first location pictures:
we stopped at several water holes like these. you can get an idea of how close to the road we were. here dipnetting was bad but I managed to catch a 14" or so pleco with our small cast net (pictures below). a couple of fishermen stopped while we were here and in 5 minutes also netted another two huge plecos, a peacock bass and two other bass type fish.
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/waterhole.jpg)
not very good for dipnetting as the vegetation was all on the land and not in the water!
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/group.jpg)
this was a very shallow and muddy area where the airboats usually go in. this was the only place we caught Fundulus chrysotus and very small flag fish:
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/waterhole2.jpg)
on the other side of the road across these water holes was a canal running the length of the tamiami trail. here is where most of the fish were caught dipnetting:
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/me.jpg)
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/cassian.jpg)
on to the fish!
as I mentioned above, two fishermen stopped and using their cast net caught two 12"+ plecos within minutes:
first pleco caught
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/pleco.jpg)
cassian holding he pleco for size
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/cassian_pleco.jpg)
rodolfo holding both the plecos the fishermen caught and gave to us
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/rodolfo.jpg)
i then managed to catch a third pleco with our smaller cast net. since we had the other two, we released this guy
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/me_pleco.jpg)
caught a single crayfish
![Posted Image](http://www.keepitfishy.com/fish/dipnetting/tamiami/crayfish.jpg)
very few Fundulus chrysotus...and they were very dark in coloration compared to our usual catch?
http://www.keepitfis...i/chrysotus.jpg
also very few, and very small specimens of the florida flag fish were encountered
http://www.keepitfis...amiami/flag.jpg
the only cichlids we found were mayans (C. urophthalmus) and spotted tilapia (T. mariae). for some reason I dont have any pictures of the tilapia, here are some of the mayans:
http://www.keepitfis...miami/mayan.jpg
http://www.keepitfis...iami/mayan2.jpg
the predominant group collected was sunfish. i dont know the identification for all of these, but i did notice a trend towards green coloration as compared to the usual bluegills and warmouths I've collected in the past. are these sunfish a different species than the aforementioned two?
http://www.keepitfis...mi/sunfish1.jpg
http://www.keepitfis...mi/sunfish2.jpg
http://www.keepitfis...mi/sunfish3.jpg
http://www.keepitfis...i/sunfishes.jpg
http://www.keepitfis.../sunfishes2.jpg
http://www.keepitfis.../sunfishes3.jpg
this was a good specimen showing the green coloration i talked about...what type of sunfish is this?
http://www.keepitfis...mi/greensun.jpg
this guy i'm not sure what he is. he was rather big (around 4"). looks like a sort of sunfish but not very colorful:
http://www.keepitfis...ami/unknown.jpg
now on to the catch of the day...what you've all been waiting for! *drum roll*
http://www.keepitfis...tamiami/eel.jpg
http://www.keepitfis...amiami/eel2.jpg
managed to catch a Peacock Eel, approx. 7" long. thanks to the help of a member here it was identified as Macrognathus siamensis.
according to USGS, this species is established here in south florida, but the club members who accompanied me believe this is the first time any club member has caught one.
USGS info here: link
last but not least, we enjoyed a fine lunch at Coopertown restaurant, where we got to try alligator tail and frog legs!
http://www.keepitfis...amiami/food.jpg
all the fish photographed that I caught were released with the exception of the peacock eel. the other club members took home the fundulus chrysotus, flag fish and two of the plecos.
that's it...hope you enjoyed the pictures!
comments and identification help greatly appreciated!
![:smile2:](http://forum.nanfa.org/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)