Cichlids...Aren't those aquarium fish?

It had been well over a year since I’d last visited the South Florida canal systems. That particular trip took place in February of 2011 and was quite easily my worst trip to the Glades…well…ever. We somehow managed to time our trip perfectly with a cold front that turned the bite completely off for the whole weekend. 

That mistake wouldn’t happen again. No cold fronts would be wandering through South Florida in the first weeks of September. 

Rather, it was brutally hot. Oven-like, in fact. Hot enough that our chances of catching anything depended on how close we could land a fly to the Lilly pads. The fish might have had the luxury of shade, but we didn’t. Baking in the sun, we could look down the canal to a vanishing point without the first sign of above-water shade. 

It was going to be hot, and we were going to need to get used to it. Quickly. We were on the hunt for aquarium fish. 

To make a painfully long story short: Cichlids were introduced into the man-made canals of Southern Florida decades ago, many through the exotic pet trade. They became established and eventually thrived. The state introduced the Butterfly Peacock Bass (another cichlid) as a biological control for these invasive fish. Years down the road, we have cichlids, peacock bass, and every other exotic creature you can think of now running around in the Everglades. 

But the past few years, finding these fish has been an increasingly difficult task. During the 2009/2010 winter, South Florida experienced record cold temperatures that killed off -A LOT- of cichlids. But even after the winter kill, I managed to find and catch a boat load the following summer. That was 2 ½ years ago and South Florida has yet to see another freeze like that. I therefore assumed the cichlids would be on the rise and back in full force. 

But I’ve been wrong once or twice in my life. 

Our first stop was one of my “go-to” canals that had always produced fish. I’d brought the 3wt fly rod with me specifically for cichlids and I couldn’t wait to start catching them. However, once we launched into the canal, I noticed something was different. There were few fish to be seen. Normally one can just look into the water and see the cichlids circling roots, rocks, or Lilly pads. But this day was different. I couldn’t see –any- fish. The water was also much clearer than usual. At times, I could look down and see the bottom of the canal approximately 12 feet down. In this same canal, two years prior, I caught a total of 43 NATIVE largemouth bass in addition to a cooler full of cichlids. But this day, I never even saw a largemouth. Something changed and I don’t know what, but we knew it was time to look elsewhere. 

Our next stop was the canals off of the Tamiami. Even after the freeze, these canal systems held fish so I was once again hopeful. We launched, motored about a mile down the canal, and started fishing. Almost immediately both my dad and I had a double hook up. Whatever I’d hooked was actually fighting hard and I was praying I’d be pulling up a cichlid. I was relatively surprised when I looked down to see a nice Bluegill on my fly. 

My dad’s fish was even bigger. 

And it was like that almost every cast. The closer the fly landed to the Lilly pads (and the shade), the better. We could have easily had our limit within just a couple of hours, but I generally like to release natives when fishing in the Everglades. I figure they need all the help they can get while competing with the exotics. That, and I hate cleaning Bluegill. Everyone knows they reproduce once placed on ice and I didn’t feel like being behind a cutting board for hours. In previous years we’d almost caught no Bluegills in this particular canal and I took their presence as a sign that the cichlid numbers were low/non-existent. 

No cichlids off of the Tamiami, and we were now running low on ideas. Sure there are plenty of launches into other canals, but those are all located in the kicked-over anthill that is Ft. Lauderdale/Miami. The last thing either of us wanted to do was go fishing smack-dab in the middle of a booming metropolis. Instead we stuck to the saltwater fishing in the Everglades and pretty much crossed cichlids off the list. 

But I had an incessant need to land a cichlid on the 3wt. It practically haunted my dreams and I forced my dad to pull over and stop and literally every canal we drove over. And finally, on the second-to-last day of our trip, I stepped out of the truck to check on a roadside canal. I looked down in the water and had to do a double-take. There were cichlids! Lots of them. I scrambled back to the truck and quickly assembled my fly rod. 

