Good panfishing (not bluegill)

[SteveGibson]

Two trips to The Everglades netted more than 500 fish. The fishing is red hot down there. We did catch bluegill, but not many. Bulk of the catch was oscar. Bet we caught more than 300 oscar over two trips.

They're the fightingest fish in Florida's fresh waters.

Caught most of them on Myakka Minnows.

[Scott Kershaw]

Holy Smokes, Steve!!! I am having a hard time kicking the shack nasties and your aren't helping ;-) Keep the excellent reports coming and lots of fish pictures!!!

[SteveGibson]

You guessed right. They can be traced back to 1954 in South Florida waters. I have to drive about 2 hours south to get into them. Too cold here in Sarasota. Oscar and other exotics seem to peacefuly co-exist with native species. There's some really good bass, bluegill, shellcracker and speckled perch fishing in The 'Glades. Last trip down, I even caugth four nice warmouth perch.

Oscar are very good to eat and yield thick fillets.

[Bill "Musky" Modica]

I bet they bulldog pretty good....are they good table fare?

[Steve Crowder]

That's nice Steve. Never caught an oscar in the wild, only in my aquarium. Never seen that fly before, could you post a photo. Thanks.

[SteveGibson]

Check my new post: Tying the Myakka Minnow.

[Bruce Condello]

What a bulldog!

Looks like I've got another fish on my "fish wish list".

[SteveGibson]

Bruce,

You've never felt a fish fight quite like an oscar. For most fly fishing bluegill and panfish, I use 6X tippet (about 3 pound test). That's waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too light for oscar and Mayan cichlids. I have to "beef" up to at least 3X and sometimes heavier.

They're very structure-oriented and their first response after being hooked is to get back into the structure. It's your job to keep them from doing that.

Typical oscar structure:

[Alex G.]

Now that is way cool! I love my fishing in Nebraska, but one of these days, I gotta do some traveling to get into some fishing like that! Thanks for sharing an outstanding trip report and the kick but pictures!!!

[Jeremy R. Mayo]

Well Bruce and Alex G. when your southbound on I-65 headed to I-10 you can pick me up at exit 19 in satsuma and I will do the cookin! I got some really nice flies to fish with to thanks to Alex!

[John Cachel]

Interesting! Its new to me! I went to Florida and one time we stay hotel for one night near Disney and I walked to a pond.....no fishing allowed! I saw some real big bluegills but I looked at it again and it is Blue Tilopia. Someday I would love to catch Oscar and Blue Tilopia!
How's Oscar fight? Like Bluegill?

[David Merical]

Bluegills are tough little fighters, and Oscars fight like bluegills on steroids! GREAT fighters, very strong...especially on a fly rod!

[Jeremy R. Mayo]

Wow a fish that size sells for close to a hundered bucks in the pet stores here.