Hi friends on FishWrecked!

It has been a while since I've been around. I started Teacher's College in the fall and it had kept me very, very busy. I went through the longest drought without fishing (over 3 months) and didn't have anything to report at all.

Recently, a number of fortunate events aligned and I had the chance to visit Florida for a very short 5-day trip to visit family...and to fish my brains out. Conditions couldn't have been better and some of my long targeted species were finally captured...plus some very beautiful fish.

I caught 17 new species from 5 days of fishing, and there are many more species that were caught but I didn't photograph. I would figure a conservative guess of 40+ species caught during the 5 days. Florida had given me 102 new species over 38 total fishing days (between 4 trips). And yet, there are still lots of fish that the state has to offer. Unbelievable! I'll definitely be back!

Here are the stories to share. But I will post most of the fish pictures below. It is never the same without reading the stories though. You'll never realize the struggles we went through to catch some of these species.

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-florida-day-1.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-florida-day-2.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-florida-day-3.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-florida-day-4.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-florida-day-5.html

http://muskiebaitadventures.blogspot.ca/2015/04/2015-florida-day-6.html

Yellow Sea Chub (Kyphosus incisor) - Species #413



Black Margate (Anisotremus surinamensis) - Species #414



Grass Porgy (Calamus arctifrons) - Species #415



Smooth Trunkfish (Rhinesomus triqueter) - Species #416



Initial phase Queen Parrotfish (Scarus vetula) - Species #417



Initial phase Stoplight Parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) - Species #418



Terminal phase Redband Parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum)



Peacock Cichlid (Cichla ocellaris)



Hornet Tilapia (Tilapia buttikoferi) - Species #419



Spotted Tilapia (Tilapia mariae)



Blue Tilapia (Oreochromis aureus) - Species #420



Pike Killifish (Belonesox belizanus) - Species #421



Jewelfish (Hemichromis bimaculatus)



Black Acara (Cichlasoma bimaculatum)



Mangrove Gambusia (Gambusia rhizophorae) - Species #422



Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus variegatus) - Species #423



Blackear Wrasse (Halichoeres poeyi) - Species #424



Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) - Species #425



Bluehead Wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum)



Bermuda Sea Chub (Kyphosus sectatrix)



Rainbow Parrotfish (Scarus guacamaia) - Species #426





Dollar Sunfish (Lepomis marginatus) - Species #427



Brown Hoplo (Hoplosternum littorale) - Species #428



Atlantic Lookdown (Selene vomer) - Species #429



These are so beautiful I just have to show the second one I caught...





Other species caught but not photographed...

Sergeant Major
Spottail Pinfish
Slippery Dick Wrasse
Redtail Parrotfish
Porkfish
Tomtate Grunt
French Grunt
Bigeye Scad
Atlantic Bumper
Slender Mojarra
Sand Perch
Houndfish
Bandtail Pufferfish
Yellow Bullhead
Walking Catfish
Eastern Mosquitofish
Mayan Cichlid
Seminole Killifish
Golden Topminnow