Florida 2011

[MuskieBait]

March 31, 2011

Sometimes, the best plan comes crashing down. Originally, my morning flight allowed an entire day to fish the jetties in Port Canaveral. However, the weather had other thoughts and we ended up flying in a line of thunderstorm in front of a cold front. Up and down the eastern seaboard. It was a very rough ride with many succumbing to motion sickness and people praying for their lives. Luckily, we landed safely in Orlando, albeit 2 hours late. But I’ll take better late than never.

About an hour later, I arrived at La Quintas Inn on International Drive under ominous conditions.



With lightning and thunder all around, the fishing plans for the day was cancelled. Oh well, I guess I’ll spend some time at BassProShops. The large aquarium had tarpons, whipers, redfish, gars and of course giant largemouth bass and HUGE bluegills.





Couldn’t resist this picture :lol:



5 hours later and $200 less, I walked out of BPS with a collection of saltwater trolling goodies and some Sufix 832 braid on the two conventional reel. I was ready for some kingfish and bonita!

My friend Kazu, who flew down from Vancouver, arrived later that night at 11:30pm. After I picked him up from the airport, we grabbed a quick bite and retired for the night. We have an early fishing schedule the next day.

April 1, 2011

I woke up to the watch alarm and the morning wake up call seconds apart. At 5am, it was still fully dark. As the cold front moved through overnight, the air had a crisp but cool feel. Kazu had a long day of traveling previous and he was too tired to fish today, so I was traveling solo toward Port Canaveral for a full day of fishing on the party boat, the Orlando Princess.

As the sun rose at Port Canaveral, I missed a few street signs with the sun directly in my eyes. I arrived at the dock with a few minutes to remaining before the boat left. Luckily, my stern spot was placed on hold thanks to an advance reservation . The regulars were making bait with sabiki. The premier bait, pinfish, were slow to bite and it was scratch bait making. I didn’t have time to make any bait before the boat was on the way.

This is April in Florida. Kingfish and false tunny are starting to filter into the area. I rigged up a 4” tuna feather on the 40lb class rod and trolled for 1.5 hours to no avail. When we were closer to our fishing marks, the trolling rig was switched out for an 8oz egg sinker, a 150lb swivel, 2 feet of 60lb mono and a 3/0 circle hook. With the first drop of this “chicken rig”, my TFO 7’ teaser rod bent at the tip. I took up the slack, reeled tight and a fish was on the other end. Although the black seabass season was closed due to overfishing, this was the first of countless black seabass from 7” to 4lbs that I landed and had to throw back.



A little later, I made an 8” tomtate and it was destined for bait.



I dropped the tomtate on the 60lb class rental rods and had the tomtate somehow worked itself off the 5/0 circle hook unbeknownst to me. Who knew how long I had been soaking without a bait…but I reeled up disappointingly to an empty hook 45 minutes later when we moved to a new spot.

While we were moving, I rigged up a sabiki rig on the spinning rod. As soon as we arrived, instead of making bait, I dropped a dead sardine to see if I could capitalize on any snapper or grouper on the first go. A few more black seabass later, I decided to make some bait. Others were already catching some keeper flounder, one nice gag grouper and a mutton snapper on pinfish. I am seriously missing out.

I dropped the sabiki and it was quickly grabbed. Two round scad (aka cigar minnows) came up. These are also prime bait for red snapper…but it is also a new species on the list.

6” Round Scad (Decapterus punctatus)



A few minutes later, my round scad was wasted on another black seabass :roll:

I made bait again. This time it was a pinfish and a small black seabass. Instead of using a bell sinker on the bottom of the sabiki rig, I clipped on a 2oz jigging spoon and got a bonus throwback fish :lol:

As the pinfish went swimming on bottom, there was some commotion on the other side of the boat. One of the deckhand landed a 30lb cobia! That was the one and only cobia landed on the day. It would have been so nice to see some more of them.

