A welcome de-complication of Florida largemouth bass rules is in the works, and you can help with the details by stating your views to an FWC angler survey.

Regulators propose a uniform statewide maximum keeper size of 16 inches, erasing the present minimum sizes of 14 inches east and south of the Suwanee  (the peninsula) and 12 inches north and west of it (the panhandle). The bag limit of five keepers would stay the same, and only one could be longer than 16 inches.

The idea is to free the bigger breeding-size bass we catch without worrying too much about the smaller ones.

“Data show that protecting these smaller fish is not necessary biologically,” Bob Wattendorf of FWC reports. 

That’s good news that we didn’t know.

“What is advantageous is protecting bigger fish, which are rarer and take longer to produce,” Wattendorf added.

We did know that. The question is what size should be classified as “bigger.”

Bass catchers who like to keep a few and those who let every fish go may differ on what the size and bag limits should be. Thus the survey.

As proposed, the new rule would let you keep five bass that are less than 16 inches long or four that size plus one that’s 16 inches or longer. 

To participate in the survey, go online to www.Myfwc.com/fishing and click on the illustrated bass link that says, “Speak out on bass rules!”  If you’re online already, use this direct link:  http://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/black-bass/bass-regulations/

Nesting season over for spoonbills

Now that roseate spoonbill nesting season has ended on Florida Bay in Everglades National Park, boaters once again can cruise the channel beside the west end of Frank Key and camp again on Carl Ross Key.

Both spots are routinely closed in winter for nesting. Biologists long ago learned that the noise of passing motorboats and the mere presence of humans agitates spoonbills enough to disrupt their breeding routine. 

Frank Key and Sandy Key, home to two major nesting colonies, are near the marina at Flamingo. That means a lot more human activity there than in more isolated areas.  It’s forbidden to go ashore on either island at any time.

The spoonbills’ situation was made radically more delicate by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The storm stripped the foliage from the islands’ trees, exposing the spoonbills’ eggs to human activity – including disturbance by motorboats going to and from the campsite on Carl Ross Key — and predatory crows.

Carl Ross was rent asunder by Wilma, but enough of it was left for camping, which is off limits only during spoonbill nesting season. It’s open from April 1 to Oct. 15. 

Restriction of the nesting islands during nesting season doesn’t mean roseate spoonbills are inaccessible. You just have to work harder to see them. In back country no-motor zones, where only canoes and kayaks can go, huge flocks of them are seen often in the trees.

On the way to Flamingo, stop at Paurotis Pond to see if the sign prohibiting boating is still there. Wood storks, spoonbills and numerous other birds nest across the pond from its parking lot, where there’s a small launch ramp for kayaks and canoes. The nesting season there coincides more or less with Frank and Sandy Keys, but some birds continue nesting into June. This is one of the best bird-watching sites in easy-access parts of the park. When nesting season is over, the pond has excellent freshwater bass fishing. Wear a bug hood and jacket on the boat ramp and watch out for alligators alongside.

Safe boating year-round

Did you overlook National Safe Boating Week? It was last month, but there is still time to begin boating safely if that isn’t already part of your routine — or more safely than before.

Some of us are checklist-obsessive and, it’s fair to infer, never forget anything on any list of precautions that numerous boating-related organizations bombard us with all the time. 

For the rest of us, here’s such a list generated by Broward College’s marine engineering management program, with a few of our own enhancements:

Tell someone dependable where you’re going, who’s joining you and about when you expect to return.  Email that person a satellite photomap of the area, including the shoreline, in case it’s necessary to call the Coast Guard or local police. Phone if anything changes.

Inspect all the safety stuff —fuel lines, vents, anchor rode, bilge pump, flares, fire extinguishers, first aid kit, radio, drain plugs. Make sure the fuel tank’s full.  

Have enough life vests on board — one per person, easily accessible. If anyone declines to wear one in calm conditions, okay, but make it clear that if things get rough you’ll insist. That’s an order.     

Make your own comprehensive checklist and always keep it in the same place so you won’t lose or forget it. Too lazy for that?  Look up the American Boat and Yacht Council’s mobile app and downloadable paper checklist online at www.abycinc.org/mobileapps.

Loaning life vests

Suppose you forget the life vests, or find yourself short at the ramp.  Wouldn’t it be neat if you could borrow some for the day?

The Sea Tow Foundation, created by the emergency service outfit, has 38 Florida locations where you could do that. It’s too bad none are in Broward County, but that is supposed to change this year.

Grayson Miller, head of marketing and sales for Sea Tow Fort Lauderdale, tells us the foundation is preparing to place life vest loaner stands at two municipal marinas – first at Cooley’s Landing (450 SW 7^th Ave., Fort Lauderdale) and later at the Cox’s Landing ramp (1784 SE 15^th St.) when renovations there are finished. Dates aren’t definite yet.

Miller said the foundation also is looking at spots for future loaner stands in Pompano Beach.

Most of the 38 existing Florida locations are on the Gulf coast. The southeast has them at Dinner Key Marina and Pelican Harbor ramps in Miami, Haulover Park Marina (north Miami-Dade) and Key Largo (Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park).

Sea Tow Foundation pays for the vests with grants from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the Coast Guard.

The complete list of loaner stands is on the foundation’s website at www.boatingsafety.com.

Headed out on the Suwanee? Watch out for leaping sturgeon

Way down upon the Suwanee River, far, far away — we invoke the sentimental voice of Steve Foster, our late lyrics correspondent —you don’t wear a life jacket in case you happen to fall overboard by mistake. You wear it in case you’re zipping along at planing speed when a sturgeon jumps out of the water right in front of you and wham! you’re knocked out and overboard.

If not for that bizarre navigational hazard, the annual spring return of Gulf sturgeon to the Suwanee would be wonderful news.

Sturgeon migrate in spring from the northwest Gulf up the Suwanee, whose headwaters are in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.  They spawn in the river and stick around until the weather cools off, then head back downstream to the Gulf.

Like mullet, they leap out of the water and into the sky for reasons not yet known to piscatologists.

More leaping goes on when the water level is high than when it’s low.  It was high in May, when FWC officers in that area began warning Suwanee boaters to watch out for sturgeon. They do that annually, and they can claim credit for a good job last year because nobody was hit by a sturgeon as far as they know.

“Even one person getting hurt this year is one too many,” said Maj. Andy Krause, the FWC’s regional commander. “We want people to be aware the sturgeon are back in the Suwannee and that the risk of injury to boaters does exist.”

Officers patrolling the river advise boaters to go slowly to give themselves reaction time when a sturgeon jumps in front of them. That also reduces the severity of injuries that are sure to occur if they’re hit.

Scientific estimates say there are between 10,000 and 14,000 sturgeon in the Suwanee in any given summer. They’re huge, 40 pounds on average with some heavier than 170. They can jump as high as seven feet.

Sturgeon is a protected species. You are not. If you catch a sturgeon you have to let it go or you’ll get in trouble. If it catches you and you’re hurt or worse, the sturgeon swims free.

FWC has a lot of information about sturgeon on its website. Visit MyFWC.com. Click on saltwater and then click on sturgeon. If you hit one or it hits you, report the accident by calling 888-404-FWCC (3922).