What's up, Fellow Anglers?
Here is my fishing report for January 24th (day, afternoon, and evening), 2017. The statistical fishing chart was updated as well.
Location: Intracoastal Waterway; Anglin's Pier
Time: 7:00-9:00 a.m.; 3:00-6:30 p.m.; 9:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m.
Fishes caught:
- 8 Frillfin Goby (Bathygobius soporator)
- 1 Checkered Puffer (Sphoeroides testudineus)
- 3 Crested Goby (Lophogobius cyprinoides)
- 1 Bluehead Wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum)
- 4 White Grunt (Haemulon plumierii)
- 2 Slippery Dick (Halichoeres bivittatus)
- 3 Scrawled Cowfish (Acanthostracion quadricornis)
- 1 Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus)
- 1 Spotted Trunkfish (Lactophrys bicaudalis)
- 1 Bandtail Puffer (Sphoeroides spengleri)
- 2 Spotfin Mojarra (Eucinostomus argenteus)
- 22 Tomtate (Haemulon aurolineatum)
- 1 Lane Snapper (Lutjanus synagris)
- 1 High-Hat (Pareques acuminatus)
- 5 French Grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum)
- 1 Sailor's Grunt (Haemulon parra)
- 2 Smallmouth Grunt (Haemulon chrysargyreum)
Video:
Below are the highlights for this fishing session:
Morning:
My 10th outing of 2017. Morning fishing session. Don't forget to watch it in HD quality (1080p60)! If you enjoy watching my videos, please support my YouTube Channel by subscribing to it. More likes and more subscribes = more time to make videos!
My 10th outing of 2017. Afternoon fishing session. :)
My 10th outing of 2017. Evening fishing session. :)
Summary & Photos:
For my third day of fishing in Florida, my Mother finally gave up and let me fish the entire day! Heh. As a matter of fact, she even joined me for a fishing session at the Anglin's Pier in the afternoon. That was quite unexpected, folks. After all, my Mother had never fished in her entire life.
Before that, though, I went to the Intracoastal Waterway at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. I arrived there around 7 a.m., ready to catch some different Species of fish. I set up one rod -- my Penn Pursuit II medium-heavy rod -- with a high-low rig, and a size #2 Mustad J-hook with a whole shrimp on it. That was going to be my still-fishing rod. My second rod was a St. Croix Avid Pearl, medium-light, which I decided to use for free-lining small pieces of frozen squid and/or shrimp.
A view of the Intracoastal Waterway -- one of the major watersheds that crosses many states in the United States of America.
After fishing for a few minutes, I realized that there were some extremely small Species munching on my squid. However, they were so small that they were unable to reach the tip of my hook or swallow the bait. Thus, I changed my hook from a size #2 to a size #12 Mustad J-hook. After my first cast with the new hook, I hooked into a new Species for me -- the Frillfin Goby:
Fish #185. The Frillfin Goby. Species #153 on my list!
And after the first Frillfin Goby, three more fell victim to my yummy piece of calamari. :) Suffering from the monotony of the Gobies, I decided to switch focus from the shallow side of the canal to the pillars of the bridge. During my second cast, I felt a pretty strong pull! I ended up landing a Checkered Puffer:
Fish #188. A Checkered Puffer.
I spent about thirty minutes free-lining pieces of squid and shrimp between the pillars of the bridge, finishing up with no additional bites. It was then that my good friend Patrick K. messaged me that there were possibilities of Crested Goby being in the middle of the Frillfin Goby. Since I had never heard of such a Species of fish, meaning that I had never caught it before, I went back to my initial spot for some more Goby hunting!
After landing a few more Frillfin Goby, I realized that there was a very dark Goby hiding under a rock. That one definitely looked different!!! Needless to say, I placed my squid right in front of that rock and boom -- a Created Goby came right up:
Fish #191. The Crested Goby. Species #154 on my list!
And that wasn't the only Crested Goby of the day:
Fish #194. The Crested Goby. Their coloration can greatly vary.
