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For two years now, freshwater fishermen have been using the drought as the reason that they had a bad morning of fishing. The lakes have been too low and the canals were not flowing. Now there is too much water. The canals are running too fast and the lakes are overflowing. As the saying goes, “when it rains it pours.''

This summer’s heavy rains also have an effect on the salt water fishing. The backwaters become very fresh and tannic, so the backwater fish such as snook and redfish move outside. At the same time, the bait along the beaches disappears.

There has been so much rain this year that the even the waters along the beaches near the passes are stained, and this freshwater extends out five miles or even farther. This freshwater runoff does not halt the saltwater fishing, but it certainly changes it, and anglers need to adopt different tactics in order to be successful.

The most serious effect of this season’s extraordinary rainfall, however, has not yet been experienced. Last week, they began to drain Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River. For two years, this area has experienced a drought and that has meant no runoff, which translates into two years without a major red tide or other algae bloom. The grass beds have returned to Estero Bay and grouper have come back on the reefs off of Naples. Healthy water means a healthy fish population. This could all change during the next month.

This year there have been an exceptional number of young snook all along the outside beaches. There have also been numerous herds of manatees, including many babies. These fish and friends will most likely soon be direly tested.

NAPLES: The winds and heavy rains will stifle the fishing in all areas, but the Naples Bay area has been least affected and should recover the quickest. The winds have been mostly out of the east, and the backwaters are more protected, so the water quality is influenced less in Naples Bay and in the channels and bays between Naples and Marco Island.

Even on Tuesday, small snook were being caught just inside the passes and along the points in the channels south of Naples. I doubt if anyone fished through the storms Wednesday morning, but the fish probably continued to feed, and by the weekend the Naples area will probably be more productive than the more open and shallow waters of such areas as Estero Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands.

MARCO ISLAND/TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS: Capt. Pat Gould along with several other guides fished out of Port of the Islands Resort on Tuesday. Gould said the water on the inside was fresh and stained and was muddy on the outside. There was also strong winds and tornado warnings, but his party still managed to catch several redfish and a small snook in four hours of fishing.

There was no bait anywhere, so Gould used jigs tipped with shrimp. Gould was returning to fish Wednesday morning and said he was going to try live shrimp or cut baits on the bottom in the hopes of attracting a bit more attention in the muddy water.

EVERGLADES CITY: Capt. Bob Bergin reported that there have been very few fishable days for the past few weeks, but last Saturday was ideal. The waters were glassy calm, so Bergin, accompanied by his wife, Debbie, and friend Walt Smith took a chance and ran offshore onto a wreck. Bergin said he did not see another boat on the water, even with the perfect conditions.

The trip was certainly worth the price of gas. The trio boated tarpon, snook, redfish, permit and two cobia. Bergin said the greatest challenge was to keep the sharks away from their catch.

The outside wrecks are very active now simply because no one has been able to get out to fish them.

WIGGINS PASS/ESTERO BAY: I called Capt. Joey McNichols on Tuesday night for a fishing report and interrupted him teaching his fishing class at Baron Collier High School. McNichols has not been fishing, but one of his students, Mike Malloy, had fished in Estero Bay on Saturday and was kind enough to furnish a brief report.

Malloy said the water was very stained and tannic, and fishing was fairly tough. Malloy used pinfish and jigs and caught three snook, plus an 18-inch sheepshead.

Malloy reported the tide was running out, and even though the weather was nice, there were hardly any other boats on the bay.

FRESHWATER: Jess Edwards of the Golden Gate Tackle Box said the fishing in the canals is poor.

The bass were just beginning to bite before this last rain, but now there is too much water and it is running off too fast. There is also an unexplained fish kill in a few of the canals.

The best freshwater fishing this week will be in the lakes or ponds where there is little or no current or flow. There also might be some fish caught around the weirs where there are eddies with less current.