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: 5:45 PM 2 FT Low Tide: 2:00 AM -.25 FT Wind: 0-5 E Air Temp: 62/89 Water Temp: 79 Clarity: clear
I netted a few bait yesterday from our dock. Went down early this morning, about 6:00 AM to put the bait in the live well on the boat and decided to throw the net once more. I got an 11" sheepshead which was a little shocking.
So we left the dock by 7:00 AM, stopped at the bridge in El Jobean, FL, no fish but we did see a big manatee. Decided to head to Trout Creek since the tide would be rising all day. We weren't the only ones that thought Trout Creek would be a good place today. But we drifted into the first main cove and I dropped the anchor. Lots of tiny bait in the water and big swirls. After 3 dolphin came splashing through and things calmed again we started catching trout.
I lost count after 10 but I'd say at least 15 trout, mostly on Gulp Swimming Mullet, white, 4". When I ran out of those I tried the Gulp 3" shrimp, white and got a Lady Fish but no more trout. I switched to a Berkley Glass Minnow and got a couple more trout. But in all 15 or so I got, only 1 that was a keeper at 16" the rest were 12 to 14.5" and I had to throw them back. But a great time.
From Trout Creek we could see a bunch of boats anchored about a 1/2 mile SE. We got curious so we went to see what was so interesting. Everyone was fishing but we didn’t see anyone catching. So we tossed the Berkley Glass Minnow out and trolled around. Most boats (there were about 10) were in 10-12 feet of water. We headed back towards Hog Island and in 8 feet of water Karen yelled, her indication she had a fish. I looked at her rod and saw it was a large fish and then the line snapped (I think it was my fault for getting it into the mangroves a few times, Fireline is not great for abrasions). We’ll never know what it was, I noted the time at about 12:30, we trolled for another half hour and headed home.
Added 5/16/2007: Found out that there are cobia in Charlotte Harbor out by marker 8. That's where we were when Karen hooked and lost that big fish. Must have been a cobia, see you out there Saturday.
