Just wondering if anyone has been to Hill River lately and can give me some advice as to what would be biting at this time of year from the beach. Thanks in advance.

Crabs (the swan) and Crays over the festive season ...best crab went 65 cm claw to claw....still havnt beet that pb of 72 cms caught 2.5 half years ago......

 Has anyone gone recently?

Im planning on going at 6am, best times?

North or south side of the harbour?

Any luck with lures?


Any advice is much appreciated

Thought I would waste yesterday arvo flicking around at Garratt Rd bridge, managed to continually haul in undersized bream but punched out a couple of decent 30cm models. Unfortunately no pictures as I was with the missus and she was more keen on reading her book than taking pictures of fish for me!!

Only downside was watching a family haul out about half a dozen flat head which would have been lucky to be 15cm at best and keeping the lot. When I mentioned to them that they would get in a lot of strife if fisheries pinged them with that sort of catch, not to mention the whole moral issue with taking undersized fish all i was met with was "we are allowed to take them because we are indigenous" which i found a bit funny to say the least, but as there were about 12 of them i wasnt going to force the issue, simply made a call to fisheries who fed me the whole "we dont have anyone in the area but we will see what we can do"

Rather irritating to say the least, then when they saw me return the bream i kept catching they asked if next time they could have them instead of me throwing them back...you can imagine how well that went down!

Didnt bother with SP's or lures, was just casting very lightly weighted prawns into the structure. Was a great little session, nice and relaxing! Just how it should be!!

Jarryd

 With the forecasted sweet weather till lunch, I decided to rise early and hit the water. Up at 3.30am and prepped the boat but the deckie (the missus) wouldn't get out of bed so the planned 4.30 departure became a 6.00 departure. 

Last time I ventured out to rotto I found a nice isolated lump and tried working it with jigs and plastics but had no success. This time I sinned and took bait out and it paid off. Ended up with a beaut eating size 6kg dhuie and a sweet harlequin. Also lost a few unstoppables when my braid was pinged on the reefy structure. It was a great feeling of success and victory after doing my own turf searching and getting results. In the end it was a nice short session as we returned to the ramp before 12 just as the wind picked up. Was as great day with the missus. 

One last thing that really blew me away though - about an hour into the session, after the dhu was boated, I turned the engine over to motor back to the start of the drift. I looked over my shoulder and saw another boat steaming at me and took evasive action. He then proceeded to sound around, find the lump and mark the co-ordinates in his sounder - daylight robbery! Couldn't believe it, a sweet piece of turf and I'm being pinged already. I can now say I know why guys hate being pinged.

just thought id whack up some photos of the soapies i have been getting stuck into. we have gotten 6 in the last 3 sessions all on the light gear (8lb)

were all picked up around fremantle :)

cheers jay.

p.s if you know the location please keep it quiet

I am thinking about going down to the south coast on the Australia day long weekend. Can anyone teel me if there is any action happening down there.

I am thinking about going down to the south coast on the Australia day long weekend. Can anyone teel me if there is any action happening down there.

Gudday all. Usual night at e sheds with loads of scalies about 2mtrs down with livies being chomped in half without a hookup on my big rig. Had some youngsters constantly crossing our lines till i said i'd cut theirs if they did it again!

Someone landed a mulla about 1mtr long! Made my day to see someone that happy. Had a couple of livies left as we were packing up, so wandered down the wharf to see if they were wanted. Came across a couple of young lads with a throw net. mentioned nets werent allowed and 40 was the limit for bait fish. Turns out, apparently, You CAN use a net if you have a 30 dollar license, and there is NO limit to scalies! They had a 10ltre bucket near full! WTF?! ...so, a good night apart from that, and picking up other peoples litter

My weekends of late have been super hectic; and I was lamenting the thought of not being able to get away for a shot at snaring some jumbo Marron. After snaring my first last season; I was hanging to get back down Harvey way and hone my technique - whilst reaping the rewards of some tasty freshwater crustaceans !

As luck would have it; whilst chatting to my mate and Marronning Gun Ryan; he mentioned that he had done well earlier in the week and was dead keen to get back down there for another crack.

I'm pretty sure 'marron madness' takes hold this time of year - season open, not much moon - and a forecast for a calm balmy afternoon; a plan was hatched to hit the road mid afternoon, lay claim to some foreshore, and await the sun to set with hope of some marron action. then return back to Perth in the wee hours - hopefully not too late with a freshwater bounty !

With school holidays in full swing; the missus was happy for me to take my young bloke along for his first marronning experience - and get him out of the house to give the wife some peace and quiet ! :)

My son is obsessed with the water - so a matter of minutes after arriving and staking our stretch; Liam was in !.

I wasn't far behind him for a refreshing arvo dip !

Have`nt fished at Burns Beach for years now. Thinking of going to wet the line there on Saturday night. Any news as of late for this area.

Thinking of going on the Groyne again.

This was the result of my morning assault at Burns Beach on Saturday just gone, a place that gave me grief in the form of lost gear and those bloody wirrah cods in my only other visit early last year. Had to get out of the house following surgery on the Wednesday...all the resulting discomfort from the trip was worth it. 

.

Water was nice, green and fishy. Had the first tailor inside the first five minutes, unfortunately lost one that would've cleared 50 cm (dammit!) that gained its freedom after some impressive acrobats just before I pulled it onto the rock ledge. The herring were some of the bigger models i've seen going around. Helped to break a rather depressing streak of jack shit in emphatic fashion for about ten months (the last decent catch was three black bream inside Hillary's early last year) where it was just small bream, snook, gurnards and flounder...and a tiny flathead.

