Joy and I loaded the car with camping, fishing, and SCUBA diving gear on Saturday morning – December 10th, 2011. After handing in my last final exam of the grad school semester we were on our way! Florida is a place I had always dreamed of fishing, and we were one long drive from realizing that dream. We left Columbia, SC at about 3:00 p.m. The sun was still up when we reached the Georgia border, but the drive in the dark through Georgia seemed to drag. We stopped at the Florida border for a quick stretch in the refreshing mist. The December air was already noticeably warmer than it had been in South Carolina.
We pulled into Ocean Court Motel in Daytona Beach Shores at around 10 p.m. It was a decent place for a good price, and we snuck in a morning sunset stroll on the beach before continuing the drive south.
After another long drive along the flat and straight I-95 corridor of eastern Florida and lunch in South Miami we reached the Keys! We grabbed a map at the Key Largo visitor center and, itching to get fishing, hopped back in the car and followed Highway 1 through the keys. After 12 hours of driving and years of daydreaming of fishing this place I couldn’t believe we had finally made it! The water looked so beautiful and fishy all through the keys and somewhere between Long Key and Marathon I just had to get a line in the water. The first fish of the trip was this pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides).
Not a new species, but it didn’t take long to catch. I quickly put on some fresh shrimp and cast out again. My next fish was a lifer (#132), this sand perch (Diplectrum formosum):
Joy then pulled in a cool little fish and a lifelister, a southern puffer (Sphoeroides nephelus). I would get one later in the trip. Joy also got a sand perch at that first spot, and we both caught a few more pinfish. We tried one other spot, on Scout Key, before it got dark. Although the place looked great, we failed to catch anything that night. But we would return there.
We drove the final length of our journey to Key West and checked in at the Days Inn.
The next morning we got up early and ate at the Waffle House conveniently attached to our Days Inn. We then pulled over just as the sun was coming up to fish this really cool spot on Scout Key:
Lots of small fish were hiding in the rocky rubble along the seawall and it did not take long at all to catch my first fish of the day, and a strikingly handsome one at that: a Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus):
Other grunts were soon to follow, including my first White Grunt (Haemulon plumieri) and French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum). Joy also caught White and French grunts, and she was surprised when this Rock Hind (Epinephelus adscensionis) grabbed her bait. I failed to get this species so I was a little jealous.
We tried using some of the grunts as bait for larger fish, hoping for a shark, barracuda, jack, or ray, but no luck on the larger live baits. We saw some needlefish swimming around but couldn’t hook one before they disappeared. We also saw juvenile Sergeant Majors swimming close to the sea wall but they seemed uninterested in our offerings. We did catch a few wrasse though! We both lifelisted the Slippery Dick (yes, that’s what it’s called (Halichoeres bivittatus), and I caught an initial-stage puddingwife (Halichoeres radiatus). The different phases of wrasses and parrotfishes can look so different they can easily be mistaken as different species! Here’s a Slippery Dick pic:
We found the No Name Pub near the bridge to No Name Key and enjoyed a pizza and key lime pie. We even saw some key deer along the road!
Our next fishing stop was Bahia Honda State Park. I caught another lifer, the Crevalle Jack (Caranx hippos) and we went for a snorkel. and walked up to the scenic bridge overlook.
Next we moved on to No Name Bridge, where we each caught Houndfish (Tylosaurus crocodilus; one of which bloodied my hand pretty darn good with those teeth). The Houndfish was a lifelister for Joy (I had caught houndfish previously in Mexico, although of the subspecies fodiator). The Houndfish, up close:
The biting gnats drove us to the middle of the bridge, away from the mangroves and in a windier spot. We caught lots of Pinfish and a White Grunt from there but no lifers. However, we did get to see some sharks (not sure what species) and a big stingray cruise through the channel!
We fished until after dark a bit, but nothing much was happening. We went back to Key West and grabbed a royal meal (Dairy Queen ice cream and Burger King food), before kicking back at our hotel room to identify the day’s catches with our field guides. “A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes” by Kels and Carpenter is a great resource for anyone fishing the Keys, or anywhere on the U.S. East or Gulf coasts.
Tuesday was our last full day of fishing in the Keys. Thankfully the weather remained pleasant despite the wind. After another Waffle House breakfast we checked out White Street pier in Key West. The water was shallow so we didn’t bother fishing there.
We ventured down Blimp Road on Cudjoe Key and fished at some unwilling mullet. We also did some microfishing, which paid off as we each caught some Longnose Killifish (Fundulus similis):
Next we went back to the spot on Scout Key that we had tried on our the first night in the keys, but this time we tried deeper water. The porgies were willing to bite, and I landed three new species: the Grass Porgy (Calamus arctifrons), the Jolthead Porgy (Calamus bajonado), and the Littlehead Porgy (Calamus proridens). Joy also caught Grass and Jolthead porgies there. I caught my first Southern Puffer there:
Casting out to deeper waters:
And a Gag Grouper (pictured below) on a piece of cutbait grunt! I was stoked about this species. Joy got one as well, along with a Yellowtail Snapper.
