In northeast Florida we’ve certainly had an extended cold spell. These are photos taken today, Sunday January 10th off my dock on the ICW in Palm Valley. I’ve been keeping an eye out for floating snook but so far I haven’t seen any (that’s good). I even rode my bike Friday to a couple of inshore ponds out in the boonies looking for floating snook (and ducks) but I didn’t see any (did see some merganizers………..).
This morning however you couldn’t help but notice a substantial mullet kill along the shoreline of the ICW. This will most likely be a setback in the local fishing. At least where I live in Ponte Vedra this morning was the coldest yet.
Walking out the dock to the ICW. Ice on the marsh
View from the dock
Shoreline
After a few pictures I got out a net and bucket and started scooping up stunned and freshly killed mullet. The larger ones were dead but a lot of the smaller ones were stunned and could still swim when nudged but were on their way out.
Wading
Falling tide
Falling tide 2
One of a pair of Bald Eagles
Collection on ice (wet pavement was frozen)
10 minutes of collection
The larger ones I collected will become future crab pot baits and the smaller ones will be frozen bait for when offshore bottom fishing starts back up. I did not see any other species other than mullet. I’ve only lived here for 11 months but I hope this won’t be too large of a setback. These fish were collected from only a small area of 60 yards of shoreline. When you consider this the overall magnitude is significant.
Brian
