Folly Family FL Trip - Didn't Catch Jack!

[Johnsfolly]

We have fished freshwater around Orlando and the salt in Tampa Bay. I still haven't personally caught a new fish species on this trip🤔. I planned on fishing a couple of locations for Jack Dempsey cichlids that I missed catching on my last trip in this area. I still wanted Livie and Sue to be able to catch a few more lifers. We headed to a small park on the Hillsboro river. Hopes were for Sue to catch a spotted sunfish, then maybe a tilapia, gar or bowfin for her or others. Due to the last flooding event last year that damaged walkways, the main park was closed. We went to the smaller park area. I had some cutbait and worms along.

The spot looked fishy😉.

I put out the cutbait on a baitrunning rig and got Sue set up for sunfish. Sue had some small bites in the deeper water but no hookups. Lots of micros, mostly mosquitofish and some that looked like mollies kept me busy early. I only caught the mosquitofish. When Sue reeled in she paused with the baits almost directly below her and got into some coppernose sunfish, aka brim😂. We rerigged with smaller hooks and only a single hook bottom rig. We all caught coppernose SF. Sue lost a tilapia and we never saw another.

We even had a 7(?) foot long bull alligator bellowing to attract females. That was a pretty cool sight. Lots of birds were around.

Sue got a few new bird lifers before we left. The next spot was one that I tried to catch Jack Dempsey cichlid back in Nov 23 but the water was covered by invasive weeds. I figured that if we didn't have open water we could keep going south down into Bradenton where I had other Jack Dempsey spots. The spot is just a bridge crossing of a small creek. The road can be pretty busy through it is really in the sticks. Sue wasn't happy just pulling off the road while Livie and I scouted/fished the spot. 

There was a lot of open water and Livie was seeing a fair number of fish. At the first spot the fish would spook when I cast in my bait, a mini trout magnet jig/worm under a float. I moved to the bridge that would have deeper water and less spooky fish and this is what I saw.

Lots and lots of the same fish. I took off the float and dropped in my bait. Some fish spooked but others chased the bait. Keeping the bait moving and close to the surface, it wasn't long until I caught one. Irecognized it immediate and it was my first lifer of the trip! I had caught a pike topminnow!

I chased these down in the everglades on my last trip and never saw a one. These are a non-native predatory minnow. Look at the head and teeth, look like small gar or pike (aka its namesake).

Livie and Sue came over and each caught some as well.

Livie and I continued to fish hoping for Jack Dempseys but only caught more coppernose bluegill.

 

[Lloyd]

That's a crazy looking fish. To me the head looks like a cuda and the tail looks like a trout. Wild.