On the Hook: Gill nets — trying to come back

It’s really hard to believe.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, having acquiesced on their entrusted responsibility toward the people of Florida, will, this very week, allow the commercial “fish annihilation interests” to once more try to gain approval for using gill nets anywhere they want. They are trying to gain approval using a loophole definition of net size.

Lots of history here.

I’ll give you a little story as to what it was like fishing here prior to the Florida Constitutional Amendment that outlawed the use of gill nets anywhere inside the three mile limit but first a little background.

In the early 1990s the inshore waters of Florida were being ravaged by hordes of commercial gillnetters who saw the plethora of fish in the inshore Florida waters as an opportunity for slaughter to feed their greed. Pleas from the general public to the Florida Legislators to enact control fell on deaf ears. Nothing was done, year after year.

In the mid 1990s, the Florida Coastal Conservation Association and other recreational fishing groups took the initiative and gained over 600,000 signatures to put a referendum item on the November ballot calling for eliminating gill nets anywhere inside the three mile limit.

The commercial interests went ballistic but the CCA and their interests stayed the course and the election results were amazing!

The largest number of positive votes ever afforded a Constitutional Amendment; a 72 percent plurality put the Florida Net Ban in effect. Anyone who picked up a rod or reel in the intervening years has enjoyed the improved fish stocking levels both inshore and offshore.

Now the little story...

It was a December morning in the early 90s — crispy cold but bright and sunny with a strong tide (which comes into play a little later.) Our crew was a family of grandparents and grandkids that had fished with me quite a few times before. All experienced fisherfolks that were enthusiastic and totally engaged in their endeavor.

This was sheepshead season with plummeting water temperatures and spawning big fish moving in and expectations were definitely upbeat. Our experience all week was nice — big fish all along the mangrove edges — we expected the same this day.

We were up in the backwaters working the edges all along a tidal creek known as Three Rivers. We set up with shrimp rigs and began our work all the edges and drop-offs with our targets being sheepshead or companion snapper or if we were super lucky, a black drum or two.

There were five family members fishing and after a 20 minute roll call the reports were zero — not even a strike. Thought that was rather strange but maybe the water clarity or temperature had changed. We’d move to another spot deeper into the backwaters.

The family picked up my quizzical posture and asked the questions as to “what was going on.” I certainly didn’t know and we moved on.

The next spot was always productive for me and I was confident we would find our elusive fish here. We went to work.

On about the third or fourth cast, one of the kids snagged the bottom. Not an uncommon experience back here with lots of downed trees and shrubs creating the fish ambush points.

Asking if I could help, I took the rod and began working slack and tightened line to see if we could break it free. All of a sudden we began a retrieve with something ensnared on the hook.

It was an effort but within minutes we were looking at a corner of a ripped net.

Could it be that the cursed netters found their way so deep in these backwaters?

No way! This was just an individual net that some inexperienced angler lost trying to cast for backwater bait or so we hoped.

There was another zero count for action on this second spot, so we moved again deeper into the backwater on this strong outgoing tide.

Our third spot was just around the corner from a legendary area known as Unknown Bay — aptly named because no one knew where the treacherous sand bars were in this shallow estuary.

We set up and began to work our baits on the corners and along the edges.

As we were focused we missed what one of the kids called to our attention almost immediately.

“Hey, Dad, look at all the floating fish!”

We all turned and there in the strong flow of the outgoing tide was an endless stream of dead fish, mullet to be sure, but mixed in were lots of small snook, sheepshead of all sizes, small redfish, snapper and grouper along with any other species using these backwaters as their estuary.

Without anyone saying a word, we put the rods down, pulled the anchor and made our way around the corner into the edge of Unknown Bay.

It took all of us a few minutes to comprehend what we visualized.

In this bay, hundreds of yards across, were assembled a legion of shallow water mullet boats that systematically had strung their killing gill nets from shore to shore and were in process of capturing a harvest of every living creature there.

Their greed drove them to take the mullet for their roe. Everything else was obviously considered by-catch and killed and discarded in total disdain without any thought of conservation.

The family and I just sat there and watched in total disgust as the slaughter continued. Gleefully these commercial decimaters carried on their work.

We finished our trip that day with no fish and a heavy heart for sure.

I hope for all of us that love sportfishing and for all of those that will follow us, that the contemporary bureaucrats take a stand this week that follows the mandate of the people of Florida.

Anything else would be a sellout!

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Capt. Bill Walsh owns an established Marco Island charter fishing business and holds a current U.S. Coast Guard license. Send comments or questions to dawnpatrolcharters@compuserve.com