Miami Multi-species Madness

[FishnDave]

Ah, I forgot to mention... While trying for those bowfin.... I saw this big Plecostomus feeding in about 4' of water, so I dropped my bowfin fly down near it.  It turned and swam right over to the fly and hit it!  Flyfer #6!

 

[FishnDave]

I didn't expect to catch these, but did anyway...caught 2 African Jewelfish.  Flyfer #7!

 

[FishnDave]

We've noticed that its often a real struggle to catch your first fish of a new species.  But once you finally catch one, you start to catch more, whether you want to or not. 

Day 3 started off pretty slow.  At one spot, I caught 2 more African Jewelfish

And a Crested Goby.  Flyfer #8!

 

 

[FishnDave]

We moved on to other spots.

I caught more Florida Largemouth Bass

Coppernose Bluegill

A BUNCH of beautiful Spotted Sunfish

Mayan Cichlids

and Warmouth

[FishnDave]

We went to the Petting Zoo to give our new lizardy pals some chin rubs.

I'm just kidding.  Hamilton wouldn't let me go to the petting zoo. 

 

[FishnDave]

In the late afternoon, I managed to get another of the priority fish on my Wish List....Ruddy Bowfin!  Flyfer #9!

What a beauty!  26".  I didn't see it before it hit, and wasn't fishing for them at the time.  She bolted downstream, but I kept calm steady pressure and worked her back upstream.  Near shore, though, she FREAKED and show us her tailwalking skills several times.  Tense moments for sure, hoping she wouldn't throw the hook.  @Ham helped a brother out with the landing....getting his shoe wet in the process.  We didn't have a landing net with us at the moment, and it likely would have been too small anyway.

I spotted a male Ruddy Bowfin within easy reach, and had Hamilton take his shot at it.  He placed the fly carefully and PERFECTLY.  The fish must have been napping.  As it woke up, its dorsal fin started undulating excitedly.  But it never would strike Ham's fly, and eventually swam away. BUMMER!

 

[FishnDave]

Well, no good deed or bit of luck goes unpunished, so I finally, for the first time ever.... managed to bury a heavy fly in the top of my ear on a cast.  Maybe we should have taken a picture, but we didn't. 

My ear was bleeding, but I figured the ear doesn't have a lot of nerve endings in it, so I tugged and pushed and RIPPED the fly out of my ear.  The bleeding stopped almost immediately.  WHAT??

Oh... I forgot to mention...on DAY 1, I broke to tip off my 6 wt while trying to get my fly out of a bush.  So I was down to a 7 wt and 9 wt for the rest of the trip!

Anyway....with the ear episode over, I got back to fishing, and Hamilton pointed out some Florida Gar.  I finally got one!  Flyfer #10!

We'd seen MANY others, and lost a few...but mostly couldn't get them to bite.  But now...having caught one... We spent the evening hours trying for Tarpon & Snook.  So of course I caught 3 more Florida Gar instead.

I was trying to land and unhook this one while Hamilton was battling a nice Tarpon.

 

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, FishnDave said:

Alright.... I didn't get on OAF while we were on the trip, so I'll play "catch-up" now.

Got up around 2 am.  Flew in to Miami on Wednesday morning.  Got the rental car (Toyota ForeRunner), and had a couple hours to kill, waiting for Hamilton to arrive.  I figured I'd just get my fly rods assembled and chill out, so I didn't PLAN on anything.  But we texted, and Ham told me to go catch something, so I started looking at Google Maps for some water near the airport.  First spot was a bust, no parking, no access.  2nd spot had parking and access.  Goofed around on a canal for awhile.  Didn't see any fish. Bummer. But I eventually caught THE fish I wanted most on this trip... Spotted Sunfish!  Little one, and I didn't know I was going to be catching a buttload of them later.  Flyfer #1 of the trip!  I was excited!

Found a huge culvert with current.  I dropped a fly in front of it, a small fish came out, then a bigger one darted out, and I was able to catch that fish.  Flyfer #2!  Jaguar Guapote!

 

Congrats Dave! I haven't caught either of these species. So I can understand the excitement right out of the gate.

[Johnsfolly]

40 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

Ah, I forgot to mention... While trying for those bowfin.... I saw this big Plecostomus feeding in about 4' of water, so I dropped my bowfin fly down near it.  It turned and swam right over to the fly and hit it!  Flyfer #6!

 

Congrats Dave again! That's an awesome catch regardless of bait used let alone a fly!

[FishnDave]

Day 4

Barramundi Day.  We had like 3 hours to fish, and I didn't catch any for the first 1.75 hours.  Ugh.  I was getting nervous.  But I finally caught one, and then the floodgates opened.  I ended up catching 11, with nearly half on TOPWATER, which was HUGELY fun!  These fish are incredibly strong  AND acrobatic!  Our guide/host tied 50 lb bite tippet on our rods for us, and each fish just SHREDDED IT!!

Barramundi.  Flyfer #11!  My biggest was 5.5 lb to 6 lb range.