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: Snook, Lady Fish, Spanish Mackerel, Catfish, Stingray
High Tide: 5:00 PM 2.5 FT Low Tide: 1:00 AM -.5 FT Wind: 10-20 NE Air Temp: 66/89 Water Temp: 79 Clarity: clear
We left the dock about 7:00 AM, without checking the weather since the evening before. We made our first stop at the Bridge over the Myakka in El Jobean, FL. I bought a new Gulp called "Greenback" which looks very much like a threadfin sardine. It is shaped like a fish but has a lump on its tail that causes it to swim when you pull it through the water.
On my first cast with that lure I hooked a spanish mackerel about 19". Nothing more there for a half hour and the wind started picking up and blowing us around so we headed for trout creek.
We anchored in that first big cove in trout creek, we were watching a bunch of pelicans diving as we approached, thought that was a very good sign. Well they weren’t afraid of us at all and for the 3 hours we fished there they kept up the comical group fishing all around us. I took a video on my little digital still camera, its not great but here it is, Pelican video.
My Mom and Dad are with us on this trip. They were fishing live shrimp, my Mom under a cork and my Dad on the bottom. Plenty of catfish for both and my Mom also got a stingray. I was throwing my new green back Gulp and got a couple ladyfish.
Then, about 11:30 I hit a huge snook on my Gulp. A great fight around the boat, under the motor, passing the pole between the bimini top and finally landed a 28" snook.Unfortunately the season is closed because that 28 inch fish would have made a great dinner, I got 1 more about 23" before we decided to leave. It was getting very windy out in the harbor, there were no boats looking for cobia like we had expected, maybe they checked the morning weather report.
We made our way into the shelter of Hog Island at trolling speed pulling a few lures. About halfway up Hog Island in 7 feet of water my Dad hooked a nice Spanish Mackerel about 22". We got several more bites a small one in the boat and Karen had a nice one on that cut the 35lb florocarbon leader right at the boat.
It was a great day on the water, we were back at the dock by about 2:30 with fish to clean.
We left the dock about 7:00 AM, without checking the weather since the evening before. We made our first stop at the Bridge over the Myakka in El Jobean, FL. I bought a new Gulp called "Greenback" which looks very much like a threadfin sardine. It is shaped like a fish but has a lump on its tail that causes it to swim when you pull it through the water.
