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New rules will help to protect Florida's sea grass

Photo by FRANK SARGEANT

The new measures should protect preserves like Cockroach Bay, Weedon Island Preserve and parts of Charlotte Harbor.

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By FRANK SARGEANT

Tribune correspondent

Published: October 25, 2009

Rules outlining a series of escalating fines for damaging grass flats in state preserves are about to be enforced, and they are likely to considerably change the way many of us run the flats in some 2 million acres of inshore waters.

Under the new regulations, anyone caught running over a grass bed within a preserve where the prop makes contact with the grass, can be fined $50 for a first offense, $250 for a second offense within 12 months, $500 for a third offense and $1,000 for a fourth within 72 months. All offenses are non-criminal.

The preserves cover most of the best inshore fishing waters in the southern two-thirds of the state, so if you fish reds, snook, trout or tarpon in this area, you're likely to have to carefully consider your routes as you move from spot to spot seeking fish.

Though there are new rules, there's not any new money to put more officers on the water to enforce them, so it's likely that enforcement will be spotty, at best. However, perhaps simply knowing that the rules are there will be enough to cut down somewhat on prop damage being done to grasses by many shallow water anglers.

Most of the best-known waters on the west coast from St. Petersburg southward will fall under the new ruling.

Nearly all coastal waters in Pinellas County are part of the preserve system, so anywhere it's possible for the kicker to hit bottom could put the angler at risk of drawing a fine - Weedon Island flats, waters north and east of Fort DeSoto and Pinellas Point will all be areas where caution is a must.

Cockroach Bay, south of Ruskin, has long had restrictive rules on boat operation, but the new rulings may encourage officers to go ahead and write tickets rather than warnings. Pretty much any water inside the bar from Port Manatee to Ruskin will be no-motor zones at most tide levels.

Terra Ceia Preserve, from the Skyway south to the Manatee River, has miles of grass flats as well, including the highly productive waters inside Miguel Bay. Deep sloughs provide access to these spots, but once on the inside there's shallow grass everywhere.

Lemon Bay, also known as Snook Alley, has navigable water in the Intracoastal Waterway and along the docks on the west shore which is a popular night snooking water, but otherwise it's some 8,000 acres of very shallow, grassy bay.

Gasparilla Sound, east of Boca Grande and on the north side of Charlotte Harbor, is a favorite redfish and snook spot for hundreds of anglers. The classic tactic of getting in there by buzzing across the flats where the motor makes contact with the mud bottom, will theoretically come to an end with the new ruling. Those who know the water well can still run the sloughs at medium to high tides, but on low water - when some of the best sight fishing occurs - it will be no go unless you pole all the way in.

Cape Haze Preserve covers some 11,000 acres, including Bull Bay and Turtle Bay, which are famed snook waters favored by Captain Scott Moore and dozens of other top anglers. Though there are deep water passes running into each bay, as soon as you leave the entry areas the shallow grasses begin and stretch for miles.

Pine Island Sound, south of Boca Grande and stretching down to Fort Myers Beach, has some 54,000 acres in preserve waters. A major portion of it is shallow sea grasses.

The new rules will mean that, for the most part, anglers will have to stay in marked channels anytime they leave the deepest parts of the sound because there are vast grass flats in water only a foot or two deep. It's also some of the finest snook and redfish and trout water in Florida.

State biologists say that the proper action to take if you accidentally run in grassy water where the prop is making bottom contact is to shut down, tilt up the motor, and pole, paddle or push the boat out to deeper water.

The worst thing to do, they say, is to try to motor along at slow speed until out of the shallows.

Correspondent Frank Sargeant can be reached at franksargeant@bellsouth.net

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