Folly Family Road trip TR 2021

[Johnsfolly]

Monday - another travel day down into Florida at last. I had some spots picked out in the Osceola Natl forest between Sanderson and Lake City FL. The primary targets were redfin pickerel, lined topminnows, spotted sunfish, and fliers. It was about three hours from Savannah to the first stop - Hog Pen landing on Ocean Pond. Looks like a typical wooded FL lake.

Met a couple of locals right away.

I went over to the boat launch and noticed a couple of things.

First was that there as a stiff wind that would be in our face. That created waves which will make it hard to microfish. The other thing was that there was a melanistic mosquitofish in the mix right at the water's edge. Set up the tanago for Livie to try for the mosquitofish. I had a 1/32 oz jig with a Pearl Bobby Garland crappie plastic. Sue had the #20 hook and float setup. While Livie was getting stripped by the voracious pack of mosquitofish, I had a couple of small fish follow the jig and not hook ups when they would grab the bait's tail.

Sue started the day with her very first coppernose bluegill sunfish, a life species for her 😁. It wouldn't be her last.

She caught a few, while Livie struggled. I just stopped fishing and became a spotter for Livie. She never did get a good chance at the melanistic mosquitfish nor the small group of minnows that had some reddish coloration due to the waves and the other fish stripping the baits. After a while I just had to catch a fish and I "borrowed" Sue's setup and caught my first coppernose of the year.

I saw a large topminnow swimming at the edge of some pickerelweed. I put the bait out and it turned and I landed my first ever lined topminnow - one of the target species. 

Many of the fish in the Fundulus genus have a bright patch on top of their heads. The pattern is often unique to the species. This guy had it on the head as well as a spot on each cheek. I caught another and called over Livie to give it a try.

Livie caught her first coppernose of the year.

Then followed that up with a stumpy sunfish. Looking at the blue highlight under the eye, general body shape, and some of it's patterns, appears to me to be a young spotted sunfish. This is Livie's 101st life list species. 

Then the struggle began. She lifted a couple of topminnows and couldn't get them to the bag 😔. We searched around the boat launch and she lost two there and frustration set in. We gave it one more shot where I caught my first one. I found a small opening in the weeds and caught a glimpse of a topminnow in with the mosquitofish. Livie snuck over, got the bait near it and it turned and she lifted the fish. It dropped back in the water but didn't spook off. Livie got a second chance as it hit the bait again and this time we got her very first lined topminnow in the bag 😁 - #102 on her list.

We didn't see any new fish around the launch and had lunch before packing up and moving further into the forest to try for pickerel!

 

 

[Johnsfolly]

Before this trip I had found a spot or two from INatrualist observations in the Osceola Natl Forest where there were redfins pickerel caught by several anglers. After leaving Ocean Pond, we passed over a culvert. Near the culverts there was little open water, but upstream and downstream would have been great had I brought a pair of waders (this occurred at every spot to some extent 🙄). I could not get a bite. I even saw a larger fish swim by my bait. We were burning daylight, so kept going to the first possible redfin spot. 20 mins later I pulled up to the small bridge. There was a defined channel in the weeds but not a straight one which would make casting the further downstream spots difficult to say the least. I started with a #20 hook and float on one rod and the pearl Bobby garland crappie jig on the other rod. I dropped the worm down and the float got pulled under a good 6 inches before I could set the hook on my first flier (of many) of the trip and for 2021. Pretty fish for this stained water.

I caught a couple more before being able to get Livie out of the vehicle to fish with me as well. She got into a few fliers herself. 

I was getting strong hits but no hook sets on the crappie jig while she fished the worm rig. I switched to a white/chartreuse trout magnet and let Livie fish that rod. She got an immediate thump and pulled up a warmouth, her first for the year. She also got a couple of fliers as well.

I fished the TM rig and landed my first warmouth of the year as well as a few fliers.

Figuring that the pickerel would chase a bait, I stuck with the TM rig and on one cast got bit by what I thought was another warmouth, but it appeared to have horizontal stripes instead of more vertical ones. I realized that I had just hooked my first mud sunfish, a new lifer for me!

Another big difference between the mud sunfish and the warmouth is the rounded tail. Warmouth have a forked tail. Though she tried Livie could not land a mud sunfish. We even got Sue to fish a bit and she caught a few fliers as well.

We headed down the road looking for any more creeks. I found what looked like a small creek that was fairly open but from the road didn't look very wide. Stopped anyway and glad that I did. Near the bridge there was a lot of open water and cover to fish around. I was using a 125th oz chartreuse microgrub jig with a white tail again trying to cathc a pickerel while we rigged up two bait rigs, Livie with the #20 hook and Sue with a miniTM jig head and worm. While I was struggling again to get good hooks sets I did land two more fliers and two more mud sunfish on that microjig. Meanwhile Sue had caughtt several fliers, her first and several mud sunfish. Livie was landing quite a few fliers but nothing new yet.

Finally Livie caught her first mud sunfish (Lifer #103) and the dam broke after that with many more being caught.

Then it happened. Sue was caasting back under the bridge and pulled out a redfin pickerel!!

