12
Mar 22

Interview with Joe Gonzalez

Sadly, Joe passed away in March, 2022. I never got to fish with Joe, although I tried a couple of times. Those who knew him speak of him fondly, both as a person and as someone who loved and worked to protect Biscayne Bay. This interview was from 2010.

When it comes to Biscayne Bay and bonefish a guy who will probably come up in conversation is Joe Gonzalez.  Joe has been a guide for a long time, he knows the water, he knows the fish and he’s tagged more bonefish than I will ever catch. Joe and I recently connected via the phone  for an interview.

Bonefish release with Captain Joe

What makes the fishing in Biscayne Bay unique and what’s your favorite thing about the fishery?

What makes Biscayne Bay fishing unique, unlike the mid keys or lower keys, our flats on the north end of the bay are not as large, not as big and you can jump from flat to flat with ease until you find fish, unlike most Keys flats and banks that are massive.  We also have a very strong winter time bonefishery here, even when the temps drop below the mid-60’s.  You can still find fish, usually in large schools and have a banner day with northerly winds of up to 20 mph.  We have a gargonian type bottom, lots of sea fans and basket sponges and gargonian sponges and for some reason the fish like to hang out in those areas at that time of year.  You find a lot of fish, but you break them off.

Biscayne Bay, being at Miami’s doorstep with three million people, you would think the ecosystem would be in a deplorable state, but actually it is a pristine environment with a healthy fishery and plenty of food stores for the fish.

Biscayne Bay is known for two things… big bonefish and tough bonefish.  Does Biscayne Bay deserve that reputation?

Yes, Biscayne Bay is not an easy fishery.  Many think of calm, slick water and sunny days to be the best conditions. But ask most guides and they would usually prefer some wind and low light conditions. I myself love fishing in strong winds. The fish drop their guard and eat flies well. They move better and feed hard.

If you look at the world record books, out of 187 world records, 127 of them were caught in the US, most of the world record fish were caught in the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay area.  A lot more people fish the Keys than Biscayne Bay, but 10 world record fish have been caught in Biscayne Bay.

Most people go down to the Keys, Islamorada, to fish.  Most of the time, people don’t think of Biscayne Bay or Miami.  You usually get people when they are coming down on business and you get them on either end of the business trip.  That’s how the start to learn about the fishery, for the most part.

What is the state of the fishery?

It seems like with the cold blast we had in January the fishery suffered a bit. We found that most of the affected areas were the back country parts of both Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay.  The exterior parts of both Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay didn’t suffer as much as far as bonefish depletion.  I fished hard for two weeks after the blast and the fishing was really good.  It was somewhat of a relief to me and to others that there are still plenty of fish around.  The press got a hold of some of the bonefish stories and exaggerated.  Most of our outside fish ran offshore, probably to the Hawks Channel area and or deeper areas to take refuge when the surf temps dropped below 60.

So yes, the fishery is not as strong as it used to be, but we’ll always be talking about how it used to be.

You’ve been involved in bonefish tagging for the University of Miami with over 1,300 fish tagged.  What have you learned about bonefish through that work?

It has helped understand their growth rates and movements.  Working with Dr. Jerry Alt and Mike Larkin from the University of Miami Bonefish Research Program, we do an annual bonefish census and it gives us the number of bonefish.  We learned that they live up to 20 years by taking the odilith and counting the rings, much like counting the rings of a tree. The oldest fish ever documented was about 20, according to Mike Larkin. 70% of the recaptures are within 2 miles.  The tagging program gives us an idea about the number of fish, but it is more useful in letting us know about the movements of the fish.

Mike Larkin putting in an acoustic tag.

I have also helped with acoustic telemetry, which is putting transmitters into bonefish and setting up receiver fences and every time a fish comes by it records which fish has come by.  We have learned that maybe

I don’t know if you are aware, there is a bonefish I tagged on February 11th, I believe, 6-7 years ago… the fish was at large 10 months and it was recaptured January 31st and it was recaptured in the middle bight of Andros.

I’m very familiar with that fish.  I didn’t know that was you!

