Beneath a clear blue early morning sky, the vehicle assembly building looked like a giant monolith protruding up from the mangroves in front of us. When I saw the two shuttle launch pads off in the distance, I wished I had been here last week when the latest launch took place. What an awesome sight that would have been, especially if I had been fighting a redfish or gator trout when it lit off!
My partner, Dave, grew up fishing this area, and has seen all the changes in speed limits and restrictions over the years. He had invited me to see this pristine flat and some of the great fishing that the area holds.
When we had crossed the main lagoon and began idling the last one thousand yards to the far shore, I saw just what Dave had been describing to me. It is truly a pristine body of water, alive with fish and crustaceans, and covered with healthy looking grass and vegetation.
As the water shallowed, we could see a variety of fish running in all directions from the boat. I stopped the engine and tilted it up enough to keep it off the bottom but still in the water enough to act as a rudder. The trolling motor took over from this point in water that became shallower as we approached the shoreline.
In water about twelve inches deep, which is the shallowest in which my boat will float, we paralleled the shoreline moving ever so slowly in this gin clear water. I could see immediately that even if the manatee zone speed limits were not in place, this would be a flat that demanded idle speed only. I've been on flats where high powered flats boat had jumped up on top and powered their way off the flat to deeper water. Their props had left the telltale white trench through he grass.
Not so on this flat - there were no prop trails and the handful of anglers on the huge flat were either poling or using a trolling motor.
As we began looking for fish, I asked Dave how long we could stay on the flat before the tide ran us off. His answer surprised me and concerned me at the same time. He said there was no real tidal flow in the lagoon. it is halfway between two ocean outlets and the water level seldom fluctuates. The thing he said next bothered me the most - "What gets dumped in here stays in here".
