Species: Spottail Pinfish (Diplodus holbrookii) Location: Tampa, Florida Date: July 13, 2018 I first “met” Ryan Crutchfield on Instagram before I’d even started species hunting. Our social circles overlapped, and I found myself following a guy on Instagram who posted some out of the ordinary fish pictures. Sure, the tarpon, snook, redfish, and bass pics I…
Species: White Grunt (Haemulon plumierii) Location: Tampa, Florida Date: July 13, 2018 I spent two solid days at ICAST with Fishbrain. From meeting Roland Martin and April Vokey to sitting next to Scott Martin during breakfast, I couldn’t have been happier. It as about as much fun as you can have while not fishing. You can…
Species: Golden Topminnow (Fundulus chrysotus) Location: Orlando, Florida Date: July 10, 2018 After checking off Golden Shiner, I tried to catch the tiny little pike-like fish that roamed just under the surface, darting this way and that to investigate everything on its turf. The telltale red-tipped tail told me it was another Golden Topminnow, and I’d…
Species: Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas) Location: Orlando, Florida Date: July 10, 2018 A school of Golden Shiners pestered me for almost an hour at the Lake Fran Urban Wetlands. I knew what they were, and I knew I’d never caught one, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t get one to bite. They were…
Species: Walking Catfish (Clarias batrachus) Location: Orlando, Florida Date: July 10, 2018 I remember reading about Walking Catfish in one of the dozen or so outdoor magazines I subscribed to growing up. Yes, I spent virtually all of my disposable income in junior high and high school on magazines, but that’s beside the point. At the…
Species: Longnose Gar (Lepisosteus osseus) Location: Orlando, Florida Date: July 9, 2018 Admittedly, tarpon was my favorite catch in Florida, and the biggest prize for me as an angler, but the Longnose Gar I caught was a close second. Read about it here. #SpeciesQuest // #CaughtOvgard Read the next entry in #SpeciesQuest here: Species #149 —…
Species: Atlantic Spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber) Location: Titusville, Florida Date: July 8, 2018 Every time a fish bites a baited hook, the reality is that they may be digging their own grave. I have no qualms with keeping fish, especially since seafood is my favorite. When given the opportunity to catch plentiful, good-eating fish, I’ve been known to…
Species: Common Snook (Centropomus undecimalis) Location: Titusville, Florida Date: July 9, 2018 It wasn’t a tarpon. It wasn’t a Ladyfish, either. It was something lighter in color with a big mouth. It was a snook. Snook are awesome. For years, they’ve been near the top of my target list, but they always seemed so unrealistic. Every video…
Species: Atlantic Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) Location: Titusville, Florida Date: July 8, 2018 I already wrote this one. You can find it below. Ask any angler for a list of their 10 dream species, and Atlantic Tarpon will be on it. Megalops atlanticus entered my dream species list the moment I first watched these silver slabs of muscle erupt…
Species: Ladyfish (Elops saurus) Location: Titusville, Florida Date: July 9, 2018 Though Ladyfish can grow quite large, none of the 20 or so I caught while chasing tarpon were. I did manage to hook into one pushing 30 inches in length, but it spit the hook almost immediately. I was fishing a stretch of Florida brackish swamp…
