Florida Road Trip 2012/2013 [Part 4 of 4]

[MuskieBait]

Jan 5, 2013

Really, this was a continuation of our fishing through the night. After we changed our baits to cut herring, I was fishing the dropper loop trying to find some fresh bait to use when Michael yelled I have a fish on my rig. I couldn’t hear the clicker since a couple of trucks were passing by. When I finally got to the rod, Michael was already fighting the fish. A little tussle later, we brought a 15” Mangrove Snapper up the bridge. Strangely, it bit the heavy wire on the 5/0 hook.





That was the only excitement all night. There were a couple of short rip on the line, but I suspect it was nothing more than clumps of grass dragging our lines. We had some broken sleep since the reels were clinking every so often when grass foul up our lines.

When the sun finally rose, the fish returned to the pilings. We were once again catching a steady supply of grunts. Michael caught a couple of parrotfish, a filefish and even a Bermuda Chub! I was a bit jealous to say the least LOL.

I did have my revenge when I caught 4 Southern Puffer in a roll and Michael has yet to catch one.

By 10am, we were really too tired to fish anymore. We had been up fishing for 28 hours straight. Since we planned to head home around noon, we packed up and grabbed lunch.

We were originally planning to fish our Midas Cichlid spot to see if we can find more Oscars. I was quite fished out so I really just wanted to drive back to my uncle’s house. Along the way, Michael was begging to try the Tamarac area for Cobra Snakehead. We checked out one spot but it didn’t look promising. As we were running short of daylight, I suggested that we should fish a canal where I’ve seen Snakeheads before.

Michael was fishing a weedless plastic frog while I was fishing a special weedless prop blade hard resin frog lures I bought online from a Thailand lure maker. It was a coincidence that the morning we were planning to leave for Florida (Dec 27) we were delayed due to the snowstorm. While waiting for the highway to clear, the package of Thai lures arrived and I got them just in time to bring with me on this trip.

I was fishing this lure systematically, first casting parallel to shore running them just inches from the weed line, then I cast at 25 degree angle, 45 degree angle and 65 degree angle, before finally casting directly across the canal to work the lure from the other shore over to our side of the canal.

We were about 30 minutes into our fishing when I made a cast directly across the shore and landed the lure on the shoreline grass. I gingerly worked the lure into the water and took maybe 2 cranks when I saw a wake came at my lure and the lure disappeared. I felt the fish, set the hook and was hoping it wasn’t a Largemouth Bass. When the fish came close to shore, I saw the long shape and immediately dragged the fish up the shore and dragged it as far as I could.

Cobra Snakehead (Channa marulius) – new species #22





I had tried to catch Cobra Snakehead in April 2011 but failed miserably. I could see them all over the canals, and big ones too, but failed to get them to bite. Strangely, after some cold weather, I managed to find a small Cobra Snakehead using a topwater lure!

Michael pounded the water for a while longer but didn’t find another Snakehead in the area. I strongly believe that the cold water shut these fish off the bite. I suspect that if we return in warmer weather, these Thai lures would be absolutely deadly for the snakeheads!

Jan 6, 2013

We were hoping to get some fishing this morning. However, we had to pack the car and return to Orlando before evening. We didn’t end up fishing at all.

Jan 7, 2013

Since we started the trip a day behind schedule, we decided to extend the trip one extra day. My sister and George wanted to visit Magic Kingdom and they had already purchased tickets in advance. So while they visit the theme park, Michael and I headed to Tampa to fish.

We arrived in the same creek where we caught Jack Dempsey on Dec 28. While we saw some Striped Mullet, they refused to bite our bread. We fished closed to the weeds and finally found some Jack Dempsey, including this beautiful male.



We saw some Rio Grande Cichlid swimming around but they were extremely wary. We tried all sorts of methods trying to get them to bite. Finally, I had one bit on a small piece of free lined bread but the fish took me to the weeds and the hook came out! I was so adamant on catching a Rio Grande that I made a tactical error. We should have simply spent more time fishing saltwater for species.

Since Tampa was 2 hours from Orlando, we didn’t arrive in Tampa until 12pm. After spending 3 hours at the creek, we only had a couple of hours at best before sunset. It was too late to fish at Skyway Pier, but we found a free pier along a bridge to fish for an hour.

We had no squid for bait. Honestly, I didn’t want to wet too many rods. So we only grabbed two rods each but I mainly fished with a sabiki rig. We only had nightcrawlers so I put on small segments of worms on the hook. I searched by the pilings and found nothing holding near the structure. Instead, I cast into Tampa Bay and worked the grass flats. On my third cast, I felt a strong tap and set the hook into a smaller fish that pulled hard on the light spinning rod and 8lb test. It was a Silver Perch!

Silver Perch (Bairdiella chrysoura) – new species #23



Michael joined me on my side of the pier and soon caught his first Silver Perch as well. A few cast later, I was had worked the sabiki back to the bridge when I saw a silver flash on my sabiki and I set the hook into a strong running Horse-eyed Jack!

Horse-eye Jack (Caranx latus) – new species #24



I was hoping to find some Pinfish for Michael to add on his list. We went back to the parking area where I saw some. We quickly caught a few Pinfish. If we only had more time to fish, I would have cast out a cut Pinfish on a shark rig. The bay looks very sharky for smaller juvenile blacktip or bonnethead.

We had to return to Orlando to pick up my sister and her boyfriend from the theme park. On that note, it was the end of our fishing trip. We left Orlando on Jan 8 at 5am and drove to Toledo, Ohio by 1:30am on Jan 9. We then left Toledo at 6am after a night at a motel and arrived in Toronto at 12:30pm.

It was a great road trip to see my family and I fully took the opportunity to catch a number of new species. Many of the freshwater species were very challenging due to the cold weather. We had an absolute blast fishing the Keys and I can see myself fishing the Keys for a week next time! I was absolutely pleased to have caught a huge Grass Carp, conquered the Cobra Snakehead, and tried our hands at shark fishing. Now it is time to read up more on shark fishing and the whereabouts of those pesky Oscars!

With 24 new species added, I'm now up to a total of 301 species!