trojannemo
Fishaholic
hey guys. last sunday I went out to Big Cypress to check out a spot I had visited 9 days before and was packed full of small fish, as well as gars, bass, and others. i made the plans to go on sunday before temperatures dropped, but i wasn't going to let a little cold change my plans!
i got to the spot at about noon, and what I found was heartbreaking. that same spot that was packed full of fish just 9 days before was now devoid of life. not a single small fish was to be seen anywhere, and the bottom (water was about 2-3 feet, clear, so i could see everything) was covered in dead fish. the fish had all their color and werent decomposing, just dead at the bottom of the canal, preserved by the cold water. the night before, according to weather.com, Big Cypress reached a low of 22 degrees Fahrenheit! i drove a little farther in to big cypress, to a roadside canal maybe half a mile further. this was a much bigger expanse of water, yet very shallow as before. this is the first thing I noticed when I got out of the car:
I imagined what I saw next. the entire bottom of this much larger area was also covered in dead fish. all I could see was mayan cichlids, spotted tilapias, blue tilapias, and walking catfish. fortunately didnt see any dead natives. the usual bass and gar were nowhere to be seen, but at least they weren't dead at the bottom of the water!
some images: warning - these images depict dead fish and/or birds
Walking Catfish - this was the species affected most by far
Peacock Bass - there were several of these outside of Big Cypress along Tamiami trail
Great Heron - also found many dead birds in the water
the walking catfish that weren't quite dead were dying, doing contortions in the water. they also had very big blister-like growths on the skin. i assume these were caused by the cold?
warning - graphic images on the next two links
blisters 1
blisters 2
i tried to do some dipnetting before leaving Big Cypress. everything looked pretty quiet for the most part. the only small fish I saw dead in big numbers were african jewel cichlids. for some reason they took it the hardest. did manage to catch and photograph some fish before moving on:
Bluefin Killifish:
Bluegill (or Warmouth - not sure):
Fundulus chrysotus:
Fundulus chrysotus (melanistic):
Gambusia + plenty of Grass Shrimp:
Jewel Cichlid:
Molly:
Warmouth:
Sailfin Pleco (this guy was at the very edge of the water and was extremely easy to catch with the dip net):
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on the way out I stopped along several spots in Tamiami Trail to try my luck with my cast net.
the water was miserably cold, and very quickly our fingers (i went with my brother in law) got numb but we ended up
throwing the cast net for maybe 4 hours non stop...so here are some pictures.
everything show below was caught on a 5ft cast net:
Florida Largemouth Bass:
Bluegill:
Florida Gar:
Jaguar:
Mayan Cichlid - caught these the most...by far (see pictures below!):
Redear Sunfish:
Spotted Sunfish:
Spotted Tilapia:
Blue Tilapia:
Tilapia species (Blue or Nile?):
Both species together:
Warmouth:
my prize catch of the day...
a 22 inch Striped Mullet:
in that last picture you can see how close to the water level we were standing!
we also spotted and successfully netted a 3-4 foot unidentified fish (believed to be either snook, tarpon, or huge peacock bass).
unfortunately it was so heavy that the cast net opened up and let it out before we got it on land. no picture :roll:
even though the day started on a sad note, along tamiami trail we had so much luck on the cast net that
I quickly forgot about the sad morning. we left when the sun went down, but not before we had pulled out
more than 1,000 fish on the cast net! don't believe me? here are two of the many loads we pulled out:
as you can see the most abundant species were mayan cichlids. caught many gars, many tilapia, few bass, very few catfish (most were dead?),
a few jaguars, many sunfish of all varieties. didn't catch a single peacock bass (all dead?).
it was a very cold day, my hands were painfully numb by the time we stopped, but it was worth it. I know that many fish died due to the cold, but considering how many fish we caught, i'm confident that fish populations will bounce back quickly as soon as it gets warmer. I intend to go back when the water isn't murderingly cold and check out what fish can be found then.
hope you enjoyed the pictures.