Everybody thought that Florida bonefish were only found in Florida and that the Bahamas fish were only in the Bahamas and the Mexican fish were only in Mexico. They thought all these fish were different, separate bodies of fish. With that one fish being found down in Andros (and Kenny Knutson our of Islamorada tagged a fish 2-3 years after my fish and it was also found over there in the middle bights of Andros), so there may be a genetic link between Florida bonefish and Bahamas bonefish with that fish making a trans-Atlantic crossing… it was the longest recorded migration at 187 miles, but it was a trans-Atlantic crossing, the fish had to cross the Gulf Stream.  The closest point to where this fish was tagged is Bimini, which is 48-50 miles across the ocean and once the fish is in Bimini it is up on the Bahamian Bank.

I was invited by Venezuela, through the University of Miami, to fish in Los Roques and introduce the same tagging program we have here in Florida.  The asked me to go, I packed and went.  The fishery down there, the different camps and lodges and guides, it isn’t a happy place… folks don’t get along.  I was able to go down there as kind of an ambassador.  I speak the lingo, I speak Spanish fluently and I was able to go down there and make some peace between these guys and help everyone get on the same page and help everyone realize that by tagging bonefish, it is making the whole business down there a little bit more environmentally friendly.  They were very receptive and with me being a guide they were able to relate to me. I was on their same level.  It was a real good experience.  The main guy that pioneered the bonefishing down there is a guy named Alex Gonzalez.  People either like him or hate him.  They’ve started a tagging program and they are starting to be able to estimate numbers, get growth rates, and do what we’ve done here.  It was great being down there.

When I went down there I thought it was going to be easy.  I’ll tell you what… it was hard to get the fish to eat.  When I was on my own… now, I know how to strip, I know how to feed a fish… I thought, but I’d try it and they’d spook and I’d work with one of the guides and they knew how to read their fish better than I did because they were their fish. It was crazy.  It’s like starting all over again.  It showed me that there are things you know from being on the water that are special and unique to each place.

The more you are on the water, the more odd and unique things you get a chance to see.  What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen out there?

One of the weirdest things I’ve seen is bonefish being prayed on by porpoise. I’ve seen propose corralling bonefish up on the flats and it’s not a pretty sight.  It’s interesting, because it is nature taking its course.  It is the only time I’ve seen bonefish coming out of the water and not bibbling, as they do in the Bahamas (kind of a rolling thing that bonefish sometimes do).  When a pod of porpoise were chasing a school of bonefish and I saw a couple of bonefish go airborne trying to escape.

Bibbling, I’ve seen that down in Los Roques too.  Bonefish sometimes, when they come off a flat and they are in a deep channel, they’ll do what they call in the Bahamas “bibbling,” kind of a rolling on the surface.

Another thing, they say that bonefish are really spooky and guides and anglers get upset when boats run close by and spook fish.  Believe it or not, there are flats that have a lot of boat traffic, especially on the weekends, but the fish have evolved to get used to the noise… believe it or not, I’ve caught fish on flats despite having boats up on the flats because the wakes from the boats loosed the bottom and it makes it easier for the bones to find shrimp, crabs and crustaceans   I’ll tell my anglers to look for the muds in the muds.  I’ll be on the edges of the channels and the boats will come by and create a lot mud, but the fish are in the mud making mud.  You are in fresh mud looking for new puffs of mud. It’s kind of weird telling my anglers to look for mud inside mud, but when you find it, it’s a gimme.

One really weird thing… and this was real… I was out with a friend of mine off of Key Largo in the early 90’s and I saw a bonefish with its head out of the water. It looked like it was walking on its tail.  We approached it slowly, thinking it was dying or dead, but when we popped up next to it, it swam away… and no, I wasn’t high or drunk. Never, ever have I seen a fish doing that.

What’s your most memorable bonefish?

My most memorable bonefish… I was fishing with a guy named Mike Swerdlow, who’s been doing it forever with some of the best guides in the Keys since the 70’s. Mike’s the kind of guy that, when fishing together would screw me up a bit because he wouldn’t let me get close to the fish so he could make a 70-90 foot cast and usually that isn’t a high percentage shot with most of my clients, but Mike is different. He wants the hero shot, at 100 feet, and what’s funny, is that he can make it. We were fishing an area in Biscayne Bay called Feathervit Bank in the early 90’s when there was a fair number of big fish in that area and we spotted a single fish, up on the bank, tailing.  We had been fishing deeper water for mudding fish so he had on a relatively large epoxy fly that was popular back then and was too heavy to throw at tailing fish, but he asked me pole up to that fish and give him a try. It was a small window of opportunity and we didn’t want to lose it. So, I went ahead and polled up to the fish, but I told Mike the fly was inappropriate, but he insisted on not changing the fly that would have been far better in 2.5 feet of water as opposed to 12 inches. He made the cast with that big epoxy fly and put it about a foot from the fish with a big plop and the fish jumps on the fly, runs 100 yards west on the bank with the line making a bonefish rooster tail all the way. I wish I could have videoed that fish.  It is still vivid in my mind.  It is moments like these that we live for, dream about and spend countless amounts of monies and time for that feeling.

