2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 11)

Since we started the trip a day behind schedule, we decided to extend the trip one extra day. My sister and George wanted to visit Magic Kingdom and they had already purchased tickets in advance. So while they visit the theme park, Michael and I headed to Tampa to fish.

We arrived in the same creek where we caught Jack Dempsey on Dec 28. While we saw some Striped Mullet, they refused to bite our bread. We fished closed to the weeds and finally found some Jack Dempsey, including this beautiful male.

We saw some Rio Grande Cichlid swimming around but they were extremely wary. We tried all sorts of methods trying to get them to bite. Finally, I had one bit on a small piece of free lined bread but the fish took me to the weeds and the hook came out! I was so adamant on catching a Rio Grande that I made a tactical error. We should have simply spent more time fishing saltwater for species.

Since Tampa was 2 hours from Orlando, we didn’t arrive in Tampa until 12pm. After spending 3 hours at the creek, we only had a couple of hours at best before sunset. It was too late to fish at Skyway Pier, but we found a free pier along a bridge to fish for an hour.

We had no squid for bait. Honestly, I didn’t want to wet too many rods. So we only grabbed two rods each but I mainly fished with a sabiki rig. We only had nightcrawlers so I put on small segments of worms on the hook. I searched by the pilings and found nothing holding near the structure. Instead, I cast into Tampa Bay and worked the grass flats. On my third cast, I felt a strong tap and set the hook into a smaller fish that pulled hard on the light spinning rod and 8lb test. It was a Silver Perch!

Silver Perch (Bairdiella chrysoura) – new species #23

Michael joined me on my side of the pier and soon caught his first Silver Perch as well. A few cast later, I was had worked the sabiki back to the bridge when I saw a silver flash on my sabiki and I set the hook into a strong running Horse-eye Jack!

Horse-eye Jack (Caranx latus) – new species #24

I was hoping to find some Pinfish for Michael to add on his list. We went back to the parking area where I saw some. We quickly caught a few Pinfish. If we only had more time to fish, I would have cast out a cut Pinfish on a shark rig. The bay looks very sharky for smaller juvenile blacktip or bonnethead.

We had to return to Orlando to pick up my sister and her boyfriend from the theme park. On that note, it was the end of our fishing trip. We left Orlando on Jan 8 at 5am and drove to Toledo, Ohio by 1:30am on Jan 9. We then left Toledo at 6am after a night at a motel and arrived in Toronto at 12:30pm.

It was a great road trip to see my family and I fully took the opportunity to catch a number of new species. Many of the freshwater species were very challenging due to the cold weather. We had an absolute blast fishing the Keys and I can see myself fishing the Keys for a week next time! I was absolutely pleased to have caught a huge Grass Carp, conquered the Cobra Snakehead, and tried our hands at shark fishing. Now it is time to read up more on shark fishing and the whereabouts of those pesky Oscars!

With 24 new species added, I'm now up to a total of 301 species!

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 10)

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We were hoping to get some fishing this morning. However, we had to pack the car and return to Orlando before evening. We didn’t end up fishing at all.

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 9)

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Really, this was a continuation of our fishing through the night. After we changed our baits to cut herring, I was fishing the dropper loop trying to find some fresh bait to use when Michael yelled I have a fish on my rig. I couldn’t hear the clicker since a couple of trucks were passing by. When I finally got to the rod, Michael was already fighting the fish. A little tussle later, we brought a 15” Mangrove Snapper up the bridge. Strangely, it bit the heavy wire on the 5/0 hook.

That was the only excitement all night. There were a couple of short rip on the line, but I suspect it was nothing more than clumps of grass dragging our lines. We had some broken sleep since the reels were clinking every so often when grass foul up our lines.

When the sun finally rose, the fish returned to the pilings. We were once again catching a steady supply of grunts. Michael caught a couple of parrotfish, a filefish and even a Bermuda Chub! I was a bit jealous to say the least LOL.

I did have my revenge when I caught 4 Southern Puffer in a roll and Michael has yet to catch one.

