By Dan DeWitt, Times Columnist
Saturday, December 18, 2010
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Mickey Newberger, who has fished the Chassahowitzka for 60 years, points out signs of long-term water decline during a trip on the river Thursday.
It's hard to imagine anything could be prettier than the Chassahowitzka River was on a sunny, mild morning last week.
Mullet darted through eel grass. Kingfishers, ospreys and pelicans dove for fish or coasted over the water. The horizon was cabbage palms, blue water and blue sky.
Then Mickey Newberger, 72, had to spoil things by telling me that it used to be much prettier — with more birds, more fish and more water. Lots more water.
"This is an issue of quantity," said Newberger, of Lutz, who has fished the river just north of the Hernando-Citrus county line for 60 years and owned a cabin on it for 25.
That's certainly true of the matter ...
