Get up get up we're going to florida hey dobby you ready to drive 16 hours quick jacob get dressed all right downstairs 16 hour drive and we're doing it one day baby well we are driving 1 000 miles from our home in northern virginia down to southern.

Florida we're going python hunting iguana hunting spear lion fish we're gonna fish for knife fish spear tilapia try to catch barramundi peacock bass armored catfish and a whole lot more so are you guys ready to be in the car for 16 hours.

Yeah travel montage  so so  16 and a half hours later we made it but i gotta get some kids to bed i will see you guys in the morning.

Well good morning and welcome to cape coral florida we're here in a four bedroom rental house with its own private pool private water access and its own dock and this thing costs less than putting our family in a marriott hotel so you know not a bad deal at all but most importantly it's got internet.

Access because our kids are still in school but our school district is doing online school so we thought why not just do online school down here in florida oh that's nice that's heated this canal right out here in front of the house gets us access to the gulf of mexico and we can go and rent a boat and tie it up.

Right there we've got two weeks full of awesome activities but today is sunday so we're going to take it easy keep it low-key and do online church but monday i'm taking the entire family down to the everglades and we're going to be hunting all sorts of crazy invasive species well it is 6 30 in the morning and are.

You guys ready to go python hunting  yes all right guys we're here with captain bill and south florida fishing and hunting charters me and the whole family are going to go hunting pythons oscars anything invasive that crosses our path.

Is in deep trouble oh how about you take a seat so the name of the game is covering as much ground as possible we're looking for a snake that's anywhere from six feet to 14 or 18 feet these things are big and if we see any other invasive species along the way we're going to do that too.

Big alligator all right we're just cruising down the bank and we're keeping our eyes open for a big long dark brown snake sunning itself we just saw a big old iguana which is another invasive species people keep pet iguanas they let them loose and now there's breeding.

Populations here in florida and they're just crazy so we're going to shoot one and we're going to eat it up  look at this all right these iguanas love to eat flowers fruits eggs and they just tear up the the native stuff all the.

Different invasive species that we catch on this trip we're gonna cook them up and eat them so we're gonna be trying a lot of freaky food on this trip i want to eat the waterfalls back in the 90s when hurricane andrew hit there was a reptile breeding.

Center that had a ton of burmese pythons in it that got destroyed by the hurricane and all the little pythons escaped and that's why we have such a massive python problem but also you get people releasing the reptiles into the wild that's how we get the iguanas you'll see occasionally ball pythons and.

Even a few anacondas have been caught in here and they've had such a huge effect on the environment it is really rare to see any small mammals and a lot of the bird population and even the alligators get eaten by pythons because pythons will eat anything they can put.

Their mouth around hey tommy i saw some big oscars back there you guys want to poke some fish yeah yep oh  hearing this clearing see him right there got him.

That's a good sized one look at that see look he got the big red dot on his tail that's an oscar when i was a kid this was like the popular aquarium fish to have they're super aggressive they're like piranhas but without the teeth they get.

A little bit bigger than this there you go and can i put it blind pigs and acorns baby we're not even halfway through our first day of this two-week adventure and we've got two invasive species in the cooler that's for sure good shot at everybody from alaska to.

About three years ago i went on a burmese python hunting trip here in the everglades and we just drove down these roads here for miles and miles and miles and we did it at night with spotlights it's all about just covering as much ground as you can oh my goodness oh those are big old.

Cichlids right there too we're gonna see if we can't get some tilapia or oscars here i love this spear i hand forged it from a piece of leaf spring steel and the handle is made from ipe which is one of the hardest woods in the world and i use it to spear snake heads while on a stand-up paddleboard.

Look pretty good mom we have two fish in one reptile shall we take it back to the boat well guys we didn't catch a python today but that's all right we had a ball but if you want to catch a python you got to put some serious hours in i've been on three python trips.

And only seen one but the action's not over yet i'm gonna go on two more charters here with southern florida fishing and hunting charters uh tomorrow we're gonna go after some iguanas we're gonna target oscars a little bit more and uh we might still yeah catch a.

Python i love you becca and i love what you've done with your hair oh my a little a little wind a little sunscreen you know it does look really hot actually i'm kind of digging that well you want to go home now and play in the pool yeah i bet you do.

We're all playing in the pool and uh there's a manatee right there oh there's a couple of them yeah look at that manatees swimming right in their backyard that's pretty cool when your wife goes python hunting with you in the hot sun all day you need to make her dinner and bring it.