My pinfish was robbed again by black seabass, while the pinfish a lady was soaking 10 feet from me landed a keeper size American red snapper. Who said fishing doesn’t require luck? Same rig, same bait, but the boat swung off a slightly different angle and one person lands a nice fish while the other wallowed in mediocrity :roll:

A little later, the man beside me, who actually taught me lots of new things this day, was freelining a pinfish and brought a small kingfish into the boat. He was fishing at the stern corner spot and he had all the versatility to fish different methods. I was fishing next to a number of people and had to worry about line tangles and drift directions. Corner spots are usually given to regulars though…it is almost impossible to get them. :roll:

At the 4th spot for the day, I saw a 3’ remora eating pieces of discarded bait behind the boat. I tried for 30 minutes freelining pieces of squid or dead sardines to it. It would come up time and time again to bump my bait but never taking it. As life would have it, the lady 10 feet from me was reeling in to change bait when the remora attacked her bait :roll: Some days, when it just isn’t you day, there is nothing you can do.

As quickly as it began, the 5 hours on the water was over. We were fishing 20-30 miles offshore and the return ride was 2 hours. Instead of trolling my way home, I decided to take a long nap for the drive back to the hotel.

We arrived back at port by 5pm. After a day of fishing, I failed to catch my prime targets (American red snapper, grey triggerfish, Atlantic sharpnose shark) and was a little bummed. Instead of heading back to the hotel, I decided to fish Jetty Park to see if I could add sheepshead to my list…but I was just asking for more punishment. :roll:

It was $10 to park and fish at the pier and $7 for shrimp and clams for bait. I had only 3 hours max to fish the area but I knew I would regret it deeply if fishing this area wasn’t even attempted. The inlet was really muddy and the current was strong after the storm. Fish were not active but the juvenile turtles were everywhere!



Fishing with a splitshot rig and #8 hook, I was getting a barrage of short bites and stolen bait. An hour of frustration later, I put on a #14 hook and finally hooked the thief. It was a small goby that I had yet to identify. It is a new species for sure though.



I switched to a Carolina rig to see if there are any redfish or black drum around. Closer to sun set, I had a good tap and found a smaller species of croaker.

7” striped drum (Umbrina broussonnetii)



That was it for the evening. I ended the day without any of my targets met…but was happy with 3 new species by accident.

April 2-5, 2011

These were my conference days where I was up at AACR from 8am – 8pm basically solid all 4 days. It was the first conference where I did not even fish in the morning or evenings. There was a lot of professional advancement seminars I wanted to attend and most of them very extremely helpful. I guess that’s why I didn’t mind not fishing at all. My friend Kazu did fish solid days in the freshwater and added a few new species through the 4 days.

Orange County Convention Center was very well suited for sure a large meeting.

This pond at the convention center had some giant bluegills! No time to fish though…







The nearby Peabody Hotel also hosted some sessions and it was a world class hotel.





Even in the midst of such busy conference schedule, I took time to have dinner with my cousin and his family. My cousin is establishing his own dental clinic in Orlando and it was great to see him doing very well.

We went to a seafood restaurant near my hotel for some crawfish one night. MMM….







April 6, 2011

After four straight days of meetings, I was exhausted. The fish were calling to me and I skipped the last day of seminars. Kazu and I checked out early at 5am and made the 2 hours drive to Clearwater. It was a tough drive with a tired body…but the fishing excitement kept my mind fully awake :lol:

We arrived at 8am and had an hour to make bait. This time, the pinfish were on the chew and I had 10 pinfish in the livewell ready as grouper bait. While making bait, a large ladyfish hit one of my sabiki hook and I had it on the line for two jumps before the fish broke the 8lb line. I have never caught a ladyfish so I was a little disappointed a new species was lost…but it was a fun little fight though.

The party boats fish 20-30 miles offshore at Clearwater for grunts, triggerfish and groupers. It was another 2 hours boat ride which I trolled the entire time with a tuna feather. I was still 0 for 2 on the troll

Finally we were out on the live bottom. I set up Kazu with the UglyStik and Jigmaster with 30lb mainline, 150lb swivel, 2’ of 60lb Big Game mono and a 5/0 hook. I was using a Diawa Saltist 40H and the TFO teaser rod. On the first drop, Kazu and I both brought in a 1lb white grunt. This was a species I think I’ve caught in the past as a kid in the Caribbean. I could finally confirm this catch They are good eats so I put mine on the stringer while Kazu released his fish.