By 10am, we were really too tired to fish anymore. We had been up fishing for 28 hours straight. Since we planned to head home around noon, we packed up and grabbed lunch.

We were originally planning to fish our Midas Cichlid spot to see if we can find more Oscars. I was quite fished out so I really just wanted to drive back to my uncle’s house. Along the way, Michael was begging to try the Tamarac area for Cobra Snakehead. We checked out one spot but it didn’t look promising. As we were running short of daylight, I suggested that we should fish a canal where I’ve seen Snakeheads before.

Michael was fishing a weedless plastic frog while I was fishing a special weedless prop blade hard resin frog lures I bought online from a Thailand lure maker. It was a coincidence that the morning we were planning to leave for Florida (Dec 27) we were delayed due to the snowstorm. While waiting for the highway to clear, the package of Thai lures arrived and I got them just in time to bring with me on this trip.

I was fishing this lure systematically, first casting parallel to shore running them just inches from the weed line, then I cast at 25 degree angle, 45 degree angle and 65 degree angle, before finally casting directly across the canal to work the lure from the other shore over to our side of the canal.

We were about 30 minutes into our fishing when I made a cast directly across the shore and landed the lure on the shoreline grass. I gingerly worked the lure into the water and took maybe 2 cranks when I saw a wake came at my lure and the lure disappeared. I felt the fish, set the hook and was hoping it wasn’t a Largemouth Bass. When the fish came close to shore, I saw the long shape and immediately dragged the fish up the shore and dragged it as far as I could.

Cobra Snakehead (Channa marulius) – new species #22

I had tried to catch Cobra Snakehead in April 2011 but failed miserably. I could see them all over the canals, and big ones too, but failed to get them to bite. Strangely, after some cold weather, I managed to find a small Cobra Snakehead using a topwater lure!

Michael pounded the water for a while longer but didn’t find another Snakehead in the area. I strongly believe that the cold water shut these fish off the bite. I suspect that if we return in warmer weather, these Thai lures would be absolutely deadly for the snakeheads!

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 8)

We started the day early again at our previous morning spot. Our hope was to fish the slack low early since it was more fishable when there was less seagrass. The bite was fairly slow to start this morning. I caught a small Littlehead Porgy almost immediately, but then the bite was slow. I tossed out a dropper loop for a while to fish on a deadstick. I caught a couple of Southern Puffer but no more porgy. Surprisingly, I found a Buffalo Trunkfish biting!

Buffalo Trunkfish (Lactophrys trigonus) – new species #14

While checking bait and casting out again, I was just setting the baitrunner on my reel and putting the rod down when line was ripped out of the reel! There was a strong fish on the other end and it was pulling decent drag off my Shimano Baitrunner 4500 with 50lb braid and a 30lb dropper loop. The #6 hook was holding fine and I added a little more pressure on the fish. We finally saw the fish and I was super excited. It was a nice Yellow Jack! There were stunning electric blue marking on a golden body…the picture can’t do the fish justice!

Yellow Jack (Carangoides bartholomaei) – new species #15

I sent out my rig again. Another 15 minute passed before there was a good strong run on the baitrunner! I told Michael to grab the rod since I was fishing a sabiki away from the rod. When I got there, the fish had already ran out 1/4 of my spool. I put a little more pressure trying to stop it, but the fish put on a second stronger run. At this point, I was calling either a shark or a ray. Finally, the fish slowed and I was slowly pumping the rod to gain line. The fish came in fairly easily until it saw us. It was a stingray, and it now decided to sit on the bottom. I start strumming the line to annoy the ray and it worked. The ray swam off on a little run again but we managed to hold it close to shore. A few moments of trying to fit it into the pier net…and we lifted it up over the seawall!

Southern Stingray (Dasyatis americana) – new species #16

It has a nasty stinger that I was trying to stay away from getting stung.

We didn’t have any more excitement when the tide came in. It was quite hard to fish the dropper loop since the current was full of seagrass. We only had 3 small grunts and two porgy for bait, but we decided to grab lunch and try one of the bridges for the afternoon bite.