Oh, this may be my first post but I've been here before under another username (Smasha...the account died for some reason) but greetings to you all once again.

well i did my first trip to carnarvon, 1 mile jetty an wasnt happy to see all these people taking under size blue bone, cod ,bream ,trevally.  by the day 2, we had enuff an made people put them back. 2 calls to Fisheries were made but no one showed up ...not one of us got a blue bone there an i dont think we ever will if things dont change. i know Fisheries officers read this hope u can look into it

 i have just spent a week at coalmine beach caravan park, anf fishing around the nornalup inlet, walpole.  what a wonderful fishing location.  all types on offer - beach, kayak, small boat estuary, bigger boat estuary and ocean.  and healthy too.  no blowies, baby snapper everywhere means that at the right time of the year there must be bigger ones too.  herring, bream (black and silver), skippy, kgw, yellow fin whiting, sandies, and flounder. sting rays for a bit of fun if you want.  crabs are worth looking for if you have the patience.

great place for the family, no matter what type of fishing you do.

 I have never fished there but have heard so much. Any info appreciated. Id like to catch some herring and decent tailor.

Whats biting at the moment?
What kind of gear is appropriate?
Will it be crowded on a Saturday?

we smashed the tarpon every morning on the soft plastics ,landing about 5 every morning in half hour before they shut down ,so much fun on the light gear, most put back, kept two for crab pots.

 hi chaps,  just wandering if there's any tuna and mackies running dunsborough way. Never caught one would love to hook up to one.. cheers Don

First post from a few past trips...

JIGGY JIG Anyone....

Sweet Calamari for Dinner

With some Crays

Nice Little Dhuie there son... lol

Bugger has it over me with the biggest Snapper aswell... :-(

Teach them young... Love the Occkys

FRIGGIN Young Blokes, Think they know it all.  LOL

I had to get one on the board...

Nice Harlie..

Love those Calm Daze...

Future fishing buddies...

I can catch them even if they are a bit smaller... :-)

The Work Bench...

Captain Zac at the Helm

Where we clean the Fish and cook the Crays...

Jan 5, 2013

Really, this was a continuation of our fishing through the night. After we changed our baits to cut herring, I was fishing the dropper loop trying to find some fresh bait to use when Michael yelled I have a fish on my rig. I couldn’t hear the clicker since a couple of trucks were passing by. When I finally got to the rod, Michael was already fighting the fish. A little tussle later, we brought a 15” Mangrove Snapper up the bridge. Strangely, it bit the heavy wire on the 5/0 hook.

That was the only excitement all night. There were a couple of short rip on the line, but I suspect it was nothing more than clumps of grass dragging our lines. We had some broken sleep since the reels were clinking every so often when grass foul up our lines.

When the sun finally rose, the fish returned to the pilings. We were once again catching a steady supply of grunts. Michael caught a couple of parrotfish, a filefish and even a Bermuda Chub! I was a bit jealous to say the least LOL.

I did have my revenge when I caught 4 Southern Puffer in a roll and Michael has yet to catch one.

By 10am, we were really too tired to fish anymore. We had been up fishing for 28 hours straight. Since we planned to head home around noon, we packed up and grabbed lunch.

We were originally planning to fish our Midas Cichlid spot to see if we can find more Oscars. I was quite fished out so I really just wanted to drive back to my uncle’s house. Along the way, Michael was begging to try the Tamarac area for Cobra Snakehead. We checked out one spot but it didn’t look promising. As we were running short of daylight, I suggested that we should fish a canal where I’ve seen Snakeheads before.

Michael was fishing a weedless plastic frog while I was fishing a special weedless prop blade hard resin frog lures I bought online from a Thailand lure maker. It was a coincidence that the morning we were planning to leave for Florida (Dec 27) we were delayed due to the snowstorm. While waiting for the highway to clear, the package of Thai lures arrived and I got them just in time to bring with me on this trip.

I was fishing this lure systematically, first casting parallel to shore running them just inches from the weed line, then I cast at 25 degree angle, 45 degree angle and 65 degree angle, before finally casting directly across the canal to work the lure from the other shore over to our side of the canal.

We were about 30 minutes into our fishing when I made a cast directly across the shore and landed the lure on the shoreline grass. I gingerly worked the lure into the water and took maybe 2 cranks when I saw a wake came at my lure and the lure disappeared. I felt the fish, set the hook and was hoping it wasn’t a Largemouth Bass. When the fish came close to shore, I saw the long shape and immediately dragged the fish up the shore and dragged it as far as I could.

Cobra Snakehead (Channa marulius) – new species #22

I had tried to catch Cobra Snakehead in April 2011 but failed miserably. I could see them all over the canals, and big ones too, but failed to get them to bite. Strangely, after some cold weather, I managed to find a small Cobra Snakehead using a topwater lure!

Michael pounded the water for a while longer but didn’t find another Snakehead in the area. I strongly believe that the cold water shut these fish off the bite. I suspect that if we return in warmer weather, these Thai lures would be absolutely deadly for the snakeheads!

Jan 6, 2013

We were hoping to get some fishing this morning. However, we had to pack the car and return to Orlando before evening. We didn’t end up fishing at all.

Jan 7, 2013

Since we started the trip a day behind schedule, we decided to extend the trip one extra day. My sister and George wanted to visit Magic Kingdom and they had already purchased tickets in advance. So while they visit the theme park, Michael and I headed to Tampa to fish.

We arrived in the same creek where we caught Jack Dempsey on Dec 28. While we saw some Striped Mullet, they refused to bite our bread. We fished closed to the weeds and finally found some Jack Dempsey, including this beautiful male.

