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OT - What lurks in Lake Osceola?

Cookie917 said:
Wow ok so long post......

I had everything pre-measured and the idea matured quickly.... roommate was surfing on craigslist and saw a hot tub, he shows it to me and says think we can do it? I pulled the dimensions off the company website and first weight test, put painters tape on the floor in the shape of hot tub, calculate the weight of the hottub plus 300 gallons of water, got a bunch of my friends and seantrel henderson was there to stand within the blue tape and all jump to see if the floor would hold, then found that if you put the hottub on its side and took the door off the hinges it would fit (by 1/2 inch), knew we could get it up the stairs but 7th floor f-that.... when I was there 1 of the 3 elevators was a little bigger, it had like two doors, one in front one in back, for kids only going up one floor or something and if you lifted the hot tub at an angle in that elevator so it was like a diamond, it would fit....

so we hopped in the truck, had friends hold open the back doors at mahoney so we could rush in w/out swiping cane cards, had other friends holding the one elevator that is slightly bigger, had already tapped out the hinges to my door so as we rushed it down the hallway the door could just pop off the door and we had to loft both beds and instead of futon under it we had a hot tub.

Took a regular hose and unscrewed the shower head and screwed the hose on to fill it. Next came the electrical issue because when we plugged it in immediately knocked out power to half the floor.... I had to run an extension cord to a different outlet on a different circuit to just run the pump and a second cord for the heating element and just had the thing on constantly.... then AC became an issue, not sure if they still do but mahoney had dumb *** thermostats that were motion detected so if you went to class it would shut off, well with the hottub, we would come back from class to a **** rain forest so I cut the wires to that and put on a regular thermostat, AC was on 69, constantly never off......

RA's thought we were throwing "shower parties" with the trail of water going to my room after grove nights until a "random" room inspection got us.... this was after I already had warnings for: drinking, filleting fish in the stairwell, making fake parking passes for guests, jet ski in the lake, making a slip in slide in the towers, so this was the last straw...

campus was pushing a "green moment" meanwhile my dorm room was essentially black with the amount of power we were drawing.... Off campus had some really nice options though
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Epic! Kudos to you sir.
 
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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
I know there were fish there, I was never very interested. Other than it looks nice and makes for great pictures and it’s relaxing to walk around, that was the limit of my relationship with LO. It looks nice to me, but I was never motivated to go in it, to be honest. But barracuda? First time I’ve heard of it.
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I've fished my whole life around the Miami area, and while brackish water fish like tarpon, snook, mullet and others are caught and seen in canals and bay connected lakes... I have never heard that barracuda exist in brackish water.
However... I just got off the phone with the editor of the Florida Sportsman magazine and he says it is very possible barracuda were seen in Lake Ocseola because he himself saw snappers and jack crevalle there some years ago.
81739
 
CFLCane said:
Lol....gators can definitely live brackish water. I see them kayaking nearly every trip to mosquito lagoon. Also bull sharks breed in brackish waters around the world.
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The water is definitely brackish, but I remember absolutely there was crocs in there, which you can tell apart pretty easily. There was some kid who got arrested (not a student) for killing one of the croc's right there by the ponce garage when I was in school, I want to say 2009ish. Federal crime to kill an American Crocodile.
 
Cookie917 said:
Wow ok so long post......

I had everything pre-measured and the idea matured quickly.... roommate was surfing on craigslist and saw a hot tub, he shows it to me and says think we can do it? I pulled the dimensions off the company website and first weight test, put painters tape on the floor in the shape of hot tub, calculate the weight of the hottub plus 300 gallons of water, got a bunch of my friends and seantrel henderson was there to stand within the blue tape and all jump to see if the floor would hold, then found that if you put the hottub on its side and took the door off the hinges it would fit (by 1/2 inch), knew we could get it up the stairs but 7th floor f-that.... when I was there 1 of the 3 elevators was a little bigger, it had like two doors, one in front one in back, for kids only going up one floor or something and if you lifted the hot tub at an angle in that elevator so it was like a diamond, it would fit....

so we hopped in the truck, had friends hold open the back doors at mahoney so we could rush in w/out swiping cane cards, had other friends holding the one elevator that is slightly bigger, had already tapped out the hinges to my door so as we rushed it down the hallway the door could just pop off the door and we had to loft both beds and instead of futon under it we had a hot tub.

Took a regular hose and unscrewed the shower head and screwed the hose on to fill it. Next came the electrical issue because when we plugged it in immediately knocked out power to half the floor.... I had to run an extension cord to a different outlet on a different circuit to just run the pump and a second cord for the heating element and just had the thing on constantly.... then AC became an issue, not sure if they still do but mahoney had dumb *** thermostats that were motion detected so if you went to class it would shut off, well with the hottub, we would come back from class to a **** rain forest so I cut the wires to that and put on a regular thermostat, AC was on 69, constantly never off......

RA's thought we were throwing "shower parties" with the trail of water going to my room after grove nights until a "random" room inspection got us.... this was after I already had warnings for: drinking, filleting fish in the stairwell, making fake parking passes for guests, jet ski in the lake, making a slip in slide in the towers, so this was the last straw...

campus was pushing a "green moment" meanwhile my dorm room was essentially black with the amount of power we were drawing.... Off campus had some really nice options though
Click to expand...

