January 8, 2010
I guided my anglers north of Flamingo yesterday in Whitewater Bay and miles to the east up the rivers in the fresh water. The air temperature half way through the park entrance to Flamingo was 41. Water temps ranged from 52 to 59. We intentionally started late because of the cold temperatures and we were on the water and fishing around 10:30.

Right away in the fresh water we encountered dead or dying Cichlids, perhaps 50 – 100 ranging from 3 to 10 inches in size. Thankfully only one dead snook about 22 inches, no redfish and a few dying gafftops in the outer brackish bays. No sightings of any “live” gamefish at all in the shallow fresh water areas or deep creeks.

Later in Whitewater Bay proper we encountered a few more small dead snook, small cudas, (not that common in Whitewater under normal conditions) a few dead mullet, jacks and more gafftops.

Surprisingly late in the day we found schools of large, healthy and apparently hungry snook in the 8 to 20 pound range as well as some uncommonly large redfish for the area in the 20 pound range.

It appears to me that the most of the snook and redfish survived the first wave of cold but what happens next after this weekends cold blast remains to be seen.

Brrrr!.....it's cold all over!   Geoff, I hope those snook are smart enough to find some deep (warm) holes.  Since it's been a gradual decline in temps, hopefully they have....as opposed to a sudden cold front coming in overnight and catching them by surprise.