We saw some Rio Grande Cichlid swimming around but they were extremely wary. We tried all sorts of methods trying to get them to bite. Finally, I had one bit on a small piece of free lined bread but the fish took me to the weeds and the hook came out! I was so adamant on catching a Rio Grande that I made a tactical error. We should have simply spent more time fishing saltwater for species.

Since Tampa was 2 hours from Orlando, we didn’t arrive in Tampa until 12pm. After spending 3 hours at the creek, we only had a couple of hours at best before sunset. It was too late to fish at Skyway Pier, but we found a free pier along a bridge to fish for an hour.

We had no squid for bait. Honestly, I didn’t want to wet too many rods. So we only grabbed two rods each but I mainly fished with a sabiki rig. We only had nightcrawlers so I put on small segments of worms on the hook. I searched by the pilings and found nothing holding near the structure. Instead, I cast into Tampa Bay and worked the grass flats. On my third cast, I felt a strong tap and set the hook into a smaller fish that pulled hard on the light spinning rod and 8lb test. It was a Silver Perch!

Michael joined me on my side of the pier and soon caught his first Silver Perch as well. A few cast later, I was had worked the sabiki back to the bridge when I saw a silver flash on my sabiki and I set the hook into a strong running Horse-eyed Jack!

Horse-eye Jack (Caranx latus) – new species #24

I was hoping to find some Pinfish for Michael to add on his list. We went back to the parking area where I saw some. We quickly caught a few Pinfish. If we only had more time to fish, I would have cast out a cut Pinfish on a shark rig. The bay looks very sharky for smaller juvenile blacktip or bonnethead.

We had to return to Orlando to pick up my sister and her boyfriend from the theme park. On that note, it was the end of our fishing trip. We left Orlando on Jan 8 at 5am and drove to Toledo, Ohio by 1:30am on Jan 9. We then left Toledo at 6am after a night at a motel and arrived in Toronto at 12:30pm.

It was a great road trip to see my family and I fully took the opportunity to catch a number of new species. Many of the freshwater species were very challenging due to the cold weather. We had an absolute blast fishing the Keys and I can see myself fishing the Keys for a week next time! I was absolutely pleased to have caught a huge Grass Carp, conquered the Cobra Snakehead, and tried our hands at shark fishing. Now it is time to read up more on shark fishing and the whereabouts of those pesky Oscars!

With 24 new species added, I'm now up to a total of 301 species!

Jan 3, 2013

It’s great when you wake up to this at your hotel…

We decided to check out a shore spot right by one of the decommissioned bridges. This area has a rubble bottom with some sand patches, a few boulders and beds of seagrass. I was hoping to find a couple new species of porgy here, plus some new grunt species. Everything would be new species for Michael.

It took a while to set up my gear. In the meanwhile, Michael had already landed a Littlehead Porgy. I’ve caught that species before so at least I’m not missing out.

I set up a #14 sabiki rig and started searching for smaller grunt species. My first catch was a Bluestriped Grunt. This was a picture I took of a larger one caught the next day. The smaller ones were just a little darker in colour and less colourful.

Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) – new species #10

A few more White Grunt later, I had a nice little surprise. I’ve caught Lane Snapper before but had a poor picture of it. It was my target to catch some to photograph…and I didn’t expect to catch one so soon.

A couple of casts later, I caught a Yellowtail Snapper. Just like the Lane Snapper, it was a species I needed a photograph for my record…and now there is a stunning picture!

Although the sabiki was doing fairly well, I want to catch my porgy species. I started fishing a dropper loop with squid, and found a Littlehead Porgy…not a new species. Porgy are very strong for their size and they are a lot of fun!

Not too long later, I had another stronger fish on line again, and it was a Southern Puffer!

Southern Puffer (Sphoeroides nephelus) – new species #11

At around 11pm, the current started to build on the incoming tide. The water was littered with seagrass and it was difficult to fish the dropper loop. I returned to fishing the sabiki and found a Hairy Blenny. I’ve caught a female of this species before. Now I have a picture of the male of the species.

I was fishing the sabiki tight against the ledge along the sea wall. Many little Sergeant Majors and other damselfish were hiding under the ledge. Occasionally, something else were hiding there, including a juvenile Black Grouper! This is a picture of another larger juvenile Black Grouper I caught the next day.

Black Grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) – new species #12

While fishing the dropper loop, I had a couple of cowfish follow the larger chunk of squid. When I was fishing along the sea wall, a cowfish came out of nowhere and bit the sabiki! On the first bite, it striped the squid tentacle off the bottom sabiki hook. I dropped the sabiki down fully and the fish started nibbling on the second sabiki hook on the slack line…and when I was confident the fish took the entire hook in the mouth, I set the hook and the cowfish gave a spirited fight!

Scrawled cowfish (Acanthostracion quadricornis) – new species #13

With increasing current, small grunts were found holding around a large rock. We started catching the small grunts to keep as bait. When the tide finally reach slack high, we had about 10 small grunts. Since the slack tide shut down the bite, we decided to grab lunch and headed to another spot near a bridge to try our hands at some big game shore fishing.

This bridge spot was suggested by a friend. He told me that the first and second bridge support often hold Goliath Grouper, and the water in the area is very sharky. We set up a 6/0 reel loaded with 260 yards of 60lb mono, topped with 30 yards of 100lb mono, and tied on a Carolina rig using an 8oz egg sinker to a 310lb barrel swivel that was part of a 180lb single strand steel leader. At the end of the steel leader was a 10/0 circle hook. This is our “big game rig”.

