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: 8:15 AM 2.1 FT Low Tide: 2:15 AM 0.8 FT Wind: 5-10 NW Air Temp: 97/73 Water Temp: 87 Clarity: average
It's been so hot an humid but not very much rain for this time of the year. We have a drainage culvert along the edge of our property that normally runs down into the canal pretty regularly in July and August. Snook love to sit just outside that torrent and catch frogs, bugs, etc. that get washed down. It has only trickled out of that pipe a couple times this season. And fishing in general has been a little slow and the weather has been too hot to enjoy it.
But we decided to get out early and since we had an 8:15 high tide we left the dock before 6:00 AM. I found some nice sardines schooling in the canal on my way out and put 30 or so in my live well. I casted the sea walls at the end of the Apollo Watery way with a Pop'R but no luck
We were anchored at the El Jobean bridge by around 7:00 AM so we still had the incoming tide. I was throwing a Gulp 3" Sardine while letting the live bait drift into the bridge pilings with just a small split shot. Had a couple strikes on the Gulp when the live bait pole bent over pretty hard. I managed to grab it before the fish got free and fought a nice healthy 22" snook to the boat. Of course that's undersize and out of season so I tossed him back.
Did you know the snook regulations have been changed effective on the next opening day which is September 1, 2007? They changed the slot limit to 28" to 33" inches with pinched tail and the closed season was expanded to include all of December and February. Snook closed season is now May-August and December-February. But please check with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for updates, they seem to want to change them frequently.
I also had a 3.5 inch striped mojarra that I fished under the bridge. A goliath grouper inhaled that and gave me a nice battle back to the boat. He was about 12 inches long and of course goliath grouper being a federally protected fish I unhooked him as quickly as possible and got him back in the water. It's nice to see them coming back, I’ve heard of many much larger goliath being caught in deeper waters. Maybe some day we'll be allowed to but one on our dinner table.
By about 9:30 it was getting awful warm in the sun so we moved under the bridge into the shade. I fed the rest of my sardines to what I assume where mangrove snapper but I never got one into sight. I saw quite a few tarpon rolling around in the shade but I couldn't seem to hook one.
By 10:30 we were getting bored and hot so we headed home. A pleasant short day on the water, but I'm ready for cooler weather.