Once back by the water’s edge, I spotted out 2 big Mayan Cichlids, and made a cast to them. My fly landed only inches from them both and I carefully twitched the fly to entice a bite…But nothing happened. 

Confused, I made another cast. This one landing just past them and I began working the fly right between the two fish. To my shock, they spooked. Both fish were terrified of my grasshopper fly.

I repeated this process a few dozen times before I switched flies. Figuring a bead-head nymph couldn’t –possibly- scare a fish away, I began casting it to the exotics below me. But once again, every time the fly came near, the fish spooked. I literally tried everything after that. Different flies, tippits, you name it. Nothing worked. 

There are only two things in nature that literally drive me insane: Whitetail deer, and seeing fish that I can’t catch. I was going to solve this “no catching” problem one way or another. 

Anyone who has regularly read this blog knows that I’m not a purist when it comes to hunting or fishing methods. I’ll just as soon blast a deer with my rifle as I will stick one with a bow. And I’ll just as soon use a rod and reel as I will hop in the water with a speargun. 

So it should be little surprise to anyone that the following morning I was back at the same canal, fresh out of Walmart, with a brand new cane pole and a can of worms. 

I walked to the edge of the canal, saw my prey, and could hardly contain myself for all the anticipation. I’d waited almost two years to catch these fish again…and it was about to happen. However, my visions of filling the cooler with cichlids were quickly snuffed. I placed a juicy, wiggling worm right on the nose of a cichlid, and watched as it turned away and swam off to deeper water. 

Every fisherman has had –that- moment…The moment when dynamite and hand grenades suddenly seems sporting. When, just once, you’d like to hang up that bow and take out a howitzer for those deer. Or just nail that fish sitting the shallows with a big ‘ol rock. 

This was one of those moments…

Completely and totally fed up, I sat down in the tall grass near the edge of the canal, and just watched the water despairingly. But after a few minutes, I noticed the fish were coming back. Right up into the shallows in fact. Slowly, I flipped a worm down to them and…boom. Cichlid. 

The curse was broken! And I’d figured out something important. If I stood up, and the fish could see me, there was no chance of hooking one. So I spent the rest of the morning creeping along the high grass like I was on some African safari hunt, and would flip a worm over the edge of the canal in random places. It worked surprisingly well and it wasn’t long before I was filling the cooler with cichlids. 

But something was still missing; I’d yet to land one on the fly. 

With my new found knowledge and restored confidence, I set about walking down to the water’s edge, crouching in the high grass, and casting parallel to the shoreline. My little fly landed in the mirror still water just a few inches from the shore. I peered through the grass at the ripples it made as it hit the water and I gave it one little "pop". Immediately, a V-wake moved right for it and a big mayan inhaled the popper.

I did this for the remainder of the evening and caught both Mayans and Oscars on the fly. The fish were spread out quite a bit, so it took some walking in between bites. Unfortunately there were no boat ramps into this canal, which figures since we didn't bring the kayaks this year. But even with as much work that was involved in just catching one of these fish, I had a blast. They fight exceptionally hard for their size and actually taste great. Hopefully in the coming years they won’t be such a nightmare to hook, but I know I can’t wait to chase them again.

A Look Back: Dead Lakes Fishing, 2009

This is a report from kayak fishing The Dead Lakes in Wewahitchka Florida during the summer of 2009. 

 The Dead Lakes are located right outside of Wewahitchka Florida. To give one an idea of where this is located geographically, I'd put it right between the middle of no where and oblivion. In all honesty, Wewahitchka is a small town located about 25 miles east of Panama City. The Dead Lakes are extremely unique to Florida. Years ago, the Chipola river was backed up by sandbars from the Apalachicola River. This resulted in a large amount of forested land to become submerged, killing tons of timber...hence the name Dead Lakes. Today, the lakes are covered with stumps and cypress trees which prove to be great habitat for fish.