1lb white grunt (Haemulon plumierii)



The next fish Kazu reeled up was a red grouper. I was a little jealous since it would have been a new species for me…but I made Kazu jealous by landing a 2lb gag grouper on the next drop :lol:

2lb gag grouper (Mycteroperca microlepis)



A few more grunts later, I finally caught my target species!

2lb red grouper (Epinephelus morio)



We were only fishing with pieces of Humbolt squid. I switched over to the boat’s 60lb class rental rods and dropped some live pinfish on bottom. The nicer sized groupers started to show themselves and these were my best gag and red groupers that day. Other did a couple of keeper red grouper (20” minimum) but gag grouper season remained closed until November.





The 5 hours of fishing came and went but both Kazu and I were full satisfied to have caught our target fish today. Some days you get lucky

The Tampa area is pretty nice. I wouldn’t mind living here.



Back at the dock, the deckhands started cleaning the catch. Why they don’t clean the catches on the way back is beyond me. It was common to all Florida party boats that deckhands clean the catches at the dock. While we waited for our turn, I took a couple wildlife shots. These avian scavengers were waiting for discards.





Some stringers had over 20 white grunts (there is no limit and no size limit). After waiting for an hour, Kazu and I decided to give away our 3 white grunts to someone who was fishing next to us. We were hoping to have the fish for dinner but we had a 2.5 hours drive ahead of us to Cape Coral. We were losing daylight and we coulnd’t wait any long.

At 9am, we finally rolled into our hotel for the next two days. I gave our charter captain a call and Captain Chancey said we would need to push our charter day from Thursday to Friday. The conditions were not ideal due to a recent storm on Tuesday and water was very murky. It threw our plans into a little turmoil but we were also paying some hefty cash for the charter. In the end, we decided to charter on the Friday and made alternate fishing plans for the next day.

That night, I had two pinfish leftover from grouper fishing. Our hotel backed into one of the many canals in Cape Coral and I was my full intention to fish for snook and tarpon in those canals in the mornings and evenings. I soaked the live pinfish for 2 hours while waiting for laundry with only one tentative bite. The water was much shallow than I had thought and there were little activity. There were three boys fishing with shrimp and they caught a couple of catfish. It was a little disappointing for sure.

April 7, 2011

This morning, we slept in until 8:30am. We had no idea what to do as there were so many options in the area. We found a bait shop nearby and probed for some information. This guy was the biggest hippie I’ve ever seen :lol: However, he gave us a couple of good spots to fish on Sanibel Island. With a full belly after breakfast and 3 dozen live shrimp, we made our way to Sanibel for the day. Little did we know the fee to use the bridge was $6! I guess you gotta pay to play :?

We found another bait shop on Sanibel where Kazu could get his saltwater license (party boat fishing included the license). The guys at the shop was real nice and gave some pretty good information, so we started at the beach where there was a chance for pompano and Spanish mackerel. Parking at the beach was $2/hour…average by Florida standard but another unexpected cost for tourists

We fished at the lighthouse area for about and hour. Kazu was tossing a spoon for Spanish mackerel and bluefish while I was trying to get some cruising cownose ray to eat my shrimp. I guess they were so concentrated on the spawn that food was not on their mind :lol: After an hour, Kazu and I decided to move to the pier to see if we can find some better fishing.

We were told that the pier has sheepheads and this was one of my premier targets to catch on this trip. As we were setting up, one of the people on the pier landed a sheepshead and I had my hopes up. I rigged up with 30lb braid, a Carolina rig with a ¾oz egg sinker and 30lb fluoro leader. I was told that they are notorious bait thieves and you needed to pull them out of the pilings quickly. They love oysters and the areas where they are found are fully of snags and sharp oyster shells.

I fished next to one piling and quickly realized how quickly a sheepshead and steal the bait without so much as a twitch on the rod tip. I was taught to hook the live shrimp on the horn; but after losing half a dozen shrimps quickly, I had to change my shrimp hooking technique to keep the shrimps on the line longer. With my new method, I lost one shrimp before I had a solid hookup on the second shrimp. The fish did tried to pull into the piling but it was no match for my rod :lol: I was so happy to see the striped body of a sheepshead. This fish was an inch short of the legal minimum

11” sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus)



After I caught my sheepshead, it was time to switch targets. People were catching the odd jack crevalle. I think I’ve caught jack crevalle before…but without a picture it was hard to call it a confirmed catch. I tossed my live shrimp off the tee of the pier and hoped to find them in the deeper water. Somehow, I couldn’t shake the sheepshead off my line and I caught three more in quick succession. I was told that these fish were hard to catch?