When we arrived at our bridge spot at 2pm, the tide was still coming in at this spot. We were fishing from the old car bridge. People were casting toward the new car bridge. Michael and I decided to fish in the eddy of the bridge support of our bridge using a dropper loop rig with 3 hooks and a 3oz sinker. We were immediately into a mess of grunts!

We started off with a few Bluestriped Grunts, but then I found a small Mangrove Snapper.

The next fish was a Sailor’s Grunt!

Sailor’s Grunt (Haemulon parra) – new species #17

 We set up a couple of rods to target sharks. Maybe we were a little naïve to start. Michael was fishing a small grunt with 40lb mono tied to a 5/0 hook. I was fishing a 6oz egg sinker on a Carolina rig with 60lb mono leader and 40lb mainline. I put a small grunt on the 5/0 circle hook too. Both Michael and I got picked up and broken off within the first 30 minutes of soaking our bait. Michael saw his shark surfaced and said it was a 5-6 foot shark. I didn’t get to see my fish, but it ran off some line very quickly before breaking me off as I engaged the reel.

After that, we set out a large grunt on the 6/0 rig with 180lb leader. On my rig, I tied on 20 yards of 100lb mono rub leader plus a 3’ section of 80lb stee leader. Strangely, neither Michael nor I got another shark hit once we switched to steel leader. It was a little disappointing.

While I was fishing the dropper loop, I saw some needlefish follow my bait. They would grab the bait but let go when they felt tension on the line. So I rig up a light spinning rod with 8lb mainline, 12lb fluoro leader and a #14 octopus hook. I put on a small piece of squid and drifted the bait with the current without any weight on the line. The needlefish were quick to key in on the drifting bait. When one of the picked up the bait, I opened the bail to let the fish take line without feeling tension. When I felt the fish had taken the bait far enough, I set the hook into my first Atlantic Needlefish!

Atlantic Needlefish (Strongylura marina) – new species #18

We caught more grunts on the dropper loop. Whenever we can, we cut up a grunt to send out some fresh bait on the shark rig. While replenishing our grunt supply, I found a female Redtail Parrotfish!

Redtail Parrotfish (Sparisoma chrysopterum) – new species #19

 Michael was fishing one piling and caught the first of many Porkfish. For some reason, I caught many more Bluestriped Grunt, White Grunt and Sailor’s Grunt but can’t find one of these Porkfish. Michael caught so many Porkfish that he sent one out on a balloon rig when we saw these guys.

 There was a small school of tarpon holding in the current right at our bridge spot. There were a couple of them that looked to be over 100lbs! The current was outgoing now and the tarpon were facing away from us into the current, so there was no way for us to get a bait to these fish when they were holding under the bridge away from us. When they finally swam around, they passed right by the balloon rig without so much as a look. They were obviously looking for something else to chew on…maybe mullet, shrimp or crab.

Toward the evening, there were a few more chunky White Grunts. I could have kept a few for the table…but it was too much work to lug the big cooler of ice onto the bridge.

Finally, after cursing at Michael a few times for catching all my Porkfish, I finally caught my first…and definitely won’t be the last. Once I caught my first one, they seemed to be everywhere!

Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) – new species #20

The action was good even as the sun sets.

After the sun set, the fishing changed. Fish vacated the bridge pilings and were now found about 40 yards from the bridge on the sea grass bed. Annoyingly, Michael kept catching Schoolmaster Snapper without trying. I have yet to catch a Schoolmaster Snapper, but while we were fishing the same rig in the same area, I kept hooking up grunts. When the fish finally stopped hitting, we simply tossed out our dropper loop and wait for a bite.  Sometimes, it could be 10 minutes until the next bite. Sometimes, it could be 30 minutes. When I finally had a bite, I found an Oyster Toadfish!

Oyster Toadfish (Opsanus tau) – new species #21

We grabbed a couple of camping chair to prepare to fish all night. We were hoping that the shark bite would improve at night. However, the current was ripping all night and we our lines were constantly fouled by seagrass. We had to clear the lines every hour or so, but that also allowed us to send out fresh bait. Between 7pm – 11pm, there were a few guys fishing next to us trying for grouper and sharks. They caught a bonnethead shark using cut herring. When they finished fishing, they left half a mullet and some cut herring on the pier. Michael found their leftover and we changed our baits to cut herring.

