Page 7 - Martin Downs Bulletin - September '20

Martin Downs, Page 7
Treasure Coast Outdoors

Avoiding Hurricanes And saltwater fishing, so I joined the Martin County Anglers’
Buying Fish Descenders Just Club, which Burke founded and Erika was active in.
Due to my wife’s work schedule and my morning dog
Another Adventure To Fishing duties we got a late start, leaving the dock at 9 a.m. To
make things more complicated, we could only fish until
By Jim Weix noon. Although it might be more work than it is worth,
I’m often too busy to fish we figured it was better than nothing.
during the week, but with Fortunately, live bait was abundant and we had a
Hurricane Isaias predicted full live well within 30 minutes. Large bait pods were
to ruin the weekend, I gathered just south of the inlet.
jumped at the chance for We began fishing in about 50 feet of water near Fort
a last-minute mid-week Pierce. The word was that people were catching kingfish
fishing trip. I joined Erika and permit. Guess somebody forgot to tell the fish.
Long aboard John Burke’s We were looking for another spot to fish, when we
vessel Mental Ward. spotted Bob Pelosi’s boat. Bob is another local fishing
Both Burke and Long are icon and an expert on catching kingfish. Call it cheating,
icons in the local fishing but we began live bait fishing in the same area.
world. I first met them Our first customer was a shark but Erika then caught a
when I moved to Florida in 2001. I knew little about nice kingfish. Things were looking good as I then hooked

Erika Long got the skunk out of the box with this kingfish.

a bigger kingfish. Unfortunately, that got off near the
boat. Despite the short time, we had a pretty good day.
On another subject, fish descenders are now required
if you are bottom fishing for or possessing snapper,
sea bass, or grouper. The descender allows anglers to
return fish to a deeper depth and reduce the post-release
mortality of fish brought up quickly to the surface. You
are also required to use non-stainless-steel hooks. These
hooks degrade faster than stainless-steel hooks and give
the fish a better chance of survival. Unfortunately, I
found that finding fish descenders in retail stores was
like finding toilet paper a few months ago. If you google
“fish descenders” you will find many to choose from,
ranging in price from $12 to $80.
Editor’s note: Jim Weix is an avid hunter, angler,
conservationist, as well as an outdoor writer. Jim is
included in the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s Hall
of Fame, for his work in helping restore thousands of
acres of wetlands. Jim is a broker associate with The
Keyes Company. He can be reached at (772) 341-2941
or by email: jimweix@jimweix.com

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