The man beside me was fishing close to the pier and caught two jack crevalles on back-to-back casts. Before I had my line in, the fish had moved off and I was searching again. On one cast, I got tapped hard and thought it might be a good fish. The fish had lots of headshakes and soon I realized why.

9” gulf flounder (Paralichthys albigutta)



The bite was fairly steady and I was catching other fish in between sheepsheads.

This 7” pigfish was a prime grouper bait. I gave it to someone because I left my big rods in the car.



I take pictures of my catches often. Sometimes, even though I’ve caught a species before, I take a picture to record the number of species caught during a fishing session. This time, I managed to record a new species that would have been missed. This is a gulf kingcroaker. I thought it was a southern kingcroaker which I’ve caught before…but since it lacked the dark blotches, it was a different species and a new species

10” gulf kingcroaker (Menticirrhus littoralis)



Here’s a 10” southern kingcroaker I caught later in the evening showing the difference in colouration and body proportions.



Then I caught a little drag burner and another new species. This was turning out to be a productive day

14” hardhead sea catfish (Ariopsis felis)



At around 4pm, our parking fees ran out and Kazu went to put in more money. He also returned with one of my big rods so now I can soak some baitfish. Some time during the afternoon, I was offered some live greenback herring and extra live shrimps when one of the anglers were leaving. I couldn’t resist the offer and took the bonus baits. Now that I had the big rod, I sent out one of the herring to soak. About an hour later, I had a little rip on the rod and tightened on the line to find a little tug. It was a 14” spotted seatrout! It was a new pb



A lady who had been fishing next to me was making bait. We chatted quite a bit about fishing and found out she was a fish nerd and a species hunter just like me. When she was using her sabiki to make bait, I asked to see if I can catch a greenback herring to add to my list. It took about 10 seconds to add another new species :lol:

7” threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) aka greenback herring



Closer to sunset, I had a good rip on the big rod again. By the time I put the reel into gear, the fish dropped the bait. My greenback herring came back with teeth marks all over, no doubt a shark took it. So close!

After the shark rip, I took a good hit on the live shrimp on the surf rod. It was a good fight and I thought maybe the shark came back for the shrimp. I was giving everyone a show and the crowd started to build. It ended up being a gafftopsail sea catfish! It wasn’t even all that big but these guys are strong!

16” gaffsailtop sea catfish (Bagre marinus)





We were losing daylight fast. With that last catch, I put my rod down to take a sunset shot.



I lingered at the pier for another 10 minutes while Kazu returned to the car at 8pm. Kazu fished artificial lures all day and had a few hits but no hookups. I urged and urged Kazu to fish live shrimps to add a few new species but he was dead set on fishing artificial. :?

We went for a quick dinner and went to bed early since a very demanding day was ahead of us.

April 8, 2011

Sometimes, it is just not your day…but then something comes along and everything changes. Today was just such a day.

I had been watching Captain Ben Chancey on YouTube for a few years. His ChewOnThis Saltwater fishing show inspired me to book a charter with him to fish for goliath grouper. Unfortunately, the conditions were not right for the day and we went inshore fishing instead. We did give the goliath grouper a solid try but the tide was just not right.

We started the morning at 9am sharp and it was a short ride until we were trying to make bait. The first cast net attempt yielded a keeper size Spanish mackerel in the net. It would make good grouper bait for sure. We were after greenback herring and coulnd’t find any. In fact, we spent about 1 hours looking for bait on this tough day. We tried any channel markers, beach areas and even bridge supports. At the end, we only had a few herring in the well. The tide was at peak low and there was no current so the bait was hard to find. Ben saw that I was getting really antsy to fish so he said we could try some bridge areas for goliath grouper even though the tide was bad. On the first drop at one of the best spots, we had a solid take but by the time the reel was engaged and the line was reeled in tight, the fish dropped the bait with the slightest resistance.

