For years, local fishermen have sworn off Lake Griffin off of U.S. 27 because of widespread pollution and a lack of fish. But that’s changed thanks to years of hard work.
Beginner fisherman Bob Hoake makes catching a fish look easy.
Skip Goerner, the owner of this fishery off Lake Griffin is capturing the moment because he knows a few years ago, that wasn't the case.
"Sunlight couldn't penetrate through the water so we had no plant life left. You know the birds were gone," Goerner said.
The abundance of bass vanished too. So did other wildlife. From 1997 to 2004, 453 alligators were found belly up. The water they were floating in was described as "pea soup" in color.
"A lot of businesses cease to exist when things like this happen,” Goerner said.
Goerner was so frustrated he invited the Florida Fish and Wildlife to see how bad it was. They caught two very small bass fish that day. That caught the eye of the local government and so the money started flooding in.
According to Doug Watson with the Florida Environmental Protection Agency, the lake has changed. They spent $2 million investigating the problem, which turned out to be a toxic type of blue green algae.
"Today it is somewhat green, but not as bad as year's past," he said.
A machine dredging the water now maintains its quality. In the late 1990s, the people behind the Bass Tournament said they would never return the lake. But for the first time this year, fishermen who were checking out Lake Harris maneuvered their boats into Lake Griffin.
Today, they're calling it one of the top ten destinations to fish in the country.