More fishing honors for the Shevlins

12-YEAR-OLD BREAKS RECORD IN 2007 IFC JUNIOR DERBY, ANGLERS RETREIVE MORE THAN 400 POUNDS OF TRASH

ISLAMORADA, Florida Keys -- He came, he cast, he conquered. Josh Shevlin, 12, of Bay Harbor, Fla., was named master angler at the 2007 Islamorada Fishing Club Junior Derby. Shevlin set a record by accumulating 1,660 points -- 200 more than any angler in the history of the derby.

Shevlin caught and released fish from 11 species including three tarpon, grouper, black drum and snook. He was guided by Captain Jim Anson of Miami.

Other division grand champions were juniors (ages 11-14) Grier Wakefield of Wilmington, Del., in the unguided division and Sydney Wolaver of Fort Pierce, Fla., in the guided division.

Small fry champions (ages 7-10) were Marlin Wightman of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., in the unguided division and Jake Shevlin of Bay Harbor in the guided division.

Super small fry champions (ages up to 6) were Konnor Ross of Tavernier, Fla., in the unguided division and Robbie Reckwerdt of Islamorada in the guided division.

Thirty-six anglers ages 2 to 14 participated in the tournament, fishing inshore and offshore. All fish were released as part of the Islamorada Fishing Club's mission to promote conservation.

Four young anglers were honored for conservation leadership because more than 400 pounds of trash was retrieved from the water and shorelines. Conservation kudos went to 2006 tournament champion Heather Harkavy of Coral Springs, Fla., Madeline Malloggi of Key Largo, Fla., and Will and Jack Kelleher of Wilmington.

Strange but cool photos....

Captain Ray Rosher enjoys a sterling reputation for winning billfish tournaments both here and abroad as owner/skipper of the Miss Britt fleet and formerly, the private yacht, Get Lit.  But Rosher also is skillful fishing from a raft, as this photo taken in Miami Beach's first annual raft tournament a couple years ago clearly shows.    The next photo shows captain Butch Moser holding an exotic clown knifefish that he caught in Lake Ida in Palm Beach County using a live shad for bait.   The third one is a bit of an anachronism...it is the grave of the only dog ever to have served in the Royal Navy.  The great Dane named Just Nuisance was buried with full military honors after he died near Cape Town, South Africa decades ago.  His gravesite is on a mountaintop adjacent to an abandoned military medical facility occupied by squatters.    The final photo takes you to tarpon territory in Mexico's Yucatan region.

South Florida has the skunk ape...North Florida has the....

Baker

County

mystery creature may be fox squirrel

            The speculation about the mystery creature in

Baker

County

is running rampant. Stories run the gamut from an escaped ape to a juvenile "big foot," according to media reports.

            However, according to officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), there may be another explanation - an orange phase fox squirrel.

            Fox squirrels are the largest species of tree squirrel. They have distinct color phases ranging from reddish brown to pale grey backs and red to yellow-orange bellies. These animals can be about 2 feet in length, when measuring the tail and body. They have broad tails, coarse, grizzled fur and short ears.

            FWC Officer Ken Holmes, the investigator on the mystery creature case, said the animal in question is not behaving like a primate, especially with all the nocturnal activity.

            The first sighting of the mystery creature occurred at the end of October. A homeowner reported hearing and seeing something in a tree behind his house. Holmes went to investigate. Although the investigator acknowledges that there was something about 100 feet up in a pine tree in a nest-like structure, he was unable to identify it.

            The homeowner told Holmes that the creature had broken into some jelly donuts that were at the site. Holmes suggested that since the creature had exhibited an interest in the donuts, that the homeowner should leave additional treats at the base of the tree to lure the creature back to the ground. Holmes then instructed the homeowner to call once the animal was out of the tree.

            The creature came and went with no one seeing it.

"I'm not discounting anything. However, this creature, whatever it may be, simply isn't acting like a primate (monkey)," Holmes said. "When it climbed up in the nest and hid, that wasn't primate behavior. An orangutan would have peered over the side to watch what was going on down below.

            "Orangutans don't walk very well, so they swing from limbs, and it's hard to swing from pine tree limbs. Orangutans are messy eaters. If the animal were an orangutan, you would expect to find pieces of donuts or fruit scattered all over the place, rather than just neatly nibbled."

The next sighting was reported Wednesday when a homeowner reported hearing his dogs bark and a shadowy figure running across the roof of his dogs' kennel late that night. The homeowner didn't get a good look at the creature since it was dark.

