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: 6:15 AM 2.1 FT Low Tide: 1:50 PM .1 FT Wind: 5-10 S Air Temp: 75/91 Water Temp: 85 Clarity: murky
Finally, snook are in season again. I went out on Friday to a local canal that has been holding sardines and netted a bucket which included sardines, small mullet and Striped Mojarra. On Saturday we left the dock by about 6:15 and got to the first fishing spot on the ApolloWaterway as the sun was just brightening the sky. I got a nice strike on a Heddon - Zara Puppy which I'm pretty certain was a mid sized snook. They love that top water lure, one of the few I've had luck with.
We went on to the sea walls down at the end of the canal and drifted through throwing a Berkley Gulp 4 inch White Swimming Mullet. The sea walls were alive with fish popping and any wake that brushed the walll seemed to energized the fish. I suspect they are eating those little bugs that always crawl just above the water line and the wake probably washes a few into the fishes reach.
I hooked something very large on the Gulp but lost it after only about 15 seconds. It felt big and more like a snook than a jack which are common to that area. Once the sun was up full the activity there stopped so we headed out to the El Jobean bridge.
The tide was moving extremely fast at the bridge. I saw tarpon rolling and was surprised that I couldn't hook one up on the sardines. But it was hard to keep from being washed into the pilings and after losing a few rigs and only catching small goliath grouper we moved out to one of the bays behind Hog Island.
It was hot in the mangroves and not much action. I boated one small snook, about 18 inches, on the Gulp and the sky started looking very threatening. We headed back to the bridge with the intent of waiting out the storm under its protection. But after another half hour the storm seemed to be intensifying and the wind started blowing us around so much we decided to run before we got stuck in the worst of it.
It turned out to be one of those very local storms and in 5 minutes we were back in the sun looking at the storm coming slowly behind us. We were back at the dock just before noon, another enjoyable day on the water.
