# Adventure Along the Tamiami Trail: Florida Everglades



## notho2000 (Dec 8, 2012)

On December 14th, , we took a motoring trip to Alabama and Florida to spend the holidays with our relatives in Destin. We also attended a major robotics competition for three days in Homestead, in which the company that my nephew develops software for (the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition / IHMC) participated. By the way, they came in second, besting NASA and MIT among others. While the rest of my family made their way directly back to Destin, I doddled along, taking the long way home (by design), via the Tamiami trail stopping now and then to fish (rod and dipnet). I saw egrets in large numbers, beautiful clear water with spotted Gar almost stacked like cord wood in many places, along with the so-called invasives like Oscars, Tilapia, and Red Devils. The alligators were well represented, sunning themselves on the ancient limestone banks, and milling about hoping for a fish caught by someone to be thrown back for an easy meal. I tried a bit of rod-and-reel fishing, catching a Gar and a tilapia. Netting, I was much more successful, snaring young Tilapia mariae, Hemichromis bimaculatus, countless sunfish, along with four species of killies (jordanella floridae, Fundulus cingulatus, Leptolucania ommata and Lucania goodei), some Pygmy sunfish (Elassoma evergladei) and the world's smallest livebearer, Heterandria formosa. Back in Destin, I caught a whole whack of fish too, some different species than in the Everglades, but that's another story in itself. I stopped my car just as a young fellow, out with his dad and brother (from Miami for some Sunday fishing), caught an Oscar. The family had a bucket full along with tilapia and claimed they were both great to eat. He stated that this his favorite "Oscar hot spot" Here's a brief video of my adventure ... one that I intend to repeat at some point in the not to distant future.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

That's a definite first for me, seeing an oscar on hook and line. 
Thanks for the video and great backstory!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Cool trip. The clip with the gars was awesome.

I saw a lot of oscars and tilapia when I visited the Glades about 10 years ago. They were in every little canal I stopped to look in.


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