Post Hurricane Fishing

   Whew. That's most likely all Floridians and Southerners who experienced the recent hurricanes on our southeast coastlines can say. With the intense winds that came not once, but four times, the southeast coast of the US has been battered to pieces.

   Of course, after the number one concern about the people living through the storms, die hard bass fishermen think "What effect will the hurricanes have on the fishing?"

   The same question came to my mind a week or two after hurricane Jeanne passed, and so I set about to find the answer. Here is what Stick Marsh, Florida, guide Jim Porter says: "The Farm 13/Stick Marsh complex took a direct hit from the powerful north wall of Hurricane Jeanne. There was significant damage to some of the dikes, particularly along the west wall."

   "First, all the billions of gallons of run-off water coming into, and passing through, the impoundment will flush it out. This will basically clean it out." Well, it isn't all bad, right?

   "The grass is gone," Jim continued. "GONE."

   Wait a minute, did you say gone?

   "Farm 13 had quite an abundance of visible, as well as sub-surface, vegetation covering nearly all its bottom," Jim said. "The huge waves whipped up by the sustained 100-mph-plus winds probably were so large that the bottom may have been exposed between the swells. Whatever the case, the grass has been ripped from the bottom and can now be found somewhere down the St. Johns River basin or the C-54 canal. Some large decaying grass mats are moving about the open water with the winds and currents."

   Sounds like the bass all learned to ski. Or maybe walk on the bottom when it was exposed between swells.

   Lake Okeechobee took a hard hit as well, according to Ron Stevens, who guides professionally there.

   "The north end of the lake got hit the hardest, but Clewiston took a pretty good hit also," Ron said. "The lake surged over 8 feet down at the south end of the lake, and a lot of damage to the marinas in that area."

   Both guides report a few bites on their home lakes.

   In Georgia, Lake Sinclair guide Larry King says the hurricanes have muddied the water and, as a result, bass have moved up to shallow water sooner than they otherwise would have. That is the extent of the hurricane's effect in Georgia.

   Further inland in the south, heavy rainfall and high winds were felt as a result of the hurricanes as well. We all know what that does to the fishing.

   Most definitely, this is a very interesting time to be fishing along the southeast coast!

By Brandon Shook

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