The 5 Species Slam

[Afishionado]

I've been driving an hour north of my house to fish the mosquito lagoon lately because of the huge fish kill we had in march in the Banana River (actually ended up being the biggest fish kill recorded in north american history).. The banana river no motor zone has been my go to area since I was a kid and it killed me among many to watch it get hit so hard.. I have been avoiding it and trying to let it recover and not add to the pressure that the thousands of other anglers are already putting on it.. Yesterday morning I decided it was time to check it out.. Glad I did.. Not only is it full of life but the water is cleaning up very nicely.. I managed to pull something off yesterday that I have been trying to accomplish for years which is the 5 species slam of a redfish, spotted seatrout, black drum, snook, and tarpon.. I have came close many times but have never been able to seal the deal on this elusive slam..

 

Well, yesterday the fish gods smiled on me and not only did I accomplish it, but I also got two black drum and a trout on fly.. Probably not a big deal to most but I am a complete beginner on fly so basically any fish on the whip for me is a d**n good one.. I am thrilled to see my home waters begin to perk back up... The banana river is not out of the woods by any stretch when it comes to its ecological state, but it is on the right path thankfully.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was pretty stoked when I landed that snook and sealed the deal.. It's pretty rare to get all 5 species in a day, the banana river really produced yesterday.. Also noticed as I was paddling that I was spooking up shrimp everywhere.. Got out and threw the net out of curiousity and got a couple dozen in one throw.. Threw it about 4 or 5 more times and came away with a half gallon of nice size shrimp after I culled the little ones out so they could go back and reproduce.. I can't recall ever seeing the shrimp that thick in the no motor zone so hopefully that is a sign of things to come for the banana river.. 

 

 

 

[avidone1]

What can I say?   Amazing!  Fabulous day on the water.

I'm glad you took pictures because this is a day you will remember forever.  I can hear you saying to grandchildren "Did Grandpa ever tell you about the time I caught a 5 fish slam"? and the kids groan because they heard the story a thousand times already. LOL

PS   is it my browser or do those shrimp have a sort of golden/orange glow to them?

[Afishionado]

20 minutes ago, avidone1 said:

 

PS   is it my browser or do those shrimp have a sort of golden/orange glow to them?

I think it was just the way the sun was hitting them in the picture because they were actually white shrimp

[Chris at Tech]

Quite an accomplishment!  I got my first red/trout/flounder slam last year.  Gonna give the tarpon/bone/permit slam a shot in July in Key West -- then again I've never caught a bone or permit yet so perhaps I'm being a bit ambitious.  Oh well, we'll see!

[N Florida Mike]

Great catch!!.

Ive caught a 3 fish slam.Trout, red, and flounder.I have never caught a snook in N fla.(.I did catch a baby one in a cast net)I have caught 1 tarpon in my life.He was a 40 incher I caught while surf fishing at st augustine.

Glad the banana river is getting better.What caused the fish kill?

[Afishionado]

3 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Great catch!!.

Ive caught a 3 fish slam.Trout, red, and flounder.I have never caught a snook in N fla.(.I did catch a baby one in a cast net)I have caught 1 tarpon in my life.He was a 40 incher I caught while surf fishing at st augustine.

Glad the banana river is getting better.What caused the fish kill?

There's a few snook in NoFlo! I have a buddy up there who must have a good spot because he's always pulling decent snook in the st augustine area I believe.. 

 

The fish kill was triggered by a "perfect storm" of events.. It started in January when we had a massive brown algae bloom take over the entire banana river.. winter time is usually when our waters clean up and become very sightfishable, so we knew something was very wrong.. In march we had a few cloudy days consecutively.. The algae requires sun to photosynthesize and survive, so the extended cloudy period made the algae begin to die off, and when it is dying off it depletes large amounts of oxygen.. It happened so fast the fish couldn't get away and one of the sensors in sykes creek actually hit 0% oxygen.. It was hypoxic for a couple days... really took a toll on the fish.. 

 

 

[gim]

Geez, I bet that smelled great.  Rotting fish!

[N Florida Mike]

We had one in our lake in 2011.The old man that had treated our lake since 1985 had never had one fish kill until then.He was sick and let the lake get real bad.Then he tried to kill everything too quick and when the weeds all died the oxygen was so depleted that I think ALL the bass over 1 pound or so died.All the big bream too.I had thoughts about wringing his neck.Not only did he kill the fish but he made up a story about only killing 1% or so of the fish which was total crap. We had virtually no fishing for a year or so.Now the bass are up to 7 pounds or so again.

Obviously, Mr P.no longer treats the lake.

[everythingthatswims]

I would have put a pile of shrimp on ice. Absolutely nothing like fresh caught shrimp.

[buzzed bait]

wow what a day man!!  those shrimp have my mouth watering right now.

[Afishionado]

1 hour ago, everythingthatswims said:

I would have put a pile of shrimp on ice. Absolutely nothing like fresh caught shrimp.

I had my little water bottle cooler with a couple ice packs in it, was able to keep about a half gallon of shrimp.. they were killer!