Miami Multi-species Madness

[Quillback]

18 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

                  I knew that @Quillback and his statement would go over like a lead balloon. Although I think MythBusters did get one to float in an episode. 

More like a Chinese spy balloon - it got shot down.  😃

[BilletHead]

2 minutes ago, Quillback said:

More like a Chinese spy balloon - it got shot down.  😃

                   Good job after you let several get by us.🤣

[Hawg]

Those Lamson Liquid reels must have a defect. The same thing happened to me and it ruined my day. My buddy let me borrow his 8wt and a brand new Liquid fell apart on me about 12 times before I hiked back an hour for backup gear.

Also, I noticed that your loop knots are much larger than I tie on my stuff. I guess I might go bigger. 🤔 

Good luck and keep em coming!

[Ham]

15 hours ago, BilletHead said:

           You boys are rocking it! Tell Davey boy to start showing his catches also. By the time he gets home, and I try to see his fishes it will clog up this computer! 

I have tried. daily. He won’t. He prefers to post from Home PC. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[Ham]

9 hours ago, Hawg said:

Those Lamson Liquid reels must have a defect. The same thing happened to me and it ruined my day. My buddy let me borrow his 8wt and a brand new Liquid fell apart on me about 12 times before I hiked back an hour for backup gear.

Also, I noticed that your loop knots are much larger than I tie on my stuff. I guess I might go bigger. 🤔 

Good luck and keep em coming!

My loop size varies. Old eyes and wonky fingers. I doubt you need to follow my lead there. 

[Ham]

Day 5 was a Grind. We went all in on Bullseye Snakehead. We saw them. I had short strikes. Dave had a follow. Neither of us caught one.

We both got Peacock Bass and Mayan Cichlids on fly. Dave got another magical fish that I can’t disclose. But overall we left out first spot Hot and bothered (ehhhh frustrated). 
Off to Weston. I pushed all my chips in for Salvini Cichlid. I got the first one and then tried with fly. I failed on that deal, but dang are they cute. while I was trying with fly, I decided to drop a worm in a place I thought should have em. it did, just none that would eat a fly. 
mission accomplished sort of.

sooooooo, we then rolled the dice again and headed to Coral Reef Park to try for Midas Cichlid. Know to be difficult and almost impossible on fly. Dave liked those odds. 
We saw fish. I presented natural baits to them. They stared at them with great disdain. 
I was Lucky enough to Get a Great Coppernose photo upgrade. Buuuuut Dave took the pic for me and has not sent it to me yet. 
Back in the rental we headed south. We are at Edgewater Lodge tonight. Me being a slow learner, I micro fished after we got some stuff out of the car.
caught two, dropped one. Missed some bites. ID to follow.  
A little sleep and then out last full day. 
I am trying to be disciplined and not get hung up of number of fish caught, but rather to stay focused on target species. I’m getting better at it 

[Terrierman]

This thread:  Words fail me...

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

What a great time.    Thanks for taking us along.   I follow a YouTuber who gets down to FL a couple times a year.   Seen lots of cool catches,  but that salvini cichlid is neat looking.  

[Ham]

Dave and I intended to sleep in a little bit, but we both woke up before daylight and saddled up.

started the day fishing the rocks that protect the base of the bridge. Started right at daybreak. Dave was successful. I was not. Wouldn’t it be neat if he would post on this thread. 
anyway, Dave had very little salty stuff on his fly fishing Life List so ding,ding, ding Dave is adding to the list. We gave the first spot an hour or so and headed further south.

Next stop was Horseshoe Beach. I’d like to spend an 8 hour day there. We spent like an hour. 
I rigged a size 16 with earthworms for bait (I had not bought shrimp yet). Salty fish will eat worms, but not like shrimp. I was planning on minis and micros, but a pod of decent size Parrotfish rolled up and I of course presented to them. I make micro rigs ahead of time at work. Usually, I use 2-4 lb line. This one was a 2 lb line version. Well, I saw the Parrotfish suck up the worm and gave him a friendly wrist hookset. He responded by heading to Mexico at a high rate of speed. He pulled lots of drag and popped me when he hit 2 nd gear.

I re-rigged with 8 lb and a size 12 hook and kept an eye open for the Parrotfish. 
Dave caught another FlyFer and broke off on a Sting Ray!

I got a Slippery Dick, a Big Bluestriped Grunt, and a brace of Yellowfin Mojarra. Next stop is White Street Pier on Key West, but I need to mentally process everything that went down first. Probably tomorrow afternoon. 

[Terrierman]

If you get a chance, The Fish House in Key Largo is a great place to eat.  Whatever the best fish they have when you are there done Matecumbe is something I don't think you'll ever forget.  I had hogfish done that way.  Incredible is the right word.