Hi Folks,

I went out on some of the canals down on Alligator Alley with a fishing buddy in his motorized canoe on Monday. We caught a lot of Oscars. They have a reddish orange color with a black spot near the tail and they have small teeth. They fight like Bluegills on steriods . Lots of fun on a little 6 foot 4wt. We also caught a lot of small LMB, Stumpknockers, and a few Bluegill. We didn't get any Peacock Bass or Mayan Cichlids even though there are some there. That place is big with lots of canals and is full of fish including lots of Gar. Its also full of gators so they don't call it Alligator Alley for nothing. Seemed like the fish would bite just about anything that hit the water. I suspect that given such a large population of fish that competition is pretty fierce. Lots of small young fish and lots of beds. It got to be a bright sunny day and pretty hot weather.

It was a good opportunity to try out some new Crease Flies. I used #6s and #4s mostly to keep from catching too many of the little runt fish but I still got a lot of them too. The Crease Flies held up surprisingly well in the face of the Oscar onslaught for being a cheap foam fly substitute for a pencil popper. I also used some hairbugs and a Muddler Minnow. My fishing buddy used a large yellow popper mostly and a black Wooly Bugger and also did good on these.

[url=http://www.floridafisheries.com/Fishes/non-native.html#oscar:19402]Oscar[/url:19402]

[url=http://www.floridafisheries.com/Fishes/panfish.html#spotted:19402]Stumpknocker or Spotted Sunfish[/url:19402]

[url=http://www.floridafisheries.com/Fishes/non-native.html#mayan:19402]Mayan Cichlid[/url:19402]

[url=http://www.floridafisheries.com/Fishes/non-native.html#peacock:19402]Butterfly Peacock[/url:19402]

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Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL

"Flip a fly"

[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 19 April 2006).]