Not a targeted species, a parrotfish may be an indicator that hard bottom is nearby.

Groupers—those keeper-size speci-mens that remain off South Florida—may be more likely to hole up along the hard edges and caps of the nearby reefs. Ditto for snappers, of which there is still a pretty decent population of mangroves and muttons in the area. Grunts of sometimes shocking size will eagerly bite cutbait anchored to the bottom. Kings and AJs may roam the basins, but again they are migratory, and not always dependable.

Mystery fish run the gamut. Our 1997 feature noted that African pompano had taken to roaming dredge holes off Jupiter, in Palm Beach County—followed in some cases by gigantic bull and tiger sharks.

According to Regional Editor Eden White, a series of once-productive dredge holes off Delray Beach, also in Palm Beach County, have mostly filled in, but “we still catch a lot of bait down there in summer, in 20 to 40 feet of water.”

Fort Lauderdale guide Ron Mallet indicates that Broward anglers, while blessed with an abundance of wrecks and artificial reefs, don’t tap into dredge holes. “I’ve never heard of a dredge hole,” he said. However, Steve Higgins, Broward County beach erosion administrator, mentioned a few relic borrow areas off Hollywood Beach and Pompano Beach created by older, hydraulic dredges capable of boring sharp holes in the seafloor. And what of new dredge holes created by the latest round of beach renourishment? “The new hopper dredges leave smoother, cleaner areas that likely won’t be as interesting,” Higgins said.

Miami-Dade County certainly has sizable dredge holes—they are so deep, in fact, that the county has acknowledged the need to locate outside sources for future sand needs. Imagine importing sand from The Bahamas. Don’t laugh; it’s an option.

As for other counties, one can only guess at what fishy new dredge holes might open up in the future. One thing is for certain, and that is as long as we build homes and hotels on a foundation of sand, we’ll continue to rely on borrowed sand—and on borrowed time. For despite the goals of developers and politicians, Nature has her own designs for many Florida beaches. Waves and currents, accompanied by rising ocean levels, will demand that we add more and more sand.

And so, just as bass fishermen have profited from the water-draining canals of the Everglades, so their saltwater counterparts can reap the rewards, however unintended, of beach renourishment.

FS