We fished around the same bridge support covering all sides and didn’t get a hit. We tried some more around several other support structures and found no biters. After about 1 hour of trying, Ben suggested that we try fishing on the flats to wait for the tide to swing.

He set us up with a 3” white twister tail and instructed us to fish along the edges of the grass beds where hungry fish were waiting. It didn’t take long for Kazu to hook up to a little spotted seatrout. Unfortunately, the fish got off close to the boat. I followed suit with a sand weakfish and it was a new species.

8” sand weakfish (Cynoscion arenarius)



A couple of spotted seatrout later, I hooked into another new species! This was one I have been looking for revenge.

12” Ladyfish (Elops saurus)



More spotted seatrout later, I hooked into a little jack crevalle. Finally confirmed catch! At this size, it makes perfect bait for the little goliaths

13” crevalle jack (Caranx hippos)



After I’ve caught about a dozen spotted seatrout to 12” and Kazu losing a few of them, Ben said the tide was starting to change. We made some more bait by the bridge and it was much easier now. I was basically controlling the boat while Ben cast his cast his cast net. Kazu was busy transferring bait into the livewell. It was a teamwork to fill the wells but we got it done within 20 minutes.

Ben said there was a reef 2-3 miles off the beach that no one knows and we should try there. On the way, he spotted some cownose ray that would make perfect goliath grouper bait. We had one snagged (that’s how Ben catches them for bait) but it came off shortly after it was hooked.

We anchored on the reef and started freelining the greenback herring. On a heavy spinning rod, Ben tossed out the head of the Spanish mackerel and it was hit within 5 minutes. I took the rod out of the rod holder and had a real drag running on the line. We were not sure what it was, but it made some fast runs and eventually it went into some structures and was stuck. I was tugging and tugging trying to get it off the structure to no avail. Finally, Ben said to leave the rod in the holder and if the fish decided to come out, we’ll be ready for it.

While I was struggling to pull the fish out of the structure, Kazu hooked up and he was playing a decent fish on a medium-light spinning rod with 20lb braid. The fish eventually went into the reef and snapped him off. A little later, Kazu hooked up again and with a lot of tugging, pulling and reeling, and some help from Ben, a decent gag grouper was landed. Kazu didn’t count that fish since he didn’t fight the fish all on his own.

While we were soaking more bait and busting off more fish, Ben took out the goliath grouper rod and put the jack crevalle on bottom. Not too long later, I heard the clicker on the rod went and took the rod since I was closest. There was a decent fish on the line and everyone was thinking goliath grouper the entire time since it was pulling like no tomorrow. We finally had the fish came up and it was a little discouraging to see a 12lb gag grouper on the other end. Yeah, it was a big grouper, but we were really hoping for a goliath. :? I did smile for the picture since it was still the biggest non-goliath grouper that Ben had put into the boat this year.



I had another good fish on the light rod and it was another arm tiring fight with a smaller gag grouper. It was only 4-5lbs so we released it without a picture. I also managed to lose a Spanish mackerel which will haunt me for a while (this was the second one I lost after losing one in Georgia in 2009).

For a brief few seconds, the fish that was in the structure came out and I fought it some more. However, it quickly found structure again and this time Ben broke off the fish. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Eventually, we ran out of goliath grouper bait That was it got the goliath fishing. Our day was also running to a close with an hour left. Ben suggested that we check out some mangrove areas to see if anyone was home. We made some more bait and took off to the mangroves.

As Ben tossed out a few herring to chum the areas, a few of them were engulfed with good explosions. It looked like there were some fish in the area. While Ben helped Kazu and I tossed out a couple of herring close to the mangroves. After a minute or so, we would need to cast them into the mangroves again when the bait ran out into deeper water. It was on one of these casts while Ben was casting for Kazu that I lobbed my herring tight into the mangrove roots. I saw my bait ran out of the mangrove in a hurry and felt it came alive…then it got engulfed! There was a good fish pulling on the other end and it was a battle to keep the fish out of the mangrove. At one point, the fish ran into the roots and I had to keep the rod tip in the water to keep the line angle low. Ben really coached me well and we were able to keep the fish on the line and out of the snags.