To her by the pool i thought you might want to snack on this while i get dinner ready you know what sounds good to me hamburgers big hearty gourmet hamburgers these bacon and fried onion burger patties  see the stem on this head of lettuce i'm.

Going to show you how to remove it there you go all right babe there's dinner guys have you had a fun day  all right guys i'm here in west palm beach florida and i'm here with skeeter which is the captain and owner of south florida fishing and.

Hunting outfitters and today we are going to be shooting iguanas this is a really unique experience but also it highlights a big problem here in south florida and the government has now asked homeowners and to shoot them and kill them and.

They're just really trying to do what they can to get those populations under control because they are going bonkers here but we're going to do our part we're going to shoot some iguanas and then we're going to take them home and eat them and i'm excited to see what happens.

And joining us on this trip will be drake the iguana dog we're going iguana hunting guys soon drink soon we will get the iguanas hunting with dogs is like taking your kids they're just so flippant excited it makes it so much more fun on safety just make out we've been here 10 minutes.

And we've already seen five iguanas i remember a time when coming to florida and seeing an iguana in the wild was a rare thing you look around for these iguanas and you see one and then you start seeing two and three then four i mean they're just seems like they're everywhere.

Oh i see them will it not come from oh you could probably jam oh he got him there we go oh see more in there that dog's up in there three iguanas come piling out drake let's go boy good iguana dog come here come here right here here here good boy good boy look at this.

I think he looks like a dragon he's got this flappy bit here and little spines look at these claws holy mackerel you know hitting an iguana from this distance when everything's still is not too bad when the boat's going up and down the wind's pushing us around it's challenging there's a good one.

Right there where right there on the banks i'll tell you what guys this is challenging but there are so many iguanas around here we're just seeing them everywhere it's only the ones that hold still out in the open that we're taking shots at all right guys there's another invasive.

Species those are egyptian geese the population of those are exploding down here in south florida as well one of the reasons why it's important to keep the iguana population down is because of their burrows and you can see all up and down these canals they're digging the burrows which causes erosion and different.

Problems as well so there's a couple guys up here with long poles with nooses on it and these guys are paid contractors that are paid by land owners to come and remove the iguana infestations just like you'd pay an exterminator the difference between us and them is is i'm paying to do it and they're.

Getting paid to do it  just in that one person's backyard there's five iguanas i can see right now six there's another one so i mean they're just thick in here oh there he is oh that's too high ain't gonna make nobody happy oh look at the side that fills the.

Cooler man well there you go another big one check it out got my iguana scars all right there's a big iguana on the bank over here yeah i should have gotten closer we're heading back to the boat ramp and we just spotted another invasive species check this out.

See this gooey stuff these are snail eggs those eggs belong to this giant snail called an island apple snail it's one of four species of apple snails here in florida three of which are invasive including this one and they're just everywhere all of these pillars and most.

Of those rocks have eggs on them just one of the many many invasive species here in florida we're going to go ahead and skin these iguanas and take them home and cook them and i'm going to show you guys how to cook up iguana curry like a pair of frog legs right there.

There you go nice little chunk of iguana tail and some iguana legs that was a load of fun and honestly i'm anxious to try these out and taste these things but i'm gonna get home and tomorrow i'm gonna be meeting skeeter again to do more python hunting and to try to catch a whole bunch of.

Invasive fish hi guys it's amazing how much better at swimming they are after one day i mean they're learning so fast jacob can you snorkel show me oh my goodness you guys want to see the iguanas yeah yeah look at this big bertha.

That's uh one two three four five ten iguanas that's gonna make a lot of iguana curry what an interesting day every time i come down here to florida i learn something new and see something new and it's just amazing oh look.

Well the kids are in bed and i'm going to make some banana ice cream just blend up bananas with melt no sugar no nothing else and it just tastes like banana flavored ice cream pretty good oh it's getting late i've got to go in the garage here and butcher up a bunch of iguanas we got a whole bunch.

Of iguana meat in the fridge and i was hoping to cook it up tonight but it is way too late so i'm going to call it for today and i'm going to see you guys in the morning so once again we are trying to catch some pythons but along the way we're going to fish.

For a variety of invasive species as well peacock bass jaguar fish mayan cichlids oscars we're going to see what happens can you see all them fish before we really get into the python hunt we're going to make a little stop here and do some fishing i've got a live shiner a bobber and an.

Alligator eyeballing me now now there we go oh my very first peacock bass look at the cool colors i thought his gills were bleeding and no they just got this beautiful orange on a gill plate all right we're gonna put him back now that right there is a great example.

