# IRL Snook Kill



## Battfisher (Jan 18, 2016)

My son fished the Lagoon and IRL today out of Haulover Canal. Just south of ramp, in the shallow water cut south of the Canal, there were about 30 dead snook up to 32”. Probably a lot more that he couldn’t see.


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## fishicaltherapist (Mar 9, 2013)

Mother Nature.......hopefully some of those Snook were cold-stunned & not dead. I'm praying this is the last of multi night 20s/low 30s.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

fishicaltherapist said:


> Mother Nature.......hopefully some of those Snook were cold-stunned & not dead. I'm praying this is the last of multi night 20s/low 30s.


Man doesn’t realize he is worse than mother nature.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

It's been too cold for me to fish. I'm like a snook and get lathargic when it's cold. I'll be checking out the situation around here this week as it warms up. I'm thinking here on the Gulf coast, snook north of Tampa Bay will be effective by the low temps we've had over the last week.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Man doesn’t realize he is worse than mother nature.


Idk.... between some hard freezes I've seen in the past and big waves of red tide, I've seen almost entire stocks of snook almost completely wiped out in certain areas and each time, their come backs have taken many years to recover. They eventually do recover, but it's a painful wait.


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## zthomas (Jan 14, 2014)

I've seen several here in Edgewater, just from the house -- some dead, some upside down but still moving a bit.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

Backwater said:


> Idk.... between some hard freezes I've seen in the past and big waves of red tide, I've seen almost entire stocks of snook almost completely wiped out in certain areas and each time, their come backs have taken many years to recover. They eventually do recover, but it's a painful wait.


Red tide is magnified by man. It’s the same down here, fertilizer runs off crops, into the rivers and out to the bays and causes the red tide to explode. Mother nature can hold her own but add man into the equation and it’s much worse.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

zthomas said:


> I've seen several here in Edgewater, just from the house -- some dead, some upside down but still moving a bit.


They are stunned, if they soak up enough heat to get their body temperature up some of them will survive if people, seagulls and sharks leave them alone.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Red tide is magnified by man. It’s the same down here, fertilizer runs off crops, into the rivers and out to the bays and causes the red tide to explode. Mother nature can hold her own but add man into the equation and it’s much worse.


Ok, you made a good point there... _"magnified by man."_


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

Backwater said:


> Ok, you made a good point there... _"magnified by man."_


Baffin Bay down here...read up on it, it’s crazy.


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## saltlifedoc (Jan 7, 2018)

Not sure on current conditions down south as I haven't been down that way for a few seasons, but I remember the bad freeze maybe 10-12 years ago. We went out spear fishing out of black point and saw countless floating snook. The next week when I went back to key west for a construction job there were thousands of dead grunts, snapper, etc on the shore. Same year my uncle who guides out of bud n marys sent me some crazy photos of floating black grouper ocean side and some big goliaths out back. Hopefully this isn't the case.


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## chrystalandmike5 (Jul 16, 2008)

Those snook are hard to find in north IRL. Sucks to hear the cold got them.


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

chrystalandmike5 said:


> Those snook are hard to find in north IRL. Sucks to hear the cold got them.


they dont belong that far north.. mother nature just putting them in check.
once they get north of crystal river/ edgewater they are pushing their luck.


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## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

Oh man. 
Even though I’m a global warming skeptic I’ve kind of been hoping that if it’s true maybe snook will show up and get prolific in the Apalachicola and northern gulf areas. 
Cold snaps like this will Stimey that I reckon. 

I definatley think ag chems and runnoff are a far greater and more immediate concern than what’s going on with our temps and weather.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

We had a pretty serious fish kill over the last few days on the south east and south side of Tampa Bay. It's going to hurt the fishing down this way.


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

Backwater said:


> It's been too cold for me to fish. I'm like a snook and get lathargic when it's cold. I'll be checking out the situation around here this week as it warms up. I'm thinking here on the Gulf coast, snook north of Tampa Bay will be effective by the low temps we've had over the last week.