I could cast this rig about 40-50 yards, but accuracy was pretty poor. So before we deploy this rig out, we cast out small grunts using 3/0 and 4/0 size gear. We put a 14” hound fish on the big game rig and dropped it from the bridge to the first bridge support.

We were fishing an outgoing tide. Our bait were dropped in the eddy behind the bridge support on the down current side. We were hopeful that a shark or a Goliath Grouper would come knocking. However, throughout the tide change and the evening, the rig sat silent. When Michael caught a Schoolmaster Snapper, we dropped it as a livebait and even that was not bit.

Meanwhile, both Michael and I had a couple of rips on the small grunts. In both cases, the fish ripped the grunt off the 5/0 circle hook. We could only guess what it may be. When it was dark, Michael found a couple of Schoolmaster Snappers just under legal size around the bridge support. I was watching our livebait well and saw a moray eel nosing around. By the time I got a rig ready the eel had left. However, an hour later, I saw an eel hiding right amongst the rocks close to shore. I managed to get it to bite with the head of a squid. I was successful in pulling the eel out of the rock, but while waiting for Michael to clear his line and step back so I can swing the eel onto shore, the eel cut my 30lb mono with its sharp teeth. That eel could have made some wonderful shark bait!

We fished until 10pm with very little action. At the end, we decided to call it a day and return to the hotel for the night.

Jan 4, 2013

We started the day early again at our previous morning spot. Our hope was to fish the slack low early since it was more fishable when there was less seagrass. The bite was fairly slow to start this morning. I caught a small Littlehead Porgy almost immediately, but then the bite was slow. I tossed out a dropper loop for a while to fish on a deadstick. I caught a couple of Southern Puffer but no more porgy. Surprisingly, I found a Buffalo Trunkfish biting!

Buffalo Trunkfish (Lactophrys trigonus) – new species #14

While checking bait and casting out again, I was just setting the baitrunner on my reel and putting the rod down when line was ripped out of the reel! There was a strong fish on the other end and it was pulling decent drag off my Shimano Baitrunner 4500 with 50lb braid and a 30lb dropper loop. The #6 hook was holding fine and I added a little more pressure on the fish. We finally saw the fish and I was super excited. It was a nice Yellow Jack! There were stunning electric blue marking on a golden body…the picture can’t do the fish justice!

Yellow Jack (Carangoides bartholomaei) – new species #15

I sent out my rig again. Another 15 minute passed before there was a good strong run on the baitrunner! I told Michael to grab the rod since I was fishing a sabiki away from the rod. When I got there, the fish had already ran out 1/4 of my spool. I put a little more pressure trying to stop it, but the fish put on a second stronger run. At this point, I was calling either a shark or a ray. Finally, the fish slowed and I was slowly pumping the rod to gain line. The fish came in fairly easily until it saw us. It was a stingray, and it now decided to sit on the bottom. I start strumming the line to annoy the ray and it worked. The ray swam off on a little run again but we managed to hold it close to shore. A few moments of trying to fit it into the pier net…and we lifted it up over the seawall!

Southern Stingray (Dasyatis americana) – new species #16

It has a nasty stinger that I was trying to stay away from getting stung.

We didn’t have any more excitement when the tide came in. It was quite hard to fish the dropper loop since the current was full of seagrass. We only had 3 small grunts and two porgy for bait, but we decided to grab lunch and try one of the bridges for the afternoon bite.

When we arrived at our bridge spot at 2pm, the tide was still coming in at this spot. We were fishing from the old car bridge. People were casting toward the new car bridge. Michael and I decided to fish in the eddy of the bridge support of our bridge using a dropper loop rig with 3 hooks and a 3oz sinker. We were immediately into a mess of grunts!

We started off with a few Bluestriped Grunts, but then I found a small Mangrove Snapper.

The next fish was a Sailor’s Grunt!

Sailor’s Grunt (Haemulon parra) – new species #17

We set up a couple of rods to target sharks. Maybe we were a little naïve to start. Michael was fishing a small grunt with 40lb mono tied to a 5/0 hook. I was fishing a 6oz egg sinker on a Carolina rig with 60lb mono leader and 40lb mainline. I put a small grunt on the 5/0 circle hook too. Both Michael and I got picked up and broken off within the first 30 minutes of soaking our bait. Michael saw his shark surfaced and said it was a 5-6 foot shark. I didn’t get to see my fish, but it ran off some line very quickly before breaking me off as I engaged the reel.

After that, we set out a large grunt on the 6/0 rig with 180lb leader. On my rig, I tied on 20 yards of 100lb mono rub leader plus a 3’ section of 80lb stee leader. Strangely, neither Michael nor I got another shark hit once we switched to steel leader. It was a little disappointing.

While I was fishing the dropper loop, I saw some needlefish follow my bait. They would grab the bait but let go when they felt tension on the line. So I rig up a light spinning rod with 8lb mainline, 12lb fluoro leader and a #14 octopus hook. I put on a small piece of squid and drifted the bait with the current without any weight on the line. The needlefish were quick to key in on the drifting bait. When one of the picked up the bait, I opened the bail to let the fish take line without feeling tension. When I felt the fish had taken the bait far enough, I set the hook into my first Atlantic Needlefish!

Atlantic Needlefish (Strongylura marina) – new species #18

We caught more grunts on the dropper loop. Whenever we can, we cut up a grunt to send out some fresh bait on the shark rig. While replenishing our grunt supply, I found a female Redtail Parrotfish!