Of some of the arbitrariness of invasive species peacock bass they've been here for a while and they're really really popular with sportsmen so we set them go there's actually limits on them and they're treated like a game fish here largemouth bass now you guys call them.

Black bass down here here in florida this is a native species but a lot of places in europe this is an extremely invasive species that's causing a lot of problems right now oh god wait wait it's a garb yeah oh look at this spotted gar they've got teeth look at the wicked teeth on these.

This is a native species and look at the teeth on them they're just awesome this species of guard doesn't get too huge not like the 300 pounders you see in texas but it's a native fish that gets hardly any love there we go.

Man he isn't as big as i thought all right all right now oh good one little beast so that's my first oscar i've ever caught on rod and reel he's got some chompers on them squeeze hard look at that that is a beautiful fish all right.

Go ahead oscar look he's gargantuan all right car out get out i don't want them underwater  had a real big fish on didn't see it but it made a big old splash now we've got alligators coming over oh.

Look at that look at that bullhead fat look at the body on that thing he is so stumpy but these don't get much bigger than that the edge there we go nice like crown on his head alrighty look at the knob on this guy's head.

We got a bump on his head man we've only been here a few minutes but we've hit it hard landed some awesome peacock bass some oscars but i want to catch a python so we are going to go cruise up and down the canals and look for some more pythons see what we can find.

Me and skeeter sitting here talking and one of the things that just keeps coming up is how you don't see small mammals anymore in the everglades the opossums the raccoons the rabbits the squirrels i mean that they're all gone across that sink land we're coming down.

This little canal and there are tons of oscars and fish in here we're gonna poke some fish here okay while you're doing this i'm gonna watch the banks oh you should have smoked it did too look at that that's a different oscar that's well i have no idea what species that is but that ain't local.

Ah look at all the fish slime these are the slimiest things hey man i'm gonna be honest dude oh skeeter i had a great time thanks for taking these yes sir listen if you guys are in south florida and you want to catch iguanas and peacock bass and all this wonderful stuff.

Check out south florida fishing and hunting outfitters i'll put a link down in the video description below of course i forgot my fillet knife back in virginia so i'm gonna do it with this six dollar bait knife i found well it is another beautiful day here and the kids are doing their online school.

You liking school no making my kids do online school while they're staring at a beautiful sunny pool is a special kind of torture that i devised just for them but today i'm taking it easy and i'm going to be cooking up the oscars and the iguanas i am going to make seared oscar on a teriyaki rice and i'm going to make.

Tandoori iguana with a tikka masala it's gonna be good so there we go blackened oscar over teriyaki egg and rice all right we're gonna eat together i'll go get myself a bowl we got some frozen grapes nice little summer snack.

 what do you think of the oscar it's great you did a great job it's a good white meat it's a subtle flavor you want more well i got the iguana marinating in the fridge so for dinner tonight we're gonna have tandoori iguana and iguana tikka masala.

So we'll see how that comes out but i'm enjoying this more fish well it's taken until about 3 p.m but i've gathered enough strength to go fishing on the west coast of florida around fort myers and cape coral almost every house seems to be on one of these.

Canals and there's always fish in the canals if your canal is closer to the bay you're going to get a lot of sheep's head mangrove snapper snook and tarpon if your canal is further inland then you're going to get a lot more hard head and gar and things like that we've rented.

Four or five different houses on these canals here in cape coral area and every time i've done it i've caught fish off these docks it's uh it's usually pretty decent fishing if you want to see some videos on how to fish for sheep's head off of canals like this or how to fish and eat hardhead catfish i've got videos on that i'll put links.

Down in the video description below reel them in that looks like a decent fish there tom here pull it up pull that up don't get careful there's a lot of hooks this is a hard head catfish a lot of people around here don't like them because they have the spines on their pectoral fins and dorsal fin.

And if you get stuck by it hurts really bad but as you can see they put a real good bend in the rod they're feisty little guys well i've got to do a zoom meeting for work here so tommy is going to watch my rods and man the camera while i'm gone thank you daddy.

And that's why my wife was on board with it you know she well that was fun but i think i need to get in the kitchen and start worrying about dinner i've got some iguanas to cook up now you notice how my tandoori iguana is not red most of the restaurants add a little.

Bit of red dye to make that really bright red barbecue look on their tandori chicken i just left it out because i really don't care what color they are   all right we got some tikka masala.

 you're a little nervous about it aren't you i'm totally nervous okay grab a plate and we will take this journey together okay actually that's pretty good i can tell it's if you over did this it would get chewy in a hurry but i.