My dad and I made a trip down to Wewahitchka during the summer of 2009 to fly fish for bass and bluegill. Upon arriving, I was rather...intrigued. Our cell phones didn't work. This isn't something new to me, but usually, our phones will work at -some- point during the day. Whether it's in town, down the road, or even out on the water, there's usually a point in time when we can call home and check in. This wasn't the case on our Dead Lakes trip. We couldn't get a signal -anywhere- around Wewahitchka. And to be honest, it was kinda cool. I wouldn't want to always be cut off from civilization, but for a few days, it was awesome.

Our Cabin

The launch was located right across the street from our cabin. We chose to visit the Dead Lakes during the week since we'd heard the place is a nut house on the weekends.

Almost like a tunnel

In this particular creek, I noticed TONS of crawfish. I mean a bunch. If I stood at it's edge and waited a minute, I could see at least 50 of them crawling around. I would have killed for a crawfish trap.

The fly fishing during our trip was definitely sub-par. It was -very- difficult to catch fish out on the open water. Since the water levels were high, the surrounding timber was flooded and most of the fish retreated into it. I therefore had no choice but to go close-quarters-kayak-bream-fishing. This consists of laying down everything in the kayak (including yourself), strapping the paddle to the kayak side, and pulling the 16ft kayak through the woods like a battleship in a parking lot. It took quite some doing, but the work paid off. The pools deep in the woods were loaded with bream beds and it took little effort to fill the cooler.

Yep, they're back there^

Because of the close quarters, fly fishing was out of the question. Instead, I took my 3ft ultra-light rod and perfected the prone-throw-cast technique. This is done by laying down flat on your back in the kayak to fit under the branches. You then pull out approximately 8 feet of line and hook a wiggler on the end. You then take the wiggler in your hand, and throw it sidearmed to the nearest set of stumps. Wait for the bite, and reel him in. Rinse and repeat. No casting, just literally throwing the bait with your free hand.

At one point, I rounded a corner is some thick trees and heard a hollow 'thump' and then a bunch of scratching. I quickly located the source of the noise and snapped a quick photo. He was stuck big time and I was more than happy to free him.

Stuck?

It only took a few hours and several chiropractor trips to fill the cooler with bream. Once back at the cabin, I set about cleaning all the fish. As my luck would have it, the bream proceeded to reproduce sevenfold while dying in the cooler and I was stuck cleaning more fish than I remembered catching. Even with an electric filet knife, cleaning 62 bream took an eon. When we finally left Wewahitchka, I never wanted to see another bluegill again. Well...at least not for a few days.

Overall the Dead Lakes trip was a blast. It's nice to go 'catching' every once in a while. I do, however, wish that the water levels had been a bit lower. It would have pulled the fish from the timber and made throwing flies to them a bit easier. A shorter kayak would been nice for such situations as well. I found there were many places that my kayak couldn't fit it simply because it was too long.

A Look Back: Chipola River Fishing Summer 2009

This is a report from a trip to the Chipola River during the summer of 2009. 

Early one summer morning, my dad, two of his friends, and I loaded up the kayaks and traveled the ~2hr's to Marianna Fl to fish the Chipola river. Once there, we worked out the details of the float plan and dropped off a car at the take out point. We then drove up river with the yaks and put in.

To my surprise, the river was relatively clear; not the usual coffee-with-extra-cream color that dominates this part of the state.

My goal for this trip was to catch a shoal bass. To be honest, prior to taking this trip, I was unaware there was any such thing as a shoal bass. But after talking to some of my dad's friends, I had decided that I'd like to land one in the yak with me that day.

After launch, I realized quickly that I was out of my element. I'm used to saltwater, tides, small waves, etc. I'm definitely -not- used to swift currents, submerged trees, and random limestone outcroppings. What made things even more difficult and defied the laws of physics at the same time was that my kayak INSISTED on floating backwards down the river. No matter what I did with my rudder, paddle, or curse words, the kayak would just float around and head stern first down current.

