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: 3:45 PM 2.1 FT Low Tide: 9:45 AM .9 FT Wind: 5-10 SE Air Temp: 73/89 Water Temp: 85 Clarity: murky
Left the dock about 6:30 AM. Anchored between the sea walls at the end of the Apollo Waterway and live lined some live bait I netted Sunday morning and tossed a Gulp Swimming Mullet. Nothing.
We moved on to the bridge over the Myakka River at El Jobean, FL. On the way out the motor started dieing but I discovered it would start up again after pumping the gas flow bulb. We had to stop and pump every 5 minutes. So we headed over to Gulf Coast Marine Center in El Jobean, FL.
I thought it might be water in the gas or the water separator filter. So I went in to buy a new filter and a can of dry gas (temporary fix because I didn't have a filter wrench). Bob, the service manager stopped me (I bought my boat there and have Bob service it every 100 hours) and suggested this was not my problem. He came out to the boat and did a little work and told me my problem was the bulb. Sold me a new one and everything I'll need to replace the old one and showed me how to get through the day with the old one then sent us back off to fish in time to catch the tide I wanted. There was no charge for the diagnostics, thanks Bob.
So I got back to the bridge a half hour before the low slack, perfect. I expected to find some large snook when the tide turned back in, but I was wrong. I fed the little mangrove snapper most of my bait and by 11:00 or so the tide was way to fast and we started dragging the anchor (no I didn't get a new one yet).
We moved back into the canal and sat with some bait on the bottom while we ate lunch. That's when I got a giant sail cat, which I let go. I did a little casting under the bridges along the Apollo and Jupiter Waterways and got some action with small (18-22 inches) snook on my Berkley Gulp.
We also saw an interesting duck that seemed to be dancing for us. I will research it and put my video of it up here when I get time. We were back at the dock by about 1:00 PM.
One thing I should mention about the day. It was very overcast, more like the cloudy day so typical up in New england where it doesn't rain but you never see the sun. Very, very unusual for south west Florida where we usually get sun most of the day and then sudden bursts of thunderstorms. The overcast did make the day cooler and more pleasant.
