Spot Hopping Tamiami & Big Cypress Loop

My morning ritual while we camped in Florida consisted of putting some clean clothes on, exiting our tent, stretching, then going to relieve myself. And I have to say; though this may be one of the stranger ways I've ever started a blog post; relieving myself while looking at some of the prettiest scenes I've yet gazed over each morning became such a wonderful routine that I've been disappointed each morning since returning home that I can't simply get up in the early morning, step outside barefoot, walk some distance from the house, and pee with no worries at all of human on-lookers seeing something they don't want to and a hell of a great view to look at while I go about my business. It's those simple little things in life that keep me from falling too deeply into depression. I'm a simple man, I like to watch the sun sparkle off dew and warblers flit around while I take my morning pee.

Noah is less of a morning person, so I usually had a bit of me time each morning. I enjoyed that time especially in the Everglades, because I was just so happy to finally get to see more of one of the most amazing places on the planet.

We decided our first full day would be a spot hopping day. Actually, every day ended up being that, and such is the name of the game on the Tamiami trail. Drive, look, see something fishy, fish it, move on. Or... drive, see big turtle, stop, chill with said turtle, move on.

Apalone ferox, Florida softshell turtle

We headed back East along the Tamiami, bouncing spot to spot without much of note for a white. There were a lot of gar and a lot of alligators, but that is to be expected.

Lepisosteus platyrhincus, Florida gar

Alligator mississippiensis, American alligator

Eventually though we found some more interesting fishing in a place we'd hit on our first trip here. There was a lot of construction going on at some of the spillways, and at those where there wasn't there wasn't much flow, but we managed to find some willing fish at one of the spillways. It wasn't lights out oscar fishing and blitzing peacocks like our first visit but it wasn't bad.

Lepomis gulosus, warmouth

Cichla ocellaris, butterfly peacock bass

Astronotus ocellatus, oscar

I was most hoping for a jaguar guapote, and I saw more than one and I think I missed some takes from them too, but I just couldn't seal the deal. We bounced to a place we'd not been before pretty far east and found loads of small gar and Mayan cichlids before heading back the way we came to get to the Big Cypress loop road. We hoped that we'd find more native fish than invasives there.

Cichlasoma urophthalmus, Mayan cichlid

It turned out that most of the spots along the loop road were still just loaded with Mayan cichlids, oscars, jewel cichlids, and some pike killifish that we saw but could not catch. There were native sunfish species too but just not what we expected. We'd thought there'd be a lot of bass there, that's what we'd heard at least. Moreover, the gators there were especially fixated on us. At one point we moved from one side of a culvert to the other to get away from a gator, but when I hooked on oscar that started splashing on the surface we could hear that gator turn on the thrusters and accelerate through the culvert. I pulled the oscar out just feet ahead of the hungry gator. It's pretty clear just how insistent these gators were from the photos below. This is the problem with tourists feeding the wildlife... it gets dangerous for everybody. 

We managed to spot hop all day without catching any new species, which in the Everglades is a little bit impressive. But the day was not lacking in quality of experience. There are some places that grab my soul and demand I explore every inch. Maine is one of those places. The Everglades is another. I feel an absolute need to experience as much of it as I can and this day had fulfilled a little more of that. One last stop on the Tamiami before heading to camp for dinner yielded my first Everglades bowfin. It wasn't big, but it was my first 'fin of the year, and it was awesome.

Soon the sky was darkening, and it was time once again for us to set out seeking snakes crossing the road. But that is the subject of a future post.

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

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