Fish get spa treatment at local power plants

Many environmentalists would like to see them go away permanently. They cook billions of larval shrimp, crabs and fishes every year in their boilers, and the hot water they generate kills thousands of acres of sea grasses in some areas.

Yet, anglers have a love affair with the hot water outflow from power plants – just like the hundreds of manatees that depend on these winter "spas'' to keep them comfortable when air temperatures get frigid.

In fact, many would argue power plant outflows are one of the primary reasons there are so many manatees today, up at least four times from numbers reported in the 1960s. Though some manatees die from cold every winter, thousands more survive in these plants, waiting in comfort for spring and avoiding the necessity and danger of a long migration south along the coast to warmer waters.

But it's the attraction to fish that may be the primary interest of generating plants like the TECO facility at Apollo Beach. A massive plume of water in the mid-70s flows from the south side of the plant all winter long, creating a steaming river of balmy temperatures that reaches more than a mile into the bay, even when most other water is in the 50s.

Not surprisingly, for fish that like warmer temperatures – cobia, sea trout, redfish, pompano, snook, tarpon and others – the warm water acts as a magnet; they home in on it like salmon returning to their birth stream, and each winter sees loads of fish stacking up in the outflow.

In addition to the TECO plant, the one at Weedon Island inputs a smaller but still very fishy flow to Tampa Bay. There's one at Port Richey, one at Crystal River, and one at Tice, near Fort Myers, among many others. All are very fishy spots at this time of year so long as the generators are running.

If cobia are around, you can often sight-fish them. They typically follow the schools of cownose rays that mass by the thousands in the warm water. Dark shadows three to five feet long, looking almost shark like, let you know that the "lemon fish" is there, and a quick cast with a live pinfish, a plastic eel or a large shrimp will often do the job on fish that weigh 12 to 20 pounds and sometimes much more. Cobia sometimes follow the manatees as they cruise in and out on their daily feeding trips, too.

Trout, reds, pompano and sheepshead all hang in the deeper water; a weighted shrimp tumbled with the current is the best bet, but a DOA Shrimp, swimbait or jig bounced along bottom also works well.

Since there's a steady current coming out of the plants, scent baits work especially well. Live or fresh-cut shrimp or manufactured scent baits like Gulp are all effective simply cast out to sit on bottom, though if a school of catfish happens to be downstream you'll spend all your time taking them off the hook rather than fighting gamefish.

Tarpon and snook tend to hang nearer to the outflow since they prefer warmer water. Fish the tarpon where you see them rolling with jigs or hard jerkbaits. Snook – still under total no-take provision – will cooperate in catch and release if you work a crankbait down the outside of the metal partition that separates the outflow from the north Apollo Beach boat channel.

Though there's plenty of action right here in Tampa Bay, many anglers make the trip north to the Crystal River nuclear plant canal because of the enormous volume of water it pumps, as well as the enormous number of fish it attracts. Jumbo reds prowl the canal all winter and will strike live baits as well as slow-trolled wobbling lures and big spoons. Lunker trout, sheepshead and black drum are also regular catches, mostly on live shrimp.

All of the coastal power plants are also manatee sanctuaries, and are closely patrolled in cold weather as the sea cows mass there to avoid the cold. It's essential to understand very clearly where the no-entry and idle-speed-only zones are and obey them to the letter, because the fines can be painful.

Power plant action usually continues until about mid-March, when longer days and warming temperatures send both manatees and fish back to their usual haunts. Until then, these fishy spas are well worth a visit.