At the end of the 4 hour float, it felt like my neck permanently twisted around so that my chin rested on my shoulder. We did, however, have a great trip. I failed to catch anything huge, but did manage to land my first shoal bass...and on a fly no less.

I also lost count on the number of bream I caught. None were of any size worth mentioning, but I landed one nearly every other cast. One of the problems I noticed about fishing in a river with swift current is that you don't have all the time in the world to cast to a good looking hole. Rather, you get one, maybe two casts before you're out of range and can never get back to it again.

The Chipola River trip was certainly an interesting one. We saw people bowfishing for mullet, fossil hunting in the shallows, and even some other fools in kayaks. By the time we reached the take out spot, the scenery had changed slightly from the morning. There were a bunch of people there and several who needed to -not- be wearing such skimpy bathing suits. It was the first time I've ever had to unload the kayak while averting my eyes from the horrors that jiggled and flopped and shook the earth with every step around me.

A Look Back: Ocala National Forest Fishing, 2009

The following is a report from the Ocala National Forest during the summer of 2009:

In mid-July of the summer of 2009, I managed to escape the monotony of my job at a grocery store and drove down to Ocala Florida to do some freshwater kayak fishing with my dad. We decided to fish in Ocala since I had to be in Gainesville for an orientation anyways. Situated just outside of Ocala is the Ocala National Forest. The forest is one of the largest national forests in the state and has many small lakes that are perfect for kayak fishing.

The weather on the way down was iffy at best. The usual summer weather patterns had set in across the state and by the afternoon, huge thunderstorms have boiled up and begin to wander around aimlessly. It rained on and off during the whole trip and I thought that one particular storm at a rest stop looked picture worthy.

We arrived at Silver Springs (the little town between Ocala and the Nat. Forest) later in the day and found an old motel to spend the night in. After dinner, my dad and I sat back and relaxed to watch some TV and recover from the drive. My dad decided to take a shower before he went to bed and it wasn't long before I heard a HUGE crash and a few choice words coming from the bathroom. I opened the door to discover that my dad had successfully destroyed our motel bathroom.

Note to self: Don't put your foot on a sink in order to dry your leg off after getting out of the shower.

Management wasn't particularly pleased, but probably more relieved that we hadn't hurt ourselves and tried to sue. They moved us into a new room and the rest of the night went on uneventful.

The next morning we woke and drove into the forest. I picked out what appeared to be a good looking lake called Redwater lake in the middle of the forest. We missed the turn several times as we weren't looking for a single-laned dirt road. Finally, we arrived and noticed that the water level was down quite a bit. What had once been a boat ramp for small boats was now about 10 feet from the closest wet spot. There was also about a 3 foot drop which would make backing a trailer down the hill impossible. Needless to say, there were no motor boats on the water. In fact, there were no other people. We soon had the kayaks launched and we began fishing.

The first thing I noticed about Redwater lake is the color of the water. Now, I've fished some VERY tannin stained water before, but this lake beats them all. If one could make black coffee...blacker, that might come close to describing this lake. Visibility was about 4 inches...maximum. It was almost creepy how dark the water was as I watched my kayak paddle disappear every time it touched the water. I threw a fly around for about thirty minutes before I gave up on that and resorted to drowning worms (I had yet to be bitten by the fly bug). I soon found a bed of bream and began pulling one after another into the kayak. One of the bluegill I caught was massive and is still, to this day, the biggest bluegill I've ever caught.

Fishing was rather difficult in that I could drop a worm in one spot and catch nothing, then drop the same worm, 6 inches away in a different spot and start to catch fish. I think that the water clarity, or lack there of, contributed to this. We fished Redwater for most of the day until I giant thunderstorm came up and chased us off with its lightning. My dad hooked and lost a nice bass on the fly rod and I caught a few more keeper bluegill.

The next day we fished another lake (who's name escapes me) and didn't have much luck. The water was clearer than Redwater, but certainly not clear. I missed a few bluegill on the fly and finally managed to pull one little bass out before another storm chased us away.

