Species hunting adventures in Florida: Part 3.

On the third day of our trip I felt dreadful, and the weather was dreadful too. It was very wet and very windy. After visiting a large sporting goods store for a look at the fishing tackle, we had Cuban sandwiches for lunch and I tried to figure out somewhere we could go fishing that would offer us some protection from the elements. We ended up visiting Silver Palm Park, where I thought we might be able to tuck ourselves away under the draw bridge there. 

Upon arrival, we realised that we could get a little shelter if we went underneath the bridge into the “wildflower park” next door. No wildflowers to be seen, just a landscaped park with metal sculptures of flowers. Anyway, the problem was, I didn’t think fishing was permitted there. Determined to keep us dry and catch some fish, I got setup and started fishing anyway, figuring at worst we’d be asked to leave. There were insane numbers of sergeant major close in, so after catching a few, I started casting further out. I caught a few fish before an understanding park ranger arrived and told us we couldn’t fish where we were and politely asked us to head back to Silver Palm Park where fishing was permitted!

I caught a few tomtate grunt,…

…and a couple of lane snapper before we were asked to move. 

There were some canvas canopies in Silver Palm Park, but the wind was blowing the rain in at an angle, and they were set back from the water's edge. In short, they weren't very effective shelters. Lillian stayed underneath one, and I stood in the rain fishing for a while. A few fish were biting, and I caught a few slippery dick and a few checkered puffer.

Slippery when wet? Slippery all the time!

I caught a few checkered puffer, my first puffer species of the trip.

Party trick time!

It was far from ideal, so we decided to pack up and leave once I had used up the two shrimps I had cut up into chunks. I was also feeling absolutely terrible and told Lillian that I was sorry, but I just wanted to go back to our accommodation, so I could crawl into bed. That’s exactly what I did when we got back. I think I fell asleep about 17:00, and slept right through until the following morning. Right through all the rain and thunderstorms that Lillian described as pretty wild. 

By early afternoon the rain had begun to subside, and I felt a bit better, so we headed to the Sawgrass Trailhead At Atlantic Boulevard armed with a tub of worms. I fished from one of the sluice gates over the canal and there were a few fish around. After about an hour we had to run back to the car to get out of a heavy rain shower, but it passed over fairly quickly and afterwards the clouds began to break up, the sun occasionally appearing through the gaps, and the fish seemed to become more active. 

I prefer the second option!

From the deeper water in the centre of the canal I caught some spotted tilapia,...

…and some redear sunfish.

Some of them were a reasonable size!

Switching my attention to some smaller fish that seemed to prefer the rocky margins of the canal, I caught another two species for the first time. The second came out from under a rock and grabbed my worm before trying to make a dash back from where it had come from.

I caught a few of these nice looking spotted sunfish,…

…and my first warmouth. An aggressive little ambush predator and another member of the sunfish family.

After a break for lunch, we headed to Vista View Park on the recommendation of someone we had got chatting with as we fished. He told us that the ponds there were full of fish, so I thought it was worth a visit. Once there, I fished from a small pier. I caught some bass, a few Mayan cichlids and some bluegills. I believe the bluegill were actually a subspecies, called coppernose bluegill. They are only found in a couple of regions, one being southern Florida. Their status may very well change in the future, and like the Florida bass, they may be reclassified as a distinct species in their own right. 

 A nicely marked Mayan cichlid. 

I believe this is a coppernose bluegill. 

You can see where the name comes from. 

Pretty soon it was time to leave as the park was about to close. I’d really been enjoying the sessions I'd done in freshwater. Before the trip I thought I'd spend the majority of my time fishing for saltwater species, but it had been a fairly even split so far, and I didn't really see that changing during the rest of the holiday either. 

Tight lines, Scott.

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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.

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Species hunting adventures in Florida: Part 1.

