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Permalink Reply by Rusty Gardner on January 15, 2012 at 8:06am

Thats a great question? I don't

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Permalink Reply by Roberta Reed on February 12, 2012 at 11:15am

It happens during the winter months when there is lack of rain and therefore lack of run-off that brings fertilizers and pesticides into the river. I have not seen it clear since the fish kill due to record cold a few years ago.

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Permalink Reply by Sammy Joe on March 8, 2012 at 9:51pm

My PoPs has lived on VIP Island going on 33 years and the lack of runoff has surly helped but the damage done by the clammers years ago has steadily taken it's toll as the grass beds our baits flourished in and took refuge in are all but gone and that is part of the reason . Hopefully with the waters salinity rising seedlings of grass will start to grow and flourish once again. Another way I can tell the grass isn't as plentiful is the number of Manatees seem to be down at least around the island because in the winter we always had a group of them playing all around the east side of the island to the point before taking a hole shot needed to jumping the bar we use to make a slow practice run to clear the way to avoid injuring one. I am not Bi#*ing about the clarity at all I just hope they see that it is the Core Of Engineers Screwing up our ECO system and sent the tainted water back down to big sugar. I know I will not catch the amount and quality of fish my native Father caught and the same will go for my grandson towards me. I would never give up the island life as it will always remain in the family so the generations to come can at least get to enjoy our lil slice of heaven. Thanks for letting me vent.

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Permalink Reply by Roberta Reed on March 8, 2012 at 10:56pm

Good point. The grass flats are an important part of the ecosystem and have been diminishing significantly. The number of boats and sand bar parties where grass flats used to be don't help either. I am a native floridian and wish I could go back 100 to see what used to be not only here but in the keys. When I moved here almost 30 years ago from Miami you couldn't catch a redfish because of net fishing but a small trout was 2-4 lbs. on the flats. Ah, the good ole days.

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Permalink Reply by Pete VH on March 12, 2012 at 6:10pm

I've lived on the river for 12 years and when I first arrived there was a lot of grass full of shrimp and crabs and baby fish. Now it's bare. I'm not so sure the run off is a problem here because there aren't many homes and neither my neighbors nor I use much fertilizer - mostly "natural" landscaping. I think the water cleared because the temp. dropped and killed all the algae. Algae seems to be getting worse every year - that could be runoff and fertilizers. The manatee eat a lot of grass and pull it out by the roots. I wonder if there is any connection between the growing population and the decline of grasses.

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Permalink Reply by Sammy Joe on March 15, 2012 at 11:13pm

Well I was on the island for a few days (usually spend 2-4 days a week with PoPs) and my son Nick came up with my grandson Kingston (4) and we had 4 generations of male bonding. Nick asked PoPs why is the river so clear and there is no more grasses anywhere we went this morning. We fished a mile north and south of the island and went to quite a few favorite spots only to see the same thing no cover anywhere, PoPs told him it all started to go away back in the late 80's we use to be able to hit the flat out in front of the house and get a 5 gallon bucket between 3 of us in about 20 min, Well news spread like wildfire and before we knew it there were clammers all the way from the Maine coast invading our entire waters with houseboats that were base camps,to homemade rafts raping every inch of our waters with rakes tearing up the grasses from the roots and when the clams were gone so were they leaving behind a 100 + derelict boats ,rafts and littered spoil islands. He told Nick that your dad didn't catch as much as I (and my wife and I fished here before Sebastian Inlet had a bridge ) and you won't catch as much as he did ,and the worst part is Kingston well even get a lot less than you. We all need to band together now before it is too late and protect what little life our river has left. We all have done harm in different ways like all the high tec flats boats that buzz over the flats scoring the bottom and ripping grasses out as we go across . Anchoring up with on the grass beds and not taking the time to pull the anchor out strait up so it doesn't take a clump of grass with it, Work on letting our local government know we want the polluted waters to stop being flushed into our waters from the farmlands canals.
I thought what a great answer he gave us and well after all PoPs is a 82 year old wise native fisherman having the opportunities to fish the waters all over Florida as well as a lot of foreign countries and the Bahamas'.I just hope things get better for all of our sakes, So thats my 2 cents worth .

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