Just how cold is it. Is it 26 degrees with a wind chill of 7. That's what it was when I went bow hunting the other day


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

anytide said:


> they dont belong that far north.. mother nature just putting them in check.
> once they get north of crystal river/ edgewater they are pushing their luck.


A buddy just now told me that Crystal River got hit pretty hard and they are seeing signs of fish kill everywhere. Hopefully Mike will chime in and give us a report of what he knows.


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

permitchaser said:


> Just how cold is it. Is it 26 degrees with a wind chill of 7. That's what it was when I went bow hunting the other day


when water temps are already in the 50's and we get any freezing weather fish die, especially fish trapped in creeks during neg. low tides.


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

i was deer hunting north Fl. just south of the I-10 interstate and it was in 18-49 degrees for 4 days....


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

anytide said:


> i was deer hunting north Fl. just south of the I-10 interstate and it was in 18-49 degrees for 4 days....


You where almost in GA
By the way...I hate winter


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

beer stayed cold.
took 20lbs of ice ... came back with 40lbs


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## Steve_Mevers (Feb 8, 2013)

A friend of mine told me there were lots of dead snook and tarpon just north of Daytona, I have not heard of any dead fish down here around Charlotte Harbor. A commercial fisherman I know was cast netting sand brim in canals off Charlotte Harbor and he told me the canals are so full of legthargic snook that he could not even fish in the canals. I think if we had one more night of really cold weather it would have killed some snook.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

I was out on the water today (central east side of Tampa Bay) and did not see a single dead fish.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Item one... Please don't confuse cold water fish kills with all the other problems fish face (red tides, hot water "too little oxygen", or sudden vast amounts of freshwater, etc..). Cold water fish kills are bad enough. I usually expect, and am rarely disappointed, to see cold water fish kills every seven to ten years in my area (the Everglades - much to the south of central florida where cold kills are more frequent...). 

Item two... Snook and other cold sensitive species (like bonefish, permit, and tarpon) are at the extreme northern end of their range here in Florida. Central Florida is really in that situation (mild years will see snook range farther to the north - cold kills will cut their range back severely..).

Item three.. Yes, I've seen cold stunned snook drifting helplessly down towards Whitewater Bay early in the morning on very cold days (in the creeks and rivers that drain from the east, northeast (Watson, North, Roberts rivers, etc.) down into Whitewater. I've also seen those same fish turn over and swim away when they come into areas with a bit warmer waters (and in my area, on a bright sunny day after a cold night - water temps might rise as much as five degrees from dawn to around 2pm in places sheltered from the wind..).

This last cold snap doesn't seem to have caused any cold kills in my area (or at least I haven't heard of any) and since I've been either cancelling or putting off charters until it warms up a bit (like today...) it will be a few days before I'm back out on the water. One thing is sure though... if fish are caught in very shallow waters with no deep water nearby - they're very vulnerable to coldkills. Thank heavens the interior of the Everglades has so many rivers and creeks with areas of eight feet to much deeper waters for them to shelter in until waters warm up...


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## windblows (May 21, 2014)

While northeast Florida is certainly the northern end of the range for snook, it is definitely within their "range." I went out in the Jacksonville area Saturday morning and saw hundreds of dead fish - mostly mullet and catfish - but several snook to about 8 pounds and several tarpon to about 20 pounds. And, trust me, they were all dead, not just cold stunned. It sucks because the week before the cold snap, I was catching those snook, and catching them pretty good. What I want to know is if ANY managed to survive.


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## Backcountry 16 (Mar 15, 2016)

Hopefully enough don't die that they close the season again on a positive we have iguana's falling out of the trees right now and maybe it'll effect the pythons in the Everglades.


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## zthomas (Jan 14, 2014)

The amount of dead (and/or stunned?) bait floating in the ICW in the Edgewater/New Smyrna area is pretty alarming -- at least to me, a newcomer who hasn't seen anything like it before. All weekend, there were clouds of birds (gulls, terns, pelicans, skimmers) just gorging themselves up and down the river.


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## Mike C (Feb 27, 2017)

DuckNut said:


> I was out on the water today (central east side of Tampa Bay) and did not see a single dead fish.