I ended my morning fishing session around 9:00 a.m., since I had to take my Mother out for some breakfast. I was very satisfied with three different Species of fish for a two hours fishing session. :)
After eating a hearty meal, and chilling a bit back at the hotel, I was ready for some more fishing! My Mother saw me gathering my fishing gear for Anglin's Pier, and suddenly decided to go with me. I was utterly surprised, folks...after all, in 63 years, she never even held a fishing rod in her hands!!! I will not cover her catches here on this post; however, you can see all the different Species that she caught in the YouTube video.
My main game for the afternoon was to do some vertical jigging on the pier with my infamous high-low rig: two small size #12 Mustad J-hooks, tied with a 2 oz. river sinker.
I started by jigging the coral reefs, mid-way on the pier. A little bit over three minutes, my mother got snagged already. Hah. I mean...it was her first time fishing in her entire life! So...I took her rod and tried to unsnag her rig. After doing so, I ended up reeling in something quite unexpected:
Fish #197. A Bluehead Wrasse. Species #155 on my list!
It was a really really cool looking Wrasse, folks! And a new Species for me as well. Since I was the one who took care of the snag and reeled the fish in, I counted this one for my Species list. :) A few minutes after the Bluehead Wrasse, its cousin made its appearance as well. Everyone's favorite -- the Slippery Dick:
Fish #199. The Slippery Dick.
And that one was indeed very slippery, alright? It poked me two times with its sharp fins before I properly released it!
The rest of the fishing session consisted of me helping my Mom untangle her mess (Haha), baiting her hooks, and walking and fishing around the pier. While doing the vertical jigging with the squid, I ended up landing the following Species of fish:
Fish #200. The Scrawled Cowfish.
Fish #203. The Porkfish.
Fish #204. The Spotted Trunkfish.
Fish #206. The Bandtail Puffer.
Fish #207. The Spotfin Mojarra
Note that the Scrawled Cowfish and Spotted Trunkfish were among a huge school of exotic reef Species that usually circle the pier! I tried really really hard to catch a Scrawled Filefish (Aluterus scriptus), and I failed miserably. Heh. I did hook into one that was about 3lbs; however, the fish ran into a pilling, taking my rig with it. :(
The Bandtail Puffer was a lucky by-catch. I have caught them a lot on the Intracoastal Waterway, but never at the Anglin's Pier. As for the Porkfish and the Spotfin Mojarra...they are always around the area. :)
I finished my afternoon fishing session around 6:00 p.m.. Since both my Mom and I were extremely hungry, I took her over to Aruba for some dinner.
A hearty meal at one of my favorite restaurants down there. :)
After eating dinner, my Mother went back to the hotel to relax. She was actually pretty tired! Meanwhile, I considered going fishing for the evening...It seriously didn't take me a long time to be back at the pier. Haha.
For the evening, I used the exact same techniques that I used for the afternoon. However, instead of using only squid, I decided to bring out my frozen shrimp as well. I expected nothing fancy -- just the usual group of Grunts and Snappers. And that is actually exactly what I ended up catching:
Fish #209. The Tomtate.
Fish #218. The Lane Snapper.
Fish #222. The White Grunt.
Fish #227. The French Grunt.
Fish #238. The Smallmouth Grunt.
And then, a little bit before I was ready to call it a night -- around 11:30 p.m., a little unexpected fella decided to show up on my cut shrimp:
Fish #225. The High-Hat.
It was certainly a very cute Species -- one that I had never seen before. After doing a little bit of googling, and consulting with my friend Pat, I came to the conclusion that it was a High-Hat: a very small Species of Drum! Needless to say, I was super happy that I was able to add this Species to my list. Hah.
Overall, a beautiful day, folks. 58 fishes caught. 17 different Species. 5 new Species for my list. Doesn't really get better than that, does it? :)
Best of luck to all of us!
Long Days and Pleasant Nights!
Tight lines!
Sincerely,
Leo S. a.k.a. Extreme Philly Fishing
