Species hunting adventures in Florida: Part 2.

On the morning of our second day, I wasn't feeling too great. I put it down to all the travelling, a full day out fishing in the glorious Florida sunshine, and probably not drinking as much water as I should have. In the back of my mind however was the fact that a couple of my workmates had been ill the week before we flew out, and I was hoping that I hadn't picked up whatever virus they had been suffering with, as what they had was quite nasty.

Anyway, keen to open my freshwater account, we visited a Walmart Supercenter to grab a large sandwich sub to share for lunch and a tub of redworms from the fishing section. We then drove to the first spot, a large pond surrounded by various office and business buildings. The target species here was a member of the sunfish family, the warmouth. After struggling to find a parking spot that didn't risk the hire car being towed away, we walked around the pond and found a gap in the trees where we could access the water.

A fairly nondescript, reasonably sized, semicircular pond. Florida has hundreds, if not thousands, of water features like this!

Fishing a small section of redworm on a small hook, and casting my helicopter rig just out beyond the lily pads, I got lots of bites straight away and had soon caught a few small bluegill.

My first bluegill from its native range. I've caught them before in Japan.

After a while, Lillian pointed out some small groups of diminutive, but colourful fish, swimming around in the submerged lily stalks a few feet out. I wound in and quickly tied on a smaller hook and squeezed a small split shot a few inches above it. Lowering a tiny piece of redworm into their midst proved irresistible, and I quickly caught a few of them. 

This, I believe, is an African jewelfish. Although there is some controversy around exactly what species of these are present in the water systems of Florida.

This specimen with the deep red markings is the same species I think. Possibly a male in breeding colouration?

After catching a dozen or so, I switched back to my original rig and fished out past the lily pads and also in the gaps between them, to try and catch a warmouth. Sadly, all I managed to catch were more small bluegill. After a while, we decided to have a break for a few hours and headed to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. The gardens were beautiful and there were lots of interesting birds, insects, lizards and fish to see as we enjoyed a relaxing stroll.

We weren't the only people chilling out in the gardens. 

It may look like this Iguana was also relaxing, but being cold-blooded, it was no doubt warming itself up on this rock!

Having seen a few of Mayan cichlid in the various ponds as we had strolled around the Japanese gardens, I was keen to get back to fishing again. Our next stop to do just that was a small pond next to a retail park. The target species there was an oddly named and very colourful cichlid, the Eastern happy. Another species that has been released into the freshwater bodies of Florida by the State’s aquarium owners. Whilst trying to locate one of these, I caught two other species, one of which has only recently been recognised as a species in its own right.

At first glance I thought this was a bluegill, but actually it's the bluegill's cousin, the redear sunfish.

Freelining my worm down in amongst some vegetation whilst searching for an Eastern happy, letting it sink slowly, my rod was pulled over quite abruptly by what turned out to be a small bass. It managed to swim through, and get itself tangled up in some lily stems, but applying gentle force I managed to eventually pull it free.

This is a Florida bass. Only recently recognised as a distinct species. Beforehand, it was considered a subspecies of largemouth bass. They grow much faster than the largemouth and much bigger too. Obviously, this one has some growing still to do!

We spent a bit of time exploring the pond but couldn't locate any Eastern Happy, so we decided to drive to another spot in search of one. The third and final spot for the day’s fishing was a small, relatively shallow ditch by the side of a small road. To look at it, you would not imagine it held many fish if any, but the amount of fish in there and the variety was incredible, taking me somewhat by surprise. 

From this small roadside ditch, my freelined worms caught a ridiculous amount of fish.

As well as bluegill and redear sunfish, I caught lots of super aggressive Mayan cichlids,..

...spotted tilapia,...

...some very cool looking jaguar cichlid,...

...and a nile tilapia too.

In addition, I also managed to catch a couple of Eastern mosquitofish. Dropping my whole worm into the margins, where there were a lot of them, they immeadiately started eagerly attacking it. Two of them biting onto the end of it and holding on while I lifted them out!

An Eastern mosquitofish. Turns out they are ravenous little swines and not too clever either!

By now, some grey clouds had started to roll overhead. Rain was on the way and thunderstorms were forecast the following evening. Whilst I was having lots of fun raiding the roadside ditch and catching lots of new species in the process, I was also aware that I was feeling a little under the weather myself. My nose was beginning to turn into a water feature, my eyes were itchy, and a headache was developing. At that point, I was pretty certain the lads at work had given me a parting gift. We called it a day on the fishing front and headed to a pharmacy to get something that would hopefully alleviate my steadily worsening symptoms.

Tight lines, Scott.