FL shameless lifelisting part 3 - The Keys warming up

This is what two people look like after spending the night sleeping in a car.



We began our first full day in the keys a few miles west of Marathon. We had reserved two kayaks to share for the day, but it was too windy to enjoy them so we fished from shore instead. We continued to use Sabikis, but instead of vertical dropping we cast out to deeper water and kept our rod tips up high to avoid snagging the hooks on rocks. This was a fun spot that resulted in plenty of action and new fish for us.

Crevalle Jack (Caranx hippos)


Lane Snapper (Lutjanus synagris) - new hook & line species #170


Ladyfish (Elops saurus) - new hook & line species #171


Bandtail Puffer (Sphoeroides spengleri) - new hook & line species #172


Ruoxi quickly became an expert casting a Sabiki from shore and hooking up with multiple fish.

Leatherjack (Oligoplites saurus) and Blue Runner (Caranx crysos)


Leatherjack (Oligoplites saurus)


I spotted this well camouflaged goby sitting in a few inches of water, dropped a baited Sabiki hook in front of him, and set the hook by hand when he took the bait.

Checkerboard Frillfin Goby (Bathygobius lacertus) - new hook & line species #173

I'm not certain on the ID of this mojarra, but I'm going to go with spotfin mojarra because it fits the best. I'll put it on my lifelist for now, but if I can catch another mojarra in the future and ID it with confidence, then I'll take this one down.

Spotfin Mojarra (Eucinostomus argenteus) - new hook & line species #174


I have to include this next picture because it captures Michael and Miciah so well. Michael always seemed to be hooked up with some huge fish, and Miciah was always generous with advice. I can just picture Miciah saying something along the lines of, "Now here's what you have to do...". Michael was hooked up with a pretty big stingray in this picture, but unfortunately it made it to some rocks and made its escape.



We moved to a bridge in the afternoon so that we could catch different types of fish.  Good call Miciah!  The tide was going out again, and plenty of fish could be caught in the current going between the bridge pilings.

Yellowtail Snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus) - new hook & line species #175


Puddingwife (Halichoeres radiatus) - new hook & line species #176


Scrawled Cowfish (Acanthostracion quadricornis) - new hook & line species #177


Scrawled Cowfish (Acanthostracion quadricornis)


Redtail Parrotfish (Sparisoma chrysopterum) - new hook & line species #178


I tried some microfishing at the base of the bridge and caught a few juvenile mojarras.  These juveniles are even tougher to ID, so I won't add it as something new to my lifelist.

mystery Mojarra (Eucinostomus sp.)

FL shameless lifelisting part 2 - Miami canals

On our second day in Florida we transitioned to freshwater exotics in the Miami area.  I let Ruoxi get some extra sleep and went to the first park by myself.  At this point we still had not met up with Ken and Michael.  They didn't need the species at this location, so they got started elsewhere.  I fished the boat ramp dock and rocks by the shore of the canal that passed through the park and added the first tilapia and cichlid to my lifelist.

Spotted Tilapia (Tilapia mariae) - juvenile - new hook & line species #162


Yellow Belly Cichlid (Cichlasoma salvini) - new hook & line species #163


Ken had Michael were fishing their go-to cobra snakehead spot, and once I was finished at the first park I joined up with them.  Ken had caught a snakehead here the year before, but Michael still needed one.  Michael and I worked the shoreline of the canal with weedless frog lures and each got a swirl and half-hearted strike, but neither of us hooked up.  We cut this location short so we could meet up with another species angler and Miami native, Martini.  I picked up Ruoxi from the motel, and the four of us joined up with Martini.  He was very generous to spend his day with us and take us around to some of his good cichlid spots in Miami.  We weren't able to catch blacktail cichlids at the first spot, but the next location was very good to us.  Here I got three new tilapia and cichlid species!