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 8)

We started the day early again at our previous morning spot. Our hope was to fish the slack low early since it was more fishable when there was less seagrass. The bite was fairly slow to start this morning. I caught a small Littlehead Porgy almost immediately, but then the bite was slow. I tossed out a dropper loop for a while to fish on a deadstick. I caught a couple of Southern Puffer but no more porgy. Surprisingly, I found a Buffalo Trunkfish biting!

Buffalo Trunkfish (Lactophrys trigonus) – new species #14

While checking bait and casting out again, I was just setting the baitrunner on my reel and putting the rod down when line was ripped out of the reel! There was a strong fish on the other end and it was pulling decent drag off my Shimano Baitrunner 4500 with 50lb braid and a 30lb dropper loop. The #6 hook was holding fine and I added a little more pressure on the fish. We finally saw the fish and I was super excited. It was a nice Yellow Jack! There were stunning electric blue marking on a golden body…the picture can’t do the fish justice!

Yellow Jack (Carangoides bartholomaei) – new species #15

I sent out my rig again. Another 15 minute passed before there was a good strong run on the baitrunner! I told Michael to grab the rod since I was fishing a sabiki away from the rod. When I got there, the fish had already ran out 1/4 of my spool. I put a little more pressure trying to stop it, but the fish put on a second stronger run. At this point, I was calling either a shark or a ray. Finally, the fish slowed and I was slowly pumping the rod to gain line. The fish came in fairly easily until it saw us. It was a stingray, and it now decided to sit on the bottom. I start strumming the line to annoy the ray and it worked. The ray swam off on a little run again but we managed to hold it close to shore. A few moments of trying to fit it into the pier net…and we lifted it up over the seawall!

Southern Stingray (Dasyatis americana) – new species #16

It has a nasty stinger that I was trying to stay away from getting stung.

We didn’t have any more excitement when the tide came in. It was quite hard to fish the dropper loop since the current was full of seagrass. We only had 3 small grunts and two porgy for bait, but we decided to grab lunch and try one of the bridges for the afternoon bite. When we arrived at our bridge spot at 2pm, the tide was still coming in at this spot. We were fishing from the old car bridge. People were casting toward the new car bridge. Michael and I decided to fish in the eddy of the bridge support of our bridge using a dropper loop rig with 3 hooks and a 3oz sinker. We were immediately into a mess of grunts!

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 7)

It’s great when you wake up to this at your hotel…

We decided to check out a shore spot right by one of the decommissioned bridges. This area has a rubble bottom with some sand patches, a few boulders and beds of seagrass. I was hoping to find a couple new species of porgy here, plus some new grunt species. Everything would be new species for Michael.

It took a while to set up my gear. In the meanwhile, Michael had already landed a Littlehead Porgy. I’ve caught that species before so at least I’m not missing out.

I set up a #14 sabiki rig and started searching for smaller grunt species. My first catch was a Bluestriped Grunt. This was a picture I took of a larger one caught the next day. The smaller ones were just a little darker in colour and less colourful. Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) – new species #10

A few more White Grunt later, I had a nice little surprise. I’ve caught Lane Snapper before but had a poor picture of it. It was my target to catch some to photograph…and I didn’t expect to catch one so soon.

A couple of casts later, I caught a Yellowtail Snapper. Just like the Lane Snapper, it was a species I needed a photograph for my record…and now there is a stunning picture!

Although the sabiki was doing fairly well, I want to catch my porgy species. I started fishing a dropper loop with squid, and found a Littlehead Porgy…not a new species. Porgy are very strong for their size and they are a lot of fun!

Not too long later, I had another stronger fish on line again, and it was a Southern Puffer!

