So wife convinced me to take my first holiday in 35 or so yrs. We drove to the FL keys and back, strictly rural area's, saw lot's of Great museums, neat country, met great people all the way, met a decades long penpal and did a Ton of fishing in FL.
Keys
Mangrove Snapper. VERY good eating, the most common dock catch
Biggest dock catch, a 4' min. hammerhead on 20lb test line funfunfun
Striped grunt. While edible they harbor the same bacteria as grouper and barracuda so we never kept any. Also caught puffers, one lane snapper, one sheepshead, a few catfish and a little stingray.
Lake Okeechobee.
Spent the bucks on a guide; not cheap but well worth the money(US 275 plus 80 bait plus 50 tip). Caught catfish, mudfish, bowfin and at least 40 largemouth, this being the best, little under 5lbs.
Withlacoochie River
This is bayou country, looks like those gator htg shows. Great panfishing, only caught one bass. Word of caution, were told most water mocasson bites were when reaching down for a fish as they're attracted to the fish fighting. Were we to go there again I'd take an ultralight rod with 4 or 6lb line. No seeum's were bad too, and mosquito's don't usually bother me, but the fishing was great. Lot's of turtles, you hear gator's but don't see many. Well, the odd one.
Bluegill, a smaller one, first catch, sorry, bad pick
A Flier, note spikey fins top and bottom
They're small but fun to catch and Lot's of them.
Gives you a taste anyway, Would go again in a heartbeat. Loved the south, every single state.
Figure everything S is half price of here. Gas 60 to 70 cents/litre, gallon of Wild Turkey burbon 33.45 US, 18 miller high life 10.45, supper 2 entre's and 2 drinks 23 US, nice clean rooms 40 to 60 US.