The tailing fish…. One solo fish… back out of the water fish… that’s the highest, the pinnacle… and to do it with the wrong fly on a long cast… it was that scenario… never in a million years would I think the guy was going to catch the fish… and to have it happen and it was probably an 11-12 pound bonefish.

What’s your favorite rod/reel?

I’ve been using the Nautilus Featherweight.  I love those reels.

As far as rods, I’ve been using the S4S in an 8 wt. with a matching Nautilus reel.

A Nautilus from Sam Root at Salty Shores

Thanks for the great interview Joe. Great stuff.

Additional thanks to Sam Root of Salty Shores for some of these pics.


20
Nov 18

Five Generations of Bones

Cool little video on the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust homepage at the moment which tells the story of bonefish spawning patterns, uncovered by science.

We’ve long suspected some of this stuff, but now we know. Populations are connected. Most bonefish DON’T travel from Andros to the Florida Keys, but their little, tiny, adorable bonefish babies don’t stay put. They travel on the currents from Andros to Cuba, around Cuba and up to the Keys. So, that monster West Side bonefish will beget that monster Keys bonefish, just in a few generations.

That means Bahamas conservation and Cuban conservation are really Florida bonefish conservation. That’s pretty key to know.

Consider joining BTT this holiday season. They do great work.

Norman tagging a bonefish for BTT


26
Jun 18

Florida’s Red Tide Taking a Toll

Approximately 140-pound tarpon photographed by Capt. Tommy Locke outside Cayo Costa

Things are not going well in Southwest Florida… not well at all. Below is BTT’s press release about what they are seeing.

Red Tide is Causing Unprecedented Fish Kills in SW FL

Once again, Florida’s fisheries are suffering from the legacy of long-time mismanagement of Florida’s water resources. Southwest Florida is plagued by an unprecedented red tide that is causing kills of gamefish. Reports from those on the water estimate that tens of thousands of snook are dead – all of them adults in the peak of spawning season. Breeding-size redfish, as well as tarpon, which usually seem to avoid red tide, are also being reported dead. The ongoing red tide is a sign of the ‘new normal’ in Southwest Florida because too many nutrients are entering Florida’s estuaries and coasts due to water mismanagement. Here are the facts:

  • The organism that causes red tide, Karenia brevis, has been present in southwest Florida as far back as written records go – the Spanish wrote about it.
  • Karenia brevis does not benefit directly from the extra nutrients flowing down the Caloosahatchee from polluted Lake Okeechobee, or from the extra phosphorous entering Charlotte Harbor from phosphate mining. This is because other plankton organisms are better initial competitors for those new nutrients.
  • Karenia brevis DOES benefit secondarily from the extra nutrients – once the nutrients have been used by those other plankton species, and then are cycled back into the ecosystem when those organisms die and decay, Karenia brevis goes to work. Consider this the Legacy Effect of water mismanagement.
  • The ongoing red tide is unprecedented in modern times in intensity and duration.
  • Although red tide has always been in the region, the frequency and intensity of red tide events have increased, and red tide events last longer. This is becoming a new pattern, which means events like the ongoing red tide will become more common.

The excess nutrients in Southwest Florida waters are from two sources. First, they are from the high-nutrient water from Lake Okeechobee that is discharged into the Caloosahatchee River as part of water mismanagement in South Florida (the same mismanagement that is killing the Everglades and St. Lucie River). Second, the phosphate mining industry in the Charlotte Harbor watershed produces runoff high in phosphorous, which feeds red tide and other plankton organisms.

Southwest Florida is home to Boca Grande Pass, part of Charlotte Harbor, the Tarpon Capitol of the World. Tarpon gather in Boca Grande Pass and Charlotte Harbor during May and June in association with spawning. It is likely that this red tide will negatively impact tarpon spawning.

Charlotte Harbor is also home to an amazing snook and redfish fishery. During summer months, snook spawn in passes and along beaches. This red tide is impacting spawning snook directly, which will impact the region’s snook population.