This is what I'm hoping for. 
Gonna launch out of Cockroach Bay tomorrow if the weather is okay


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## FSUDrew99 (Feb 3, 2015)

Had a few snook south of Jax I have been hearing about as well....

Im sure this freeze on the other hand is great for helping to clean up the lagoon and IRL for now...

Anyone fished it lately with any success on reds/trout at least?

I plan on making a trip down soon.


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## mike.s (Sep 4, 2015)

I fished Banana River on Friday started out around 12:00 sun was out water temps were 49. Polled some flats had water up to 53 didn't see any reds or trout some mullet. Moved to some deep water canals water was 58 managed one red. Didn't see any dead fish but water was brown like the nasty end of summer algae brown. Could have been from all the wind and rain we had recently.


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## sjrobin (Jul 13, 2015)

lemaymiami said:


> Item one... Please don't confuse cold water fish kills with all the other problems fish face (red tides, hot water "too little oxygen", or sudden vast amounts of freshwater, etc..). Cold water fish kills are bad enough. I usually expect, and am rarely disappointed, to see cold water fish kills every seven to ten years in my area (the Everglades - much to the south of central florida where cold kills are more frequent...).
> 
> Item two... Snook and other cold sensitive species (like bonefish, permit, and tarpon) are at the extreme northern end of their range here in Florida. Central Florida is really in that situation (mild years will see snook range farther to the north - cold kills will cut their range back severely..).
> 
> ...


The deep water rivers and creeks in the Everglades are just one of the many features of the Glades that make it one of America's best natural resources.


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## Pierson (Mar 16, 2016)

windblows said:


> What I want to know is if ANY managed to survive.


Time will tell....I know we all have our fingers crossed.


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## Ken T (Dec 10, 2015)

There was a pretty substantial amount of dead fish in lower Tampa Bay. Most of what I have seen was specific to the shallows way back in the mangroves. The combination of cold weather, negative lows and the extreme north blow made these areas deadly real fast. (extreme low water) The last few days the changing tides are revealing more and more carnage. Not too hard to find with the clouds of vultures and other birds.

Overall not like 2010 but pretty bad. Lots of variety to the dead fish, including snook and tarpon.

Cancelled all of my trips for the last week. Plan on getting back on the water later this week to see what's happening.

Ken


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## DBStoots (Jul 9, 2011)

Fished on Sunday in the ENP. Not only did we not see any dead snook, we caught between 25-30 including 3 or 4 over slot fish. They were all very shiny, silvery colored, not like some of the tanin-stained, darker snook we often catch in the park. All were fat and healthy and carefully and quickly released.


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## Flats Broke (Feb 7, 2017)

DBStoots said:


> Fished on Sunday in the ENP. Not only did we not see any dead snook, we caught between 25-30 including 3 or 4 over slot fish. They were all very shiny, silvery colored, not like some of the tanin-stained, darker snook we often catch in the park. All were fat and healthy and carefully and quickly released.


The canal in my back yard here in Edgewater is full of snook and baby tarpon. Only one tarpon has died so far and no snook. Several of the snook have marks on them that look like frost burn though. There are some dead look downs in the water. There is a jack swimming right next to one of the larger tarpon and won't leave its side. I don't know if it is getting warmth from the tarpon or is staying close for some other reason. I don't want to try to catch any of the snook or tarpon because I don't think they need the added stress while they are already fighting for their lives. I'm hoping this warming trend over the next few days will save them.

At the end of my street, one of the two houses that is directly on the river has a long dock that goes out into the river. It was covered up with dozens of American egrets and great blue herons today. There were also lots of gulls and terns diving on dead and dying fish around his dock.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

DuckNut said:


> I was out on the water today (central east side of Tampa Bay) and did not see a single dead fish.


The only dead fish we saw in the extreme northern part of the bay (on Sunday) were catfish.


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## 321nole (Jan 11, 2016)

28 degrees in West Melb/Palm Bay area this morning, hope what fish are left found safe haven somewhere a little warmer


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