Fly Fishing For The Exotic Species in Southern Florida

Oscars are aquarium fish that grow quite large?  They are native to South America and are one of the exotic fishes that have been illegally introduced into the Florida canals. There is no limit for how many you can keep.

They are dark in color, have a thick coat of protective mucus and they have a red or orange circle near the tail. 

Other exotic fish that may be caught are the Mayan Cichlid that I mentioned in the last post as well as Spotted Tilapia.  You may have heard of talapia from a restaurant or grocery store.  In fact, I ate tilapia at the restaurant at my work just last week.

The first time I fished one of the Florida canals I caught a Bluegill.  There are several other species of warm water fish in the canals such as crappie, sunfish and various catfish. 

The strangest fish present in some of the canals is the Longnose Gar.  My daughter-in-law Brooke caught one of these while we were exploring the various canals.  

Check out the teeth on this monster.

More common in the Florida canals is the Largemouth Bass.  One morning before catching a flight home, I was fishing a cream colored streamer and caught a nice sized Largemouth Bass.  

I also caught a couple largemouth while fishing for Peacock Bass with the quide I talked about in a previous blog. 

These Largemouth Bass are native to the Florida waters and are quite plentiful.  In fact one of their nicknames is the Florida Largemouth.  

An interesting thing about this particular morning was the number of iguanas along the canal sunbathing.  As I was walking along fishing, I would hear a splash every few feet.  I thought it must be turtles until I turned to look down the shoreline.  Iguanas were lined up and as I got too close to them they would jump in the water.  

The Wildlife You See While Fly Fishing in Florida

While out fly fishing I am always on the lookout for other wildlife or participate in other adventures like airboat rides in the everglades.

The freshwater canal furthest south in Florida is the Aerojet canal.  It borders the Everglades National Park.  Brooke and I went exploring this canal one day and although we didn’t catch any peacock bass, we did find a lot of wildlife.  The first thing we saw was two manatees.  One was surfacing towards where the canal comes in from the Atlantic Ocean.  The other was near the salinity control structure.  It was resting with its back out of the water where I could see moss, algae or some other green plant material growing on it. Not seeming too exiting, I did not take any pictures of them, although now I wish I had.  A lesson I should have learned long ago is to take more pictures than I think I want.  It may be boring at the time while I’m interested in getting the fly in the water, but later on at home the photo may be fun and interesting to see.

We hiked along the Southern Glades Trail, fishing along the way.  

At the South Dixie Highway bridge I managed to catch a Mayan Cichlid.  Other than that, the fishing was very slow. This canal is pretty straight and featureless.

Brooke climbed upon a rickety old dock which was missing a few boards.  As she was fishing off the dock I noticed a crocodile along the far side of the canal. 

Bringing this to her attention, she quickly stood up to get off the dock. 

By this time the crocodile had started making its way toward her but then eased its way back to shore once Brooke was off the dock.  Just down from the crocodile you could see its haunt, a nest of broken down plants. 

Hiking back to the salinity control structure the manatees were no longer there.  Brooke had found some small fish on the saltwater side that were interested in her lure.  They kept nibbling on the rubber fish part until it was almost gone.  Handing the pole to me I lowered what was left of the lure near the fish and quickly jerked up on the next nibble.  This hooked one of the fish and as I lifted it out of the water Brooke gently grabbed a hold of it.  It was making some funny, whimpering noises and as it wiggled Brooked held it tighter.  

I guess a little too tight for the fish’s comfort and it puffed out into a soft prickly ball.  

I removed the hook and Brooke threw the puffer fish back into the brackish water.