Ham

37) Barramundi This has been a dream fish of mine, but I never expected to get one. I didn’t figure that I would ever make it to Australia and I never imagined that they would become available in the US. It is a pay to play deal and the ponds have a bunch of them, but it’s still fishing. Some days they don’t bite as well as others. Cooler weather has the larger fish negative to neutral. I eventually managed to get a few. They are an impressive fish and I know it sounds Silly, but this is a Fun deal and I recommend it to everyone and I hope to make it there again.

36) Oscar a very much desired FlyFer on this trip. I saw a pair of fish I wasn’t 100% on acting strangely. They drifted in and out of sight always at the edges of my vision. I caught up with them after a bit and I could see it was a pair guarding fly. It took a few casts, but Dad peeled off and ate. pretty decent tussle and I being paranoid Hollered and got Dave’s attention for landing assistance and got him to get the net. He was kind enough to do so. After a couple of quick pics, we sent Dad back to do his job. This is only my second Oscar ever. My other one was Much Larger.

Water is at a Good Level. Water should be a decent temp. I haven’t been, but I’m pretty confident that conditions would be good.

Sorry to hear that. RIP

I’m gonna practice Bro. Next Time!

Heat, humidity, and 18 hour days. Fishing is such a relaxing hobby.

35) Florida Gar Like their local cousins, this can be a difficult catch or an unavoidable catch. Moody and difficult to stick. We saw singles and mega groups, but they were most catchable when we were Tarpon fishing with surface flys. It was difficult to determine what was throwing a wake to check out your fly. they look like Spotted Gar, but they get MUCH larger than Spotted Gar. Chonky Boi. i expected to catch 25 or them and I probably set the hook on that many. I landed exactly two. Both of mine were consolation prizes for coming up short in The Tarpon Thunder Dome, but Hey at least I didn’t have to spin the wheel right.

I tried to defer to the next elevator, but they insisted

I got dibs on “Frick”

I appreciate y’all helping with that. I know you get a lot out I helping others.

34) African Jewelfish I was looking for Pike Killifish when we found these guys. Super excited to get the first few and grew to hate them as they robbed me of Creasted Goby and a couple more lifers by being Uber aggressive with my natural baits. Dave was smarter than me, but that’s not his fault. At least, I did plan ahead and being really small flies for smaller fish. I did get this other color version on worm also

I feel like I was more alligator aware (paranoid) than he was. There were plenty, but overall I think I saw less than expected. I fished around three gators that I think had learned to steal struggling fish from fishermen. I didn’t lose any fish and Dave didn’t tell me about losing a fish to a gator.

You will be known by the company you keep.

33) Spotted Sunfish Dave is a mysterious guy. Spotted Sunfish was his #1 target of the trip. I was pretty confident we would both get plenty and I was correct.

32) Florida Largemouth Bass Happy to have him. the tax man was hopeful

I would not put my fingers anywhere near the mouth of any Lingcod

31) Warmouth I didn’t get a Warmouth on fly last year. I got quite a few on this trip. First one came out from a gap in the rocks at our second stop while I was residing on struggle street.I got bigger and prettier ones later.

Dave is trying to avoid unnecessary carbs these days. He did agree to close the trip with a Sunkist Salute.

30) Mayan Cichlid My Lifer and FlyFer all in one. The fish kill knocked their numbers down enough that I don’t hate them at all. These fish are Big Fun to pull on. I got to sight fish some too

29) Coppernose Bluegill I find the Coppernose Bluegill really interesting. It took a little bit for me to get any of the larger ones on fly. Sadly, my largest one came on bread while trying for Midas Cichlid.

If I lived < 10 hrs away, I’d do a trip down there every year. As it is, I hope I make it down there before I get too old to fish Hard.

28) Zebra Tilapia A digital friend shared this location with me, but little details about how to catch em. Dave and I had to work that out. They run your stuff really hard, but often refuse to eat it. We needed to keep switching flies and find a fish here and a fish there that would eat. The first one I hooked straightened the hook on a bluegill fly I tied. I wrapped sheep wool around a hook to make a slow sinking, maggot looking fly. It gotten eaten immediately, but was useless against that tank. You’d better not have your line wrapped around your rod tip or you are going to have a broken rod. They were a lot of fun to catch.

I ❤️ your dream.

So, a few lessons learned from the MMM trip. 1) You can be over prepared and have stuff be in the way. I had too much I wanted to try to do and too much gear as a result. I will do better next time. I think I had the right number or rods/reels, but one should have been a dedicated back up left if it’s case in suitcase. 2) Tamiami trail is amazing and has so many possibilities, but even great spots aren’t great every day. We spent too long in spots trying to make something happen when somewhere just down the road it is happening. Every spot should get 15 minutes to work/ be looked at. If you aren’t feeling it after 15 minutes leave. We got better at this after a day or so. The corollary rule is that no spot should get over an hour unless it is a really big spot and you are moving along. If you’re catching Spotted Sunfish, Coppernose, Warmouth, and Mayans at will, but after an hour it’s still just those fish MOVE. 3) Florida Gar are weird. We presented to a lot of them and in the day time they were picky and not eating or good, but at dusk they would choke on it. If you want a Florida Gar on fly, fish for tarpon at dusk and you’ll get one. 4) maybe 5 days of fishing and a travel day would have been better. The 18 hour days with heat/humidity were wearing me down. I got overheated multiple days. I only had one night where my legs got cramps though. #stayhydrated 5) African Jewelfish are every bit as annoying as tiny Longears, Mosquitofish, and mummichogs. They will not let you get a bait down to other micros that are slower to eat. 6) 50 years of bass fishing does not prepare you for tarpon fishing. The violence of those fish in confined spaces is overwhelming and my ingrained desire to turn that fish NOW was not helpful. I went 0-5 and that really hurts my feelings, but I really believe that equipment failure cost me the last one. I would have dearly loved to have that bigger than I dreamed of tarpon in the water at my feet, but it’ll have to wait. I truly believer I could have handled the 12-24 inch tarpon without too much difficulty, but I shopped at the wrong store for those. muy was an awesome trip with so many memorable moments both fishing and non fishing. Lots of laughs. Thanks Again @FishnDave

Tuesday morning was a disappointment. I had looked at canals heading east out of Homestead, Fl that connected to the ocean. Research showed lots of species I was interested in catching. We sleep in just a touch 0700 grabbed a quick complimentary breakfast and then headed out. i stopped a little early. Clear water with massive grass beds, but not a lot of fish moving. Headed downstream and found chocolate milk with spinach. A work vessel was chopping up the grass beds to keep water flowing out at a good rate I guess. Some connecting canals looked better, but the only bites were mosquitos. So trying to be cognizant that we had little time, on to the next spot, but mapping was being dopey and could not get us there. It kept trying to route us down muddy farm roads and private roads. So, I gave up. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have routed to Snake Creek Park or Falls Boat Ramp or back to the Zebra Tilapia hole BUT I was trying to be better at staying on task and not give in to just catching fish. We tried Dave’s Jags canal and we each caught a fish. His was wonderful. Mine was quite small. Technically, I caught the made fish of the trip so I have that going for me. Fantastic trip! I missed (more than) a few of the fish I really wanted, but found some that I didn’t know were out there. It was a little Bad Luck with that hard cold snap that killed thousands of fish a few weeks before we arrived. I appreciate Dave’s willingness to humor my whimsical pursuits. We fish well together and helped each with fish locations or fish landing multiple times. I told Dave we would get him his target species and exceed his goal of 100 species Lifetime on Fly. As it turns out, I was right. Thanks Dave! I hope we can do another crazy trip together!