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The world was in trouble today. Wevans and I were in the same boat.

We launched at Mashes Sands at daylight. It was a squeeze to get the Key West out of the canal. We headed south to a spot Wevans has been catchin his grouper. Trolled for an hour. Nothing. Headed further south. Nothing. Made several more stops. Nothing. Ended the day where we started, but bottom fishing. Finally caught 1 gag. My GPS said we covered 53 miles to catch that fish.

The water was different today. There was a lot of suspended particles in the water. We also noticed blotches of brown colored water. It was kinda like the flats look when the water is clear. It looked like a mix of grass bottom and sandy spots. But it was green water with areas of brown water.

We found very little bottom clutter. As Tom and I discussed in the post from Tuesday's trip, something has killed all of the coral and sponges. Wevans and I were speculating about some sort of contamination. We thought possibly the remnants from all the oil and fuel from New Orleans. Something has the water messed up. Wevans said the area we fished today was clear on the 23rd.

Sure would be interesting to have the water tested. Anyone got any ideas about what has happened?

You and Wevans in the same boat.... ... might be enough ta contaminate something Sorry it wasn't more productive but I was at my desk all day and I'd take the trip with you guys all over again. Way to work the water

It was tuff fishin but excelent company from the sound of some other reports, we left the water about the time they started ta bite still beat being at the office

TC, WEVANS, I hate to admit it but I launched at the fort and had a similar day. Only diffence is I covered 74 miles and didn't have a keeper to take home

Beautiful day on the water and everything worked great (except the fish), I guess you gotta have days like this to keep ya humble.

I smell the price of grouper going up !

Wish i woulda been a fly under the console for that trip I bet it was a hoot. Notice I said under and not on the console wouldnt want to get flapped by a hat good try guys

I wonder if all the red tide we had this summer has killed off the bottom growth.

I made one trip this summer from St Marks out past 24 and there were dead fish from about 5 miles out of St. Marks all the way out.

There were even dead eels. That means that the red tide was all the way to the bottom.

I noticed, on my last trip out bottom fishing, that in areas that had showed lots of good bottom this summer did not show color on my bottom machine like it had.

I hope it recovers quickly.

Red Tide for sure ! There seems to be a dead zone from about 30ft to 50ft. I hope to get out in the water soon to get a better idea where exactly the worst of it hit. It seems the 25ft and shallower range is in good shape. I dove some 40ft not to long ago and it looked like the moon.