Johnsfolly

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)

JF #36 Irish Pompano

Livie #35 and Lifer #109 Gray (Mangrove) Snapper, Lutjanus griseus

Livie #34 and Lifer 108, Atlantic Thread Herring (aka greenies), Opisthonema oglinum

JF #35 Sailor's Choice

Livie #33 and Lifer 107, Irish Pompano, Diapterus auratus

Livie #32 and Lifer 106, Sailor's Choice, Haemulon parra

JF #34 Checkered Puffer

JF #33 Gray Snapper (Mangrove), Lutjanus griseus

JF #32 Spanish Mackerel, Scomberomorus maculatus