Knowing that it wa one of my target species she let me use her setup. I caught a bunch of fliers and mud sunfish on that rig and lost a few other fish. with the overhanging branches making upstream casts was a challenge. I was able to make one good cast and immediately got a strong bite and then another when I go a hook set on that fish. It ran towards brushy cover and I pulled it out of the first clump. Then into the second. I lifted the fish out of that clump, saw that it was a pickerel, and it was off😌! I even cursed and threw my rod. I'm not sure that I ever got another one to bite and did not land one at all. It was getting late and we still had about 2 to 3 hr drive down to Orlando. Made a couple more casts and I was able to catch my first bluespotted sunfish of the year. Not a pickerel but a nice consolation prize.

Livie even caught a bullhead. Though it is not the typical yellow brown that we are used to really think that this is a yellow bullhead based upon the all white chin barbels.

We packed it up and headed to Orlando/Kissimee. Tues would be a day at Gatorland and maybe a little fishing.

[Quillback]

Congrats, and some species I have never heard of.  That blue-spotted sunfish is pretty neat looking.  

[FishnDave]

That's an excellent trip!  Its a long way down Holiday Road...  

[Johnsfolly]

More to come @FishnDave we're fishing salty water today.

[Gavin]

Pennycamp has some good snorkeling. Eat some hogfish if you can get some. It’s better than grouper.

[Johnsfolly]

Spent a good deal of time on Tuesday at Gatorland in Kissimee FL. Dissapointed that the Jumperoo was not going on due to Covid. I hadn't been here for close to 30 yrs. Still have a ton of gators and reptiles to see and interact with.

Of course we looked at fish throughout the park especially the sailfin mollies along the swamp walk.

Thought of @BilletHead when we saw this tree. No picking allowed 🙄.

We saw so many mollies that we had to go find some. I had planned on a stop at the Little Econlockhatchee river in Blanchard Park in Orlando. We found a small culvert and creek going into the river that had mosquitofish, sunfish, and sailfin mollies. Try as hard a we could we could not get those mollies to bite. They seemed to have disdain for our baits. We did catch quite a few dollar sunfish and mosquitofish though Livie could not catch any of the melanistic forms. She did land a new lifer, a golden topminnow, one of the larger topminnows. This was a target species for this spot 👍

I would see a male with it's red tail swimming but either was stripped of bait or could not find him again. Never did catch one myself. We did spend too much time trying and did not get below the spillway (which is why we came to this park) and could not try to catch the Plecostomus catfish that have invaded this river. Many more miles ahead of us as we head further south to Stuart FL and onto some salty fish.

[Johnsfolly]

Weds was going to be Livie's first chance to snorkel on this trip. We were headed to Jupiter to try Cato's bridge or Coral Cove, a spot that Sue and I used to dive when we lived in Jupiter. However, there was high winds and a rough chop anticipated. So we tried to find some fishing around Stuart and ended up on the Jenson Beach Causeway. I recall reading about lots of snook being caught in this area, especially at night. We needed to be in Ft Lauderdale in the evening so a day trip was all we could do. We arrived with a cresting tide. We tried the small pier at first. Sue broke the ice with a mojarra species called an Irish Pompano.

Livie was next with another Lifer and a fish that she dreams of catching, a checkered puffer!

Even small ones puff up!

I was not catching a thing on the pier. So we moved to the causeway. I figured that moving water would help my cause to catch a fish!?! Sue got her first of many chekered puffers as soon as she dropped her bait.

I would get on board with the checkered puffers as well. We could catch a bunch of these guys all day long.

We also got into some small gray snappers. Watch out for those teeth.

Livie caught her first gray snapper ever and it was a great one.

I tried over on the sunny side of the causeway and had my shrimp get bit and swim off quickly. After a nice bit of fighting I landed this spanish mackerel. Someone wanted him for lunch as well, probably a barracuda.

We all got into the Irish pompano as well. For a smaller fish they put up a great fight but have a face that only a mother could love.. Look at those extendable jaws and think of the scene in alien.

The multispecies train kept rolling with each of use catching sailor's choice grunts. Livie was the first and we all followed suit.

I saw a man land a 18 to 20 inch snook on a live greenie (aka Atlantic Thread Herring). I pulled out one of my Sabiki rigs (a line with 6 to 8 small hooks usually with mylar). It typically doesn't take long if there are greenies in the water to get quite a few with a Sabiki rig. In fact we watched a live bait supplier just sit and catch and catch many many greenies. I pulled up three on my first cast and five on the next. 

Livie caught a few as well  and one came with me to try to entice a snook. Sue found these guys easy to catch but hard to hold onto, POOF it's gone!

I never did get any takers on the live greenies, but the gentleman caught another snook. This one was 36 inches in length!

After a few hours it was down to Jupiter to grab lunch, do the nostalgia tour, show Livie the beach, collect shells and stay away for from the Portuguese Man-Of-War.

Once we had the sand out of our shoes, we headed to Ft Laurderdale, where we would stay put for a couple of days and visit the keys and Miami for snorkelling and fishing.

 

 

[Johnsfolly]

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

[Johnsfolly]

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.