Redtail Parrotfish (Sparisoma chrysopterum) – new species #19

Michael was fishing one piling and caught the first of many Porkfish. For some reason, I caught many more Bluestriped Grunt, White Grunt and Sailor’s Grunt but can’t find one of these Porkfish. Michael caught so many Porkfish that he sent one out on a balloon rig when we saw these guys.

There was a small school of tarpon holding in the current right at our bridge spot. There were a couple of them that looked to be over 100lbs! The current was outgoing now and the tarpon were facing away from us into the current, so there was no way for us to get a bait to these fish when they were holding under the bridge away from us. When they finally swam around, they passed right by the balloon rig without so much as a look. They were obviously looking for something else to chew on…maybe mullet, shrimp or crab.

Toward the evening, there were a few more chunky White Grunts. I could have kept a few for the table…but it was too much work to lug the big cooler of ice onto the bridge.

Finally, after cursing at Michael a few times for catching all my Porkfish, I finally caught my first…and definitely won’t be the last. Once I caught my first one, they seemed to be everywhere!

Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) – new species #20

The action was good even as the sun sets.

After the sun set, the fishing changed. Fish vacated the bridge pilings and were now found about 40 yards from the bridge on the sea grass bed. Annoyingly, Michael kept catching Schoolmaster Snapper without trying. I have yet to catch a Schoolmaster Snapper, but while we were fishing the same rig in the same area, I kept hooking up grunts. When the fish finally stopped hitting, we simply tossed out our dropper loop and wait for a bite.  Sometimes, it could be 10 minutes until the next bite. Sometimes, it could be 30 minutes. When I finally had a bite, I found an Oyster Toadfish!

Oyster Toadfish (Opsanus tau) – new species #21

We grabbed a couple of camping chair to prepare to fish all night. We were hoping that the shark bite would improve at night. However, the current was ripping all night and we our lines were constantly fouled by seagrass. We had to clear the lines every hour or so, but that also allowed us to send out fresh bait. Between 7pm – 11pm, there were a few guys fishing next to us trying for grouper and sharks. They caught a bonnethead shark using cut herring. When they finished fishing, they left half a mullet and some cut herring on the pier. Michael found their leftover and we changed our baits to cut herring.

Dec 31, 2012

While my sister and her boyfriend spent the day at Sawgrass Outlet Mall, Michael and I woke up at 6am to start our fishing day. Our first stop was the canal next to the Port Everglades Expressway. A friend of ours suggested this location to catch Spotted Tilapia, Mayan Cichlid and Yellow Belly Cichlid.

As soon as we started fishing, we found some Spotted Tilapia hiding under the dock.

Spotted Tilapia (Tilapia mariae) – new species #3

While I was catching more Spotted Tilapia to be used as bait, a Butterfly Peacock appeared out of nowhere to scattered the school. Unfortunately, the Butterfly Peacock, nor the Cobra Snakehead, came around to take our live bait.

We were having trouble finding Yellow Belly Cichlid. I stepped back for a second to analyze the situation, then decided to search the rock crevices lining the shore. My worm was immediately grabbed by a Yellow Belly Cichlid!

Yellow Belly Cichlid (Cichlasoma salvini) – new species #4

My thought was that with predators like Largemouth Bass, Peacock Bass and Cobra Snakehead swimming around, these small cichlids would not be caught hanging out in the open. It was great to figure out their hiding places and we caught many of them very quickly. Michael and I also caught some Mayan Cichlids, new to Michael, but I’ve caught them before.

After checking off our target species at this spot, we headed to a set of urban ponds connected by canals. Our major target here was the Jaguar Guapote. On arrival, we caught a few small Yellow Belly Cichlid to use as bait. It wasn’t long when Michael saw a dark fish refused his live cichlid. I tried the spot again with another live cichlid. As the cichlid swam under a culvert out of sight, my line went tight and I set the hook on a decent size fish. There was a flash of violet and I knew it was the Jaguar Guapote! We were not sure why it had refused Michael’s cichlid but taken mine. I thought that perhaps the fish had seen Michael and refused the bait, while I freelined the cichlid so it would swim under the culvert so it would be out of sight.

Jaguar Guapote (Parachromis managuensis) – new species #5

That was all the Jaguar Guapote we caught this day. Michael said he saw a couple more, and I might have seen another one, but the cold weather we experienced for the last couple of days must have turned these tropical exotic species into inactive mode. They simply didn’t want to play. We knew fishing was hard when Largemouth Bass were refusing to bite a lively cichlid!

We had to constantly watch where we step since any shoreline grass could hide a Water Moccasin. We got a little scare when this snake crept up on us, but luckily it was just a non-poisonous Brown Water Snake.

Aside from the cichlid and Largemouth Bass, there were a large number of Grass Carp in the ponds, as well as a small school of mullet plus a wayward Common Snook! It was quite the sight to see a 5-6lb snook swimming in this pond. There were a large number of plecos that ignored all our offerings, but we found a Brown Bullhead while deadsticking a worm. This southern population of the Brown Bullhead has very cool mottled marking that almost look like a camo pattern.

After fishing at this location for another few hours, we decided to return to Coral Springs to try fishing the canals in the area for Cobra Snakehead. Since the water was cold, late afternoon gave us the best possible chance to find active fish. The water must have been too cold. We did not see any snakeheads nor received any hits. I had one hit that might just had been a Largemouth Bass. We were fishing soft plastic frogs trying for a topwater bite. After searching 2 canals for nada, we ran out of daylight.

We had to return to my uncle’s house by 5pm anyways since we were meeting with my mom’s older sister for dinner that night.

Here’s my family and my sister’s boyfriend.

