Johnsfolly

JF #41 Dusky Damselfish also a lifer.

I think that I saw one Jaguar guapote in the canal park where we didn't get a bite. It swam off pretty quickly, but very different looking fish than what we saw later in the glades. We never found any jewelfish which I would have thought had been common throughout that area.

Maybe as hard as those cichlids we caught in Miami 🤣

So many more targets in Florida. Just can't do it all in one trip. I wanted to eat lion fish while down there, but we never got the chance to snorkelfish😒.

Saturday was out real last fishing day and we only had a few hours to fish two spots about 90 mins apart before we had to run up to Daytona to meet a friend for dinner. I will say that each canal that you pass over in S FL may look like they hold fish that is just not the case. We were heading to a spot on the Tamiami canal out Rt 41 when I saw a samll park along a canal. We stopped to fish. Under the one bridge was a homeless man's house and his restroom. The whole canal had a smell of urine. Only saw a few fish and no bites. Did see a bunch of iguanas along the bank. Left there and went to the first spot that I wanted to fish and someone was there, then the next and so on. I have heard from folks to just stop anywhere and you will get into fish. Well that really does seem to be true. We stopped near a culvert and fished the canal as well as the outlet into the glades. We saw peacock bass defending beds all along the bank in the canal. We threw small plastics at them and they would swipe at the bait but not really have it in their mouths. We switched to tossing a 1/32 oz jig head with worm and that was the trick for the rest of the day. Livie hooked up first and lost her fish as I was coming with the net. Her next one was a successful landing of her first peacock bass! She generously let me use her rod and I lost two before landing this male peacock. Livie also caught a small mayan cichlid but hasn't given me that photo. I did land a few myself including this large mayan cichlid. They are probably slightly better fighters than oscars. We switched over to the culvert and there were mayans, peacocks, bluegill, largemouth bass, and later a florida gar and a couple of oscars. I landed some bluegill and a nice redear sunfish. The peacocks and LMB were spooky in the clear water. We saw two big oscars go under the willow brush. I had Livie drop a bait into a hole in the willows and she got a heavy bite but lost the fish. She followed that up with pulling out a bluegill. I still felt that there were fish in there and she tried again and hung into and landed her first oscar! I also pulled out a bluegill and another oscar out of that brush! Before we left we tried for a florida gar. It took my bait then spit it out just as quickly and didn't go for anything else before moving off. We had to get going to the next spot if we were going to be able to fish. The next spot was Arthur R Marshall Loxahatchee NWR in Palm Beach county. I targetted this spot since there have been records of golden topminnows and spotted tilapia being caught there. We only found a couple of spots in the canals that were open enough to land a fish. We caught a bunch of bluegill and a few small mayans. We could see another species of fish that was not as active as the sunfish or mayans. Livie tried for them while I tried for topminnows. I only saw a couple and they did not stick around when I got close enough to try to catch them. Looks like another trip for golden topminnows will have to take place. Livie finally did catch that other fish and it turned out to be the spotted tilapia we were targeting. We tried a another spot or two and ran out of time before being able to fish the big canal. As we were heading out I saw a fish that resembeled a snakehead and we stopped for me to try for it. I threw out the bait and as it was geting close to the bait a mayan took it and spooked the other fish. I did make a cast and landed my spotted tilapia before we left. This was the last fish of the trip. We didn't stop during the long drive back. We caught a lot of variety, Had some good times and not so good times. Drove well of 2600 miles in the process. We will certainly remember this trip for a long time to come.

Dragging this out due to travel and having to process 40 to 50 photos from each fishing spot. Last full day in southern Florida found us back at the Aquarium - south Pointe Park Miami. We fished the rocks around the seawall again for a couple of hours then moved to the free pier. This day must have been sargent major day since we had to fight to keep those guys off our baits. We each did end up catching one of the big blue males. So that was a plus. We kept catching the same cast of characters from the previous day using the same baits and rigs. Livie did try for more needlefish, but could not get a good hook set. She hated me when after breaking off my sinker I cast out with the unweighted bait to this houndfish. A little scarier mouth than a gar in my opinion. I finally caught my first and only slippery dick wrasse and a possible longfin damsel. Sue caught a bunch of grunts, but did also land a sand perch. She also caught a yellow fish that looked like a butterfly fish, but due to her phone being full she was not able to get a photo of the fish. After getting more grunts and sgt majors, we moved to the pier. Livie and Sue wanted to catch one of the boxfish species. On my first cast I caught this buffalo trunkfish and they hated me. It also hated me and bit my hand before I released it. Felt like someon grabbed my palm with a pair of pliers. While I was dealing with the trunkfish, my other rod got a solid bite and Livie reeled in a channel flounder. I really wanted one of these guys and had my chance later in the day until it got off the hook as I was pulling it up to the railing. I also lost a spotted trunkfish on the next cast as I was reeeling it up to the rail. Both Sue and Livie caught chubs and I am still working on id'ing these fish. They appear to be yellow chubs, but may be bermuda's which we caught the day before. Livie finally got a redtail parrotfish though none of us could get another stoplight like Sue's from Day 1. I did get a great hookset and fight from a small but heavy rockfish. Livie caught her own sand perch and she finally caught a scrawled cowfish! All and all a great day in South Miami. Tomorrow would be a quick trip to the edge of the everglades and trying for exotics.

