Eric Bachnik of MirrOlure displays the kind of trout that Tampa Bay now is giving up regularly. Photo by Frank Sargeant.

It was an inshore angler's worst nightmare. Windrows of dead game fish stretched for miles along the shores of Tampa Bay and the stench of decaying flesh hung in the air like a pungent fog. Overhead, buzzards by the hundreds wheeled and dipped.

It was one of the worst red tides in Florida's recorded history, covering most of the state's West Coast from Dunedin to Naples, and it lasted for months rather than the usual few weeks -- from mid-2005 to well into 2006, the killer algae lingered.

When it was over, millions of fish were dead, and some anglers figured delicate species like spotted seatrout might never recover. For months after the horrific event ended, not a single trout was caught on vast flats that before had produced keeper fish by the hundreds.

But that horrible black (or red) cloud had a silver lining. Now, three years after the last of the noxious algae disappeared, the fish are lighting up all over the "dead zone," and there are plenty of big fish once again, too.

"Trout are delicate, but they spawn young and they grow fast," said Ken Haddad, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who is a marine biologist. "With good water quality and adequate harvest regulations, they can come back very quickly."

One of the interesting phenomena observed by many anglers after the algae disappeared was that the number of shrimp seemed to go up astronomically. There were suddenly so many shrimp that catching them with bait nets became a major nighttime sport. Anglers lined the rails of the Sunshine Skyway and other spans and also waded the flats with headlights, scooping up prawn-sized shrimp everywhere.

Shrimp are generally not affected by red tide as finfish are, and many anglers theorized that the algae had killed most of the predators of larval shrimp, allowing a huge generation of shrimp to reach adulthood. Those shrimp, the theory goes, would then have had a landmark spawn, providing endless food for the next generation of trout spawned after the red tide. Even though there might have been far fewer spawners, the young fish would have been more likely to survive and grow rapidly.

Trout can spawn at age 1, and they lay tens of thousands of eggs, spawning repeatedly in the warmer months in Florida. Normally, nearly all the eggs and larvae are eaten by pinfish, baby snappers and other predators. But here again there were far fewer seeking the prey, so it's likely more of the young trout survived.

Whatever the reason, the trout are back strong.

"We're seeing as many keeper fish this winter as we did before the fish kill in St. Joseph Sound," said Captain Woody Gore, who makes a big part of his living chasing trout. "There are days when we'll catch 40 or more trout over 20 inches out there. The really big fish over 24 inches have not come back yet, but the numbers are there and the fish are getting bigger every month."

Gore noted that the fishing is best in his area in winter, but the sound also provides steady action throughout the summer months, and some big spawners move in around the new and full moons from May through July.

Captain Rick Grassett, who primarily fishes Sarasota Bay and Charlotte Harbor, reported similar results.

"We had just about zero trout for the first six months after the red tide, and then we started catching little guys, and you could see them growing, and in a couple of years we had lots of keepers again, and now we're starting to see the 3- and 4-pounders again," Grassett said.

HOW TO CATCH 'EM
Seatrout can be caught just about anywhere along Florida's West Coast where the combination of clear water and sea grass bottom can be found. But there are some areas that are noted for producing more and larger fish.