Jan 1, 2013

To be honest, fishing was very slow by my expectation. On my trip to Florida in April 2011, there were cichlids and Cobra Snakehead everywhere! I didn’t have much time to fish freshwater last time and was expecting to hammer the freshwater fish on this trip. After a couple of warmer days, we were hoping that fish would be active again and our luck could change.

We woke up earlier this day to reach our fishing location by 7am. Our first spot was a canal in Hammock area following a tip from our friend that we could find numerous willing Midas Cichlid and Mayan Cichlid. There could also be a small number of Jaguar Guapote and Butterfly Peacock. Unfortunately, we arrived to a creek devoid of any cichlids in sight. After 30 minutes, I finally saw one unwilling Butterfly Peacock and a school of large mullet. Having fished the area thoroughly both shallow and deep without so much as a tap, we decided to head to the Tamiami Canal for the rest of the day.

We really didn’t know how to proceed. The continued slow fishing really dampened our spirit. Despite fishing hard, we just can’t find many of our targets. We debated whether we should head deep into the Tamiami Canal or fish closer to civilization. In the end, we decided to go as deep as possible. I had a number of areas marked on the GPS to try. Along the way to our final destination, we decided to check out one of my spots for a quick look. Right beside the roadside ditch, we were greeted by wildlife…

Despite the danger of a 7-8 foot alligator, we fished this spot within 15-20 feet of this reptile…since the ditch was literally boiling with Florida Gar!!! We first tried some small lures to see if they would hit artificial. However, we soon changed to pieces of cut sunfish to fish under a float. Once we started fishing cut sunfish, we were being picked up by gar almost every cast! We had to let the fish take the bait for a while before setting the treble hook, or else we often pull the bait out and the hook would not set. It took a few times to figure out how long we should wait, but we finally caught some Florida Gar!

Florida Gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus) – new species #6

Michael and I both caught our lifer Florida Gar. We were hoping to find other native Florida species such as Warmouth Sunfish and Dollar Sunfish, as well as exotic species like Oscar and African Jewelfish. We were instead pestered by Bluegill Sunfish, Spotted Sunfish and Largemouth Bass. I even had a Bowfin on the line briefly before the hook came out. I tried to horse the fish quickly to shore since our gator friend was now taking notice of our fish on the line. It slowly approached us by creeping closer, then entered the water to sit about 2 feet from our PREVIOUS fishing spot. We both jumped back when we saw the gator enter into the water and swam toward us. Scary moment indeed!

I’ve caught a Spotted Sunfish on my previous trip but didn’t have a great photo. This one was just a little better…

When we found no other interesting species, and having the gator chased us off, we decided to fishing another spot.

As soon as we arrived in the new spot, Michael said he spooked an Oscar. That was quite optimistic…but we only and one other glimpse of the Oscar in the next 3 hours. This spot was filled with Largemouth Bass, some around the 3-4lb range, a very large number of Florida Gar, and a school of tilapia that did not want to bite. We fished the area well trying to find more Oscars or the other target fish mentioned above…but found none. I’m really not sure if it was the cold weather that turned off the bite, or if we were just not fishing the right area. African Jewelfish should be very prevalent in the Tamiami, but we had yet to even see one!

With very little action, I decided to play with the gar. At one point, I caught a bluegill sunfish that was deeply hooked. I tried to keep it in the water to keep it alive while I dig for my hemostat. While the sunfish was in the water, it attracted the notice of the Florida Gar and they started to chase the sunfish. They were following it intensely and I could “walk” the gar like you walk a puppy, haha! Finally, they started to hit the sunfish and grabbed on. The sunfish was a little too big to fit their mouths, so after grabbing on for a while, they would simply drop it. I retrieved the sunfish and cut it up for bait…and that was the beginning of a full hour action with the gar! I could almost get every gar in the area to grab the bait as long as I drift the chunk of sunfish on a free line in the currently to the gar. They would grab the chunk and drift back in the current. Most of the time, I just let them pull around a little and then yank hard to pull the bait out. A few times, I set the hook to fight the gar for a bit before the hook comes out. There was a bigger gar that I had wanted to land for a picture, but as I was lifting the gar out of the water and hand line it up the bridge, the line snapped.

When we had enough of the gar, we decided to fish another spot we passed by. Although the area looks very weedy and every bit the habitat for Oscars, we found no Oscar. Instead, we saw a large bass, caught a couple of bluegills, and hooked a 3-4lb Bowfin that snapped the line when we tried to land line it over the fence. Michael has a picture of the Bowfin on his camera.

We were parked at this place that sells gator tail sandwiches…I just had to try one. It was pretty darn good…MMM!

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With about an hour left of daylight, we tried one last effort. We fished closed to the civilized end of the Tamiami before we had to return to my uncle’s house for dinner. We finally found something new with determination! Michael caught his first Butterfly Peacock and I caught my first Banded Cichlid!

Banded Cichlid (Heros severus) – new species #7

I also caught my third Redear Sunfish.

Jan 2, 2013

Our next phase of fishing will be taken in the Florida Keys. Before we head down to that saltwater paradise, I bought some big game gear from Bass Pro Shops so we can try our hands at shark fishing and perhaps a Goliath Grouper. We spent this morning picking up the gear before having lunch with my mom’s older sister and her husband. After lunch, Michael and I debated whether to try out a spot I’ve identified with a population of Midas Cichlid. To be honest, I was not very confident since the cold weather had all but foiled our freshwater species efforts. Since it was on the water to the Keys, we thought we would at least have a look-see.

