Oscar came to the Everglades without warning. Arrived, it seems, by U-Haul trailer in the dead of night. Brought the wife, kids and relatives by the thousands.
You’ve seen him in fish tanks, though in smaller form. Maybe paid a handsome price for one of his nephews in a tropical fish store. Good old oscar is alive and flourishing — suddenly — in the Everglades canals.
A native of South America, oscars have been present in Florida waters for about 25 years, presumably liberated from someone’s fish tank and gradually gaining a foothold. Until recently they were an incidental catch to bass and the various panfish found in the Everglades canals.
The past year, however, has revealed an oscar boom, particularly in Conservation Areas 2 and 3. Fisheries biologists are as puzzled as the anglers who are catching them. Could it have something to do with lower interest rates or the decline of inflation?
“The first one I caught was three or four years ago. I put it in my son’s fish tank,” said Herb Springston, an avid freshwater angler from Fort Lauderdale. “My son said you could get $50 apiece for oscars that size in a fish store. We finally had to turn that one loose because it was eating all the fish in the tank.”
That aggressive feeding characteristic makes the oscar a worthy gamefish on light fly or spinning tackle. They hit hard and fight frantically all the way to the boat.
Everglades oscars are commonly 1 1/2 to 2 pounds. They have a thick, saucer- shaped body with dark, vertical bars on the sides and a pinkish-orange cast to the lower half. Most distinctive is the bright orange spot at the base of the tail. The mouth is small and toothy.
“If they had bigger teeth they’d look like a piranha,” Springston said. “I caught the biggest one I’ve ever seen (last week); it was almost 3 pounds. You get one over 2 pounds on ultralight (tackle), and it’ll give you a problem.”
He and fishing buddy Dave Kingsbury, who runs Kingsbury Tackle in Fort Lauderdale, began catching large quantities of oscars suddenly last June and July. Bass fishing was slow and the abundance of oscars was a pleasant surprise. Being an exotic species, there is no daily bag limit for them. Springston and Kingsbury have caught 30 or more in an afternoon.
Oscars seem to hit best in warmer weather. Catches have increased in recent weeks with temperatures climbing.
It is dawn, and a lingering grayness shrouds the Everglades. Springston has launched his Hurst bass boat at the first ramp along Alligator Alley west of U.S. 27 and crossed under a bridge to the canal on the south side.
Water is low in much of the Everglades, but the water managers are keeping it high in this portion of Area 3A. Water hyacinths, another exotic invader, are plentiful, huddled next to the shoreline and floating in clumps along the canal. This is prime oscar habitat. The foreign fish seems most at home in company with the foreign plant.
Manipulating the trolling motor with a foot pedal, Springston guides the boat slowly down the canal, casting a gold Sonic Rooster Tail spinnerbait on 4- pound test line. His companion uses a white Rooster Tail with 6-pound line.
Oscars will hit most spinnerbaits, beetle spins and other small plugs. Kingsbury has begun bolstering the inventory of his shop with prime oscar plugs in anticipation of freshwater anglers pursuing them more intensely as an alternative to bass. A gold spinnerbait called Little George and white beetle spins are very effective. Springston has caught them on gold No. 5 top-water Rapalas and even on plastic worms.
The same lures will also produce bass. Once while fishing for oscars with a small Rapala on 6-pound test line, Springston caught an 8 3/4-pound bass. He was alone and didn’t have a net, but he landed the fish after a 20-minute tussle.
He has had most success catching oscars on the gold Rooster Tail, which has a single revolving blade and a yellow skirt. Nothing magical about working the spinnerbait. You don’t need the concentration or touch required with bass. Just cast it close to the shore, preferably near hyacinths, and retrieve it with a steady motion just quickly enough to keep the blade turning.
Twenty miles to the east South Florida is rushing to the office, while here in the Everglades hungry oscars are eager for breakfast. The early risers this morning are showing a taste for the white Rooster Tail and are not timid about showing it. Sometimes they’ll chase the lure into the middle of the canal and strike it near the boat.
An angler can be pretty sure he has an oscar on the line by the strike. It doesn’t feel quite like a bass — you don’t get the same explosion on the surface — but the pull is noticeably stronger than with other panfish. Typically they hit and run parallel to shore. Often if you catch one, there will be plenty more in the same spot. The first flurry of the morning comes in a scallop of the shoreline surrounded by hyacinths. By 7:30, with the sun starting to peer over the horizon, a half-dozen feisty oscars are already splashing in the live well.
“Look at that sucker fight,” Springston says, struggling with another one. “Pound for pound, they pull about as good as anything. They give you more of a fight than a bass will on a big rod. The difference is that these don’t jump like a bass will.”
Oscars tend to be bigger than the other panfish in the Everglades. The 18 taken on this outing are all over 1 3/4 pounds, a couple topping 2 pounds. Though messy and tricky to clean because of a slimy skin, there is nothing wrong with the slab of meat that comes off each side — the easiest method is to filet them with an electric carving knife.
The meat is pink when cleaned, but it turns white when fried. Add a light coating of flour, some lemon and seasoning, and oscars are as tasty as bluegill or shellcracker. The flavor is on a par with most any panfish except speckled perch.
“I don’t think anything is as good as specks, but they’ve got a good taste,” Springston said. “But you talk to some people and they won’t eat them. I think maybe it’s because it’s an exotic fish, kind of slimy, and the thought of it just don’t sound good. They think of it as something you put in a fish tank. But I like them all right.”
With the lack of bass a common complaint in the Everglades canals this year, anglers are passing up an enjoyable angling opportunity if they overlook this South American immigrant.
Like many of us who came to South Florida from somewhere else, oscar has found an agreeable home here and established roots. What his presence bodes for his neighbors in the Everglades, even the scientists aren’t sure.
“We don’t believe they are competing with large bass for food in these canals,” said Paul Shaffland, who heads the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission’s Non-Native Fisheries Laboratory in Boca Raton. “More than likely, they will compete with bream and other fish that have smaller mouths than bass, however.”