The last day we were down there, my dad and I launched the kayaks at a boat launch that leads into the Ocklawaha river. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the launch actually led into the end waters of Silver Springs just before it meets the river. The water was crystal clear and one could see fish swimming everywhere (although it was mainly all gar). There were "no fishing" signs posted everywhere so we continued paddling through the beautiful water until we met the Ocklawaha. The meeting of Silver Springs and the Ocklawaha was interesting. Crystal clear water meets coffee-tannin stained water and swirls into this bizarre colored mixture before finally turning near-black again. Unfortunately, this was the most interesting part of the day as we caught nothing worth noting aside from about 100 three inch bluegill on a worm.

Overall, the trip to fish the Ocala National Forest was a blast. It was nice to kill two birds with one stone by completing my orientation in Gainesville AND getting to fish the Nat. Forest. From what I've recently read in a magazine, the Ocala National Forest has several long creeks with many sand bars that are perfect for stopping and fishing. It may certainly be worth a float trip in the yaks. I'll just need to make sure I do it before I graduate and move out of Gainesville.

Spring Update

Sadly, I haven't had much time for hunting or fishing the past few weeks. School has been absolutely brutal and this weekend was the first weekend in a long time that I've had off.

A few weeks ago I was looking around Gainesville for possible ponds to fish. I noticed from the imagery that there was a pond in the middle of an apartment complex right across the street from where I live. I walked over to the pond soon after and found it to be almost accessible around its entire edge. To make things better, there's tons of room to cast a fly. There's also a large fountain in the middle of the pond. I wasn't 100% sure there were fish in the pond until I noticed a dead bluegill on the bank and after seeing that, I decided to fish it.

Yesterday was my first chance to fish the pond so I grabbed my 3 wt. and walked across the street to see what I could do. I fished for maybe an hour and caught 4 bluegill (1 keeper) and a warmouth. I was rather shocked that I caught any fish at all. I hadn't been out there 5 minutes before there was a huge splash next to me and I look to see a dog swimming out into the middle of the pond to fetch a tennis ball. I'm not exactly used to having people all over the place when I fish. But...I moved, and began catching fish again, so I suppose it was alright (the dog tired out after about 20 minutes anyways).

Nothing would touch a surface fly so I changed to a little bead head nymph and began getting hook ups. I did manage to miss a nice strike from a decent sized fish. Upon inspecting my fly, I noticed that the hook had actually broken in half. Certainly a first for me. I'll probably be spending a bit more time down at the pond in the next week now that school is winding down.

As of right now, the plan is to head back to Pensacola when school gets out and get down to some serious fishing. There's a kayak fishing tournament I'm thinking about entering when I get home. It should prove interesting. Especially if I can manage to land a king or cobia in the yak with me.

Electrofishing Lake Alice

If you were to visit the University of Florida in Gainesville today, chances are you'd drive past Lake Alice. The small, 4.5 acre lake is located almost directly in the center of campus. As you drive by, you'd also notice the huge signs posted everywhere that say "No Fishing". Breaking that rule will land you in jail.

Unless you're with the Fisheries department...

The day I'd been looking forward to for weeks had finally come. My Introduction to Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences class took boats out to Lake Alice to electrofish and collect data on the fish present in the lake. We backed the boats down into the water and set off to shock them. Each boat had three people on them; one to drive and two to net the fish that came to the surface.

Shocking the fish merely stuns them. They come up to the surface and are then netted and put into a live well. Shocking runs last 15 minutes and the boat motors around the lake, up into the reeds, and under branches during the sample period to collect fish. Once the sample is over, the boat returns to shore, collects data, and releases the fish.


Every time I go fishing I tell myself, "I -know- that there are more/big fish down there. I just wish I could see them". Today, I got to see every one of them. The very first fish that I netted was the biggest crappie I'd ever seen. It measured out to 13.5 inches (I'll have to go back to the data to get the weight since I can't remember it off the top of my head).