Mayan Cichlid (Cichlasoma urophthalmum) - new hook & line species #164


Zebra Tilapia (Tilapia buttikoferi) - new hook & line species #165


Butterfly Peacock Bass (Cichla ocellaris) - new hook & line species #166


Spotted Tilapia (Tilapia mariae) - adult


Our last Miami fishing spot was a college campus with a brackish water canal flowing through it.  We saw more blacktail cichlids but could not get them to take interest in our baits.  Ken and Michael focused on some big mojarras in the middle of the canal, and I poked around the rocks by shore and caught dozens of crested gobies.  The males were completely black, and the females were mottled brown with blue dots on their cheeks.  It never gets old catching gobies, even though they're probably the easiest type of fish to catch.  As it was getting dark I decided I should make an attempt at the mojarras as well, but my shrimp sitting on the bottom of the canal got picked up by a nice grey snapper instead.  Thanks for taking us to these spots Martini!  I hope we can return the favor by showing you some of our good fishing in the midwest.  Those gar records are calling your name!

Crested Goby (Lophogobius cyprinoides) - new hook & line species #167




Grey Snapper (Lutjanus griseus) - new hook & line species #168


We should have been done fishing at this point, but we continued south into the keys, met up with our friend Miciah who was also in Florida, ate dinner, bought more bait, and did some late night fishing from one of the pedestrian bridges that runs parallel to Highway 1.  The current was strong from the outgoing tide, the wind was howling, and the bite was slow.  The only consolation was one new lifer for me, a porkfish.  Miciah was envious, but a few minutes later he got his lifer as well.  Ken and Michael fished hard for sharks but did not see any action this night.  It was a rough night sleeping in the car for just a few hours.

Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) - juvenile - new hook & line species #169


French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)

FL shameless lifelisting part 1 - Fort Lauderdale

You can't ask for a better end to the year than a shameless lifelisting fishing trip to Florida.  After months of planning with my friends Ken and Michael, December finally arrived!  Ruoxi and I packed up her Honda Civic and made the two day drive from Illinois to the Fort Lauderdale area to kick start the adventure at a fishing pier in the Atlantic Ocean.  The warm weather was great, but we weren't expecting the wind to be quite so strong.  We could hear the hum of the wind on our rods as we walked down the pier to an open spot, chopped up some squid, and tied sabikis onto our lines.  We dropped our baits to the bottom with pyramid sinkers at the end of our sabikis and right away caught fish.  It's a species fisherman's dream come true when each one is a new lifer!

Spottail Pinfish (Diplodus holbrookii) - new hook & line species #153


Smooth Trunkfish (Rhinesomus triqueter) - new hook & line species #154


Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus)

We saw a dozen or so needlefish move into our area near the surface, so I pulled my Sabiki up so the top hook was visible to them.  They attacked aggressively.  Good hook sets were tough, but after a few tries I pulled in this houndfish, which has jaws that strongly resemble longnose gar from back home.

Houndfish (Tylosurus crocodilus) - new hook & line species #155


Blue Runner (Caranx crysos) - new hook & line species #156


Lane Snapper (Lutjanus synagris)


Before long the sun disappeared over the horizon.  The pier lights made it convenient to continue fishing, and like flipping a switch the bite changed over to juvenile grunts.  We probably caught two dozen of each of these species.  I could see them getting pretty annoying as bait thieves, but we tolerated them since they were new fish to us.

Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) - new hook & line species #157


French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum) - new hook & line species #158


Sailor's Choice (Haemulon parra)


Tomtate Grunt (Haemulon aurolineatum) - new hook & line species #159


Smallmouth Grunt (Haemulon chrysargyreum) - new hook & line species #160


We were getting tired from our long day, but I hadn't used the shrimp we purchased along with the squid, so I tied up a Carolina rig (I think the locals call them fish finder rigs) with a circle hook and whole shrimp.  After a few snags on the corals or rocks on the bottom, I got a good bite from this black margate, which reminded me of the freshwater drum we have in the midwest.

