“ Oriskany needs about 20 percent more cleaning.” Horn said in January. “We’re waiting for final approval from the EPA before sinking her. There will be PCBs left on board, for instance. She’s scheduled to be sunk this spring. We’ve found a spot in 212 feet of water, so the carrier’s top will be 60 feet below the surface. The site is about 25 miles southeast of Pensacola, towards the DeSoto dropoff. It’s only 30 miles from Destin. The only access divers will have is the island portion (above the flight deck) which has been thoroughly cleansed of wiring. Below the flight deck will require some advanced certification for diving. It’s a hard sand bottom, with no rock or live bottom for several miles around. The currents there depend on local tides, but there is no constant current there like the Gulf Stream.”
Some ships are sunk with a crowd-pleasing fireball.
According to Horn, nearby Okaloosa County that surrounds Destin has four grants from the state this year, and it looks like they’ll be concrete modules, probably reef balls. There are three manufacturers of reef balls, so they will be put up for bid. Each of the four offshore sites sits in 100 to 110 feet.
Farther south on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Citrus County has built some units with concrete light poles, and put them together like Lincoln Log sets. They’re building 10 of these in 40 feet of water. Each unit weighs 140 tons, and they have a 10-foot relief above bottom.
Pelagics Like It On Top
Some days there’s more action on top than below, and it begs the question: Shouldn’t more anglers pay attention to pelagic fish around Florida’s popular, published wrecks, instead of automatically dumping lead and baits on every rod?
“Wrecks are very useful for finding pelagic fish,” says Capt. George LaBonte in Jupiter. “Our local guides target wrecks for baitfish and barracuda, but that bait cloud usually present attracts other pelagics. Baitfish are the big attractor, not the wreck itself. A wreck concentrates everything, while a long, natural reef or live bottom scatters bait. Wrecks offer pinpoint fishing, and certainly offer a better shot than trolling in open water with no bait around. In open water, you’re just trying to cross paths with a fish that’s looking for bait.
“So, any time I bottom fish on a wreck or reef, I always have a high line set out, with a live bait back behind the boat. You can put up a kite rig (or helium balloon) and that surface bait is completely out of your way. We also fish a mid-water bait, far enough back to stay out of the way. Think surface, middle and bottom,” LaBonte said. If bait is frying on the surface, then something is down there making them nervous, and it may be pelagic fish. Baitfish don’t even like the surface, because there are diving birds above.
“Only problem is, there are not enough wrecks off Jupiter or the Treasure Coast. Broward and Dade are covered up in wrecks, but the bottom fish there really get scoured. If you’re the first guy to visit those wrecks just after a storm, and before the divers arrive, you might catch some decent bottom fish. Only a storm can rejuvenate those spots.”
LaBonte, known occasionally for his sardonic wit, offered this advice: “Would you please advise everyone to stay off my favorite wrecks.”
Palm Beach County—an active reef-building county in recent years—got a big grant of $60,000 for a limestone boulder reef. They’re going to place boulders between shipwrecks already offshore, to lead divers back and forth.
Dade County is putting down 1,000 tons of boulders offshore. The boulders are very close to natural reef rock, so there are lots of nooks and crannies for the fish. This is a county that has deployed a great many wrecks over the years, and it will be interesting to see how these new low-relief boulder piles produce.
“Martin County is putting in 35 ‘Florida Special’ pyramids,” said Horn. They’re tetrahedrons (three-sided pyramids), hollow concrete frames with metal attached. We’ve had a lot of success with them in the Panhandle; Walter Marine in nearby Alabama builds them. They hold a lot of fish, and they hold up well in hurricanes. They rise up 10 feet, and the current passes through them.”
As for hurricane damage on Florida’s artificial reefs, the state has documented several older wrecks with visible damage. Off Martin County (a favorite romping ground for two of last year’s hurricanes) the Rankin, a cargo ship sunk in 1985, was visibly banged up; in fact it was cracked and split. It didn’t move, however. Deep-water sites such as the 168-foot Wickstrom sunk in 190 feet east of Stuart, were reported intact and producing large numbers of fish. Off nearby St. Lucie another cargo ship, the Muliphen, had its bow cracked off.
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