Immediately after that we netted an almost identical one. We then went on to net several 2+lb largemouth bass, and tons of monster bluegill and redears. After my sample was done, I took my turn at collecting data on the fish. Game species (Bass, bluegill, redear, etc.) over a certain size were measured and weighed. Each fish then received a fin clip on their left pelvic fin. We do this so that when we return next week and the week after, we can pick out the recaptures. Finally, bass over a specific length were tagged and then released.

I luckily got the chance to take the shock boat out one last time before the day ended. Once again we pulled in quite a few bass and lots of big bluegill. Nearly all of the bluegill measured (over 200) measured greater than 9 inches and many weighed over 1 lb.

I also got a chance to catch one of those monster redears that taunted me in Merritt's Mill Pond years ago.

We also hit a huge school of shiners, a catfish, 1 alligator (he was pissed), a bullfrog, and my first ever: Bowfin.

I'd always seen pictures of Bowfin, but had never seen one in real life. Not only was it my first Bowfin, but it was HUGE. The biologists working with us said that it was on the upper end of the Bowfin size spectrum. He almost didn't fit in my net, barely fit in the live well, and was too long for our measuring board. He went an easy 10 lbs.

The greatest part about all of this is that it's school. I get a grade for doing something I'd just do for fun. To make things even better, I get to go back and repeat the electrofishing process two more times in the upcoming weeks. I'll be sure to bring the camera for more pictures. Anything to get ya through the winter fishing slump.

My first burn

Got up Friday morning and got to work at 0800. I had to go check a bluebird box on the other side of the WMA, so I hopped in Shrek and took off to go take care of it. Sadly, I only had one box to take care of and the trip took 45 minutes to get there and back. Once back, I was about to load up the four wheeler and begin the exciting task of spraying exotics again. Lucky for me, my boss Tina saved me and asked…well…told me that I was going on my first burn. I was to use one of the technician’s (named Stony) four wheelers and trailer since it had the proper gear on it. I hooked the trailer up to Shrek and drove the Stony’s four wheeler up onto it. It only took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to start it since I’ve never seen a push-start button on a four wheeler.

After getting everything ready, six of us drove off to the area that was supposed to be burned. The section was about 2 miles long and about 1/8 of a mile wide. Since I’ve had no training in burning, it was my job to drive up and down the road on the four wheeler and make sure the fire stayed on the correct side of the road. If it jumped the road, I would get to spray it out and call for help. The fire never jumped the road I was patrolling but did on another road. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to help out since it wasn’t where I was supposed to be. At one point during the burn, as I was video taping some of it, I nearly ran over a 4 ft. Diamondback Rattlesnake. (For some reason I can't upload the video).
I spun the four wheeler around and got a picture before we sprayed it off the road with the hoses. The only other animal I saw that got flushed from the fire was a small raccoon. I certainly enjoyed my first burn and I doubt my clothes will ever get the smoke smell off of them. I guess driving around through smoke for 4 hours will do that.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t too tired to go fishing after work, so I loaded up the kayak and went to try the same ponds again. Since I recently lost my favorite fly to an evil oak, I had switched to a larger grasshopper fly. I only caught a few fish from the pond covered with lilly pads, so I went over to the other one before it got too dark. There, I caught a few decent sized bluegill and 5 small bass. Fished until it was literally dark, then headed back.

Saturday I did a whole lot of nothing. Slept in until almost 1100 since I rarely get the chance to. I played around on the internet for a few hours, then decided I’d try out my crawfish traps. I dropped one at the edge of lake Jackson where I usually fish from the bank, then dropped the other off of road 7 (which was a terrible road, glad I have 4x4) where an old bridge reaches out over the canal. Came home and cooked (a.k.a incinerated) some hamburger steaks then decided I’d go for a run. I underestimated how long the road was that I was running down and a two mile run nearly turned into four. It was dark enough on the way back that I was running by moonlight. I also found a new form of motivation for running. I made the run last night without a shirt on and after turning around and coming back, I decided to walk for a few seconds. Motivation came alive in the form of a few hundred yellow flies. Needless to say, I didn’t stop to walk anymore.