This red tide event is the new normal unless the state’s water management policies are changed. This is about the future of Florida’s $8 billion saltwater recreational fishery.

We urge readers to contact their political representatives at the local, state, and federal levels and tell them that policy change is needed immediately.


29
Jan 18

#OneCoast and Costa

Well… Costa… good stuff.

I recommend you watch and support their efforts. Looking forward to seeing you again, Keys… looking forward to it.

Go on… book a trip in the Keys.


16
Dec 17

2017 – A review

What an odd year it’s been.

I got out, I went some new places, I had some different experiences, I caught some new species, I met some new people.

It was another year where my days fishing for trout diminished. I think I fished for trout exactly three days… all with my daughter and a bit with my son (who landed his first trout), and for fewer combined hours than I’d normally fish in a single day. It just gets harder and harder to get away and make the drive North or East to find trout water. Kids. Work. Wife. It just isn’t fitting into an increasingly full life. I can’t really even complain about that, it’s just an observation.

I continued to find some time around the edges to get to the Bay and fish for stripers. I didn’t do this as much as I would have liked to, but I caught some, even the odd halibut. I saw plenty of seals and pelicans and very few other anglers.

My first trip of the year was to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami. It is a trip I’ll look back on with sadness, given the later actions of my fishing partner, but the fishing itself was pretty interesting. I caught my first Peacock Bass, which was pretty fun, as well as my first Mayan. I went night tarpon fishing in Biscayne Bay (remember, my son’s middle name is Biscayne) on a night of high winds and low expectations. We didn’t catch anything more than a single jack, but we did have tarpon rolling on the shadow line of the bridge and it is something I really want to do again. I got to fish with David as well, who showed me one of his spots.

Just a fun, fun fish to catch on a fly rod.

A Mayan on David’s water

My second trip of the year was to Belize for Spring Break with my girl. We went to Caye Caulker and stayed at Sea Dreams. It was a pretty awesome trip, full of bonefish caught from the dock and very little time wearing shoes of any kind. The day of fly fishing resulted in one nice snook and a really good soaking from the rain. Lots of great memories from that trip.

My Belize Snook

One of the highlights from Spring Break 2017.

Awesome

Nice cuda.

My third trip of the year was to Oahu for a family vacation. I had a day to fish and I managed to break my O’io curse, landing three, hooking seven and seeing my first adult Giant Trevally and my first ever milkfish. It was a pretty good day on the water… opened my eyes a bit to the Hawaii bonefish game.

My fourth trip was to Mexico, Mahahual, with my dad in July. I think it was maybe a bit too late in the year as it was HOT. This was, in retrospect, not the best trip for my dad. The heat and unsteady footing were not his friends. Still, he caught his first tarpon (baby) and had his first grabs from adult tarpon. I caught some babies, had more than one eat from the big guys and caught my first trigger fish. It was a good trip that would have been made better by maybe 8 degrees less heat.

Nick with my trigger

Dad’s First Sabalito

My fifth trip was down to the marshes of Louisiana, DIY kayaking for redfish with a group largely from Alabama. This was a great experience. I had never fished out of a kayak like that and was a bit shaky, but managed to catch three reds and my first speckled trout. I met James, another blog reader, and enjoyed our day on the water.

My first DIY redfish

Don’t you love the hazey GoPro pictures?

That rounded out my fishing for the year. It is now approaching mid-December and I might, might get another day or two of throwing for stripers in the Bay, but beyond that, my fishing is pretty much wrapped up for 2017.

New species: Peacock Bass, Trigger Fish, Speckled Trout
New guides fished with:
New fishing friends made:

 


20
Jun 17

Some good news from Florida

It didn’t escape my notice that something good happened in Florida last month.

Here is that news, from the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. 

Basically, this move should help with those horrid, toxic discharges from earlier this year.

And in case you are wondering why that matters…


08
May 17

What I learned about fishing for Peacocks

Just a fun, fun fish to catch on a fly rod.

Southern Florida has a lot to offer, even to the business traveler on foot. Here’s what I learned about fishing for Peacocks around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami from just 4 short sessions.

