LARGEMOUTH BASS, STRIPED BASS, & SNOOK
All 3 of these great game fish weighed 10 pounds or more!
All 3 of these great game fish were caught on artificial lures from my man-powered canoe -- just imagine what I'd do from one of those gas-guzzling "Bassboats" while dressed like a "Bassmaster" in a NASCAR-like suit???
All 3 of these Florida NATIVE game fish SPECIES -- HISTORICALLY -- successfully spawned in the St. Johns-Ocklawaha River system!
2 of these game fish species -- STRIPED BASS & SNOOK -- are blocked from migration in the Ocklawaha River & Silver River of Marion County, Florida by RODMAN DAM! They usually migrate at the proper time of the year by seeking STRONG stream currents.
And STRIPED BASS "STRIPERS" have not been able to naturally reproduce in the entire St. Johns River basin since the advent of RODMAN DAM -- they REQUIRE 50 miles of continuous & swift-flowing RIVER for successful spawning. Their only suitable reproduction habitat -- as God had intended it -- in the St. Johns River estuary / drainage was the once-free-flowing 56-mile-length Silver-Ocklawaha River (Silver Springs to the St. Johns) system!
STRIPERS would use Silver Springs in the summer for its COOL waters!
SNOOK would use Silver Springs in the winter for its WARM waters!
DO WE REALLY NEED RODMAN DAM IN PLACE??? LARGEMOUTH BASS CAN LIVE & REPRODUCE IN A DUG-ON-YOUR-PROPERTY MAN-MADE POND -- NOT SO WITH STRIPED BASS OR SNOOK!
WHY DON'T WE JUST LIFT ALL OF RODMAN DAM'S FLOODGATES UP ALL THE WAY FOR FREE $$$ AND LET THE FISH MIGRATE IN THE ST. JOHNS RIVER SYSTEM AGAIN -- UNIMPEDED BY RODMAN DAM! LET THOSE IN CHARGE KNOW THAT IT CAN BE DONE FOR ALMOST NO $$$!
This is the opinion of "Ocklawahaman" Paul Nosca (a Co-Administrator of this Petition) -- who doesn't have another 50 years to wait!
DATA, ECOLOGY, FACTS, FIREARMS, FISHING, HISTORY, HUMOR, HYDROLOGY, NEWS, OPINION, PADDLING, PHOTOS, SPRINGS, VIEWS, & WILDLIFE of the Ocklawaha River, Florida & SO MUCH MORE -- "FREE THE OCKLAWAHA RIVER BY THE BREACHING OF RODMAN DAM" -- IT'S EASY TO JOIN & POST & IT'S FOR FREE $$$. And "Ocklawahaman" NEVER SOLICITS FOR YOUR MONEY! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1937718656450177/