My last stop had the biggest humped Midas I had seen all day! The problem was that they were the shyest, and were constantly displaying to the females, which makes me think the hump is mainly to attract females, since most of the guarding males had a smaller hump. I also think these huge humped males were probably older than most of the ones I had seen already.
Scanning the shore, I made a go at some of the displaying males to no avail. I then found a pair in a limestone hole in the shallows, near the shore. I dropped the hook, baited with bread squeezed tight, in front of the hole. Immediately small fish started coming to eat it, but poppa would have none of it! After a few minutes, he realized the bread was attracting them, so he picked up the bread, shook the hook out of it, and dropped it away before eating it. I tried a few other hooks, lures, and baits on this guy to no avail. Just as I was getting ready to give up, parking patrol pulled up on a three wheeled stand on scooter and told me that I couldn't fish here and I needed to move my car.
Needless to say after a little small talk, he took interest in my endeavors and saw the male I was after and allowed me to continue fishing. Half an hour later, I gave up with the hook, and used my net to slowly coax him in the hole with this female (which was barely big enough for him) and covered the hole.
It was a standoff between him and the net for a couple minutes before I realized that he was far enough out of the hole to nudge with the pole to scare him into the net.
IT WORKED! I now have an 11 inch long (TL) piebald male Miami devil!
Albeit it was 9 pm by the time I packed him up and headed for home... Lol
Also, at one stop I couldn't catch anything, so I said "if I can't catch you on hook, I'll at least catch you on film!" I need to combine the underwater video before posting it, but it's pretty cool!
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Scanning the shore, I made a go at some of the displaying males to no avail. I then found a pair in a limestone hole in the shallows, near the shore. I dropped the hook, baited with bread squeezed tight, in front of the hole. Immediately small fish started coming to eat it, but poppa would have none of it! After a few minutes, he realized the bread was attracting them, so he picked up the bread, shook the hook out of it, and dropped it away before eating it. I tried a few other hooks, lures, and baits on this guy to no avail. Just as I was getting ready to give up, parking patrol pulled up on a three wheeled stand on scooter and told me that I couldn't fish here and I needed to move my car.
Needless to say after a little small talk, he took interest in my endeavors and saw the male I was after and allowed me to continue fishing. Half an hour later, I gave up with the hook, and used my net to slowly coax him in the hole with this female (which was barely big enough for him) and covered the hole.
It was a standoff between him and the net for a couple minutes before I realized that he was far enough out of the hole to nudge with the pole to scare him into the net.
IT WORKED! I now have an 11 inch long (TL) piebald male Miami devil!
Albeit it was 9 pm by the time I packed him up and headed for home... Lol
Also, at one stop I couldn't catch anything, so I said "if I can't catch you on hook, I'll at least catch you on film!" I need to combine the underwater video before posting it, but it's pretty cool!
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
and keep up the great stories!
