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: 8:00 AM 1.75 FT Low Tide: 4:15 PM 0 FT Wind: 5-10 SW Air Temp: 75/95 Water Temp: 87 Clarity: clear
We decided to spend the week fishing Gasparilla Sound near Placida, Florida. There's a little marina called Eldred's Marina on the Boca Granded causeway jus before the toll bridge to Boca Grande. They get $10/night to leave your boat at their dock for the night.
So we left home in NW Port Charlotte about 6:10 AM and headed south. We had a little motor trouble which took 20 minutes to straighten out and we got a little lost coming around past Turtle and Bull Bays but we made the marina by about 9:20. Our boat is a 23' Crest Pontoon with a 40 HP Mercury Bigfoot so our top speed is only 15 MPH. It was a pleasant trip at that cool time of day.
We met our neighbors, Bimini and Julie at the marina, they agreed to give us a tour of the area and then a ride home. They've fished the area before so we welcomed their company and they are a lot of fun as well as serious fisher people. Bimini pointed me towards the live bait tanks at Eldred's, which are on the end of a dock. There were about 20 HUGE snook just stacked up waiting for someone to throw dead shrimp from the tank. The biggest one I saw was at least 35 inches and fat.
We netted finger mullet just 10 yards from that tank and headed out with a full livewell to find some hungry fish.
We fished all around Bird Key and the 2 little Mangrove Islands in front of the Fishery Restaurant. We drifted the pass just to 100 yards from the Gulf the flats on the east side of the railroad trestle. We were catching small trout, pinfish, and occasional jack, pufferfish, but nothing we could bring home. We watched dolphins playing and feeding on the very thick schools of baitfish which were every where. It's very different water from the mouth of the Myakka River that we know well.
We anchored near a sandbar and got out to swim and snorkel. There were lots of sand dollars, living conchs and all kinds of shells both alive, rented and empty to bring home for our garden.
It was 3:00 before we called it a day. That's a long day on a boat in the VERY HOT sun. We'll probably limit our trips to the cooler part of the morning for the rest of the week.
