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.