Woke up and checked the crawfish traps this morning to find absolutely nothing. Made a few casts and caught one stump knocker. Driving down road 7 successfully covered my entire jeep in black, stinky mud, so I had to go rinse it off as best I could when I got back. Tomorrow I have to spend the day spraying exotics. Chelsea’s got some surprise for me on Saturday, so I’m excited to find out what that is. I have Wednesday off so that I can pick her up from the airport and we’ll be going by BassPro to buy some more flies.

Move cows....MOVE!

My day yesterday started about 0545. I had to meet one of the technicians that work out here, named Mike, over by Carlton's house at 0620 to do another quail call survey. Shrek and I left the office about 0600 but I miscalculated how long it would take me to get there and I was running late. Couldn't get the gate onto the Three Lakes unit to lock shut so I had to make it look like it was locked and hurry on. About a half mile from where I was supposed to meet Mike, I noticed something in the middle of the road. As I approached, I saw that it was about 40 cows, some of which were laying down in the road. Unlike other WMA's I've been on, Three Lakes allows rachers to keep cows and have them roam around the area. The cows, knowing I was late, mocked me by refusing to budge from the road. I rolled down the window and blared the horn at them. "Move cows! Move! Move!". I inched Shrek closer and closer to them, threatening to bump them should they not get out of the way. Reluctantly, and with what seemed like amused grins, the cows slowly walked off the road and let me pass.

The quail survey actually took a little longer than expected thanks to some completely flooded roads. At one stop I was forced to open the door and crawl onto the tool box in the back to avoid stepping into knee deep water. After the quail survey I checked up on some bluebird boxes that I've been assigned to. After I got back to the office, I got help from Tina, the head biologist out here, and we went to go band a box of bluebird chicks.

I then got the exciting task of spraying herbicides to kill invasive plants. The sprayer is attached to a four wheeler so I pretty much had to just drive down the road, spray the exotics, flag them with orange tape, plot the GPS coordinates, rinse, and repeat.After work, I had enough time to go put the kayak in for some fishing. I tried some ponds near the turnpike that Mike had showed me earlier that morning. I launched in the first one and was having absolutely no success. Just when I was a few casts away from hanging it up and trying the next pond, something pulled my foam spider under. With renewed confidence that I might actually catch something, I switched to the grasshopper fly my dad tied and began getting strikes. I finally managed to hook and land a very nice bluegill. With some continued casts around the area, I soon landed the biggest bluegill I've ever caught on the fly. It actually pulled the kayak around. Luckily, I decided not to keep those two fish because I only caught a few small ones after that. I soon noticed it was getting late, so I loaded up the kayak and tried the other pond before it got too dark. The second pond had lilly pads all over it and within a short period of time, I landed a few small bluegill. Just a
s the sun was setting, I caught two bass in two casts. One of the bass was large enough to keep. I had to quit fishing since the sun had set by then.

Today wasn't exactly spectacular. I went and sprayed exotics for 4.5 hours since I was closing in on my 40 hour/week mark (I get no over time). Finished up work at 1330 and I'm thinking about going fishing again.

Mondays...

Woke up today and got to work at 0800. I knew I was supposed to be doing something different today aside from dealing with RCW's but I wasn't sure what. My morning consisted of "reading" through 280 some odd pages of a PDF file about FWC policies. I was then supposed to start working with a man named Carlton to monitor water flow in Lake Jackson and the Jackson-Kissimmee canal. However, he'd stepped out to take care of another job while I read the never ending list of policies. By the time I had finished, he still hadn't returned so I was assigned trash duty at three different places on the WMA (yay!). To make up for it I was finally given my own set of truck keys and a lifted, green Dodge 2500 with all-terrains that's been beat to pieces. I've named the truck Shrek.