I found out the hard way that the operculum of the grouper (gill flap) was razor sharp.
As the day wore on we decided to try at least one more spot in hopes of catching something different. We pulled off somewhere between Little Torch Key and Key West to do some bridge fishing, and I landed a few Lane Snapper (Lutjanus synagris), a White Grunt, and a Houndfish that I cut up and set out as bait on the big rods (but no takes).
I had hoped to catch a shark in the keys, but December was probably not the best time to get one. Joy and I were both really happy about our groupers though, and about our good number of new species collected in just two full days of fishing. That bridge would be the last fishing we did in the Keys that trip.
We went back to Key West for beers and grouper sandwiches at Jack’s Flats and a stroll on Duval Street:
Southernmost point in the continental United States:
The next morning, Wednesday, we woke up early, expecting to go for a SCUBA dive. We skipped Waffle House and ate light, hit the road to Key Largo, realized we were running behind, sped, got pulled over (but not given a ticket, thankfully!), stopped at the wrong Marriott Hotel, called our dive company hoping we weren’t too late, and were told due to strong east winds all SCUBA trips were cancelled for that day.
So, we stopped at John Pennekamp State Park on Key Largo and, since we had our wet suits, boots, snorkels, fins, and masks we were able to enjoy the December water and snorkel around in the sound, where nineteen cannons from an authentic Spanish shipwreck have been transported and arranged for the enjoyment of divers/snorkelers. The Mangrove Snappers liked the cannons too – groups of them were hiding under each one. We saw some small Great Barracuda too, but I think that was it for species.
After snorkeling we left the Keys and stopped at a Publix in South Miami to fill up our cooler with food for our next adventure – three days/nights of camping, paddling, and fishing Everglades National Park!
After stocking up on food we stopped and stocked up on nightcrawlers. Then we drove into Everglades National Park. It was so awesome being able to visit and fish both the Florida Keys and the Everglades in the same trip! Such a worthwhile adventure!
Our first stop was the Flamingo visitor’s center:
And then we set up camp. It was a nice campsite, except the horrendous mosquitoes drove us nuts at dusk and dawn!
We got some lines in the water that first evening. We started off right at the seawall at the visitors center. The mosquitoes were crazy but we fished through them, bundling up in layers to cover our skin.
We both caught our first Hardhead Catfish and then called it a night. Here’s a Hardhead Catfish (not from that night, but a much better photo of one than we were able to get that evening!):
We went back to the campsite and ate a rushed dinner of canned ravioli heated in a pan on the camp stove. We rushed to the tent to escape the furious biting bugs, leaving our dirty dishes sitting out.
We woke up the next morning to the sound of turkey vulture beaks drilling into our metal cookware.
Then we went for a paddle through the mangroves at Nine Mile Pond. Luckily there were white posts to provide visual cues of the route. It would’ve been easy to get really turned around (i.e., lost) in there!
We brought some fishing gear. I hoped to catch a Florida Gar, but no luck with those. I did hook and lose a Bowfin on a lure, and we caught Sheepshead Minnow on micro tackle.
In addition to the alligator pictured below, we did see some Florida Gar and a couple huge Florida soft-shelled turtles. Despite the seemingly endless patches of mangroves, channels, and periphyton-covered rushes called ‘breadsticks’, each place along the trail had it’s own feel. Some areas were dense tunnels through other spots we paddled through open flooded flats.
The Sheepshead Minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus):
We paddled back to the parking area, locked up the canoe, and headed back down the road to Flamingo. We started a fire hoping the smoke would keep back the mosquitoes and to cook our dinner – hotdogs!
The next morning we tried a new spot, the amphitheater area between the visitors center and our campsite. I caught a pigfish, which I used for bait to catch my second-ever Blacktip Shark – the first (and only) shark of our Florida trip:
I caught some pinfish, but things got pretty slow so we grabbed a pizza at the Flamingo visitor’s center cafe/restaurant. That evening we fished the seawall again, with mosquito coils and a little bit more breeze, which made the bugs at least tolerable. The fishing proved to be good, starting with this Mangrove Snapper:
We also pulled in Ladyfish and Gulf Toadfish from that spot, in a pretty short span of time. And of course, more Hardhead Catfish once it got dark.
We packed up camp in the morning, said goodbye to this little frog at our site, and then drove out of the everglades. We were staying in Naples that night, and our goal for the day was to fish along the way in the Tamiami canal.
I got a very small Spotted Tilapia at the first spot we tried, along with the Florida Bass – recently elevated to species level although they look very similar to the Northern Largemouth Bass. Spotted Tilapia:
The Tamiami Canal, which runs East-West across far southern Florida.
I also pulled in my first Mayan Cichlid (another invasive species but a new lifer). At dusk, we finally got into some Florida Gar! We both caught them, using cutbait Bluegill.
And finally, one last surprise catch… a Florida soft-shelled turtle (incidental catch/immediately released):
We stayed in Naples that night, strolled the beach there early the next morning, and then made the long haul drive back to Columbia, South Carolina.