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Re: NFC: St. Augustine
Scott Goett wrote:
>> Anybody know any places to collect in
>> St. Augustine or anywhere in between
>> Gainesville and St. Augustine?
I do !!! Since I live way along one of the two routes between Gainesville and St. Augustine. (The northern route "Putnam Hall" route takes you into Palatka via SR-100, the southern one ... mine ... gets to Palatka via Hawthorne and SR-20.)
We've been to the area at Newnan's Lake on SR-20 at the edge of Gainesville already. Flagfish, mollies, Heterandria formosa, etc.
Ten miles further on (+/-) there's a small city fishing park square in the middle of Hawthorne on 301, just south of the Sonny's BBQ, that's less than 2 miles off of SR-20 on the way through. Not a lot of easy shoreline to work right there, but the area right by the fishing dock is well populated with Lucania goodie (bluefin killies, although these are a lot more red than blue.) Bring a small-mesh net, these guys are small. Also F. chrysotus, Heterandria formosa, etc.
Three of four miles further on, perhaps a mile or two past the county line, on the south side there's a marked road called "Cowpen Lake Rd", or something like that. Go down the road to the end and then to the left, and you'll find a now high-and-dry boat ramp and some fishable territory. Good numbers of chrysotus in the heavy weeds to the left side, some with melanistic tendencies as I recall. Some Gambusia affinis holbrooki., or whatever it is they're calling the salt & pepper variety of the eastern damnbusia these days.
LOTS of various lakes on the side of the road all the way to Palatka, most of which I haven't worked. Ah the challenge & the mystery !!!
Shout when you go through Interlachen, if I'm home I'll shout back. (Or you could call first, of course, I think you have my number.)
South of Interlachen is the Orange Creek/Oklawaha River drainage. Looks very promising on the map, I haven't worked it.
Palatka is a concentration point where roads cross the St. Johns River, one of the largest river systems in the state and a great fish place. Presumably there's lots of fishable places all up and down both sides of the river. Welaka, the type locality for the spectacular Pternotropis welaka (bluenose shiner) is a couple of miles south of Palatka on the east side of the river. The St Johns system population of bluenoses is apparently isolated from the west fla/alabama/louisiana pops, and documented sighting in this area are apparently pretty rare, less than once per year in recent times. And this fish is a Species of Special Concern in Florida, meaning this is not a catchable/keepable fish. So this info item is just a teaser to torment you ! (One of my personal aspirations is to at least see one.)
Also south of Palatka, about 7 miles down on the western side of the St. Johns, is a great little collecting place on Rodman Reservoir, just inside the northern edge of the Ocala National Forest. Take the marked road to the right (west) immediately at the south end of big bridge over the CrossFlorida Barge Canal, and a couple of miles down there's a another road off the right that takes you to a boat ramp and small camping ground. The boat ramp area has flagfish, L. goodei, mollies, F. chrysotus, and "swamp darters" (sp. unknown, I don't know diddley about darters) in quantity, and I think we've also gotten Elassoma (pygmy sunfish) out of there as well. This is my favorite "local [to me]" place, and easily accessible. Back out of this little road, if you continue away from the main highway about another mile you'll get to Rodman Dam, and there's fishing areas right there too. You will encounter lots of shore-line rod & reel fisherpeople in this area though. More or less the same kind of fish here, although we've seined up a few shiners as well.
Slightly further south into the Ocala National Forest is probably worth checking out too. There's a barely visible from the road lake on the left a couple of miles down F.R. 75 (I guess that's "Forest Road") that's absolutely loaded with Fundulus lineolatus, including some monsters, and has good quans of Elassoma as well. One of my buddies has reportedly gotten the fairly uncommon F. rubrifons from this particular lake as well, but we did not find any there when he took me a few months ago.
And I don't personally know of any locations, but there are black-banded sunfish (Enneacanthus chaetodon) at various locations in the norther parts of the O.N.F. as well.
Of course, by the time you get to the Intercoastal waterway and St. Augustine, you going to be getting primarily brackish or saltwater fish. I can't recall any exact locations, but years ago I got lots of pipefish (sp. unknown) out of the weeds in the Intercoastal right around Crescent Beach. The inlet and bridge at "Fort Matanzas" a couple of miles south of Crescent Beach have some decent salty fish ... there are good amounts of interesting blennies and sgt. majors in the rocks on the beach side (but catching them is a challenge), mojarras and lots of juvie unknowns in the surf, etc. One inch filefish can be caught along the rock face and in the weeds, directly under the bridge. Salt-water killies (F. heteroclitus for sure and prob. others) in quantity cruise the sand and oyster-bar stuff on the Intercoastal side.) This entire area is best fished around low tide, as I recall.
Is that helpful ???
Doug Dame
Interlachen FL
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