Black Margate (Anisotremus surinamensis) - new hook & line species #161

Round Gobies in the Illinois River

A few weeks ago I visited Starved Rock State Park on the Illinois River.  The primary objective was to do some hiking and enjoy the fall colors, but the river was too tempting, so I got my fishing gear out to see what was biting.  I tied two #10 octopus hooks on my line about 6 inches apart, baited them with pieces of nightcrawler, and dropped them in the shallow water below the concrete retaining wall next to the Starved Rock parking lot.  My first fish was an invasive species common in Lake Michigan, a round goby.  I didn't realize they were this far downstream from Chicago!  I passed along the information to the IL DNR, and while not surprised, they were glad to have the report for their database.

Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus)


Fortunately my next fish was an Illinois native, a freshwater drum.  It was too big to hoist up the wall with my 2 lb line, so I had to walk it about a hundred yards to the end of the wall where I could access the water.

Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)


After a few more gobies, I caught this green sunfish.  Three species in about 15 minutes seemed good enough for me, so I packed up the gear and enjoyed a day of hiking.

Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)

Crane Creek, IL

Microfishing is getting tough with the fall temperatures dropping. That's not a reason not to try though! After the crazy trip out east, I was ready for one of my local one-day excursions to scout out new waters. I headed south of Peoria past the Emiquon preserve (which looks fantastic by the way) to Crane Creek, which flows out of the Illinois River sand region.

My first stop was near the confluence of Crane Creek with the Sangamon River. The creek is wide and flat with little vegetation here. I saw darters wherever there was submerged wood. Most of them refused to bite, but this handsome blackside darter thought my bait looked tasty.

Blackside Darter (Percina maculata)


I was baffled where all the shiners were until I found a massive school of sand shiners and red shiners further upstream. It was curious that I found them in that school and nowhere else. Perhaps they school up in the fall to feed or avoid predators?  Giving up on hook & line fishing, I got my net out of the car to see what I missed. The darters were a mix of Johnny and banded. In the tree roots overhanging the bank I found one lonely pirate perch. This is the first one I've found in central Illinois!

These short streams can vary quite a bit as you move upstream from the confluence, so I drove a few miles north to take a look at another spot. Here the creek was narrower, with deep pools, runs, and plenty of underwater vegetation. It looked exciting! I left my microfishing gear in the car and focused on netting. The banded darters here were larger and more vibrant than the downstream ones.

Banded Darter (Etheostoma zonale)


Every scoop of the net into vegetation yielded at least one pirate perch! This is very exciting, because it means I can come back after dark sometime and night fish for them with a headlamp. It will probably have to wait until next spring, but I'm already excited about it. Pirate perch are strange little fish. See if you can see its intestine coming up to it's throat in the second photo.

Pirate Perch (Aphredoderus sayanus)




Tadpole madtoms were also associated with vegetation. I only saw small ones, but sometimes there would be 4 or 5 with one scoop of the net.

Tadpole Madtom (Noturus gyrinus)


I also found a few state threatened ironcolor shiners. Strangely enough, they would only show up when I pulled the net through vegetation, along with the tadpole madtoms and pirate perch. They were awfully small, so I'm curious if this behavior is only for juveniles. I did not see any adults, or perhaps they do not get very large.

Ironcolor Shiner (Notropis chalybaeus) - released unharmed after taking photos


This guy also decided to say hello. I don't know much about turtles, but it seems that red-eared sliders are one of the more common species in the Illinois River system.

Red-Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)


Here's the full list of fish species caught and seen:

1. Blackside Darter (Percina maculata)
2. Banded Darter (Etheostoma zonale)
3. Johnny Darter (Etheostoma nigrum)
4. Sand Shiner (Notropis stramineus)
5. Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis)
6. Ironcolor Shiner (Notropis chalybaeus)
7. Pirate Perch (Aphredoderus sayanus)
8. Tadpole Madtom (Noturus gyrinus)