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.
Well, two weeks ago, the weekend that I'd been looking forward to since last July finally came. My dad and his long time fishing buddy hauled the kayaks down from Pensacola, picked me and my roommate up, and headed down to the Everglades.
The target species was cichlids and peacock bass. I had three stops in mind when we were on our way down. The first, and furthest north, was Alligator Alley (I-75). We arrived Saturday morning and to our dismay, the weather was awful. A cold front had blown through the night before and the temperature was in the low 50's. To make matters worse, the wind was howling about 25mph out of the north. We proceeded to launch off of I-75 and fish.
Had we been fishing further north in the state, I would say that the fishing was fantastic. However, we weren't catching what we'd driven 6 hours for. Nothing but bluegill and stumpknockers. We were actually coming close to catching a little gill every cast. Reports from last years fish kill made it seem like all the cichlids had been wiped out along I-75 and from our experience, I can say that it might be true. Just the sheer number of small bluegill that were being caught tells me that they're having a boom season right after the cichlids got wiped out.
We decided to leave I-75 and proceed further south toward Homestead. We stopped by the Tamiami trail to look at the canals, but couldn't really see much. The weather wasn't getting any better anyways so we drove on down to Homestead to stay the night.
The next morning we got up and went back to the Tamiami. We launched around 9 am and fished for a few hours. The bite was slow, with only a few non-picture worthy bass and bluegill to show for it.
Our next stop was my "if we don't catch cichlids in this canal we aren't gonna catch any anywhere" canal. Upon arriving, I couldn't see any cichlids in the water like I had the summer before. We still launched and proceeded to work our way down the canal. As it got later in the day, the topwater bite picked up and I stopped using my popper/dropper setup and switched to poppers only. I succeeded in catching about 15 very small bass.And ONE eety beety Peacock bass (which at least gave me a boost of confidence).
And with no one else catching much, we put the yaks back up and headed for the motel.
With the freshwater fishing being so terrible, we went to plan B: Fish for Snook and Tarpon around Everglades National Park. I had to be back in Gainesville Monday night because I had a test the following morning, so we fished the park until around mid-day.
As soon as we launched, I went to the spot that I caught my juvenile tarpon and huge snook in years past. The first thing I see when I round the corner is this:
An American Crocodile. I'd never seen a wild one before this. The picture doesn't do it justice since I didn't want to get closer in my little kayak. I've seen BIG gators before that have easily gone 13-14 ft. and this monster dwarfed them. At a distance, it looked like a pile of dirt that a bulldozer had pushed up. I snapped a few pictures and headed out of that pond after casting to rolling tarpon with no success. Later in the week, I took the picture to the FWC office here in Gainesville and confirmed it to be a crocodile.
I paddled back around the launch and started fishing with the fly rod again. The water was VERY clear and I could see down about 10-12 feet. This however, didn't stop the bass from biting and it wasn't long before we started hooking into them. By this time, the weather had finally decided to warm up some and I think that sparked the bite. I ended up with about 8 bass and only one that I deemed picture worthy.
My dad lost a pretty big one on conventional gear and his fishing buddy managed about 10 small ones on the fly. Once noon came around, it was time to go.
Sometimes you just don't hold your mouth right and things don't work out as planned. It's a shame the weather was so bad that weekend as it was beautiful and hot the next weekend (temps in the 80's and sunny). The Peacock bass and cichlids were just too cold from the weather and found a hole somewhere deep to try and stay warm. But...that's how it goes. We still caught fish and I still had a good time. Besides, if it weren't for bad fishing trips, how would we know when we had a good one?
I'm really looking forward to getting back down there when the weather heats up. I've got a score to settle with some Oscars and Mayans on my new 3 wt. Until next time,
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 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.
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 :).