Southern Puffer (Sphoeroides nephelus) – new species #11

At around 11pm, the current started to build on the incoming tide. The water was littered with seagrass and it was difficult to fish the dropper loop. I returned to fishing the sabiki and found a Hairy Blenny. I’ve caught a female of this species before. Now I have a picture of the male of the species.

I was fishing the sabiki tight against the ledge along the sea wall. Many little Sergeant Majors and other damselfish were hiding under the ledge. Occasionally, something else were hiding there, including a juvenile Black Grouper! I saw a Black Grouper in 2010, but since they were out of season at the time I did not target it. Although Black Grouper was out of season even now, this was an incidental catch. This is a picture of another larger juvenile Black Grouper I caught the next day.

Black Grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) – new species #12

While fishing the dropper loop, I had a couple of cowfish follow the larger chunk of squid. When I was fishing along the sea wall, a cowfish came out of nowhere and bit the sabiki! On the first bite, it striped the squid tentacle off the bottom sabiki hook. I dropped the sabiki down fully and the fish started nibbling on the second sabiki hook on the slack line…and when I was confident the fish took the entire hook in the mouth, I set the hook and the cowfish gave a spirited fight!

Scrawled cowfish (Acanthostracion quadricornis) – new species #13<

With increasing current, small grunts were found holding around a large rock. We started catching the small grunts to keep as bait. When the tide finally reach slack high, we had about 10 small grunts. Since the slack tide shut down the bite, we decided to grab lunch and headed to another spot near a bridge to try our hands at some big game shore fishing.

This bridge spot was suggested by a friend. He told me that the first and second bridge support often hold Goliath Grouper, and the water in the area is very sharky. We set up a 6/0 reel loaded with 260 yards of 60lb mono, topped with 30 yards of 100lb mono, and tied on a Carolina rig using an 8oz egg sinker to a 310lb barrel swivel that was part of a 180lb single strand steel leader. At the end of the steel leader was a 10/0 circle hook. This was our “big game rig”.

I could cast this rig about 40-50 yards, but accuracy was pretty poor. So before we deploy this rig out, we cast out small grunts using 3/0 and 4/0 size gear. We put a 14” hound fish on the big game rig and dropped it from the bridge to the first bridge support.

We were fishing an outgoing tide. Our bait were dropped in the eddy behind the bridge support on the down current side. We were hopeful that a shark or a Goliath Grouper would come knocking. However, throughout the tide change and the evening, the rig sat silent. When Michael caught a Schoolmaster Snapper, we dropped it as a livebait and even that was not bit.

Meanwhile, both Michael and I had a couple of rips on the small grunts. In both cases, the fish ripped the grunt off the 5/0 circle hook. We could only guess what it may be. When it was dark, Michael found a couple of Schoolmaster Snappers just under legal size around the bridge support.

I was looking our livebait well to see how many grunts were left when saw a moray eel nosing around. By the time I got a rig ready the eel had left. However, an hour later, I saw an eel hiding right amongst the rocks close to shore. I managed to get it to bite with the head of a squid. I was successful in pulling the eel out of the rock, but while waiting for Michael to clear his line and step back so I can swing the eel onto shore, the eel cut my 30lb mono with its sharp teeth. That eel could have made some wonderful shark bait!

We fished until 10pm with very little action. At the end, we decided to call it a day and return to the hotel for the night.

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 6)

I bought some big game gear from Bass Pro Shops so we can try our hands at shark fishing and perhaps a Goliath Grouper. We spent this morning picking up the gear before having lunch with my mom’s older sister and her husband. After lunch, Michael and I debated whether to try out a spot I’ve identified with a population of Midas Cichlid. To be honest, I was not very confident since the cold weather had all but foiled our freshwater species efforts. Since it was on the water to the Keys, we thought we would at least have a look-see.

We arrived to the canal at 2pm and immediately saw many Midas Cichlids! These fish would not bite worms. When the fish approached us while we stood by the shore, an idea clicked! Ever since we saw the Grass Carp at the other location, we bought a couple loafs of bread just in case we needed it. I suggested that we should toss in some bread to see if the Midas would eat it. Bingo! We’re fishing with bread! These fish were used to eating the bread that people feed to the ducks!

