get caught in one of these things and part of living in coastal Florida is knowing that eventually we're going to take a direct hit.
Our mangrove estuaries are designed to take that direct hit and they absorbed a lot of damage after both storms. They've also been steadily restoring themselves since the moment the winds died. Take a quick boat ride anywhere along the southern end of Pine Island and you'll still see a lot of brown patches in the shoreline where the storms stripped the mangroves beyond repair.
You'll also see an even greater amount of vibrant green, which is entirely new growth since those days. It's even better at the north end of the island where Hurricane Ian's massive eye gave Bokeelia a period of much calmer winds while it slowly passed over. Milton was more of a flood event, but it spawned a significant number of small tornados that noticeably ripped up several shorelines.
Out on the water, things are remarkably active as I'm writing this in early September. Massive schools of ladyfish and trout are easy to find just by looking for the birds diving over them. You can keep rods bent all morning on just these fish and I often do on some of my charters.
The area called Two Pines on the east side of Charlotte Harbor has been especially busy these last few weeks. It's great to only run fifteen minutes from the Matlacha ramp and be right in the action. This isn't too uncommon because fall is always a time of year with moderating temperatures and lots of spawning gamefish. It's even comfortable to be out on the water past noon these days since the first cold front arrived.
One unusual thing I've noticed recently is an extraordinary amount of pompano on the very same flats. If you're a boater and not familiar with this species, you're likely to notice them skipping like a stone in your wake in relatively shallow water, usually less than five feet deep. This is something pompano are famous for doing when spooked by a boat, and I've flushed dozens of them all at once coming off plane.
Pompano are members of the jack family and arguably the best tasting fish in our local waters. They don't get very big and the one in the photo is an average size, maybe two or three pounds. Anything over five pounds is considered huge but they do have a lot of meat and give you a couple of very nice fillets.
That's an added bonus since pompano are also one of the most expensive fish at both the market and in restaurants. I've seen them going for just under $30 a pound recently. For that reason alone, a legal pompano usually gets released right into my cooler if I'm not out on a charter.
I'm not sure what's responsible for the small explosion of these gamefish but I'll go ahead and give credit to the hurricanes. The storm surges flushed an extraordinary amount of nutrients from the mangroves and out onto the flats. That's one unique way hurricanes actually benefit an estuary. Now it's a year after Milton and I'm seeing bottom around Matlacha that was scrubbed of its grass but still covered with tiny snails and horseshoe crabs.
The last pompano I caught had a belly full of both. Same thing for the last few redfish we kept. That's a lot of easy to reach protein for these mostly bottom feeding species. All of those microbes washed from the mangrove roots really turbocharged the mollusk and crustacean end of the food chain, all to the benefit of the fish.
If you do notice some pompano skipping away from your boat, shut down right there and start casting. Seeing a few in the air means there are a lot more under you, and they settle down quickly. Bouncing a live shrimp with a split shot off the bottom is the best way to get one to eat.
There are also small jigs made specifically for pompano that every tackle shop sells and a lot of locals swear by them. My fly anglers have hooked up with the classic Clouser Minnow and Merkin Crab patterns. The one in the photo ate a deer hair shrimp fly.
So that's just a small picture of where we a year after the latest storm. I can't complain about life on the water, which is a lot better and busier this fall than I expected it to be.
Hope things are going well for you out there, too.
Capt. Gregg Mckee
Wildfly Fishing Charters
Matlacha, Florida