That's a toad red ear! Not a very big fisherman. Bet that was a blast to land.

When it comes to driving, I want to avoid hungover folks. At least a drunk is trying to pay attention but is just not able. Whereas a badly hungover person just could not care if they die anyway 🙄.

Same with me as well. Ever since my last update on my phone it's been a problem.

Been there and done that for close to four days of heavy driving! Don't know where you will be but they are even worse the closer you get to Miami🙄. Good luck Phil.

Cool catch Dave! I'm still looking for my first sauger but would take a saugeye as well 😉

Looks like they have exposed gills. If so they are mudpuppies.

I can't see them either and I posted about a hundred lately 🙄

Livie #40 and Lifer #114, Cocoa Damselfish, Stegastes variabilis

Livie #39 and Lifer #113, Dusky Damselfish, Abudefduf saxitilis

Livie #38 and Lifer #112, French grunt

Livie #37 and Lifer #111, Slippery Dick Wrasse, Halichoeres bivittatus

#40 Tomtate Grunt, Haemulon parra. A lifer for me!

JF #39 French Grunt, Haemulon flavolineatum. I've caught these before as well. Again needed a photo.

JF #38 White Grunt, Haemulon plumieri. I've caught these before but needed a photo!

Me too. I haven't caught one either.

Thursday - Fishing the Aquarium! Thursday was the day of our snorkelling trip out of Key Largo. Due to weather we would not be able to go out to the deeper reef areas like the Christ of the Abyss. So booked a shallow reef tour for 3 pm. That gave us a few hours to fish South Pointe Park on the southern end of Miami Beach. Well getting off on the wrong exit in Miami led to having only a couple of hours to fish🙄. South Pointe Park has a lot of folks taking selfies, excercising where they could be seen and appreciated by their peers, etc. Then there was the Folly family armed with 7 rods, couple of tackle bags, cooler with bait and drinks. Yeah we fit in really well like I cared! We started with high/low rigs with #8 hooks and either shrimp or squid pieces. That was fine for the grunts, but the smaller more interesting species we had to downsize to #10 and #14 hooks for consistent hook ups. The variety of fishes was incredible and really was like fishing at the tropical aquarium. By far the most common fish we caught were the white and french grunts. They hit our baits everywhere. I also caught a couple of young tomtate grunts. They became cut and live bait. Never did get any true predator fish like grouper, barracuda, snook, etc. Though when we no longer had a live bait, we did see one 4+ foot long barracuda cruising by. Caught only a couple of snappers. like Sue's first fish of the day a nice yellowtail snapper. Or Livie's schoolmaster snapper. Early on I found out that we did not have our photo bag with us. So I went to the car to look for it. While I was there I called Sue to see if she or Livie knew where it was. While on the phone Sue hooked up and all I could hear was "get the net.. Get the Net!" However, wehn I got back to them with the net they had landed Sue's stoplight parrotfish and were getting photos of this colorful fish! We did dee a couple more big stoplights and several smaller ones in their initial phases, we never caught another. I did however land an initial phase redtail parrotfish. Many wrasses and all parrotfish have multiple phase body color patterns. A lot of that has to due with breeding status or dominance. Sue's stoplight was considerd to be in its terminal phase. These two wrasses that Livie caught show the initial and terminal phases of the slippery dick wrasse ( I did not name this fish). Initial phase Terminal phase Makes identification a challenge for sure. Similarly these sargent majors with different coloration are a breeding male and a female or nonbreeding fish. Unlike the parrotfish or wrasses I believe that this bluish one can revert back to the standard coloration of the other one. We also caught a couple of the othe damselfish species (besides the sargent majors) that were common amongst the rocks. Dusky damselfish Cocoa damselfish Just before noon we had a large school of fish that originally thought were needlefish. Livie wants to catch a needlefish really badly. We rigged up a 4# line rod with a single #10 aberdeen hook with a strip of squid. Without a weight it was a little difficult to get the bait out to the fish. However, as soon as it hit the water they would rush the bait and then suck it in. These were not needlefish at al but actually ballyhoo. Now @JestersHK can really get on us about catching bait 😅! Livie and I both caught a few until a large needlefish showed up then another. Livie tried of those guys but just could not get them hooked up. They would rush the bait and chew on it before she would try to set the hook, but pulled it from their mouths. While she was trying for those needlefish, I got into a school of bigger fish and landed a bermuda chub and spottail pinfish. The needlefish left and Livie was able to catch some bermuda chub as well adding them to her life lists along with all of the other fish that she caught. Not a bad couple of hours of fishing. Headed down to Key Largo at 12:30 to go snorkelling.

I forgot Livies Jack crevalle or crevalle Jack - her 110th Lifer species.

Livie #36 and Lifer #110 Jack Crevalle, Carax hippos

JF #37 Atlantic Thread Herring (Greenie)