Close to the boat, the fish jumped a few times and I thought I was going to lose it. It never felt so good to grabbed the fish with both my hands and lifted it into the boat. It was the second largest snook this year for Ben…just a hair smaller than the biggest fish of the year. Ben said this fish was about 33” long.



33” common snook (Centropomus undecimalis)



We fished the same shoreline some more and it was a little while later that Kazu hooked a very nice spotted seatrout. As I was lifting the fish into the boat (we had no net or boga grip in the boat), the hook just tore out. It was at least 20”+. Kazu didn’t mind, but I have to live with the guilt of losing it. Sorry Kazu.

Finally, it was 5pm and it was time to return to the dock. Ben lives on the water and all he had to do was to put his boat into the boat elevator and it was all done. At the dock, Ben kept us fishing by showing us how to fish on his dock for the snook. Kazu was freelining a herring for a while. I saw some mangrove snappers around the dock so I tossed out a small herring to try for them. It was frustrating catching these snappers since their smaller mouths were too small to swallow the herring and the circle hook. Ben gave me a smaller octopus hook and I put on a chunk of herring. With some persistence and patience, I finally hooked a mangrove snapper and landed one onto my list

9” grey snapper (Lutjanus griseus) aka mangrove snapper



Before we left, I took a picture with Ben. Ben was as genuine as he was on TV. When I save up money again, I’m going to do a proper goliath grouper trip with Ben



At 6pm, we were on the road again. This time, I’ll be staying with my uncle at Coral Springs while Kazu has a few days to fish around Fort Lauderdale.

April 9, 2011

It was a long day previous so I slept in until 8am. My cousin had a piano recital in the morning and piano lesson in the afternoon, or my uncle and I had most of the day together. Following a late breakfast, my uncle took me to the Everglades. He lives just behind the Sawgrass Parkway and his neighbourhood was just across the highway from the Everglades.

I was really disappointed with myself for not obtaining a freshwater license earlier. I didn’t have my license so this was only a scouting trip. As luck would have it, there was a pair of cobra snakehead in shallow water. It looked like they were in the middle of courtship. A little bit further, I saw a couple of Florida gar. Behind the water control gate, there were bowfin swimming around. All three fish mentioned were my prime freshwater targets. Of course, I don’t have my license.

So my uncle said we’ll go to BassProShops to get my license. On the way, we stopped at a great aquarium supply store. There was three nice display tanks. One was filled with some local saltwater inshore species, one was filled with African cichlids and the last one had three big moral eels, a small blacktip shark and a small lemon shark. It was cool just watching them hang out.

At BSP in Fort Lauderdale, we grabbed a couple of hot dogs for lunch before stepping in. I got my license, grabbed a few terminal tackle for my cousin to use and a dozen nightcralwers. We got home just in time as my cousin got home.

My cousin Bosco is turning 11. My uncle and Bosco had tried to fish the Everglades before but didn’t catch anything. It was my mission to get them started catching some fish.

We went back to the spot I scouted out earlier. Unfortunately, the cobra snakeheads had left Oh well, at least it’ll let me concentrate on my cousin. :lol: I rigged him up with a small bobber, a splitshot and a #8 hook. It was a little strange that he didn’t get bit quickly. We had to move around a little until we found some willing fish. My cousin, being new to fishing, was rather slow on the draw and missed a number of hits. Finally, one fish took the hook deep and he pulled up a bluegill.

Like anyone new to fishing, he dropped the poor fish a few times before we could get his picture taken :lol:



It was really a scratch bite even for sunfish. We moved to a spot where I saw the bowfin earlier. Unfortunately for me, someone had already caught and kept the two bowfin Again, it gave me time to concentrate on my cousin. While I was showing my cousin how to work the rig around the flood gate structure, watch for the bite and set the hook, I landed a new species myself.

8” spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus).



My cousin caught one after me.



My cousin caught a couple more sunfish that I thought were green sunfish. I should have taken a picture of them but they were both deep hooked so I just cut the line to let them go. After a while, I put on a weedless frog to fish the area while my uncle and Bosco fished other areas. We fished until just before sunset and left before the alligators got one of us :lol: There were some 5-6 feet gators in the water where we were fishing.

