Okeechobee

[3footvis]

Had a chance to hit Okeechobee a couple days after the hurricane passed through. It was windy and a little tough to fish but ended up with 8 bass all 2-3 lbs & this thing. It is a mudfish, which I've never heard of before.

[drysuperfly52]

with a tail like that i bed it had some power behind it!

[kzoo]

Hah! I fished there before, about 14 years ago. We stayed at Roland Martins Lodging. That's about all we caught, dog fish and 2-3lb bass.
The mud fish or dog fish is a bowfin. They're hardy fish and they kind of look like snake heads, wonder if they're related, they can survive in very muddy water with little oxygen. I remember wasting a lot of shiners on them and gar down there.Was a little weird fishing with the alligators. I heard the place rebounded recently.

[3footvis]

It fought pretty good. Kinda thrashed around like a bulldog for awhile. My guide caught some bigger fish maybe 5lbs or so. He was using swimbaits. I opted for a plastic worm which might have been why I got the smaller fish. Definitely a great experience though. Saw one alligator briefly rustling around in the weeds.

[kzoo]

Yeah, they hit really hard and like you said thrash. Almost like a death roll at the end. We had them in Michigan as well, but they really thrive in Florida.

Did you fish anywhere else down there?

[3footvis]

Nope, just at Okeechobee, kind of a last minute thing as I was vacationing in Lauderdale. Definitely interested in heading back down someday and trying the everglades around springtime.

[kzoo]

I fished the Everglades as well, unfortunately there was a cold snap a that time. I really wanted to catch oscars, we ended up catching small bass.

If your down at the Everglades, you should try some saltwater fishing. I always wanted to try snook and redfishing, not sure how good it is in the spring.

[tnj8222]

I used to catch huge bowfish over 20 pounds fishing for channel cats in the rivers in north and south carolina.