North Florida road trip 2021 - part 2

On the third day of our North Florida road trip we ventured into the Osceola National Forest. This area is primarily pine forests with an abundance of tannic water ditches. Our targets were mud sunfish and banded sunfish, for both of us, and bluespotted sunfish for Ally.

I had some new hooks from TenkaraBum called Akita Kitsune that I wanted to try out, and they ended up being perfect for small sunfish. Their shape is similar to New Half Moon tanago hooks, but they're larger and have stronger snelled line. It was a cold morning, but as the sun came up the fish slowly started biting. My first two catches were bluespotted sunfish, and after that I caught several mud sunfish, a flier, and a nice warmouth. Ally caught the same except for the bluespotted sunfish. We were very excited to finally add mud sunfish to our lists! They're a cool fish.

Bluespotted Sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus)

Mud Sunfish (Acantharchus pomotis) - new hook & line species #794

Flier (Centrarchus macropterus)

Warmouth (Lepomis gulosus)

We had another spot marked for banded sunfish, so after a few hours we drove further into the forest to give it a try. I honestly enjoyed the fact that we lost our phone signals. It feels good to get off the beaten path from time to time! Several of the locals stopped to see what we were doing. An older gentleman in a beat-up pickup truck was excited to show us the spot on his chest where he recently had a catheter removed after he beat cancer. We were happy for him.

This spot had plenty of flier, but we explored a little further down the road and found a small pocket of open water surrounded by vegetation. It looked promising, and much to our delight we each caught a banded sunfish there. Now all we're missing from the Enneacanthus genus is blackbanded sunfish!

Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) - new hook & line species #795

We spent more time than we planned fishing the first two spots, so we had to skip a couple of boat ramps to the west and head straight to our last stop of the day, St. Mark's Lighthouse. It's a very fishy looking area with easy access to saltwater, freshwater, and everything in between.

We started off fishing the lagoon next to the parking lot, which had nice clear water. It was full of sheepshead minnows and gulf killifish. The male pupfish had bright iridescent blue marking on their heads, which I was able to just barely capture in the photo below. The gulf killifish were the largest we've ever seen. The one I caught was easily half a pound!

Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus)

Gulf Killifish (Fundulus grandis)

Photo credit Ally Toth.

I saw one longnose killifish mixed in with the other fish, but I lost track of it before I could get a bait in the water. Striped killifish, their close relative, like being in pure saltwater, so I suggested that we walk over to the Gulf and try the shallow sand flats. The wind was pretty strong.

Small schools of killifish were swimming around in a few inches of water. They were indeed our target, longnose killifish, and we each caught a few of them.

Longnose Killifish (Fundulus similis) - new hook & line species #796

I like to use a plastic tub to put our catches in when it would be difficult to photograph them in their natural habitat. We learned a hard lesson while we were catching the sheepshead minnows and gulf killifish - the local birds like to eat them! We made sure to keep the lid on the tub when we caught the longnose killifish. No more free snacks!

We spent the night in Perry and then drove home on the fourth day. We had a few extra hours to fish, so we stopped at the boat ramp on the Santa Fe River to try again for madtoms. We had seen a few of them on the second day, but we didn't give them our full attention. This time we didn't bother trying for Suwannee bass or spotted bullhead and focused exclusively on madtoms.

Photo credit Ally Toth.

Madtoms can be very frustrating. I found a few of them, but they usually swam off until I couldn't keep track of them. Finally I found one that stayed in its hiding spot and immediately grabbed a bait when I put it in front of it. The two possibilities were tadpole madtom and speckled madtom, and I was very glad to see that it was the latter. My sixth new species of the trip!

Speckled Madtom (Noturus leptacanthus) - new hook & line species #797


Ally was able to hook a couple of madtoms, but both of them fell off before she could get them to hand. It was a painful way to end the trip, but sometimes that's how fishing goes. We'll be back in the spring when its warmer and the water is still low. The Santa Fe still has a half dozen or more species for us to work on. We can't wait to go back!

North Florida road trip 2021 - part 1

At the end of October Ally and I got around to doing a proper Florida road trip. We planned to drive to Gainesville, fish the Santa Fe River, continue on to the Osceola National Forest, and then finish up by heading west to the Gulf of Mexico. We left on a Thursday afternoon, and unfortunately we only made it a few hours before getting a flat tire that required a patch.

Photo credit Ally Toth.

The next day we fished several spots along the Santa Fe River, starting at a public boat ramp that several other species anglers have visited. It was cool and cloudy, and we hoped that the cold front that arrived the day before hadn't turned off the fishing.

Microfishing produced two species, ironcolor shiner and Westfalls darter. I looked for ironcolor shiner many years ago in Illinois, where they are quite rare, so it was nice to finally catch one. The Westfalls darter was the last species on my list that I've caught but still needed a photo of.

Ironcolor Shiner (Notropis chalybaeus) - new hook & line species #792

Westfalls Darter (Percina westfalli)

We saw a few madtoms, but weren't able to catch them. Likewise we didn't have any luck with Suwannee bass or spotted bullhead. Our next spot was supposed to be good for the latter two species, so we moved there and fished some larger baits.

Again we didn't have any luck with Suwanee bass or spotted bullhead, but I was able to get some nice photo upgrades for a couple other species. The size of the Seminole killifish really blew me away!

Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis auritus)

Spotted Sunfish (Lepomis punctatus)

Seminole Killifish (Fundulus seminolis)

Ally did some more microfishing, and she excitedly showed me a darter she caught. It was certainly not a Westfalls; it was a brown darter! She gave me a few pointers on how to find them (hidden in the green vegetation), and a few minutes later I caught one as well.

Brown Darter (Etheostoma edwini) - new hook & line species #793

We had hoped to snorkel a spring for hogchokers, inspired by a video made by our friend Hunter, but it was closed due to damages from flooding earlier in the summer. We didn't have much daylight left, so we picked the next closest access to the river to fish for an hour. After throwing a few lures for bass, I got out my snorkeling gear so I could see what we were missing.

Photo credit Ally Toth.

I saw a lot of largemouth bass and miscellaneous sunfish, but there was still no sign of Suwannee bass. What I did find were a ton of juvenile hogchokers. Adult hogchokers have tiny mouths, and these juveniles had mouths so small that even a tanago hook looked too big for them.

Hogchoker (Trinectes maculatus)

I tried bopping the hogchokers on their faces with a tiny bit of worm on a tanago hook, but eventually I gave up and caught a few by hand. Next year we'll have to come back in the spring and look for adults when they come up the river to spawn. I don't think these tiny juveniles are catchable by hook & line.

Photo credit Ally Toth.

There were a lot of shiners at this spot, but they looked the same as the ironcolors from the first spot. However, after studying my photos more closely, I'm pretty sure the ones from this spot were coastal shiners. Their dorsal and pelvic fins are positioned differently, and their black stripes are not as black as ironcolors.

Coastal Shiner (Notropis petersoni)

We wrapped up the day by driving up to Lake City to get dinner and spend the night.

Florida mullet run fishing with Miciah

The fall mullet run is one of the biggest fishing events of the year on the east coast of Florida. It's been going on for a while now, but we haven't had a chance to fish it. My longtime friend Miciah is in Florida right now and wanted to meet, so it was the perfect opportunity to revisit the beaches around Stuart to fish for predators and hunt for new species. We arrived at high tide and started off throwing small Krocodile spoons. They were a good imitation for the small mullet, and the jacks went nuts for them.

Crevalle Jack (Caranx hippos)

Ally and I each pulled in several large jacks and many more smaller ones. Miciah was fishing a smaller hook and caught small crevalle jacks and a few leatherjackets. We even saw a small shark chasing the schools of mullet in the shallows.

When we were satisfied with the jacks we switched to microfishing gear. Each person had their targets. For me it was sand drum, for Ally it was palometa, and Miciah needed a several species. I dropped my bait around submerged rocks. The first two fish to bite were masquerader hairy blennies and juvenile black margates. I've called these blennies hairy blennies in the past, but I'm finally giving in to the consensus that they're masqueraders. It doesn't change my lifelist count. Eventually I'll go back and edit my blog and species list to make sure everything is consistent.

Masquerader Hairy Blenny (Labrisomus conditus)


Black Margate (Anisotremus surinamensis)


Miciah was fishing the pockets of open sand between the rocks, and he caught several species of interest. The first was a flagfin mojarra, one of the only mojarra species left that Ally and I both need. He also caught a sand drum, my target for the day.

Ally was also microfishing and discovered some juvenile permit. I seized the opportunity and caught a sand drum where Miciah had been fishing, and then I caught a permit where Ally had been fishing. This is a perk of fishing with friends!

Sand Drum (Umbrina coroides) - new hook & line species #787


Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) - new hook & line species #788

Ally didn't find her palometa, but we all left the spot with new species. Miciah's family and lunch were calling, so we packed up and went to meet them at their hotel. On the walk out we stopped to watch huge tarpon and sharks blowing up on mullet just outside the breakers. It was REALLY cool to see!

After lunch we headed into town to fish the river from a pier beneath one of the causeways. It was a sunny day, so we appreciated the shade. The water was murky, but we saw a lot of bait activity.

Photo credit Ally Toth.

Ally discovered the first new species here. She was using a sabiki with extra tiny hooks and pulled up a small anchovy. I had a larger hook for catching snapper, so I borrowed her rig and quickly caught an anchovy of my own. Thanks Ally!

Bay Anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) - new hook & line species #789

We were catching small mangrove snappers around the pier pilings. After an hour or two, Miciah asked if we realized that some of them were dog snappers. We thought they were just more colorful mangrove snappers, but he was correct! I hadn't been taking any photos of them, so I pulled up a few more fish until one of them was a dog snapper. Thanks Miciah!

Mangrove Snapper (Lutjanus griseus)


Dog Snapper (Lutjanus jocu) - new hook & line species #790


Our trip to Stuart ended up being one of my best species days since moving to Florida. Four new ones in one day is pretty rare for an area that you've already fished several times. I really owe all four of them to Ally and Miciah, so once again, thank you!

Photo credit Ally Toth.

The next weekend Ally and I did an impromptu kayak session on the Indian River close to home. We started off fishing in the mangroves, but we also wanted to get some miles in, so we paddled out to an island. After stretching our legs we headed east towards Pelican Island. After getting soaked by the rain we paddled through a gap in the mangroves to a lagoon between the two halves of Pelican Island. 

Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) - new hook & line species #791


I cast lures towards the mangroves, but after a while I decided to troll around the perimeter instead. I had one hit, and it wasn't a ladyfish or spotted trout or crevalle jack. It was my first redfish! We finished up our paddle in the rain as we worked our way back to the launch.

Miles: 8.5

Hours: 4:48

Next up we have our first multi-day Florida road trip!