After receiving a radio and GPS, Shrek and I took off for trash duty. The trashcans out here are bear proof which also means they're nearly human proof as well. The design made it so that the cavity that holds the trash is larger than the opening, AND the lid refuses to stay open while you're attempting to remove the swollen bag of garbage. With this combination of things working against me, I successfully tore open the full trash bag and spilled all the contents back into the trashcan (which was also full of mud from the recent rain we had). I had to go through the trash by hand and remove all the beer cans, McDonald's wrappers, and dirty diapers from the can. To top off this adventure, something (probably a spider) bit me on the wrist hard enough to leave a quarter sized welt.

When the trash run was finally done, I came back to the office and met with Carlton. We hooked the Jon Boat up to his truck and loaded all the computer equipment needed to measure water flow. It began to rain a little bit as we went to the first stop, but I stopped by the time we were ready to launch. To monitor the water flow, essentially a floating computer is attached to a rope that stretches to pulleys on either side of the canal. I had just motored the boat to the far side of the canal and hopped out to begin feeding the rope when a bolt of lightning struck WAY too close. It didn't take much convincing on Carlton's part to get me back in the boat and ready to hook it up on the trailer in seconds.

Once back at the office, I met with Cliff's wife, Emily, and we left to go check bluebird boxes and band some chicks. I was able to band my first bluebird chick and was assigned my own series of boxes to watch over. Since it was pouring rain, I wasn't able to get any pictures.

Drove into town after work and bought the KFC I was craving. There was a terrible thunderstorm on the way but it had slacked off by the time I returned to the trailer. Then, after dinner, I took a few minutes to go fish. I (of course) forgot my camera again. I managed to catch two keeper Stumpknockers, but I think it might have been the same fish (or at least his clone). Tomorrow I get to do a quail call survey and have round two with the jon boat.

A Day of Fishing

Saturday, May 15, 2010: Drove into Kenansville this morning to get gas and bait, then drove back to pick up the kayak and go fish. Put in at a creek nearby the trailer. I took the creek out to Lake Marion where the wind was blowing 25+ mph out of the south and there were breaking waves on the lake. I turned around and went back to the put in. After loading up everything again, I drove over to Lake Jackson. I paddled along the edge of the lake out of the wind. There were a TON of alligators in lake Jackson. I saw well over 30 and the largest one was 11 ft +. Managed to pull two small bass from the lake and missed two others. Had problems with the wind and Lilly pads. It sounded like there were a lot of bluegill hitting the surface underneath the pads, but I couldn’t get one to ever hit the fly (I did only throw one type at them though). I paddled back (into the wind of course) and loaded up the Jeep again at around 1700. I decided to try the canal by the observation tower before it got dark since I’d had a hit there the other day. While unloading everything at the canal, I found a grasshopper and threw it in. After only a few moments, it swam right back towards me and less that 2 feet from where I was standing, a big bream came up and ate him.
I launched and paddled north up the canal. The wind had switched by now and was coming from the east southeast so I was sheltered by the trees. Only caught two fish north of the launch along with 2 other misses. I then paddled back as it was getting late. Right before calling it quits at the launch, I cast up along the weeds where the bream from earlier had struck. He hit my fly but managed to avoid the hook. I then noticed another area south of the launch that looked just like the one that this bream had been hiding in. I paddled over and lost a huge bluegill under the boat. I kept moving down the bank until it was almost dark then called it quits. I lost two very big bluegill along that one stretch of bank and also missed 4 other strikes. I’ll have to go back there soon. I switched from the commercial popper to a grasshopper fly that my dad had tied. It obviously worked well. Tomorrow I have to work for about 4 hours so should finish up around noon. Cell signal down here (for T-Mobile at least) sucks. Every time I talk to Chelsea I go silent for a few seconds because I'm cut off which gets really annoying and doesn't help with how badly I miss her. She plans to come down Memorial Day weekend which I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully we can hang out in Orlando some and enjoy some civilization :).