Catching ornamental fish in waterways

Hi, I know this is wrong to do but it sounded like some fun to fish a Pleco or something. Does anyone kow places where this is possible.

There's plenty of cichlids, livebearers and bettas in the northern waterways but thankfully it's too cold for em down here. Unfortunately all these fish were released by stupid people or got washed into streams via flooding and outside ponds.

Several years back I was on vacation at Disney World and Ft. Meyers/Sanibel Island area of Florida. We were walking along the river that goes through Ft. Meyers and we saw many dead common plecos on the ground. Some locals told us they had become pests in the water and it was against the law to put them back in the river. Several of the fisherman along the river didn't have anything nice to say about the plecs.
While standing on some docks in local canals, we saw various tropical fish including some cichlids. I thought it would interesting to get a net and do some netting to see what was down there.

You can understand the locals and fishermens point of view about the damage caused by non-native species

Plenty of nonnative species become invasive species. I live on a sand pit here in the middle of Kansas. We used to have soft sandy beaches. About ten years ago, some one introduced Asian clams. Now the bottom of the lake is covered with clam shells and there is no more walking barefoot in the water. The neat clam someone bought for their aquarium was tossed in a lake and forever changed the environment.

you want to fish an ornamental species go to the murray and fish some carp. they are actually the same species as the koi carp just they have lost their colour.

there are some chiclids in the cooling pond of the melbourne power station.

there are no native plecos in Australia so you will be going overseas if you want to fish for them

cool doug. No interest in the carp unless its a colourful one.