I live in Port Charlotte, FL on a canal with access to the Myakka River near El Jobean, FL and Charlotte Harbor. I own a boat and I love to fish. I'm new to Florida so I'm learning a new kind of fishing and I thought a record of fish caught, weather, tides, etc. for each trip would help me to learn quicker. That record is what you'll find in my blog which I post as soon as I possibly can so check before you're going out, my success or failure might help make your trip more productive.
High Tide: 4:30 PM 1.7 FT Low Tide: 11:00 AM .5 FT Wind: 5-10 SE Air Temp: 63/86 Water Temp: 74 Clarity: not clear
Left the dock about 8:30 AM headed for the bridge over the Myakka River at El Jobean, FL. I wanted to catch low slack tide into the incoming tide. I’ve been doing pretty well there with snook just as the incoming starts. Not so today. I did get one small snook, about 20-22". We only fished until about 12:30 but the tide was running pretty good by then.
There were lots of what appeared to be jack smashing bait fish over on the northwest end of the bridge. A few boats headed over there when they hit but I didn’t see anybody catch anything. Hard to believe, I’d be afraid to stick my finger in the water when they’re feeding that hard
At one time a huge stingray jumped about 5 feet out of the water. I just happened to look up as he did it. A little while later I hooked a big one (stingray) and had a heck of a battle to get him to the boat. He was about 3 feet wing tip to wing tip. It was the kind of stingray you see more in open water not the ones that stick to the bottom. He was quite heavy, I’ll guess 20 lbs, very thick body and a very strong aggressive fight not like an old tire like a lot of rays. I thought I had a monster jack.
