After I left Fort Meyers, I spent the remainder of my Florida vacation in Orlando. The hotel I stayed at had a big lake with kayak and 2 person pontoon rentals, but I only had 1 free day to do what I wanted while I was there.
I was able to take advantage of the lake, and rented a 2 person pontoon (I should have taken a picture of it, because, it was pretty damn cool). My girlfriend and I just cruised around the lake as I fished. I was able to hook up with some small largemouth bass tossing some bait fish patterns with my 5 wt. I was hoping to find some big Florida bass, but they didn't want to come out and play.
These swamp donkeys loved my bait fish patterns. |
After returning the pontoon, I fished from the pier. I was catching some more swamp donkeys, when I noticed something big cruising along the surface in the almost crystal clear water...it was a gar! (A Florida Gar to be exact.) I got excited, and made a perfect cast past the toothy fish....strip...strip...strip...across it's face and I paused...that gar had a face full of fur, and it was GAME ON! It was an awesome fight and definitely pushed my 5 wt beyond what it's used to. My one worry during the battle was my 9 lb tippet....it held. I was ecstatic! My first gar on the fly.
There was no one around to take a picture, and this was the best I could do. *sad face* |
That fish would have definitely tested all of the backbone my Orvis Access 5 wt had.
When I was done fishing I saw the species list for the lake, and there was a fish on there that I would have absolutely loved to have hooked up with....an alligator gar. If I only had more free time.
Love those Florida gar!! Are you sure that was a bowfin though and not a snakehead?? They are really starting to infest some of those Florida waters.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was 98% sure it was a bowfin. I know there are snakehead in almost all of Florida waters, but I am pretty sure that one was a bowfin. It was a blast hooking up with that gar, though!
DeleteVery nice.
ReplyDelete