Welcome to the Apocalypse

I was sitting in the van in a blazing hot parking lot getting some work done while Noah went into Walmart for provisions when he called me.
"They're completely out of water... and a lot of other things."
"Shit. We still need something. Get some Gatorade I guess, unless they're out of that".
"I've got Tampico."
"Okay... that'll work I guess. I think the campground will have potable water anyway."
The pandemic that was barely a blip on the radar when we'd left home was now a huge deal and stores were being cleaned out of goods, some of which we required for the next few days. We were about to venture into the Everglades with a few gallons of artificial juice drink, and a bunch of canned food. That's what we had, and that's all we could get. It was strange being so disconnected then suddenly watching the the world start to crumble around us. Meanwhile, we were just looking for some fish. No respiratory disease outbreak was going to prevent us from exploring the last best part of Florida. It had been far too long... I was very excited.

Three years before, Noah and I had used the Tamiami Trail to get across the state of Florida and reach the Gulf Coast, where we'd spend our final two days of the short whirlwind trip. We found the canals along the trail loaded with fish... but it wasn't enough time. The places we went had been on my mind ever since.

We didn't have much time on our first evening, we needed to get to our campground and get set up there before it was too dark so we could head out to cruise back roads looking for snakes. But we had time for a stop. We revisited one of the places we'd hit on our first trip, and it was very different. The was less water and a lot more weed growth. There were still fish there, and it didn't take long for Noah to catch himself a new species of which I was very jealous, a jaguar guapote.

Parachromis managuensis

I walked around a little looking very carefully into the weed filled waters of the canal and soon spotted something I'd been very much hoping to see... a pike killifish. Then another. Then a whole pile of them. I made one cast and got the largest one to take. I missed it of course. Pike killifish are a remarkably unique little fish and I so badly wanted to catch one... so of course, I didn't, though we'd see many more. The jewel cichlids, since I'd already caught them, were all too willing. At least they were a little better looking than the ones we'd caught a week before.

Hemichromis bimaculatus

With rapidly fading light, we hurried along to our campsite to get things sorted out and set up. Our time in the Everglades had only just begun.

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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