What class were you, because I definitely missed that
 
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gruntking said:
I've fished my whole life around the Miami area, and while brackish water fish like tarpon, snook, mullet and others are caught and seen in canals and bay connected lakes... I have never heard that barracuda exist in brackish water.
However... I just got off the phone with the editor of the Florida Sportsman magazine and he says it is very possible barracuda were seen in Lake Ocseola because he himself saw snappers and jack crevalle there some years ago.
View attachment 81739
Click to expand...

Well ****
 
Drain that Lake.....no Gators are allowed in our backyard.
We need to call the "Swamp people", and they would do the Gator hunt for free.
 
Cookie917 said:
dad proud, mom slightly disappointed but appreciated the effort.
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Cookie I hear ya......Am a Mahoney alumni myself, and lawd knows the stories that could be told of those stairwells on the first floor.

Question, why not get an inflatable hot tub, that could be stashed, drew less juice, and could fit almost anywhere?...
Ironically, now we have a hot tub built into our deck,(would have taken up half of the dorm room), but old stories are better left unsaid.......LOL..

Re the ducks.......it was a sh** show around the Lake, and after it rained , there would be no doubt the aroma that wafted....good memories, and **** of a lot of stories around Lake O..
 
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Cookie917 said:
Nope that one was legit me. Had to use the bigger elevator take the door off the hinges, rig up a hose to the shower head to fill it. It was elaborate. Had it for months then they said I violated the rule book. Rule book had no rule against hot tubs. They said it was synonymous to a water bed, well rule book also said we could have fish so I said I’d drop a goldfish in it and it be my 300 gallon fish tank. Long story short I appealed to the student board lost got kicked off campus, rule book amended. No hot tubs lol
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You're a legend.
 
gruntking said:
I've fished my whole life around the Miami area, and while brackish water fish like tarpon, snook, mullet and others are caught and seen in canals and bay connected lakes... I have never heard that barracuda exist in brackish water.
However... I just got off the phone with the editor of the Florida Sportsman magazine and he says it is very possible barracuda were seen in Lake Ocseola because he himself saw snappers and jack crevalle there some years ago.
View attachment 81739
Click to expand...
the Northern Pike is the cousin of the barracuda. Very interesting fish. Very potent and fast.
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
What class were you, because I definitely missed that
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Graduate ‘10 but I finished early so I hung out for a year. Hot tub would have been 08ish I def remember dvd laron Byrd VT and Allen bailey on our floor.
canesdogo said:
Cookie I hear ya......Am a Mahoney alumni myself, and lawd knows the stories that could be told of those stairwells on the first floor.

Question, why not get an inflatable hot tub, that could be stashed, drew less juice, and could fit almost anywhere?...
Ironically, now we have a hot tub built into our deck,(would have taken up half of the dorm room), but old stories are better left unsaid.......LOL..

Re the ducks.......it was a sh** show around the Lake, and after it rained , there would be no doubt the aroma that wafted....good memories, and **** of a lot of stories around Lake O..
Click to expand...

The idea of the hot tub didn’t come until we found that one online and it all transpired within 48 hours. If it was planned in advance, inflatable would have been fine but at the time it was just all gas no brakes and we got what we got.
 
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CFLCane said:
Born and raised in titusville. It's a shame how the conditions of the lagoon have declined the last 5-10 years.
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Very sad, I went around cucumber the other day and become depressed the rest of the day. Fished the lagoon since the late 90’s. Hope my kids get to
Enjoy it, if you see a 250 with Miami tags and a HB gladeskiff that’s me, say what’s up.
 
jaxcane11 said:
Very sad, I went around cucumber the other day and become depressed the rest of the day. Fished the lagoon since the late 90’s. Hope my kids get to
Enjoy it, if you see a 250 with Miami tags and a HB gladeskiff that’s me, say what’s up.
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Id like to see some pics of that hb. I want to get rid of my carolina for something with a v. Cant afford a hb but theres lots of skiffs on the market these days
 
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CFLCane said:
Born and raised in titusville. It's a shame how the conditions of the lagoon have declined the last 5-10 years.
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You think last 5-10 years? I used to fish south Florida in the early '60's, and older, more experienced fishermen used to tell us younger guys how badly the availability of fish had declined in the bay, canals, etc. from the previous decade or so.

I can't imagine it got better since then.

I moved from South Florida to Cocoa Beach in late '63 and the fishing is very different. Brevard has a lot of grass flats so you have a lot of salt water trout (spotted weakfish). When you go west of Cocoa good fresh water fishing takes over with the St. Johns River with very good large-mouthed bass.

The discussion of Lake Osceola is fascinating. I didn't go to UM and it's been many years since I've been on campus. I don't remember the lake very well. I have a memory of some folks fishing with some cane poles, probably for mullet. I'm going to try to find a map or something else on the lake.
 
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Back in the late 70's, you never saw alligators and American crocodiles were even more rare. When the Crandon Park Zoo closed, they lost several non-native saltwater crocs. I seem to remember one being killed or captured in Biscayne Bay years later.
 
How can you tell the difference between a gator and a crocodile? ...(Ducking my head)
 
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