Bosco wanted to fish in the ocean on a boat. I had a boat in mind in Hollywood, FL that we could take. We went to church in the morning and Bosco went to Sunday school before going fishing. We arrived at the dock at 12pm to reserve our spots before having lunch. After lunch, the boat from the morning trip returned to dock. There were a few vermillion snappes in the catch, a few porgies, and a couple of kingfish. The captain said they released 10 short kingfish. I was very interested in catching a kingfish and signs were looking good.
While we waited to board the boat, I rigged up the rods with 3/0 circle hooks. Once on the boat, the rental rods had 1/0 longshank hooks so I had to switch them all out to 1/0 octopus hooks
We were drift fishing instead of fishing on anchor, so everyone was fishing on one side of the boat.
We had a bunch of newbies beside us and if anyone of you had done some drift fishing before, you know this spells tangle city. We lost about ¼ of our fishing time just dealing with line tangles. The captain wasn’t making things easier. Instead of positioning the boat such that the lines drift out and away from the boat, more often than not the lines were either drifting left or right parallel to the rail. There was a few occasions where the lines were just straightening out for everyone when the captain would start the engine, move the boat a little, and the lines would drift off all crazy again. I wasn’t too happy with this boat and the way the captain handled the drift. The deckhands were also very slow in getting the lines untangled, fish unhooked and rigged retied. Sure, I could do a lot of that on my own…but the newbies beside me couldn’t and as best as I tried to untangle lines, there were times we had 6 or more lines in a knot and I couldn’t deal with all of them.
Anyways…so much for the rant…we did get to land some fish. I caught 4 keeper vermillion snappers about 14” each. I handed off a couple of fish for Bosco to fight and he said it was a lot of work
. My uncle hooked and landed a vermillion on his own but unfortunately it was an inch too short. The kingfish were nowhere to be caught…but I found comfort by adding a new species and got a nice picture of a mature bluerunner for the fish list.
14” littlehead porgy (Calamus proridens)
14” bluerunner (Caranx crysos)
I trolled on the way back with 4 others but none of us got a hit. That night, we had a vermillion snapper and the littlehead porgy for dinner…MMM! I’ll be keeping more of them in the future
April 11, 2011
My mom’s elder sister had a hip replacement surgery last October. I really wanted to visit my aunt and see how she was doing. We went to her house late morning and went out for dim sum with my aunt and uncle. There were some complications with her surgery and the surgeon made her replaced hip about an inch longer than her other hip. My aunt now walks with a limp and they are looking to seek some compensation from the hospital. But it was good to see she was keeping positive and still the same happy person she was.
After dim sum, my uncle and I helped her get some gardening supplies from Home Hardware while her husband went to work. When we got back to her house, she said I should try fishing in the pond behind her house. My cousins grew up fishing in the pond and I heard many stories from them about the big bluegills and bass in the pond. My cousin has pulled a 10lb bass from this little pond.
I didn’t find any monster bass, but the quantity was mind blowing. For the first few casts, I had a bass hooked or landed every cast! They were averaging about 1lb each so they were nothing really special. Then I saw a couple of Mayan cichlids cruising around with the bass. I switched over to worms and a bobber and it wasn’t long before I caught the Mayan cichlid. Yay! New species on a day I wasn’t expecting to fish.
9” Mexican mojarra (Cichlasoma urophthalmus) aka Mayan cichlid
I also caught a bunch of bluegills. I have never seen such a beautiful bluegill with orange fins.
On the way home, we drove by a canal and I just had to check it out for potential. Then I spotted a pod of grass carp under a tree. These fish were anywhere from 15-20lbs! I was wondering why they were only in this area. As a gust of wind blew the berries off the trees, the fish would come up to eat the berries. I quickly grabbed my gear and set up a reel with 30lb braid and tied on an 8lb fluoro leader with a #14 hook. I grabbed one of the berry and tossed it out. There wasn’t enough weight to cast it far enough. My uncle tried to climb the tree and help me drop the line in.
I love my uncle. He’s such a big kid!
I also tried putting on a tiny Thrill Shy Bite float hoping to get the line out far enough. These were had amazing eyesight and I guess they can see the fluoro leader. There were a couple of fish that came up rising to my berry baited hook but the fish would turn away at the last second.
