[dancerbill]

Originally Posted by blueash

Don't know about the fish, but the "bottle nose" turtles are Florida Soft Shell turtles. They are well described in a brief page on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_softshell_turtle

Now someone help out with the fish?

Many of the fish that hang out near the boardwalk are carp. They are the bulky, slow moving fish that have a dark color ranging from green to brown. They stay near the boardwalk because people feed them. Striped bass are the sleek, quick moving fish that are silver in color with dark stripes on their sides. Also, there are a good number of rainbow trout which can be recognized by the rainbow colors on their sides. And, being Florida, there are catfish in the lake.

You can commonly see soft shell turtles, occasionally a snapping turtle, and every so often an alligator in the lake. There is one about 4 feet long that cruises by the boardwalk every so often. There are some larger alligators in Lake Sumter that are currently being removed by alligator hunters as a precaution since they can be quite dangerous.

Lake Sumter is not open for fishing because it is privately owned.

I'm not a fish expert, but have learned about local fish by living here in the bubble.