Think i got lucky and i didn't overcook it but they have tailbones no this is the tail do you like the iguana yeah but it's like okay but when you dip it in and then dip it in the rice it tastes so good so you like the curry but you're not so.

Sure about the iguana meat yeah the guano legs i cooked in the pan are a lot chewier than the ones i cooked in the oven so you know learned a little something there so not overcooking it appears to be a big deal but you know still good though oh that was pretty good.

But i need to go and pack the car because me and nathan are taking off tonight to meet a guide first thing tomorrow morning to go spearing tilapia all right buddy you ready for a long drive your destination is on the right.

I'll see you in the morning me and nate are here with byron and his wife kim and they're with osceola outback adventures and they are going to take us out spearing tilapia now they normally do bow fishing charters but uh hey i've got a seven foot spear so you know.

I'm gonna do that peacock bass look at that spear holder just just begging for a spear oh this area is beautiful we are hunting tilapia this fish is native to africa and it's an invasive species that's just all over here in southern florida and a lot of places.

In the south and north america it's really common for people to farm tilapia and they just kind of spread all over the place they're a little bit harder to catch on rod and reel because they tend to eat more like algae and plankton and stuff but uh they definitely take a spear okay yeah they'll they'll eat the spear.

Every time they're gonna be big and white like you'll see them glowing the real limitation with the spears you got that distance and that distance makes a big difference so i'm going to i'm going to earn my tilapia okay here we go look at that first throw definitely aiming low enough.

Well first through of the day and we got ourselves a massive tilapia that's a streak i probably can't maintain but look at that oh okay i guess that wasn't a tilapia good shot though there we go look how pretty those are oh yeah you see it just you just see it.

Plowing that is a perfect kill shot right there oh yeah look at that we got clam look promising didn't it oh yeah fast on your feet oh that sounds oh i think i lost my my wingman here too hard guys i'm having such a good time and i've seen so.

Many tilapia they're just huge probably seen a hundred fish on this short trip but we're gonna go try another spot that has another type of invasive species called an armored catfish and we're going to try to spear some of those as well you want a spear an arvind catfish buddy.

Yeah come here come here see do you see that dark fish right there ready there's a lot of different species of armored catfish but they come from south america and they eat mostly decaying wood oh here it is this one's shallow you this one's all you nathan come here come here.

See him see him put your hand on the spear come on piano sphere okay now throw it down throw it down got him i think you might oh he blakeled us so they'll build a cave put an egg mass in there it looks like a big yellow sponge and they'll lay their eggs in there and.

Then they protect the front of the hole by guarding it with a you know big armored catfish so you reach up there and you can catch that catfish by hand and pull them out and then when you reach in about elbow or bicep deep you'll feel that spongy mass you can pull it out.

The tropical fish farmers here in florida will actually buy those and put them in their hatchery and hatch them to sell the little sucker fish plecos in the aquarium trade that's where they go there's commercial placo kidnappers yes exactly oh nathan right here right here big.

Placo oh my god yeah yeah the trophy placo placosaurus that's what that is you ready nate okay go get him i know you got him what you got him see here you ready yeah pulled up pulled up oh you pinned him i i don't think we that even pierced him.

Sorry that was a heavily armored placo okay you ready you ready now oh we got him oh that is insane no wonder they are not afraid of us nathan does that make you want to just get him even more we need to activate beast mode now that we got beast mode activated i.

Think we can do this i can see what's going on here we need to we need to touch things up a little bit okay come here nate this one's deep but we can get him right there see where my spear's pointing yeah okay that's where you one two three go.

Look at him look at that that's big that's much bigger than the ones we caught this right here is an armored catfish native of the amazon they're really popular in aquariums and of course people let their fish go and they're just.

All over the place and there's a couple different species but you can see they're cool little mouths with the little brushes in there they eat algae and rotting wood and things like that all armored all over yeah okay you want to try to eat them neat yeah.

I do here's one in the water come in here on the nose have it down you got them we could spend days in here chucking the spirit things but we got a little more surprises left in store  now we're going to follow byron and his.

Wife to a lake that they own that stocked with north america's only population of catchable barramundi which is a very popular sports fish in australia and yes i am going to pronounce barramundi three different ways without any consistency whatsoever.

Nathan there's a giant tortoise on the side of the road whoa oh tommy is gonna be so jealous now because he's a wild animal we're not gonna touch him okay is that cool or what that's the biggest tortoise i've ever seen in the wild that's huge that is so cool oh look at this nathan those are love bugs they used to hang on.

To each other yeah look at this there's more love bugs see look right there they call them love bugs because when they mate they stick together and fly together as a pair but people hate love bugs down here because they get huge swarms of them and then you smash them with their.