The fish were very picky though. They must have been heavily pressured since they could tell a piece of bread was attached to the hook. In the end, we had to fish the bread on a small #14 octopus hook with a tiny split shot under a float with a very long fluorocarbon leader to allow the bread to sink naturally and into deep water. The fish were a little less wary if the bread sank into deeper water. After about 5 minutes of refining the presentation, I finally had a Midas made a mistake!

Midas Cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus) – new species #8

It took Michael considerably longer to catch his first Midas Cichlid. Catching just one member from the school spooked the other fish and they became even more wary. Waiting for Michael to catch his fish, I played with some Mayan Cichlids that were guarding their nests. They would nudge, bump or gently remove any offensive or intruding objects in their nests, but they would not pick it up enough to be hooked.

While Michael was casting his bread bait, he got picked up twice while on the drop. These were big fish that immediately snapped his line. I knew they were Grass Carp and suggested that maybe we should try a hair rig for them. After he caught his first Midas Cichlid, he was crazy enough to listen to me and tied on a large hair rig and put on a large chunk of bread. He was once again picked up on the drop about 30 minutes later and landed a 15lb Grass Carp.

Seeing the opportunity, I tied on a hair rig too and used a good chunk of bread by wrapping the bread onto the hair rig loop. Michael had 3 rods now fishing the hair rig with bread on bottom for Grass Carp, but they were not getting bit. So I started casting the bread bait and letting it sink naturally, and once the bread hit bottom, I would reel up halfway up the water column and allow the bread to fall again. I was always holding rod and fishing on a tight line. After about 10 casts, I got picked up.

At first, it didn’t feel like a very big fish. The fish was coming up quite easily and I was guessing it was a small Grass Carp. When the fish surfaced and saw me, it put on the after burner! It took about 4 minutes of gentle pressure with the 8lb mono and a couple of tense moments with the net. I told Michael to get a good footing and stay low on the ground. When Michael finally had the fish in the net, it kicked and knocked Michael off balance. He took a tumble, bruised his leg and wet his feet, but he did keep his hands on the net and kept the fish in the bag!

Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) – new species #9

I just had to take a few more pictures…

And the weight on Michael’s digital scale…30.5lbs!!!

A new species, big or small, is magnificent on its own…but this just puts it over the top!!!

After catching the Grass Carp, I had to take a nap before the 2 hours drive to the Keys. Michael fished another 20 minutes without any bites. When I woke up, I walked to the washroom and saw a Butterfly Peacock on the walk back! I ran to grab my rod since I wanted to catch one for a good picture on my list (I’ve caught them in Hawaii previously). We had some pretty gross nightcrawler left, but that was all the bait we had with us. I tossed my worm at the Peacock, and out of nowhere came this Oscar! It swam quickly at my worm, but stopped short when it sniffed the funky smelly worm then turned away.

Man, it’s a tough lesson to swallow…ALWAYS HAVE FRESH FRISKY WORMS!!!

Following the failure, I called it a day and we drove in the dark to the Florida Keys. My sister and her boyfriend were already at the hotel room and we arrived just as they were getting ready to head to bed.

2012 Florida Road Trip (Day 5)

To be honest, fishing was very slow by my expectation. On my trip to Florida in April 2011, there were cichlids and Cobra Snakehead everywhere! I didn’t have much time to fish freshwater last time and was expecting to hammer the freshwater fish on this trip. After a couple of warmer days, we were hoping that fish would be active again and our luck could change.

We woke up earlier this day to reach our fishing location by 7am. Our first spot was a canal in Hammock area following a tip from our friend that we could find numerous willing Midas Cichlid and Mayan Cichlid. There could also be a small number of Jaguar Guapote and Butterfly Peacock. Unfortunately, we arrived to a creek devoid of any cichlids in sight.

After 30 minutes, I finally saw one unwilling Butterfly Peacock and a school of large mullet. Having fished the area thoroughly both shallow and deep without so much as a tap, we decided to head to the Tamiami Canal for the rest of the day.

