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.
Fish Caught: Snook, Trout, Sail Cat, Goliath Grouper
High Tide: 2:00 PM 1.5 FT Low Tide: 8:00 AM 0.5 FT Wind: 5-10 N Air Temp: 53/80 Water Temp: 76 Clarity: murky
I forgot about the time change, I really wanted to leave the dock in the dark but it was getting light already at 6:20 AM when I got underway. I went straight to the El Jobean bridge to catch the low tide turning in at 8:00 AM.
I had some very nice 4 inch sardines which I got in the water still with an outgoing tide that was pretty fast. It's hard to fish that in my favorite snook spot but I managed to get a bite on the 3rd cast, which I missed. But I managed a 23 inch snook a few casts later on my Gulp Swimming Mullet. I finally found the Swimming Mullet in Berkley's new bucket and I'm glad I did, they are much better when stored in all the extra juice. FishUSA has them and their shipping is cheaper than any other I've found. Click the banner below.
I went on to boat 2 more snook about 25 inches each and missed one other good strike, all on the live bait. I also got a 2 Goliath Grouper of average size for here about 10-12 inches and one trout about 12 inches. By this time I had positioned myself for the incoming tide and about 9:45 I threw out my last live bait. As it drifted with the tide up to the edge of the bridge I felt a nice heavy bump on the line and set the hook. It was big, there was a large swirl in the water as my pole doubled over and that big snook dove right back into the bridge pilings. I couldn't stop her so in another 15 seconds of battle I could feel the line scraping the barnacle covered cement until it finally cut. Another nice fish lost and no more bait.
As I looked around for bait I saw birds diving several hundred yards out so I headed that way. The bait was small, no good to me so I threw a gulp to see what was feeding on it. I caught 4 good sized sail cats in the next 20 minutes. I found you had to let the gulp hit the bottom very often to hook the them, but sail cats is not my favorite fish. Although I know a few people that love to eat them.
I decided to call it a day and come back again tomorrow.