Since the middle of December last year, I hadn't done any fishing. The weather all winter was pretty terrible, but being honest, after last year's species hunt, which saw me catch two hundred and twenty two species, I think I was a little bit burnt out and just needed a break! Realising that I had to get back into the swing of things, at the end of January, a two week holiday to Florida was booked. Midway through March, Lillian and I flew out there.

Our first time in the United States would predominantly be a fishing holiday, and I did lots of research in the months prior to going. I scoured the internet, spoke to various people in the species hunting community, and soon had lots of spots to fish for a wide variety of species. More than I could visit in two weeks! After arriving late in the evening, picking up our hire car from Miami International Airport and getting our first experience of "hitting the highway", we arrived at our accommodation and unpacked. It was too late to go fishing, so we got some food and went to bed. The following morning, we decided to visit Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach, where things got off to a great start. Setting up my Rock Rover, I opted to fish from a small platform on the western side of the park. Small pieces of shrimp on small hooks tempted a variety of fish, and the bites came thick and fast. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining, and it felt wonderful to be out catching fish again, mostly new species into the bargain.

My first fish of the trip. I think this is a silver porgy.

It was quickly followed by a few more, then a few sergeant major. No identification issues with this colourful damselfish.

I caught a few yellowtail snapper as well,…

…and a solitary juvenile porkfish.

There were a lot of these bright yellow French grunt around,…

…as well as their less colourful cousin, the tomtate grunt.

In amongst the sergeant major, I caught this solitary cocoa damselfish.

I also caught this fish, which looks very similar to the silver porgy. However, based on a few differences, I believe this one is actually a spottail pinfish. I'm happy to be corrected on either of the identifications, so if you think I'm wrong, please get in touch!

After a while, I moved a short distance from the fishing platform to the northwest corner of the park. The water directly out in front of it was a lot deeper and there were rocks close in, providing structure for the fish to congregate around. I caught more fish at this location, but I wasn't adding any new species to my tally, so we began to slowly work our way along the park's north side.

The northwest corner of the park was by far the most productive area, but only produced more of what I'd caught already.

On the north side the water was a lot shallower, with a few rocks dotted around on the bottom closer in, and a relatively clean sandy area further out. This change in habitat produced fewer fish, but they were mainly new species, so it was a good decision to try there. 

Close in amongst the rocks on the bottom, I caught this masquerader hairy blenny when it shot out from underneath a boulder to snatch my bait. It looks very similar to a hairy blenny. The hairy blenny however has a well defined white halo around the spot on its gill plate.

I also caught a few of the naughtily named slippery dick. This one posed nicely. The others were a real pain to handle, hence their name I suppose. Strangely, Lillian didn't want anything to do with handling slippery dick, despite me requesting assistance several times. The dirty jokes soon wore a little thin I think!

Casting further out, I caught a couple of dwarf sand perch,...

...a solitary dusky flounder,...

…and my first two mojarra of the trip. Having sought help identifying them I now suspect they were tidewater mojarra, but they’re a group of fish that can be very difficult to positively identify. Again, if you can help, please let me know!

It was soon time for an afternoon break, so we drove to the nearby Manatee Lagoon to hopefully see one of the large, slow moving, aquatic mammals that live in the waters around Florida. The Lagoon is next to the hot water outlet of a power station, and the manatees are attracted to the area by the artificially hot water there. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to spot a single manatee near the surface, but before we could get a photo, it swam down out of sight and didn't resurface again.

The Florida manatee. Strange creatures!

Before heading into the Florida Manatee Eco-Discovery Center to learn more about Florida manatee we did see a large shoal of barracuda.

There were quite a few of these fairly large greater barracuda enjoying a hot water spa treatment. There were no fishing signs though, so a return at a later time armed with suitable tackle was out of the question sadly.

On the way back to our hire car, we spotted another big grey beast in the shape of this huge jacked up truck.

The motorists of Florida do love their big vehicles. Great for loading up with fishing tackle and towing boats!

