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: 11:15 AM 2.0 FT Low Tide: 8:00 PM 0.2 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 73/91 Water Temp: 81 Clarity: clear
I managed to net about 5 dozen good sized sardines from a local canal Thursday afternoon. Having that much nice bait made me anxious to get fishing so we left the dock early, before 6:00 AM. I fished a short while at the end of the Apollo canal but I was to anxious to get to my snook spot at the El Jobean bridge, so we set out while it was still dark.
But that was disappointing. Almost no action at the bridge. A few lady fish that never got to the boat but ripped up my sardines and my Gulp Swimming mullets.
I'd been looking at the satellite images at the Charlotte County GIS System and the top of the Tippecanoe Bay. It seemed like a lot of water passes through that area when the tides are changing so I decided to try some snook fishing up there.
We cruised around that area throwing the Gulp and live lining the sardines. There was a lot of action but the fish all seemed small and I couldn't get anything to the boat to see what I was dealing with. I lost the tail off mt gulp several times, which seemed odd in that shallow water. It's usually trout, lady fish or snapper that do that. I saw a small shark cruising around us for a while but I couldn't catch his attention.
I finally hooked a redfish on my Gulp in one of the little shallow coves. He was 18.5 inches, just enough to keep for supper. We blackened it with some cajun seasoning, excellent.
On our way back we saw ladyfish busting up the bait near the El Jobean bridge so we stopped a got a few for the crab traps.
We did have one exciting find on our way in to the dock. The story starts on our trip out around 6:00 AM. I spotted something floating in the water and I shined a light on it. It appeared to be a cooler and I wondered why it would be in the water and if there might be something still in it. On our way back in I recognized it again a little farther up the canal so I pulled over to see what it might be. I at least thought we might get some garbage out of the water.
But, we were surprised to find it was a safe. The kind you might have in a closet in you home to keep valuables. As I tried to get it on the boat it popped open, apparently it had been damaged. But it was near full of stuff, the most obvious were a couple check books on the top. Karen pawed through enough to find some keys and she read an address in the check book. We decided to not look any farther and call the police when we got it home.
The police woman was able to determine that a report of 2 stolen safes had been filed by the person whos's name was on the check book. She was contacted and the safe and contents where returned. I have since heard that a safe was found in a canal in Punta Gorda a few weeks ago. If you're the vandal, be warned that there are good people that will try to get you. I hope there are finger prints on that safe that will get back to you.
We got back to the dock at about 1:30 PM. A very long day on the water but a great day. Seems like every day on the water is a great day!
