Spring Creek Sunrise
We were throwing top water plugs as usual, Troutinator landed the first trout. I followed suit with another short. After that the catfish stared hitting the plugs. We moved over in front of Smith Island and again Troutinator landed the first keeper of the day. There were several boats on the water and it seemed the fish were reluctant to cooperate. Spring Creek is a difficult place to fish if conditions are less than optimal. The water temp at the beginning of the day was 75.5 and reached 81.5 by the afternoon. Water clarity was right at three feet. We finally found some trout out in front of Shell point in some patchy bottom. I finally pick up what would be my only keeper of the day. Torutinator out fished me again, this time it was 4:1. Later in the afternoon we chased some redfish around the north side of Cutoff Island, but we just could not fool the Redfish.
To round off the day I showed Troutinator the infamous springs of Spring Creek. The springs are flowing, but they didn’t appear to be flowing at the same rate as they were last year. The water visibility around the springs was only 2-3 feet (poorer than I had ever seen it). Perhaps this flow problem is being caused by the drought we’ve been having, or the seismic activity that occurred last year. Our final stop was at the deep spring behind the Spears property. The water temp around the spring was 75 degrees that the fish finder was spotting several fish below. We drifted around the spring and the activity around the spring was highly unusual. There were several Alligator Gar working the baitfish below and occasionally surfacing for air. We saw one that was at least 4’ long. We tried to play with the fish below and landed a few Spanish Mackrel. These Mackrel were very unusual because they were long and bone skinny. We caught two that were feeding in the spring. I have to say I’ve never seen Spanish that looked like these, I should have taken a picture of the two we landed (call me lazy). There was also some very large predator in the area. One of the young Spears boys watching us told us there were two huge Tarpon hanging around their dock that is located just adjacent to the deep spring. To top off the day, a giant Manatee lumbered slowly through the spring and eased down one of the creeks. Needless to say this was quite a site.
The commercial and private development we have experienced has touched the spring Creek Area. Right next to the big deep spring adjacent to the Spears property, someone has cleared a piece of land that was once densely filled with native palms and cedar trees. It saddened me deeply to see that land cleared and filled and left behind only a few cedars and palms. The very place I thought would always be immune to such development has been developed.
Development at “The Springâ€
