trojannemo
Fishaholic
hey guys.
this past saturday, April 10th, 2010, we went out to collect some fish and show our out-of-town forum member Rama some of our usual dipnetting spots, as well as some of the fish farms.
we started along Tamiami Trail at about 9am, but didnt have much luck. we saw very little in the way of exotics, or fish in general.
there was some construction going on along most of tamiami trail, so we couldn't stop at the side of the road as usual, and were forced to skip many spots.
cassian managed to get a nice gar on the cast net; we saw many inland silversides schooling together; captured one marsh killifish, one bluegill and many flagfish.
as far as I remember we did not encounter any exotic species along tamiami trail.
we then headed towards homestead to check out some of the canals around the airforce base. here we had much better luck. after some driving around found a deep, clear-water canal with a nicely-sized group of blue tilapia. as much as we tried, we couldn't catch a single one.
we then returned to a spot we had visited more than once before, a canal that ran off a much larger saltwater or brackish canal. here we caught HUGE sailfin mollies (while the usual mollies I catch are no more than 1.5", these were easily 4" and up). Rama here also got lucky, catching what we believe to be a Jaguar baby.
after much pushing on my side, we finally moved to the location I was looking forward to dipnetting in all day, a little further south. here we had all sorts of experiences...
right on I caught a warmouth juvenile, as always gambusia were abundant. the grass shrimp at this location seemed to suffer from a pandemic parasitic infestation, as many of them had crustacean-like organisms attached on their side. we also encountered two baby alligators, which quickly raised our alarm, looking for momma. the entire time we were there, however, she did not make her appearance (thankfully).
pike livebearers were abundant, and Rama, yet again (beginner's luck?) made a great catch, bringing in the biggest Pike Livebearer that I've seen and documented to date, and even better, this was a definite male specimen.
I utilized my Heron-like precision and patience to net two beautifully-colored male sailfin mollies with great finnage, as well as some good-sized melanistic golden topminnows.
we caught a few Mayan cichlids, Rama caught the only jewel cichlid of the day, and I believe Cassian caught a single specimen of Least Killifish.
while we've had more productive days in terms of species encountered, the last spot definitely made the day, at least for me!
after we were thoroughly content with dipnetting, we visited Enrique's farm, which is another story on its own, and better told by Rodolfo! suffice it to say the guy has an amazing setup, there are a vast amount of "tanks" full of incredibly-colored african cichlids, and as you walk in the mud and water covered floor you start to realize there's fish swimming around your feet...there was literally a colony of huge jaguars in the floor, in front of Cassian going towards his finger as he touched the water...and that was just the fish living on the water that was on the floor! :shock:
all in all it was a long but entertaining day with a lot of firsts for some of us, and some experiences that at least I wont be forgetting any time soon!
here are the pictures:
this past saturday, April 10th, 2010, we went out to collect some fish and show our out-of-town forum member Rama some of our usual dipnetting spots, as well as some of the fish farms.
we started along Tamiami Trail at about 9am, but didnt have much luck. we saw very little in the way of exotics, or fish in general.
there was some construction going on along most of tamiami trail, so we couldn't stop at the side of the road as usual, and were forced to skip many spots.
cassian managed to get a nice gar on the cast net; we saw many inland silversides schooling together; captured one marsh killifish, one bluegill and many flagfish.
as far as I remember we did not encounter any exotic species along tamiami trail.
we then headed towards homestead to check out some of the canals around the airforce base. here we had much better luck. after some driving around found a deep, clear-water canal with a nicely-sized group of blue tilapia. as much as we tried, we couldn't catch a single one.
we then returned to a spot we had visited more than once before, a canal that ran off a much larger saltwater or brackish canal. here we caught HUGE sailfin mollies (while the usual mollies I catch are no more than 1.5", these were easily 4" and up). Rama here also got lucky, catching what we believe to be a Jaguar baby.
after much pushing on my side, we finally moved to the location I was looking forward to dipnetting in all day, a little further south. here we had all sorts of experiences...
right on I caught a warmouth juvenile, as always gambusia were abundant. the grass shrimp at this location seemed to suffer from a pandemic parasitic infestation, as many of them had crustacean-like organisms attached on their side. we also encountered two baby alligators, which quickly raised our alarm, looking for momma. the entire time we were there, however, she did not make her appearance (thankfully).
pike livebearers were abundant, and Rama, yet again (beginner's luck?) made a great catch, bringing in the biggest Pike Livebearer that I've seen and documented to date, and even better, this was a definite male specimen.
I utilized my Heron-like precision and patience to net two beautifully-colored male sailfin mollies with great finnage, as well as some good-sized melanistic golden topminnows.
we caught a few Mayan cichlids, Rama caught the only jewel cichlid of the day, and I believe Cassian caught a single specimen of Least Killifish.
while we've had more productive days in terms of species encountered, the last spot definitely made the day, at least for me!
after we were thoroughly content with dipnetting, we visited Enrique's farm, which is another story on its own, and better told by Rodolfo! suffice it to say the guy has an amazing setup, there are a vast amount of "tanks" full of incredibly-colored african cichlids, and as you walk in the mud and water covered floor you start to realize there's fish swimming around your feet...there was literally a colony of huge jaguars in the floor, in front of Cassian going towards his finger as he touched the water...and that was just the fish living on the water that was on the floor! :shock:
all in all it was a long but entertaining day with a lot of firsts for some of us, and some experiences that at least I wont be forgetting any time soon!
here are the pictures:
