Florida Road Trip 2013 (Day 11)

We woke up early at 6am to get on the road early. We debated about fishing the Tamiami for Snook and Tarpon the night before, but getting live shrimp early in the morning would be a challenge. Instead, we decided to fish the Intercoastal around the Miami area. Fishing the oceanfront piers was out of the question since it was blowing a stiff NNE wind.

We pulled into a little tackle shop in Dania called Anglers Bait and Tackle. I wanted to specifically mention them since the guys were super helpful and really glad to share a lot of fishing information and techniques with us. They suggested a local boat launch where we may be able to catch snook. After getting 2 dozen live shrimps, we set off to soak some shrimps.

People were already fishing at the launch but fishing was a bit slow and no snook had been caught that morning. We did spoke with a guy who had caught snook and tarpon a couple of weeks ago.

With our targets not cooperating, we started looking for other species of interest. I caught a really blue Sergeant Major.

Michael saw a few more Sergeant Major and soon added his lifer. He then spotted a Houndfish for me to add as a lifer.

Hound Needlefish aka Houndfish (Tylosurus crocodilus crocodilus) - Species #379

I saw some little gobies on the rocks and caught (most likely) a Frillfin Goby. I should have check the tongue to see if it was a Notchtongue Goby.

There was a pair of Horse-eye Jack around and Michael caught his first. Apparently, there was a big moray eel around and Michael went to chase it for a while. There were a few parrotfish around the rocks but we couldn't get the bait past the small Mangrove Snapper, Schoolmaster Snapper, and several grunt species.

Someone caught a Sand Perch earlier so I was fishing a split shot rig hoping to find one of these bottom associated fish. Unfortunately, I didn't find one that day, but I discovered that there were Checkered Puffer in the area. I hooked one and had the fish bit through the line close to shore.

Toward the evening, Michael went for a walk and found another area to try for snook. Instead of snook, we caught a few Checkered Puffers!

Checkered Puffer (Sphoeroides testudineus) - Species #380

It was getting late and Michael had to pick up his rental car by 6pm. We hit some traffic on the way to the rental company, but luckily they agreed to wait for us to arrive.

The next couple of days, from December 24 to the afternoon of December 26, I spent time with family so I didn't get to fish much at all. There was really nothing to report.