hey guys had a lot of fun, been waiting for some posts. we snorkelled the rainbow chasshowitzka river 'and manatee springs, alexander springs, silver glen spring, collected on otter creek, and wacasassa, had a manatee encounter,watched the super bowl, canoed the rivers, saw many beautiful, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals , and sampled the beauty of fl springs, but also saw invasive algae, and an incredible invasion of huge blue tilapia.and great fellowship and food. did i miss anything, ?

Can't wait to see the pictures.  Was the algae and tilapia at Silver glenn?

the algae is everywhere in varying degrees, the tilapia were at silver glenn breeding in huge numbers, the males were almost pure white, close to two feet long, their nests are 3-4 ft diameter sometimes 2 feet deep. most of my pictures are terrible and my posting skill is worse.

An article for AC is in the works.  A few pics have been put on FaceBook.

 

 

 

The author ichthyologist Rudy.

 

 

 

An assortment of Sunfish.

 

 

 

The Beast.

 

The other Beast

 

 

Leviathan rising

 

<edited by MW>

Don, I had a wonderful time. Thank you so much for joining us and for all your help! I have only had time to go through a few of my photos from the trip so far, but I will share those in the next post. Like Casper said, there will be a full account with photos in an upcoming AC article.

 

Brandon, did you guys make it to FL over the Christmas holiday? If so, I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip as well.

 

Casper, nice photos. I really like your assortment of sunfish photo. I don't think I had seen that one before.

 

Bryce, I really want to see your gator shots, but they are too small (unless I'm doing something wrong).

Florida Bluegill. The Florida subspecies is a great-looking fish. It's kind of funny when bluegill are the most colorful sunfish.

 

Coppernose Bluegill. An alternate name for the Florida subspecies. This is not a good photo. The light was very low, so the image quality is not good. However, this individual showed the weird "coppernose" pattern really well. Michael pointed me towards a group of these large adults with the well-developed pattern.

 

Florida Largemouth Bass. They were already spawning in the Rainbow River (in February).

 

Grass Carp. Though non-native, it was still kind of neat to get to snorkel with these large fish.

 

Grass Carp. Non-native fish feeding on invasive Lyngbya algae. The FL springs are beautiful places to snorkel, but I wish I could have experienced them in their natural state.

 

Blackspotted Sunfish. Very common in the FL springs.

 

Manatee. This lone female was napping in the warm spring water. She would rise to the surface to breathe about every five minutes, providing good (and predictable) photo opportunities.

 

Manatee. Catching some Z's. Most of her time was spent in this position.

 

Well, that's it for now, but I'll share more in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing more photos/videos from everyone else.

The grass carp were introduced by the state years ago . Imagine everyone here knows that .

 

Putting that aside . You are a gifted photographer . Incredible pictures.

 

My brother in law comes during the summer and takes pics of Peacock bass , Oscars, Jags and other cichlids breeding as they breed a block away in a massive pond connected to canal but his pics are nowhere near yours , lol and he has been doing it for decades .

 

Your pics are amazing .

Great stuff, everybody. Isaac, those manatees are just fantastic! Bryce, I wanna see dem gators bigger, too. Casper, that gar and lmb in the background of your pic need to up their game on baby grass carp!

We really should only provide a teaser to the wonderful trip here on the forum.  The proper accounting will be in an upcoming issue of American Currents.  Don provided a hint of all our activities during the week and it was chock full.  What a great time.

 

Rudy kept a notebook going of our daily activities and asking each of us for input throughout the week.  Rudy is a very interesting fella and kept us up late one night telling us of his youthful global adventures.  Upon return i provided Rudy my own notes that i put together as well as my selected and edited photos with captions that i sent to Fritz, who will likely edit everything before taking it to the press.

 

Isaac's photographs continue to flabbergast me.  The images just leap off my monitor window into the underwater netherworld.  I am so glad the recent issues of AC are full color to share this. 

 

Splendid.

Are these grass carp triploid? Or are they a breeding population?

We really should only provide a teaser to the wonderful trip here on the forum.  The proper accounting will be in an upcoming issue of American Currents.

I get where you're coming from, and I probably agree with the notion of saving back some content for the AC article. However, the AC article will probably only have space for something like 15-20 photos. Between all of us, we could probably have 50-100 or more interesting photos/videos to share. I also think it's important to breathe life into the forum when we can. With the rise of social media, most internet forums are dying. The NANFA forum isn't doing as bad as most, but it certainly will if we all don't keep participating and adding content.

Bryce, I really want to see your gator shots, but they are too small (unless I'm doing something wrong).

It looks like Michael was able to fix the image size. Your gator photos are really cool, Bryce. They're much better than any of the underwater ones I got (though I got a decent one above water). It was an awesome experience to snorkel with it!

Are these grass carp triploid? Or are they a breeding population?

I don't really know, but a quick internet search reveals that the FWC does stock triploid grass carp for aquatic vegetation control.

I love this stuff! Amazing pictures - I can't wait to see more here or in AC. I live in Florida and the springs are some of my favorite destinations.

 

I have tried to capture footage before using a GoPro mounted on my mask with substandard results - the stuff you guys are producing is inspiring. 

I had really good luck with my GoPro... maybe this weekend I can post some short clips...

• Molly, Bluefin, etc. in the shallows
• bubbling sand and curious spotted sunfish
• Bluefins and redeyes in the green green green algae

and I have this still capture from my GoPro of a couple of new friends I made...

They look like family!

 

On our way south several of us rendevoused at a Dive Shop in Macon.  They had a bumper sticker i picked up that had a fitting message for our group.

Also collaged is a group of very nice graphically illustrated cards i purchased from Homosassa Springs.  The group did not check out this amazing State Park but Rudy and i drove over to visit one late afternoon.  I have been there several times including once after we left the 2009 Florida NANFA convention on our way to Tates Hell.  I suspect some of our "pet" Manatees were fresh out of Homosassa's Rehab as they yearned for human contact, one in particular.  He would rub his flipper arms together in glee urging you to scrub his belly good.  Later we returned with some longhandled nylon brushes and they were lined up single file each awaiting their turn, but those details will be in the article.

 

 

 

After coming home i took another look at the bumper sticker and came up with my own design.  I will be printing some soon for my Snorkel Boss to take to DC for some kind of a National Forest event which will feature some of Jeremy's Freshwaters Illustrated films.

 

Let me know if you want one.  To make it easier on me you could mail a stamped, addressed envelope ( business size 4" x 9.5" ) to 1200 Dodds Avenue, Chattanooga TN, 37404.

I had really good luck with my GoPro... maybe this weekend I can post some short clips...

• Molly, Bluefin, etc. in the shallows
• bubbling sand and curious spotted sunfish
• Bluefins and redeyes in the green green green algae

and I have this still capture from my GoPro of a couple of new friends I made...

new friends.png

 

Nice picture - I look forward to checking out some of those clips. Here is some footage I took at Ginnie, Little Devil, Devil's Eye and Devil's Ear Springs with my GoPro - https://www.youtube....h?v=1DK7njaeCPs

thanks for the photos, you guys make it look even better than being there, though being there is still better, hey casper ,still planning another tates hell adventure?