April 10, 2011

Bosco wanted to fish in the ocean on a boat. I had a boat in mind in Hollywood, FL that we could take. We went to church in the morning and Bosco went to Sunday school before going fishing. We arrived at the dock at 12pm to reserve our spots before having lunch. After lunch, the boat from the morning trip returned to dock. There were a few vermillion snappes in the catch, a few porgies, and a couple of kingfish. The captain said they released 10 short kingfish. I was very interested in catching a kingfish and signs were looking good.

While we waited to board the boat, I rigged up the rods with 3/0 circle hooks. Once on the boat, the rental rods had 1/0 longshank hooks so I had to switch them all out to 1/0 octopus hooks :roll: We were drift fishing instead of fishing on anchor, so everyone was fishing on one side of the boat.

We had a bunch of newbies beside us and if anyone of you had done some drift fishing before, you know this spells tangle city. We lost about ¼ of our fishing time just dealing with line tangles. The captain wasn’t making things easier. Instead of positioning the boat such that the lines drift out and away from the boat, more often than not the lines were either drifting left or right parallel to the rail. There was a few occasions where the lines were just straightening out for everyone when the captain would start the engine, move the boat a little, and the lines would drift off all crazy again. I wasn’t too happy with this boat and the way the captain handled the drift. The deckhands were also very slow in getting the lines untangled, fish unhooked and rigged retied. Sure, I could do a lot of that on my own…but the newbies beside me couldn’t and as best as I tried to untangle lines, there were times we had 6 or more lines in a knot and I couldn’t deal with all of them.

Anyways…so much for the rant…we did get to land some fish. I caught 4 keeper vermillion snappers about 14” each. I handed off a couple of fish for Bosco to fight and he said it was a lot of work . My uncle hooked and landed a vermillion on his own but unfortunately it was an inch too short. The kingfish were nowhere to be caught…but I found comfort by adding a new species and got a nice picture of a mature bluerunner for the fish list.

14” littlehead porgy (Calamus proridens)



14” bluerunner (Caranx crysos)



I trolled on the way back with 4 others but none of us got a hit. That night, we had a vermillion snapper and the littlehead porgy for dinner…MMM! I’ll be keeping more of them in the future :lol:

April 11, 2011

My mom’s elder sister had a hip replacement surgery last October. I really wanted to visit my aunt and see how she was doing. We went to her house late morning and went out for dim sum with my aunt and uncle. There were some complications with her surgery and the surgeon made her replaced hip about an inch longer than her other hip. My aunt now walks with a limp and they are looking to seek some compensation from the hospital. But it was good to see she was keeping positive and still the same happy person she was.



After dim sum, my uncle and I helped her get some gardening supplies from Home Hardware while her husband went to work. When we got back to her house, she said I should try fishing in the pond behind her house. My cousins grew up fishing in the pond and I heard many stories from them about the big bluegills and bass in the pond. My cousin has pulled a 10lb bass from this little pond.

I didn’t find any monster bass, but the quantity was mind blowing. For the first few casts, I had a bass hooked or landed every cast! They were averaging about 1lb each so they were nothing really special. Then I saw a couple of Mayan cichlids cruising around with the bass. I switched over to worms and a bobber and it wasn’t long before I caught the Mayan cichlid. Yay! New species on a day I wasn’t expecting to fish.

9” Mexican mojarra (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) aka Mayan cichlid



I also caught a bunch of bluegills. I have never seen such a beautiful bluegill with orange fins.



On the way home, we drove by a canal and I just had to check it out for potential. Then I spotted a pod of grass carp under a tree. These fish were anywhere from 15-20lbs! I was wondering why they were only in this area. As a gust of wind blew the berries off the trees, the fish would come up to eat the berries. I quickly grabbed my gear and set up a reel with 30lb braid and tied on an 8lb fluoro leader with a #14 hook. I grabbed one of the berry and tossed it out. There wasn’t enough weight to cast it far enough. My uncle tried to climb the tree and help me drop the line in. :lol: I love my uncle. He’s such a big kid!



I also tried putting on a tiny Thrill Shy Bite float hoping to get the line out far enough. These were had amazing eyesight and I guess they can see the fluoro leader. There were a couple of fish that came up rising to my berry baited hook but the fish would turn away at the last second. :?

