Even professional flats guides can pole a boat only so far, dozens of guides and anglers told Everglades National Park staff at a Wednesday hearing in Tavernier.<BR><BR>A proposal to declare about a third of Florida Bay -- more than 131,000 shallow acres -- as pole-and-troll zones would effectively ban access to many popular fishing areas, said speakers at the first Keys hearing on the park's preferred alternative for its updated rules.</p><p>"Lots of these areas are where the fish are. I can't spend hours and hours to get into them," said Upper Keys guide Bill Wert. "If the wind changes, now I've got to pole my living brains out -- and I'm 67."</p><p>Although the session that attracted more than 130 people to the Coral Shores High School Performing Arts Center technically was for all the 614-page plan to update Everglades National Park's management plan for the first time in 34 years, virtually everyone wanted to focus on Florida Bay waters.</p><p>Pole-and-troll zones would require boaters to use only push poles or electric trolling motors. While some areas are relatively small, a few are more than a mile wide.</p><p>Rather than expansive no-motor areas, guides appealed for more idle-speed zones and use of traditional channels through large flats like Nine Mile Bank north of Islamorada.</p><p>"We know how to run these channels," guide Tim Klein said. "We can't pole or troll; we'd never get through. People use these channels."</p><p>"If we can idle out without leaving a mud spot, we should be able to idle out," Klein said.</p><p>"I challenge any of you to pole for a mile and a half into the wind," said Dianne Harbaugh, regional representative for the Coastal Conservation Association. That group "does not find the preferred alternative an acceptable alternative, mostly due to access," she said.</p><p>Anglers pointed to the need for more channels into Whipray Basin, and near areas like Rabbit Key, Coon Key and Man of Key, among others.</p><p>Guides will lose business if most of a chartered trip is spent poling into an area where fish may be sparse, they said.</p><p>"I don't think you know what you're asking us to do," guide Ted Benbow said. "If [fishing] is not happening, we have to get out of there."</p><p>Ginny Campiola, a Tavernier angler, said long-distance poling "absolutely would not allow me to do what I've been doing for 35 years. I'm not that strong, I can't do it."</p><p>Experienced Keys guides and anglers "aren't the ones screwing stuff up," guide Dave Perkins said. "We don't want that gunk in our engine."</p><p>"We know how much everyone here cares about the bay," Park Superintendent Dan Kimball said in closing remarks. "We heard a lot about getting in and out and areas that need access."</p><p>The preferred alternative plan could be amended "using your ideas to make it a better plan," Kimball said. A requirement for all Florida Bay boaters to take some type of education session -- likely an online course -- received widespread approval Wednesday. "Education solves a lot of problems," Kimball said.</p><p>Public comment on the plan will be open until May 12. A Key Largo comment hearing takes place April 10 at the Murray E. Nelson Government and Cultural Center. Two additional sessions in Key West and Marathon will be added but have not yet been scheduled, parks staff said.</p><p>The final plan will be adopted in 2014.