Returning to Phil Foster Park, I began fishing again at the northwest corner. The tide was coming in, and the current was a lot stronger as a result. Not as many fish were biting, and I caught fewer than I had during the morning session. A shoal of planehead filefish eventually turned up, and I caught half a dozen of them in a very short period, one after the other, before they left again. They fight quite well for their size, and it was fun catching so many consecutively.

The planehead filefish is found right across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first species of the trip that I'd caught before, on some of the Spanish and Portuguese islands of the Eastern Atlantic.

I caught a few more fish, but they were species I'd already encountered earlier in the day, so we decided to move again. This time we headed around to the eastern side of the park. It was very shallow there though, and there were a few no fishing signs up around the pontoons and slipway, so we headed to the bridge just to the east of the park. The current was very strong there, but I caught lots of grunt from some slack water where the bridge opened up. The fish were very aggressive, with bites coming before my rig even got to the bottom. I caught mainly tomtate grunt and French grunt. But in amongst those, I eventually caught a third species of grunt.

My first Sailor's grunt of the trip. These ended up being much less common than the other grunt species.

By this point we were both feeling a little hot, so we opted to seek the refuge of some shade. Initially we walked around to the fishing pier in the southwest corner of the park. I thought that it might be in the shadow of the Jerry Thomas Memorial Bridge, but it wasn't so we ended up leaving it and going directly underneath the bridge instead, where it was nice and cool. There I focused my efforts around the bases of the bridge's legs, casting my rig in as close to the structure as I could. This initially produced a few slippery dick and some small grunt. After a while, something larger picked up my bait and tore off into the current. It was only on for about thirty seconds before the hook pulled. Shortly afterwards, another bigger fish took my bait and charged off, biting through my hooklength almost immediately. Realising that there were larger targets in the vicinity I decided to tie on a stronger leader, changing from 6lb to 12lb, and I also swapped out my pin hook for a much stronger chinu pattern. This paid dividends when something else picked up my shrimp chunk and made a run for it. At one point I thought the fish was going to make it around the concrete legs of the bridge, but at the last moment I managed to turn its head, and it headed down the current away from the bridge. After a few more minutes of slow but steady pressure, an amazing looking fish came to the surface and was netted by Lillian, who did a fantastic job of landing the rather bizarre looking fish for me.

Wow! What an awesome and unexpected capture! My first angelfish. I'd later identify this as a French angelfish.

Well worthy of a trophy shot! I knew straight away it could potentially end up being the coolest fish of the trip.

By this point we were both feeling a bit tired and hungry, and we both agreed that this was a great fish to end the session on. The first day had been pretty awesome, and I'd caught a lot of interesting fish. The following day we were going to visit some freshwater venues. On previous trips abroad, I've mainly focused on fishing for saltwater targets. On this trip, I was keen to fish freshwater a lot more.

Tight lines, Scott.

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Winter woes.

Well, the weather over the past couple of months has pretty much brought my species hunting for the year to a shuddering halt. I have made a couple of attempts at catching grayling on the River Clyde, but sadly I blanked on both occasions. Despite trying various stretches of the water, I just couldn't locate a shoal of fish. In addition, I have visited Drumtassie Coarse Fishery for a couple of sessions, hoping to pick up either my first Scottish barbel or my first every sturgeon. The fishing there was also very hard going. One solitary roach was all I caught on my first outing! I did slightly better during my second trip, catching a few small carp and a perch using both float ledger and method feeder tactics.

One of three common carp I caught. Not the fish I was hoping would munch my maggots and dendrobaena worms!

In amongst the common carp I also caught this little mirror carp. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to manage to add any more species to this years tally given yet another storm system is on its way. I might have another go at catching a grayling if the weather allows it, and I did also fancy a trip down south to target zander. I’m not sure if I’ll manage to squeeze that in before the end of 2023 if I'm honest. We shall see.

Tight lines, Scott.