We arrived to the canal at 2pm and immediately saw many Midas Cichlids! These fish would not bite worms. When the fish approach us standing my shore, an idea clicked! Ever since we saw the Grass Carp at the other location, we bought a couple loafs of bread just in case we needed it. I suggested that we should toss in some bread to see if the Midas would eat it. Bingo! We’re fishing with bread!

The fish were very picky though. They must have been heavily pressured since they could tell a piece of bread was on the hook. In the end, we had to fish the bread on a small hook with a tiny split shot under a float with a very long leader to allow the bread to sink naturally and into deep water. The fish were a little less wary if the bread sank into deeper water. After about 5 minutes of refining the presentation, I finally had a Midas made a mistake!

Midas Cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus) – new species #8

It took Michael considerably longer to catch his first Midas Cichlid since catch just one from the school spooked the other fish and they became even more wary. While waiting for Michael to catch his fish, I played with some Mayan Cichlids that were guarding their nests. They would nudge, bump or gently remove any offensive or intruding objects in their nests, but they would not pick it up enough to be hooked. While Michael was casting his bread bait, he got picked up twice while on the drop. These were big fish that immediately snapped his line. After he caught his first Midas Cichlid, he was crazy enough to tie on a large hair rig and put on a large chunk of bread. He was once again picked up on the drop about 30 minutes later and landed a 15lb Grass Carp. Seeing the opportunity, I tied on a hair rig too and used a good chunk of bread by wrapping the bread onto the hair rig loop. Michaal had 3 rods now fishing the hair rig with bread on bottom for Grass Carp, but they were not getting bit. So I started casting the bread bait and letting it sink naturally, and once the bread hit bottom, I would reel up halfway up the water column and allow the bread to fall again. I was always holding rod and fishing on a tight line. After about 10 casts, I got picked up. At first, it didn’t feel like a very big fish. The fish was coming up quite easily and I was guessing it was a small Grass Carp. When the fish surfaced and saw me, it put on the after burner! It took about 4 minutes of gentle pressure with the 8lb mono and a couple of tense moments with the net. Finally, Michael had it in the net! The fish kicked in the net and Michael took a tumble, bruising his leg and wet his feet, but he did keep his hands on the net and kept the fish in the bag!

Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) – new species #9

I just had to take a few more pictures…

And the weight on Michael’s digital scale…30.5lbs!!!

A new species, big or small, is magnificent on its own…but this just puts it over the top!!!

After catching the Grass Carp, I had to take a nap before the 2 hours drive to the Keys. Michael fished another 20 minutes without any bites. When I woke up, I walked to the washroom and saw a Butterfly Peacock on the walk back! I ran to grab my rod since I wanted to catch one for a good picture on my list (I’ve caught them in Hawaii previously). We had some pretty gross nightcrawler left, but that was all the bait we had with us. I tossed my worm at the Peacock, and out of nowhere came this Oscar! It swam quickly at my worm, but stopped short when it sniffed the funky smelly worm then turned away. Man, it’s a tough lesson to swallow…ALWAYS HAVE FRESH FRISKY WORMS!!!

Following the failure, I called it a day and we drove in the dark to the Keys. My sister and her boyfriend were already at the hotel room and we arrive just as they were getting ready to head to bed.

Hi guys! Back again to share a recent trip I took to Florida. Hope you'll enjoy seeing some different species

Back in the fall, my sister and I considered the idea to spend Christmas break with our family in Florida. Soon, we roped in my sister’s boyfriend and my fishing friend Michael to join us on the trip. Since we were all on limited budget, we decided to do a road trip to Florida instead of flying.

Dec 27, 2012

We had planned to depart Toronto at 5am for a long day of driving ahead. However, when a winter storm blew across much of the US and part of southern Ontario to create treacherous driving conditions, we had no choice but to sit at home to wait for the highways to be cleared of snow. Finally, the roads were plowed by 12pm and we headed on our way to Orlando. We alternated drivers every 3 hours and drove straight for 24 hours. We were hoping to arrive in Orlando around noon on Dec 28h so my sister and her boyfriend can spend most of the day and evening at Magic Kingdom. However, a traffic jam slowed our progress and an afternoon storm also interrupted the day. In the end, my sister gave me the OK to head to Tampa to do a little fishing with what was left of our day.

Dec 28, 2012

As we were headed to Tampa at 3pm, the sky darkened and looked to threaten our chance to fish. Indeed, about 30 minutes from our fishing location, it started pouring! Oh boy…what a way to start this trip.

Luckily, the rain let up a bit on our arrival. It allowed Michael and I about 30 minutes to find our target species. Jack Dempsey was established in a little creek and we quickly found them hiding among vegetation. They were willing biters and often rush out of the dense vegetation to grab our worms.

Jack Dempsey (Cichlasoma octofasciata)  – new species #1

Rio Grande Cichlid should also be established in the system. We didn’t find them this day. Before long, we lost daylight and had to continue our way to Orlando. It started raining again and we had never seen so many accidents! There were collisions and cars spun out. Even a transport truck drove into the ditch! Being Canadians who driven on snowy roads or blizzard conditions, we laughed about how poorly Floridian handled the little bit of rain and the slightly wet road conditions.

We arrived at my cousins at 8pm and went out for some Korean food. Since we had a long day of driving, everyone went to bed pretty quickly after dinner.

Dec 29, 2012

We woke up early only to find a very cold and rainy morning. Behind the winter storm that delayed our trip, a cold front followed and the temperature plummeted to about 5C in Orlando that evening. My sister had planned to visit Universal Studio and Michael and I had planned to fish in Tampa again, however, the rain didn’t let up until 10am. While my sister and her boyfriend got ready, Michael and I checked out a little pond behind my cousin’s neighbourhood. We found a number of sailfin catfish that were unwilling to bite worms. After I dropped my sister and her boyfriend at the theme park, it was a little too late to fish Tampa. I joined Michael at the pond trying to find a way to catch the sailfin catfish. We did catch a few small Bluegill Sunfish and Michael caught his first Golden Shiner.