Car and their body's guts are kind of acidic and it eats away the pain in your car and it's really hard to get off oh man look at all the love bugs on the windshield oh there's so many bugs i love bug attack oh look at all these love bug guts oh.

Look at how many love bugs there are stuck to the front of the car and that was just from driving for 20 minutes that's crazy well yeah we got our guide mike here who's getting me all rigged up so i can use my catfish and carp signature series rod here i'm excited to try it out on some.

Barramundi and this lake is full of barramundi which is an australian fish that gets up to 100 pounds in the wild but here we're looking at anywhere from just a couple pounds up to 20 pounds they're supposed to be an incredibly hard fighting fish throw it out and start reeling it back at steady retrieve.

And if they don't hit it that way you then try to work a little bit a little bit yeah give it a try dude grab it right up here there you go oh he's here oh good job nathan look at you connor one way before me sharp right in there.

You can go down but you come back up and just barely feel it sharper the ring oh jeez yeah you can see your face guaranteed smile nathan high five you ready for another one nate speaking of invasive species i just got bit by a fire ant which is another.

Invasive species from south america i believe but they're all over here in florida oh do you see the splash your bait made yeah watch it and then what will happen is when the barramundi come it'll explode oh good pop there nate i'm just the cameraman.

Just hold it for real still oh there you go get in there sit there look number two nate turn them sideways hey nathan was that cool awesome oh nate you gotta hit oh that might be the biggest one you caught so far but nathan look at that chunk that feels.

Like 11 pounds 12 pounds something like that maybe that is a monster look at that what a fighting fish that thing was all sorts of jumping oh beautiful hard fighting fish jumps like three four feet out of the water crazy well mike thank you so much that was.

Just an absolute blast anytime it's our pleasure nathan outfished me he outfished me good we had a great time spear fishing in the morning and catching barramundi in the afternoon if you guys want to come down in florida and do this check out osceola outback adventures i'll put a link down.

In the video description below it's a great time you ready to go home and see mama yeah yeah all right let's do it look at this nathan we got some sandhill cranes when i was a teenager we used to hunt those up in alaska and they're actually a very tasty bird.

Well it's hard to see through all the squished love bugs but i think we just drove past a turkey here that's turkey that took a lot of work to get those off one tilapia filet and i can't get over how huge these tilapia are they're just a massive fish these armored catfish.

Are very armored but they're a little bit soft on the underbelly  all right so there's a big piece of meat and there's a big piece of meat on the army catfish well the boys are fed into bed and becca is off at the airport picking up my sister who just decided to.

Fly down from alaska to join us and we're glad to have her so they should be showing up at any minute hi melanie  it is a wonderful relaxing day today i'm just sitting here catching up on some editing because your appetite for videos is insatiable.

The mating dance of the melanie is bizarre in its ritual and very unsuccessful i'm gonna run to the bait shop and uh get myself some live pin fish and uh we're gonna try doing a little fishing while we at it all right guys i got a little bit of an unusual rig here i've got.

A three ounce egg sinker above a float and then below that i got a bunch of leader and a circle hook all right there we go got the lead anchored on the bottom got my float out there and even though it's super windy it'll just kind of stay out there and do its thing.

We'll just let that sit for a little bit  this is turning out to be a lovely day just sitting here editing by the pool watching my fishing rod tips little catfish hold on tight yeah it's a feisty fish.

Another catfish another hardhead catfish i've been editing becca and melanie went out and got barbecue holy mackerel southern style egg rolls who wanted the grilled cheese pulled pork tater tots and we've got ribs nope but real lemonade doesn't have.

Tom are you enjoying your food yep oh our bellies are full the kids are to bed and i am back at it editing videos i'll see you guys tomorrow morning it's a lovely sunday and mother's day and we are just doing some online church today i'm gonna make lunch for mama and i am.

Going to make garma marsala sweet chili sauce tilapia burgers well bad news guys some of my video files got corrupted and i lost the footage of me seizing the tilapia fillets and cooking the armored catfish if you want to see how i cook and eat armored catfish check out the video.

Description for a link to a previous video where i did just that as for the tilapia fillets i seasoned them with salt with pepper and then orange zest and garment marzala  oh my goodness this looks delicious it's nice because everything's not over.

Seasoned you know tilapia is such a subtle fish it's really easy to overpower it you like that oh yeah we're just finishing up lunch and uh osprey joined us  for mother's day my wife really wanted to go on a drive.