We really didn’t know how to proceed. The continued slow fishing really dampened our spirit. Despite fishing hard, we just can’t find many of our targets. We debated whether we should head deep into the Tamiami Canal or fish closer to civilization. In the end, we decided to go as deep as possible. I had a number of areas marked on the GPS to try.

Along the way to our final destination, we decided to check out one of my spots for a quick look. Right beside the roadside ditch, we were greeted by wildlife…

Despite the danger of a 7-8 foot alligator, we fished this spot within 15-20 feet of this reptile…since the ditch was literally boiling with Florida Gar!!!

We first tried some small lures to see if they would hit artificial. However, we soon changed to pieces of cut sunfish to fish under a float. Once we started fishing cut sunfish, we were being picked up by gar almost every cast! We had to let the fish take the bait for a while before setting the treble hook, or else we often pull the bait out and the hook would not set. It took a few times to figure out how long we should wait, but we finally caught some Florida Gar!

Florida Gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus) – new species #6

Michael and I both caught our lifer Florida Gar. We were hoping to find other native Florida species such as Warmouth Sunfish and Dollar Sunfish, as well as exotic species like Oscar and African Jewelfish. We were instead pestered by Bluegill Sunfish, Spotted Sunfish and Largemouth Bass. I even had a Bowfin on the line briefly before the hook came out. I tried to horse the fish quickly to shore since our gator friend was now taking notice of our fish on the line. It slowly approached us by creeping closer, then entered the water to sit about 2 feet from our PREVIOUS fishing spot. We both jumped back when we saw the gator enter into the water and swam toward us. Scary moment indeed!

I’ve caught a Spotted Sunfish on my previous trip but didn’t have a great photo. This one was just a little better…

When we found no other interesting species, and having the gator chased us off, we decided to fishing another spot.

As soon as we arrived in the new spot, Michael said he spooked an Oscar. That was quite optimistic…but we only and one other glimpse of the Oscar in the next 3 hours. This spot was filled with Largemouth Bass, some around the 3-4lb range, a very large number of Florida Gar, and a school of tilapia that did not want to bite. We fished the area well trying to find more Oscars or the other target fish mentioned above…but found none. I’m really not sure if it was the cold weather that turned off the bite, or if we were just not fishing the right area. African Jewelfish should be very prevalent in the Tamiami, but we had yet to even see one!

With very little action, I decided to play with the gar. At one point, I caught a bluegill sunfish that was deeply hooked. I tried to keep it in the water to keep it alive while I dig for my hemostat. While the sunfish was in the water, it attracted the notice of the Florida Gar and they started to chase the sunfish. They were following it intensely and I could “walk” the gar like you walk a puppy, haha! Finally, they started to hit the sunfish and grabbed on. The sunfish was a little too big to fit their mouths, so after grabbing on for a while, they would simply drop it. I retrieved the sunfish and cut it up for bait…and that was the beginning of a full hour action with the gar! I could almost get every gar in the area to grab the bait as long as I drift the chunk of sunfish on a free line in the current to the gar. They would grab the chunk and drift back in the current.

Most of the time, I just let them pull around a little and then yank hard to pull the bait out. A few times, I set the hook to fight the gar for a bit before the hook comes out. There was a bigger gar that I had wanted to land for a picture, but as I was lifting the gar out of the water and hand line it up the bridge, the line snapped.

When we had enough of the gar, we decided to fish another spot we passed by. Although the area looks very weedy and every bit the habitat for Oscars, we found no Oscar. Instead, we saw a large bass, caught a couple of bluegills, and hooked a 3-4lb Bowfin that snapped the line when we tried to hand line it over the fence.

We were parked at this place that sells gator tail sandwiches…I just had to try one. It was pretty darn good…MMM!

With about an hour left of daylight, we tried one last effort. We fished closed to the civilized end of the Tamiami before we had to return to my uncle’s house for dinner. We finally found something new with determination! Michael caught his first Butterfly Peacock and I caught my first Banded Cichlid!

Banded Cichlid (Heros severus) – new species #7

I also caught my third Redear Sunfish.