After lunch at my cousin’s house, my cousin suggested that we should try the lake close to their house. Among the common freshwater species was the potential of finding Florida Gar, a species new to both Michael and I.

My cousin and his daughter Ava came to fish with us. Ava was the superstar that day when she found a 13” Black Crappie. These crappies were schooled under the dock and we caught 3 more between 12-14” that day!

My own jumbo crappie!

A nice Black Crappie photograph for my lifelist

There were also some very massive (by Ontario standard) Bluegill Sunfish.

Michael cut up a small sunfish to use as gar bait to be fished on bottom and got a fish to take the bait. However, the hook didn’t set and left us wondering if it was a gar.

While we didn’t find any gar that day, I caught a pair of Redear Sunfish. I caught a suspected juvenile Redear Sunfish in Virginia but didn’t count it since the identity could not be 100% verified. The Redear Sunfish was one of my top target to catch so it was nice to check it off so early.

Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) – new species #2

Later, I caught a 6” Golden Shiner and suggested to Michael to use as live bait. A while later, the Golden Shiner got picked up and it was a Largemouth Bass. Michael said it was at least 3.5lbs…but I said it was between 2.5-3lbs.

That was it for the day of fishing. We took the 4 crappies and one big bluegill back to my cousin’s house and had a Florida shore lunch…it was so darn good!!!

Dec 30, 2012

I spent the day with my sister and her boyfriend at Kennedy Space Center.  We had a great time and it was a non-fishing day for me. It was a little cold and wet but we still had a good time. We dropped Michael off at Port Canaveral and he caught a couple of Bluefish, a Spot Croaker and a Gaffsailtop Catfish. At the end of the day, we drove to Coral Springs to spend the next few days at my uncle’s house.

Loving the diversity of fishing I look forward to the marron season every year. There's something about the journey/destination/catch that keeps me coming back every year!

Yesterday myself, Shaun (FW Shabba) and Michael headed off to Harvey dam to snare some marron. We got down early and got a spot, cracked a coldy,had a swim and cranked up the bbq......It doesnt get much better

We waited for early sunset, set the pellet baits and then waited for full darkness. Once dark the wind had backed off which was nice and plenty of small marron around but a bit quiet on the first few runs!

After a few cold beverages whe did a few more passes and the marron started to fire. It was Michaels first time snaring marron and he did well, we all got marron and ended up with our 3 bag limits!

Was a great arvo/evening with good mates and plenty of laughs.....cheers fella's

Shaun got a cracker marron that he took out of the esky for a pic!!!

hey guys just wondering if anyone has been down the mole lately and if its fishing well thinking bout going down tomorrow night

Hey all,

been up at Coronation for the past 2 weeks with family.  Lots and lots of tailor around.  Over the 2 weeks we got about 130 tailor,

but not much else that was decent.  Just the usual sharks, rays, shovelnoses etc. but i also caught what im 99% sure was a threadfin salmon, which

surprised me, i've never caught one around the area before.  I had a really good burley mixed up which consisted of pollard, aniseed oil, burley pellets, fish frames,

bbq fat, bread, and recycled Red Rooster fryer oil.  It really helped to keep the tailor on the bite.  One night my uncle and myself both caught our bag limit and by 

the time we were catching our last couple of fish each they had the fattest guts i've ever seen.  They must have been in a real feeding frenzy and they were

even attacking the fish we were reeling in.  Later on when we filleted them i found a heap of different stuff inside them.  There was mulies, pieces of dart, pieces of

other tailor and even blowies in their guts.  I'd have never thought that they would eat blowies but i guess they got in that much of a frenzy that they would just

eat whatever was swimming around.  Im also quite proud of myself as i caught a decent amount of fish on lures which i've never seemed to be able to do before.  

I was using soft plastics which i soon realised was a bad idea with tailor around, they would just destroy them.  I didn't really mind because i brought them

all pretty cheap anyway.  I tried as many different types as i could, Squidgie flickbaits, Squidgie wrigglers, Berkley gulp minnows, Berkley Powerbait and even the

the slam soft plastics all caught fish.  Will definetely persist with lures in the future now.

Even had a go at ballooning with the strong easterly we had for a couple of days.  Had no worries getting my bait out there but no luck.  Yet to catch a fish ballooning.

We had the fisheries call in at our camp too, 2 blokes came up the beach on quads and were stopping to check at every camp.  They went through all our fridges but all good we only had a couple of fillets.

I do have photos but seem to have misplaced my camera so once i find it ill upload a few.

Cheers

Yo all

Long time no post, been dealing with some f**k*** bad personal issues, but there is finally what it seems light at the end of the tunnel.

have barely fished at all since ive been back.I only used the boat for the first time 2 weeks ago. Thought id throw up some photos of my final trip. Ill add some more tonight too,

all photos are copyright to all Peter Fordam @ all Fly.

will upload a couple more from my camera soon enough.

enjoy.

Yo all

Long time no post, been dealing with some f**k*** bad personal issues, but there is finally what it seems light at the end of the tunnel.

have barely fished at all since ive been back.I only used the boat for the first time 2 weeks ago. Thought id throw up some photos of my final trip. Ill add some more tonight too,

all photos are copyright to all Peter Fordam @ all Fly.

enjoy.