Florida's fish kill...

[Orpssab]

I remember last year, because of the cold weather, there was a large fish kill in South Florida. Peacocks, Tilapia, Tarpon, Snook etc. I'm traveling there in two weeks. Has that situation recovered? Was it as big a problem as I heard about? Did it have any impact on the fishing this year?

[SoFlaBassAddict]

Didn't see much of a problem down here in my area.  The peacocks took a heck of a hit north of Broward.  Tarpon and Snook have recovered from what I've seen.  No idea about Tilapia.  Never had a reason to go looking for them.

[South FLA]

Fishing is just fine!  Peacocks north of central Palm Beach are rarer, but it seems like the fish kill actually helped the freshwater fishery.  Snook and Tarpon, still great!!

[SirSnookalot]

The snook kill was very bad on the Gulf side, season still closed there I believe.  I'm in Palm Beach County and I fish snook nearly everyday, the catch on snook and tarpon was way down this year as compared to last.  The snook are starting to move off the beach, I've caught only a few lately and they are running very small, ICW and canals will be the best bet but I haven't caught many there lately either.  Everything kind of stopped with the end of the fall mullet run, pretty normal for this time of year.

I've yet to see a peacock in my area since last January. Not much going on off shore either, tuna were hitting at 300' but have disappeared, we've been getting some bottom fish in 60', yellow tails, grouper, porgies and sea bass.  With the cool weather and rough seas the sailfish should be turning on.

[Shane Procell]

Like they said. Bass are 100% everywhere. I have seen Talapia everywhere I have fished but have never targeted them. I have yet to catch a PeaCock Bass in Broward or the everglades this year. The areas I have fished were eat up with them last year. The Oscars and Cyclids were hit harder in the Everglades and the SW Florida areas but there were so many to start with that you probably won't notice a difference unless your down on Tamiami Tr. or the Big Cypress.

So my summary is that if your targeting Peacocks stay in Dade County. If your looking for big Cyclids and Oscars stay east of the glades. Bass, Talapia, snook and tarpon are everywhere. Good luck!

[evrgladesbasser]

With well over 100 days fishing in the everglades this year I have yet to catch, or even see, a peacock...

Bank fishing, which I do much less of, has not landed any either...

I haven't heard of any consistency in catching peacock north of Dade County, but reports that the population is recovering in Broward and Palm Beach are slowly trickling in.

Don't know about any of those other fish

[Triton Bob]

Well Markham Park was pretty good this year with Peacock fishing. That is in between the snake heads. LOL

[shallow thinker]

The only peacocks I've caught this year were in Markham Park.  Nothing in the glades, Hillsboro canal or Lake Ida.  Bass survived as everyone else has said.

Its freaking cold again this week so the exotics may get whacked again.  The good news is that we'll be back to the 70's air temps by the weekend.  I hope the snook can get through it this time.

[gar-tracker]

The Peacocks up north of Dade got shot back from last years winter.

The Talapia, Mayan Citlids, also got cleaned out up at the lake which is a good thing, the cold takes care of exotics.

[0119]

The bass never took a hard hit from cold here in S.W. Fl. but the tilapia sure got wiped out so did the mayans, thank God.  Yesterday I hit a back country saltwater creek off Charlotte Harbor and dead fish were everywhere.  Ladyfish by the hundreds with hundreds more stunned near the surface with scales turning white.  Even a 10lb jewfish was dead on the bank. The Snook were energetic and aggressive though, perhaps spurred on by the easy targets all over the place.