Lake Manatee 11/28/2008 (with pics)

Headed out to Lake Manatee this morning. Caught quite a few quality fish. Got some nice bluegill, speckled perch and tilapia. Caught some bass, but they were all small.

Top fly was my No. 8 Nymph FLY (Fuzzy Leach Yarn) that I just tied on Thursday. It did really well.

Specks are in the shallows and average about 1 1/2 pounds. I fished east of the S.R. 64 bridge along the north side of the lake.

Bite was semi-slow, but consistent. You just had to keep your fly in the water.

Got quite a few fish in the afternoon on the Myakka Minnow.

First speck:

Tilapia (great fight):

Bluegill:

Golden shiner:

Looks like a good day. I’ve noticed that the gills look darker than the ones I’am used to seeing, may just be my ancient monitor.

Hello SteveGibson, interesting fish that tilapia…I wonder how big they get?

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

Steve -

Always neat to see species we don’t get to fish for locally. Thanks for posting the report and the pics.

John

They get up to 9-10 pounds. The one in the photo is the biggest I’ve ever caught.

Strangely, most folks believe you can’t catch them on lure or fly because they’re vegetarians. But I catch them pretty often while just blind-casting.

Don’t think it’s your monitor. Our water is tannin-stained and our fish can be dark – espcially the male bluegills.

I believe that the fish you are calling speckled perch is the same fish we call a black crappie around here. If that is the case, 1 1/2 pounds is an amazing average size. how long was that one in the phtograph? Also, how long was the tilapia?

Fish

Yes, speckled perch are black crappie. We don’t have white crappie. I don’t have a clue how long the fish were.

steve are you fishing under any kind of an indicator or just straight line?

I use a strike indicator about 3 feet above the fly.

Makes me wish there were tilapia near me SteveGibson…that’s a nice size fish.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

Steve, is the Bai Hai Hut still on 41 just down the street from the Airport?

Great pics, great fish…only got to fish once when I lived down there…Mullett jumped in the boat!

Oh, yeah, the Bai Hai Hut is still in business. Stiffest drinks in town.

Will definitly hollar if I manage a trip down that way…didn’t know fly fishing when I was down there but really like Sarasota, Siesta Key, Lido Key and Longboat Key.

Steve,

Sure are nice fish. Are there any campgrounds that could accomodate a 30 foot travel trailer any where near that lake? Looking for a place to head south to to do some warmwater fishing. What’s the best time of the year to get into those big bluegills and could one use a inflatable pontoon to fish Florida or would your dangling feet be gator bait?

Thanks and happy fishing.

Tom R

Lake Manatee State Park is on the lake. I’m not sure I would dangle me tootsies in the water because of the gators. Never had a close call out there, but who wants to be first.

http://www.floridastateparks.org/lakemanatee/default.cfm

The bluegill in the picture is the “copper-nose” subspecies of bluegills native to the Florida panhandle.

Cool tilapia, Steve!