hey guys. the club set up a dipnetting rodeo event. we split up into 5 teams and went with a checklist anywhere we wanted to catch as many of the items on the list in 4 hours as we could.
i was in Team #1 with another club member, my better half, and Larry Colvin, the co-founder of the club...we were also the winning team!

anyways my fiancee is unofficially the club photographer as of last meeting, so she took plenty of pictures. i narrowed it down to 26 that i want to post...so let's see if the boards will let me:

group shot before separating into teams. i'm not in the picture (i was taking it!), and some other members arrived after the picture was taken, so add about 6-8 people more and that's the amount of attendees we had:


Location #1 - nice canal in residential area, caught some nice salvini, huge ramshorn snails and everything else that expect to find in canals down here. (gambusia, lucania goodei, etc)


Location #2 - another canal in a residential area. this one however was pretty bad as there were very few fish and very thick mats of some sort of plant in the water:


Checking the net...nothing good this time:


The thick mats of plants in the water, made it very difficult to catch anything at this location...


One of the items to collect was a rooted plant...the bigger the better...we won:


The "A-Team" as Larry called us...Cassian, Larry, and I (left to right):


Location #3 was a much bigger canal in the middle of busy streets...here I caught some nice gobies (won for size) and sunfish. also got a different type of ramshorn that was a dark red color.


Location #4 - another small residential canal, very shallow water. Here we caught a nice salvini and a couple of other small guys...


But what made this location special was the BIG pleco we spotted...here we were trying to catch it (no luck )


Since we couldn't catch the pleco, here's a picture of it...sorry for the quality but it was through muddy water!
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo12.jpg

The nice salvini male we caught at this location...notice the unfortunate gambusia caught in the net with it:
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo11.jpg

Location #5 - this was a beautiful spot within a county park, CB Smith Park. Unfortunately an electrical storm was over us and we stayed literally for only 3 minutes. i still managed to catch my prize fish of the day, two beautiful Blue Spotted Sunfish (E. gloriosus)...I intend to go back for more:
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo13.jpg

Location #6 - one of the boat ramps on Alligator Alley. this is the second time I go dipnetting, and the second time i go here...it's a popular spot!
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo14.jpg

Location #6 directly on the left from the above picture. this side is much better as the vegetation is dense...you almost always get flag fish, bluefin killies or crayfish in this spot.
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo15.jpg

Location #7 - another boat ramp on Alligator Alley. this one is not nearly as good as the first...
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo16.jpg

....but if you know what you're doing you can always get something...here is a club officer who has a knack for catching larger fish (you'll see other pics of him later)...nice 6" oscar:
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo17.jpg

One thing we always catch even though we dont want to...snakes:
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo18.jpg

This was by far the largest apple snail collected - that is a standard 10gallon tank!
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo19.jpg

Judging the catch - notice the apple snail again...
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo20.jpg

Location #8 was another boat ramp on Alligator Alley, this one is very good but by the time we got there the entire club had raided it!
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo21.jpg

Another shot of the canal (location #8 ) :
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo22.jpg

Looking at the fish in the judging tank:
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo23.jpg

I understand this is a hoplo cat? Whatever it is, it won for size in the catfish category...that's the same guy who caught the oscar:
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo24.jpg

the club then treated us to a nice bbq! that's Lloyd, club president and co-founder
http://www.keepitfis...deo/rodeo25.jpg

picture of the winning (overall points) team - mine!
http://www.keepitfis...eo/rodeo26b.jpg

hope you enjoyed the pictures and the information. ask if you have any questions! :good:

BigC, i tried testing the waters but realized that my test kit is only useful at testing pH, as my kit only tests nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and ph. i noticed the pH going up as the canals were going down in vegetation. in location #1 pH was about 7.0, by location #3 it was at the end of the ph test spectrum, so 7.6+.
if you guys have questions as to what species we caught let me know...i know what my team caught, and have a pretty good idea of what the other teams caught as well...it was a great day and very very fun!

i took some pictures of the fish that i took home, will post them later when i go through them...

hope you enjoy the pictures!

Thats a pretty big snail. Looks like it was a fun time.

looks like you had a very cool trip, is it normal to find so many invasive species in your part of florida?
your catfish is a Hoplosternum littorale the armoured catfish aka brown hoplo from south america.

can't wait to see your fish pics. looks like a fun time

looks like you had a very cool trip, is it normal to find so many invasive species in your part of florida?
your catfish is a Hoplosternum littorale the armoured catfish aka brown hoplo from south america.

dude miami canals have every form of SA and African fish you can imagine. i wanna go down there bad and catch some peacock bass. these are great pics. did you seen any alligators? did you take pics of all the fish that you actually collected?

It looks like you are all using the same kind of net. What kind is it and where did you get it?
Thanks

It's weird seeing groups of people and no seines! Looks like you had a good time and caught some interesting critters. Thanks for sharing.

Thats a pretty big snail. Looks like it was a fun time.

it was great. that was my second time dipnetting, but this time the turnout was much greater as it was a club-wide thing rather than an isolated dipnetting event.

looks like you had a very cool trip, is it normal to find so many invasive species in your part of florida?
your catfish is a Hoplosternum littorale the armoured catfish aka brown hoplo from south america.

thanks for the info on the catfish, it does look armoured! i've just begun dipnetting but i've heard that we can find a good deal of invasive species. there are plenty of mayan cichlids and spotted tilapia in every canal, and then from canal to canal you can find hoplos, oscars, jewel cichids, salvini, jaguar cichlids, etc etc etc.

can't wait to see your fish pics. looks like a fun time

i'll try to edit them soon. had a very busy day yesterday! it was awesome fun!

dude miami canals have every form of SA and African fish you can imagine. i wanna go down there bad and catch some peacock bass. these are great pics. did you seen any alligators? did you take pics of all the fish that you actually collected?

i only took pictures of the ones i took home. i think i'm going to start photographing them on site, that way even the ones i release i can have pictures of...actually didnt see any alligators this time, even though we visited a canal known to have them (location #3). i was fine not having to deal with one!

It looks like you are all using the same kind of net. What kind is it and where did you get it?
Thanks

until that day i was borrowing my net from Larry, who had three of them lent to other club members, that's why it looks as if we have the same. some other members have bigger ones. some used a rod and reel, i dont think anyone had a seine.
i just went a bought myself the same exact one i was using from Bass Pro Shops for $26!

http://www.basspro.c...__SearchResults

It's weird seeing groups of people and no seines! Looks like you had a good time and caught some interesting critters. Thanks for sharing.

yeah i dont know why nobody uses seines, the preference seems to be towards nets. it was fun, and i'll continue to post after these events

This sort of stuff makes me want to live in FL.

On another note where do you find a woman that will do this stuff with you? Mine wouldn't at the risk of breaking a nail or messing up her hair. Guess you made a few good catches and not just in the fish realm. lol.

I can't get over that snail. Did anyone measure it?

i'm not sure if the snail was measured. i would estimate about 3" shell.

here are the pictures of the fish i took home:


i believe these three to be N. salvini:







and these i think are C. urophthalmus (mayan cichlids)? :








can you guys confirm the IDs? thanks.