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.
Fish Caught: Redfish, Sheepshead, Jack, Mangrove Snapper
High Tide: 1:30 PM 1.8 FT Low Tide: 7:30 AM .8 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 61/93 Water Temp: 79 Clarity: murky
This time of year I sleep with our sliding glass doors open to our screened in pool area. I was half awake this morning when I heard our neighbor’s boat engine start. A few minutes later Karen was calling from outside relaying the invitation to go out fishing with Bimini. I really wasn’t awake as I was pulling on clothes and running to the dock with two fishing poles and a PB&J sandwich for breakfast, dripping coffee down my arm. We were halfway down the canal before I wondered what time it was, 6:15 AM.
I normally travel out of our canal for my fishing grounds but Bimini and Julie, our across the canal neighbors, love fishing closer to home. And I must admit they eat more fish than we do. So I was excited to get the chance to learn a few things from Bimini. Julie is not an early to bed early to rise woman so she was sleeping in this morning, hence my chance to keep Bimini company for the early morning trip.
We went to the end of the canal (Apollo Waterway) just in sight of the Myakka River. Bimini anchored us in 2 feet of water pointing to an area just in front of us which she said had a little trough which fed the back reed filled waters. She said the big fish would move through this area to get to the bait in the shallow back waters. She was right, I hooked a huge jack shortly after starting to cast my Gulp Swimming Mullet, what a battle, as usual for a very large jack. Bimini had many hits on some white bait she had netted the evening before from the fishing pier in Placida. The sun rose while we were in that spot, while we had some action we didn’t get much in the boat. The tide turned in about 8:30 or so and we decided to move to a spot she liked on an incoming tide.
We anchored at the near end of a large dock were the tide woulld pull our bait under the dock. Since I was fishing a Gulp I was able to get a couple casts before Bimini got her bait ready and hooked a very nice 22” redfish. My first in quite some time, I was impressed. I went on to get a couple 12-13” Mangrove Snapper, at that size they are very good eating fish. Bimini was switching back and forth between live shrimp and the white bait. We were each catching mangrove snapper and sheepshead, letting smaller ones go but putting plenty in the cooler.
As you can see from the photo we had plenty to clean, it was an excellent supper with some left for the freezer for the less plentiful times. It was a very nice morning of fishing, I look forward to many more.
This time of year I sleep with our sliding glass doors open to our screened in pool area. I was half awake this morning when I heard our neighbor’s boat engine start. A few minutes later Karen was calling from outside relaying the invitation to go out fishing with Bimini. I really wasn’t awake as I was pulling on clothes and running to the dock with two fishing poles and a PB&J sandwich for breakfast, dripping coffee down my arm. We were halfway down the canal before I wondered what time it was, 6:15 AM.