So we're gonna do that well for mother's day becca really wanted a cute picture of all the boys smiles look at me look at me get in you can get the first kindle flick are you happy i had a great time um all right grab your stuff let's head out to the car all right grab all right we're going to.

The florida keys for another invasive species we are going spear fishing for lionfish this looks pretty awesome yeah look at that the ocean's right there let's go get some food in the tree yeah there's an iguana right there.

There's iguana right there we're never gonna make it to the restaurant the boys keep spotting iguanas we've got conch fritters come from a big sea snail i mean i love that one kind of like a corn fritter if it had octopus instead of corn.

I like it all right guys it's bedtime everyone get to sleep i'll see you in the morning heavy pontoon boat morning morning welcome to the key yeah luke jeff good morning good to meet you yeah you got it excellent all right here we are with forever young spear fishing i've got captain jeff.

And i've got tony young here and they are going to take us out snorkeling and looking for lionfish hey thomas you excited i haven't been spearfishing underwater since i was a teenager and i absolutely love it so i'm excited to get a chance to do this again and uh i've always wanted to spear lionfish so.

This is this is gonna be cool oh my goodness look how clear that is oh look i can see fish right there see you we thought this would be the perfect spot for you guys to hop in get your gills wet i'm about to jack up the light exposure on my lips time to get the lady views.

 and this is how you lose 1.5 million subscribers right now because we're in a special protected area only certain permit holders can spare invasive lionfish and that includes mr young so if we see any lionfish here he's.

Gonna spear them but after we go and snorkel around here let the kids have some fun we're gonna go try some other places where i can get a chance to spear some lionfish yeah this is how we this is how we catch the fish we stick your diaper down in the reef and all the fish float to the top.

All right guys you ready      so.

You want to see a cleaner fish cleaning a barracuda like six of them whoa watch out for you have fun yeah i swam with them i literally got close to them and they didn't attack me they were like hello hey jacob did you have fun say click subscribe neither do you need a pee yeah do you.

Know how you pee in a wetsuit hell you just pee your pants you ain't cool unless you pee your pants maybe you guys need to go pee come on just beat their pants raise your hand yay i think it's time to go look for some lionfish i want to go poke a fish.

Tell me you like the feedback so we had fun doing a little bit of snorkeling now it's time to knuckle down and do some serious lionfish hunting now lionfish are an invasive species from the indian pacific ocean area so they're all over from southern japan to australia to the.

Philippines they've been let loose here and they're just all over they're an invasive species here in the caribbean gulf of mexico area and over in the mediterranean so we're gonna hunt the lionfish using these three prong hawaiian spears and uh they're really simple easy to use so even i might be able to spear one.

Oh  hello  uh.

     are you sad to be leaving this spot yeah she will go to a new spot okay  that's so cool.

Got well i missed my first lionfish all right we're just gonna go try another spot go try to poke another fish oh so so so.

 oh my goodness okay i dubbed down there and i nicked him and he took off to a separate coral head and we're gonna see if we can't find them over there luckily these things don't run very far i shot him again this time we're gonna try to get him.

 okay i shot him a third time we got him on the prongs but you need to really work him out of that hole and it's just too hard so mr young is gonna go down there try to get him out of that hole  there he is got about six bullet holes.

In him and his spine's right there oh yeah yeah no whoa nice shot oh what a great trip even though we only got two fish i'm super jazzed because normally they do this with scuba gear it's a real challenge to to get this snorkeling but we did it.

Oh i appreciate that thank you so much that was such a great time what was your favorite thing you saw fish  i got to tell you the bottom looks really far away when you're up there at 30 feet of water you're like daddy's like.

Oh wow doing everything you can decide we caught the lionfish now we're going to show you how to clean them these are a venomous fish if you get stung by their venomous spines it hurts like a bee on steroids from what i hear it doesn't feel good so not in there.

Yeah so there's no spines here no spines there you have one you can see right there they've got oh i see they got right like a catfish right there and then a couple on the anal fin okay and then everything up on their door so all the dorsal fins when you get stuck and that flush gets pulled back the grooves are exposed and the venom is.

Able to leave the spine gotcha so the longer the spine and the farther it goes in the more venom can get into your system oh you ever been spined i have been stuck a couple how bad was it uh for me it's usually not too bad i might have built up a tolerance over time but for most people.

You know if you get in your finger the whole hand will swell up about twice the size look there's a man oh hey manatee that's our buddy steve hi steve he uh he now eats lionfish carcasses it's a flesh-eating manatee oh that's so hardcore.

