He said few fish were biting in Thursday’s cold water. “The fishing really suffered for long time after that.” Drifting across the flats was like drifting across a desert. “In ’89, the freeze killed off a lot of it and it took three years to grow back. “I’m concerned with what might happen to the seagrass on the grassflats,” he said. “There was one every 3-4 feet.”ĭeBula recalled the hard freeze on Christmas Eve in 1989 that had a long-lasting effect on the Indian River Lagoon. DeBula, of Vero Beach, said scores of snook lined the cut that leads from the shallow boat ramp at Round Island Park on Thursday. Lucie River’s South and North forks.Ĭapt. Scherer said stunned or dead fish would be more prevalent around an area like the Roosevelt Bridge since it serves as a bottleneck for the outgoing tide from the St. “Even if it reads a few degrees on the cold side, that’s still pretty cold for our water.” “The water temperature there on my depth finder read 47 degrees,” Scherer said. Near Stuart Causeway they observed sand perch, mojarras, pufferfish, lookdowns, blue crabs and minnows. Scherer pulled his flats boat up to the pilings of the old Roosevelt Bridge, as he and Helms spotted several tarpon snook and an estimated 10-pound common snook drifting in the outgoing tide. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission research, juvenile snook can be killed in water ranging from 48-57 degrees, while adults can die in 43-55 degree water. Snook and several other varieties of fish cannot survive when water temperatures drop too low. The extreme cold weather is taking its toll. Greg Scherer and Jimmy Helms spent more time scouting and less time fishing Friday because one of their favorite spots was littered with floating snook that were either stunned or dead.
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