As we were losing daylight, we had to go home. Oh well…next time.

April 12, 2011

My uncle arranged a morning for me to fish and in the afternoon of shopping at the outlet malls. I was really looking to hunt some cobra snakeheads in the canals!

The morning started off very slow as I checked out a nearby pond for snakeheads. The water was really deep and I didn’t spot any snakehead. While fishing a Jointed Shad Rap, I lost a largemouth bass.

When we worked our way to the other side of the pond where it connected to the canal, I spotted a snakehead and made a cast to it with a weedless frog. The fish took a brief interest but I guess it saw me and went deep.

I fished the area some more with different lures but came up empty. On the way back to the car, I spotted a Florida gar and casted repeatedly to it with small spinners and a small Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow. I had the gar grab the Pins Minnow gingerly and the fish lost interest after. This was all before 9am.

While my uncle went to grab some breakfast, there was a canal beside the Dunkin’ Donuts. I took a look and saw a 6lb cobra snakehead right by shore. I quickly rigged up and made a cast to it with the weedless frog, but the fish saw me once again and lost interest!

I switched over to a spinnerbait to cover more water from a distance away. While casting for snakeheads, I caught a 1.5lb Florida largemouth bass. I guess it’s a new subspecies to add to the list :?



Throughout the morning, I spotted about 6-7 snakeheads. I had a couple of fish follow my lure but they lost interest as soon as they saw me. It was really challenging getting these fish to bite! I even went as far as getting on my knees to fish for them. However, the canals have steep banks and we were always high up on the bank so the fish could always see you. I guess it was also more difficult since the water level looked rather low and the canals were only 3-4 feet deep at the deepest spots. I’m going to do some research from now until the next time. One day I’ll get those little buggers!

In the afternoon, we shopped at Sawgrass Outlet. I saw a nice leather jacket for $130 but with my small size, it was hard to find something that fits. I did come home with two UnderArmor shirts for $12 each. I have never seen them that cheap in Canada.

That evening, I had dinner at the restaurant where my uncle works as a chef. He arranged a menu for us with lobsters, roast duck, and other dishes. If you visit Fort Lauderdale and Miami area and you are interested in Chinese food beyond the typical chop suey, I can definitely recommend my uncle’s restaurant to you.

Here’s my family in South Florida minus my uncle who was in the kitchen.



April 13, 2011

This was my last day in Florida. I was really hoping to add one last species to the list. I had hoped to fish for pompano and Spanish mackerel off the piers but the water was flat as a mirror and pompano likes it rough. So instead, my uncle took me to Hillsboro for a shot at some snappers.

Well, we never had a chance for any snappers since the little reef fish were chewing all our shrimp within minutes of our bait hitting water.

Instead, I went fishing for reef fish instead. You gotta make lemonade sometimes :lol: It wasn’t a bad change of plans at all. Using #16 hook, 1oz weight and 8lb test, I managed to catch a few new species!

Still have to identify this damselfish…but it’s a new species for sure.



6” French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)



6” sergeant-major (Abudefduf saxatilis)



4” dusky damselfish (Stegastes adustus)



7” slippery SNUFFLEUPAGUS (Halichoeres bivittatus)



3” Caribbean sharpnose-puffer (Canthigaster rostrata)



If the sergeant-majors were not so ravenous, I could have caught a few more species. There were also a number of very colour parrotfish and angelfish in the area. It was literally like fishing in an aquarium!

I tried fishing with a live grunt for some of the big barracuda that we could see. A couple of them looked about 3-4 feet in length. However, they must be line wary after being caught over and over again. I did have a small barracuda chased my lure and a couple of pesky needlefish chase but not hit.

By 2pm, it was really too hot to fish so we called it a day. I did take a couple of pictures of the lighthouse and the boardwalk.





I had an early dinner with my uncle’s family and play with Bosco one last time before flying home.

It was a very good trip overall with an educational and productive conference and a great vacation of fishing with Kazu and visiting family. In total, I added 23 new species on this trip. There were some major targets I would really love to catch including red snapper, triggerfish, goliath grouper, pompano, Spanish mackerel and kingfish. I guess I just had to take another trip to Florida in the future to get those done