Steve oh and there's a nurse shark right there so they all know our boat they're ready for their dinner to fillet these what i do is i just pull their pectoral fin back make a cut there and then i'll hold the entire body of the fish using just the tip of the knife.

Going very slow and careful so you can see that whole time i'm just basically keeping my hand in the same position yeah trying not to move very much and that's oh that looks gorgeous that's the prized meat that's why lionfish is so delicious and the skin's not too bad looks like you can probably just fry it up and eat.

The skin you can yeah yeah hold on look at that there oh there he goes there he goes oh he just ate he just ate it that manatee just ate fish flesh so he'll eat it spines at all like um you know they kind of it just seems like they kind of chew on i don't.

Know if they're getting like the moisture out of the fish or what they are but they seem to play with it for quite a while nice and tight okay all right now drop it right right in front of steve lusting manatee oh he's just totally sucking that down steve you're my favorite manatee ever.

Man thank you very much you're welcome you're right thank you thank you it ate a ton of meat but there you go some little teeny tiny lionfish fillets and we're going to take these home and cook them up is this a shirt yeah you like that it says forever young spear fishing yeah.

We had such a blast this is one of the best trips i've had in a long time i really appreciate it yeah it was amazing trip thank you so much for coming out with us listen if you guys are in the florida keys and you want to do spear fishing snorkeling scuba diving rod and reel fishing whatever check out.

Forever young charters with tony and jeff here and they will hook you up guys i'm going to put links down in the video description below their website and social media accounts so check that out thank you thank you great having you guys on board oh we had such a great.

Time after swimming in the salt water and all the hot sun ice cream sounded like the perfect thing becca got key lime sorbet and then melanie got a slice of key lime pie dipped in chocolate frozen on a stick that hit the spot.

Way down hey good morning guys i am walking gently i am walking gingerly but i am walking oh oh i'm gonna get some stuff to cook up that lionfish and i'm gonna get a little extra seafood to go with it and we are gonna have a.

Wonderful seafood lunch today all right we got island seafood market near pine island here and it really backs up right to the marina oh good fresh seafood hey becca i've got something for you who's got two thumbs and loves key lime.

Pie this lady all right while the kids are doing online school i'm gonna cook up some lionfish and some jumbo shrimp and some lane snapper and conch fritters it's we're gonna have a great lunch here i'm gonna show you some cool.

Recipes we got some naked mango juice this stuff's nice and thick and we're gonna reduce it in a pot till it becomes a wicked awesome mango sauce  that's why tonight hmm.

 all right we'll just cool that sauce down it'll be ready in just a few minutes  there's the lane snapper coconut crusted lionfish and some prawns looking nice good it's a lionfish here mango sauce here.

And we're just gonna go and drizzle that on the coconut crusted fish and shrimp with the lane snapper i fried it on the bottom then finished it off in the oven and it gives it that nice crunchy texture on the bottom without making it too heavy and greasy if you fry the whole thing good really good oh the conch fritters.

With mango chutney is good would you rather try some of the lionfish  melanie what do you think of the lionfish oh it's really good it's all good becca's living her best life here really good.

It's been a fun low-key day but i have got to head into the car to head three hours east to meet a gentleman tomorrow morning about fishing for clownfish also known as knife fish an extremely fascinating invasive species apparently a major gas line was hit with some sort of cyber attack.

And i'm seeing some disconcerting things on facebook in the news about people not being able to get gas well i've now passed five gas stations and only two of them were open we'll see what happens i'm getting up at 6 30 in the morning i'll see you then pimples to the top i turned my phone on.

After being off all night and there's like 12 text messages from becca and some photos i have no clue what happened but apparently nathan cut his forehead open and went to the er i'm texting becca to find out what's going on but she's back at the condo just barely.

Getting to sleep so we'll just see hey guys i'm here with captain patrick smith with swamp to see guide service here and we are going to go out for knife fish also known as clownfish also known as a lot of different things but it is one of the most unique.

Species that you can find here in florida well it's a beautiful early morning i haven't yet started to bake hopefully i'll keep from getting too fried today just saw a big gator we're cruising down the canal and we see all these little holes dug in the embankment and they're.

Caused by nile monitor lizards which is another invasive reptile from africa quite large they're big meat-eating lizard they're not as prolific as the iguanas and other invasive species but they're they're starting to get there so the state's got.

Game cameras and traps up here trying to catch and remove nile monitor lizards did you do the bullseye snakeheads a little clown knifefish just jump right there are they a pretty finicky fish like they're really sensitive to timid because you're gonna pitch him right up.