  1. When you get to the pond/lake/canal you will see fish boiling out in the middle of wherever you are. Don’t cast at those. That’s not what you are looking for. Most (?) of those are not your targets. It seems VERY intuitive to cast at the boils, but they are false flags.
  2. The peacocks are along the shores. Don’t cast 90 degrees from the shoreline. Cast along the shoreline. Most of these places have drop-offs and shelves. That’s where the fish are.
  3. The strip that worked for me was a fast, fleeing baitfish type strip that slowed or even stopped at the shore-side of the drop-off.
  4. Fly selection is weighted, lead eye, baitfish type pattern. I had both clouser style and double bunny type flies work.
  5. Sometimes, you don’t even need to cast. You can, in essence, dab for peacocks and chiclids. If you spot them, you can just annoy them with your fly until they eat. I caught fish both doing that and casting like I suggest in #2.

Now, this is from just a few days and not that many fish. So, there may be exceptions to this and some of it may be flat-out wrong, but this was my experience and I bet this would work for you.

Bring that rod along.


07
May 17

Southern Florida… pretty darn fun

I had a conference to work in Ft. Lauderdale this last week and I packed just about as much fishing in as possible.

I got in late on Tuesday, set up my booth on Wednesday morning and then went fishing. I fished with Dr. John, a doc I have known for a couple years now who was also at the conference. We went out that Wed., looking for water, finding some, but more “No Fishing” signs than we really cared for.

I worked Wed. evening, manning the booth for a couple hours, talking specialized genetic testing for aHUS and ADAMTS-13 activity testing because that’s what I do in my job for the most part.

Thursday morning I fished with Dr. John again. That produced my first peacock bass. I went 1/2 and felt like I was starting to figure out where the fish were and how to present the fly (because the first few attempts were, basically, totally wrong).

On the board

After a couple hours of fishing I manned my booth from 10 AM to 8 PM and then, I went fishing. That was unproductive.

Friday morning I went out solo and managed two peacocks and one Mayan Cichlid (my first of that species), which was pretty. I worked from 10 to 4:30 in the booth and then took it down and got it sent back home.

My third Peacock of the trip.

Friday night Dr. John and I headed down to Biscayne Bay to fish with Capt. Patrick, trying to find some tarpon at night. We did see tarpon, we just didn’t catch any. I picked up one small jack, one of the many busting bait all around us when we pulled up. We had one good tarpon rolling just down current of the skiff which kept us on the water, throwing casts in vain until about 1:00 AM.

The weather had been rough that day and Patrick even suggested maybe we skip the trip, but Dr. John and I didn’t have anything better to do, so we went out anyway. We managed to hide a bit from the wind and it eventually calmed down to reasonable levels. We had fish to throw at and we were very well positioned. As I know all too well, Tarpon fishing in Florida is never a certainty. We were both very happy to be out on the water and glad we connected with Capt. Patrick. It was a good way to spend the evening. If I’m out there again, I’ll try to connect with him again.

Back up to Ft. Lauderdale. Got into bed about 2 with a 5:30 AM alarm set. Made the drive back down to Miami to fish with David, a fairly recent transplant, who showed me some of his water. That water produced a peacock and a chiclid and then I was off to the airport, on my way back West.

A Mayan on David’s water

Last fish of the trip.

What a trip.

This WASN’T a fishing trip. This was a work trip. I have been traveling more, but not fishing on almost any of those trips. This one provided some opportunities and I took full advantage. Just hoping to see more conferences in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale!

Thanks to Thomas Albury for some tips, and David for showing me some water and to Capt. Patrick for putting us in fish catching position.

Southern Florida, you get my blood pumping a little faster with your fishing. Thanks for being you.


05
May 17

Thanks Southern Florida

Oh, I think I like you Southern Florida. I think I like you a lot.

Two new species in the books.

My third Peacock of the trip.

My first chiclid. Pulled hard.

So much water down here… so many places to check out. I wonder how many years it would take to fish it all.

I’m working on very little sleep, but I’m enjoying the fishing.


02
May 17

FLL Bound

Ft. Lauderdale. Going to be there in a few hours. Amazing to be able to write this from an airplane.

A Google-Maps view of Ft. Lauderdale shows a really fantastic amount of water. In that water are all sorts of things I’d like to catch, including Peacock Bass, snook and baby tarpon. I don’t know if I’ll catch any of those things, but I can tell you on the margins of the three days of work I have coming up, I’m going to be fishing.

Looking forward to it.

May even get some night fishing action in on Friday for tarpon. That wouldn’t suck.