As we were losing daylight, we had to go home. Oh well…next time.
April 12, 2011
My uncle arranged a morning for me to fish and in the afternoon of shopping at the outlet malls. I was really looking to hunt some cobra snakeheads in the canals!
The morning started off very slow as I checked out a nearby pond for snakeheads. The water was really deep and I didn’t spot any snakehead. While fishing a Jointed Shad Rap, I lost a largemouth bass.
When we worked our way to the other side of the pond where it connected to the canal, I spotted a snakehead and made a cast to it with a weedless frog. The fish took a brief interest but I guess it saw me and went deep.
I fished the area some more with different lures but came up empty. On the way back to the car, I spotted a Florida gar and casted repeatedly to it with small spinners and a small Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow. I had the gar grab the Pins Minnow gingerly and the fish lost interest after. This was all before 9am.
While my uncle went to grab some breakfast, there was a canal beside the Dunkin’ Donuts. I took a look and saw a 6lb cobra snakehead right by shore. I quickly rigged up and made a cast to it with the weedless frog, but the fish saw me once again and lost interest!
I switched over to a spinnerbait to cover more water from a distance away. While casting for snakeheads, I caught a 1.5lb Florida largemouth bass. I guess it’s a new subspecies to add to the list
Throughout the morning, I spotted about 6-7 snakeheads. I had a couple of fish follow my lure but they lost interest as soon as they saw me. It was really challenging getting these fish to bite! I even went as far as getting on my knees to fish for them. However, the canals have steep banks and we were always high up on the bank so the fish could always see you. I guess it was also more difficult since the water level looked rather low and the canals were only 3-4 feet deep at the deepest spots. I’m going to do some research from now until the next time. One day I’ll get those little buggers!
In the afternoon, we shopped at Sawgrass Outlet. I saw a nice leather jacket for $130 but with my small size, it was hard to find something that fits. I did come home with two UnderArmor shirts for $12 each. I have never seen them that cheap in Canada.
That evening, I had dinner at the restaurant where my uncle works as a chef. He arranged a menu for us with lobsters, roast duck, and other dishes. If you visit Fort Lauderdale and Miami area and you are interested in Chinese food beyond the typical chop suey, I can definitely recommend my uncle’s restaurant to you.
Here’s my family in South Florida minus my uncle who was in the kitchen.
April 13, 2011
This was my last day in Florida. I was really hoping to add one last species to the list. I had hoped to fish for pompano and Spanish mackerel off the piers but the water was flat as a mirror and pompano likes it rough. So instead, my uncle took me to Hillsboro for a shot at some snappers.
Well, we never had a chance for any snappers since the little reef fish were chewing all our shrimp within minutes of our bait hitting water.
Instead, I went fishing for reef fish instead. You gotta make lemonade sometimes
It wasn’t a bad change of plans at all. Using #16 hook, 1oz weight and 8lb test, I managed to catch a few new species!
Still have to identify this damselfish…but it’s a new species for sure.
6” French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)
6” sergeant-major (Abudefduf saxatilis)
4” dusky damselfish (Stegastes adustus)
7” slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus)
3” Caribbean sharpnose-puffer (Canthigaster rostrata)
If the sergeant-majors were not so ravenous, I could have caught a few more species. There were also a number of very colour parrotfish and angelfish in the area. It was literally like fishing in an aquarium!
I tried fishing with a live grunt for some of the big barracuda that we could see. A couple of them looked about 3-4 feet in length. However, they must be line wary after being caught over and over again. I did have a small barracuda chased my lure and a couple of pesky needlefish chase but not hit.
By 2pm, it was really too hot to fish so we called it a day. I did take a couple of pictures of the lighthouse and the boardwalk.
I had an early dinner with my uncle’s family and play with Bosco one last time before flying home.
It was a very good trip overall with an educational and productive conference and a great vacation of fishing with Kazu and visiting family. In total, I added 23 new species on this trip. There were some major targets I would really love to catch including red snapper, triggerfish, goliath grouper, pompano, Spanish mackerel and kingfish. I guess I just had to take another trip to Florida in the future to get those done