Reel down until your rod starts to bend and set your hooks hard wow look at that what a beautiful fish that sucker fought like a champ too jumped out of the air which i didn't expect look at that fighting that is beautiful my first clown knife fish let me show you something on them real.

Quick yeah sure you got teeth here yeah teeth here teeth here and then watch the top of the tongue fangs right there on top of the tongue oh my don't french kiss a clown fish they drum and they swim backwards they're pretty cool that bent the rod really good i mean those are a serious fish.

We're gonna see if we can't do that again got wrapped around something sharp down there that happens well we are just about to move spots anyways so we'll we'll try something else there you go oh that's the males that get that big.

Knob on their head right sure is first time i saw one of these i thought it's gills were bleeding and that's why they got the big bumps on their head absolutely gorgeous fish there you go what a pretty fish what a nice little map number two well we hit this spot pretty good we're.

Gonna try another spot real quick oh there we go it's gotta happen you're bouncing off the gun there we go nice little black crappie this is a native fish i believe all right look at that look at that wiggle all right got some fish we're going to try another spot.

We got this big ficus tree that's dropping berries and uh there's big old grass carp hanging up underneath it eating the berries as they fall down they get up to a hundred plus pounds they're huge fish they're from asia and uh they're also called an amur carp people breathe them and genetically.

Alter them to be infertile and stock them but uh they get loose sometimes oh yeah they got a little iguana up there man there there are a lot of them around putting little live shad there in this little chum bat flinging it out there just kind of.

Getting everyone excited same techniques we use in carp fishing to get some pressure off the largemouth large mouths are a lot easier to catch that's a hybrid strike bass also not a native fish but this one is deliberately stocked it kind of seems like certain fish will kind of get popular and fish and game.

Will go and deliberately stock them and you know sometimes it's a good idea sometimes it's not and oftentimes it's very debatable hey babe how you doing how's nathan doing he looked so happy in his little er photos hold on just a second nice little peacock bass i finally.

Talked to becca and got an update about nathan and he fell out of bed and caught his forehead on the nightstand and cut it open at one in the morning apparently nathan's doing great he thought going to the er was super fun and stuff but poor mom was stranded at home without a car and i had the first.

Aid kit in the back of my car and so but she uh she got a taxi got him to the er and he's all glued up and doing online school happy as can be oh we got a double here peacock for me largemouth for you there we go double trouble just got a big ball.

He went and blew up on it missed it came back got himself pierced it's a bail fat peacock bass that's why they make bad aquarium uh largemouth bass just the biomass in these florida waters is just amazing big boy yeah they are beautiful and solid thick one oh a nice little channel catfish i don't.

Mess with cats adios 15 pounds a little wiper let's take these good beautiful fish well i completely lost count of how many fish we caught but it's probably close to 20 and a half an hour just spot is non-stop but i really want.

To catch another clown fish so we're gonna go try some other spots where maybe the bass aren't as thick so we got a better chance at targeting specifically clown fish you know that rule about you never leave fish to find fish i live to break the rules don't eat my bait i think i've seen.

Probably 12 or 15 rides since we got here they're just everywhere that looks right oh that was so weird he was facing right at me and just back straight up net because they're backwards swimming they avoid the net oh that is so crazy they can move in weird directions.

There we go nice that is a big fish that looks a little bigger than the other one that is such a cool fish they just ripple in the water look at that what a cool fish i i just didn't expect them to be such aerial fish i mean they just love to.

Jump out of the water that's cool well that was fun but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that i should probably go home and help my wife out hey thanks patrick i really appreciate it thanks again for coming hey listen if you guys want to go fishing with patrick here and catch clown fish and build.

Peacock bass and whatnot i'll put his guide service website and information down in the video description so make sure to check that out if you're down here in florida we'll want to catch some clown fish for christmas all right we gotta get heading home and help becca.

Out she has had a rough day all right three hour drive back to cape coral  where's my boys oh my goodness can i see your forehead buddy you know what that phone is just like a harry potter squad you lost a tooth as well did you knock your tooth.

Out i'm worried about you it's been a long day so we're sitting down to some cute food we got ropos viejas got some fried plantains and the frios negras and all sorts of fun things it's a busy saturday morning and we're scurrying around cleaning the rental.

House as quick as we can to get out of here and hit the road it's been an awesome trip all right goodbye melanie we'll see you guys did you have a fun trip 16 and a half hour drive here we come i said tell me your story.

It's actually a little bit chilly i haven't felt cold in two weeks well we made it back to virginia safe and sound and i hope you guys enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it if you guys want to see more videos from the outdoor boys youtube channel don't forget to click subscribe we put.

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