            Thursday, Holmes went to the site and set up a culvert trap, baiting it with bananas and apples, which had been donated by KC's Produce in

Lake

City

.

            "The trap was still empty Friday morning," Holmes said. "However, the story attracted quite a crowd to the area, so the animal may have been simply avoiding the people."

            Holmes continues to monitor the situation.

            "The possibility that it may be a fox squirrel is a good one," Holmes said.

            Holmes speculates that if the trap catches any wildlife, it will be of the native variety.

********

Hmm.  I could see how someone could confuse a guy dressed up in a skunk ape suit  for an orangutan.  But I can not, for the life of me, see how someone could confuse a fox squirrel for a man-sized monkey.  What could they be smoking up north?

Idiosyncracies of outdoors competitors

Football and baseball are not the only competitive sports where coaches and players keep tightly-held secrets from rival teams and nosy sportswriters.  It might surprise some of you to know that those super-secret XXX/000 charts kept under lock and key in the NFL have similar counterparts in fishing tournaments and powerboat races.

In saltwater  tournaments, particularly here in South Florida, the leading teams don't mind telling anyone who asks --reporters, tournament officials,  rivals -- what they used for bait on a particular day.  But questioners would have to try waterboarding to get them to give up where they fished ( Triumph, the "Steeple, Haulover, etc.) and the water depth where they got their bites.

In bass tournaments, the pros will readily give up their fishing locations (on many lakes, they're within sight of each other anyway), but they would rather pull a 3X treble hook through their lower lip than tell exactly what baits their big fish ate.  (There's also the embarrassing problem of a big bass inadvertently biting a bait whose manufacturer is not one of the angler's sponsors; they REALLY don't want to go there.

In powerboat racing, the secret intelligence information concerns the boat's set-up:  the pitch of the propellers; distribution of weight; gear ratios; configuration of the outdrives.  The engines are no secret; they're specific to the racing class. 

At the conclusion of the 2007 Key West World Championship, with no more major races scheduled until next year, the winning team in the Super Vee class refused to divulge anything about the set-up of their victorious Fountain boat, Miccosukee Indian Gaming -- not even to fellow Fountain Powerboats team members.

"I can't tell them THAT!" insisted Miccosukee owner/driver Brett Furshman of Coral Springs.   Then he lapsed into motorsports platitudes:

"It's the combination of the driver, the throttleman, and the set-up," Furshman said.  "You got to get all three -- just like when you see NASCAR.  All those drivers can win.  It takes a lot of work.  You've got to try a lot of different stuff. "

I bet neither the former Soviet KGB nor Tom Clancy's fictional Mr. Clark could pry anymore information out of these guys.

In effect, these tight-lipped boat racers, bass fishermen, and sailfish captains are striking a blow for competitive outdoors  sports.  They are showing the world that they, too, can employ obfuscation, dissembling, and cliches as well as any star quarterback, forward, or pitcher.

Who says fringe sports can't be in the Big Leagues?

Really cool photos/Back from the Amazon....

At last, photos are being posted on this blog -- and they are very, very good.  Check them out -- nature-oriented, but also with that nowhere-but-South-Florida flavor.   Remember you can also post your big-fish photos -- as well as camping, kayaking, diving, hunting etc. Although, I will warn you, there are certain elements of the Herald readership who are not fond of dead-animal photos and won't hesitate to say so.

I recently returned from a ten-day trip to the Rio Negro of Brazil's Amazon region -- quite an eye-widening experience.  Everyone should try to make it there at least once.  Besides catching peacock bass in excess of 20 pounds, our group of 13 anglers also caught piranha (delicious! -- a recipe will be forthcoming in the Herald); catfish; aruana; and a crocodile (released). Something that surprised me about this part of the Amazon....except for a few pesky wasps that were attracted to the lights on our riverboat, neither the river nor the jungle were buggy at all in comparison to, say, Flamingo or Chokoloskee.  I brought a can of DeepWoods OFF with me and never cracked the lid.  We didn't see any anacondas nor boa constrictors nor jaguars, all of which are reported to frequent the rainforest.  But for the most part we kept to the river and its tributaries, while making a couple forays partway into the marsh. Hint for those who might want to make this expedition: it's probably best to go later in the season when water levels are falling or nearly bottomed-out.  When water levels are high, peacocks have more habitat to roam around, hide behind, and ambush bait, so your chances of hooking up are not as great.   When the water is low,  the fish are more concentrated --as is the bait -- and are more willing to attack strange-looking Rip Roller topwater plugs.  I think you would have a better shot with fly rod as well, because you wouldn't have to dredge.