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.
Fishing Myakka River/Charlotte Harbor, Florida Sunday, June 24, 2007
Fish Caught: Goliath Grouper, Manatee, Update 7/1/07
High Tide: 11:30 PM 1.75 FT Low Tide: 5:00 AM .8 FT Wind: 0-5 NW Air Temp: 72/91 Water Temp: 85 Clarity: clear
Update July 1, 2007 WARNING: Thanks to Jim at Fine Bait & Tackle, 14503 Tamiami Trail, North Port, FL for setting us straight on this fish. It is a Goliath Grouper, or more commonly, Jewfish and it is Federally protected in any Florida water, on or off shore. There is a $5000.00 per fish fine plus your boat or car if you are in one. The easiest way to tell a Goliath from a Red Grouper is the end of the tail is round on the Goliath and straight on the red. A very exciting day on the water started at 6:00 AM. We managed to net some sardines just under the bridge at Biscayne Blvd. We spent a little time around sun up at the end of the Apollo Waterway with a little action on top water and a ray on the bait.
It was only 7:30 or so when we anchored at the El Jobean bridge. I started getting small hits immediately on the sardines and finally landed my first red grouper. I'd never seen one before and wasn't sure thats what it was but there you see the photo. I ended up with 4 in the boat from 6 to 10 inches. No where near the 20 inches we needed to get one to the dinner table, but still fun an unusual.
When I used up my bait we went looking for more. It wasn't too hard to find them but netting them was another story. There was bait all over the harbor around El Jobean but these were much larger and very timid. My cast net has a very fine mesh and doesn't sink very fast so we moved to the shallower water and tried to get some bait in about 3 feet of water. But the bait would dart away as soon as the net was in the air. After an hour of throwing a cast net your arms get a little weak, I finally gave it up with no more bait in my live well.
While not catching bait I noticed 2 or 3 manatee up in the shallower water. A few minutes later I saw what appeared to be a lobster pot bouy. If you've never been on the water up north you may not even know what that is. Lobster pot buoys are different from crab trap bouys in that they have a stick that rises above a bullet shaped bouy.
This marker was almost on shore and seemed so odd I decided to take a closer look. As we got about 50 feet away it started to move along the shore at a rate that had to mean it was attached to something that was swimming. As we pulled up along side of it it turned right into our path and I suddenly realized it was a manatee. I had to quickly shut down the motor and lift it up before the manatee and his/her marker passed diectly under our boat. Luckily we don't draw much water and the 2 feet under us allowed the manatee to pass without banging it's head but it's marker bumped the aluminum a few times.
We wondered later if we are supposed to read the marker and report it some where? I can't seem to find anything online about it. It seemed a little cruel to have that manatee towing that bouy but I suppose it may not even notice.
High Tide: 5:00 PM 2.3 FT Low Tide: 1:00 AM -.5 FT Wind: 5-10 E Air Temp: 71/91 Water Temp: 83 Clarity: murky
Left the dock at 6:00 AM, hot and muggy already. I netted some white bait just under the Biscayne bridge, a little scary with 50-100 bats coming back to roost, they were all around us. I was afraid of catching them when I threw the cast net.
Made a few casts by the mouth of the Apollo canal with a Gulp Swimming Mullet, lost a few tails probably to snapper. Threw my cast net and came up with 2 striped majjara (too big for bait) and a redfish about 10 inches long.
We stopped under the El Jobean Bridge and I used up my bait and a couple more Gulp playing around with small snappers.
We headed out for Trout Creek at about 8:30 AM. Came across 2 guys in a boat chasing something very large around on relatively light tackle. It came to the surface a few times, never jumped but we got a short look at what I think was a 5 foot shark. After 20 minutes watching we got bored and headed on, we’ll never know what it was for sure. If you were out near marker 9 on this Sunday morning please send me an email, I’d love to know what that was. Be glad to put your photo up here if you can get one to me.
Things were slow at Trout Creek, a lot of little bites on my Gulp, mostly just lost the tails. So I decided to try real shallow water, I pulled the anchor and poled into that first tiny shallow cove. I dropped the anchor just inside where I could cast to the entire cove. I finally tried a Heddon - Zara Puppy, about 3 inches long (its a small version of the spook). I immediately started getting snook smashing that spook out of the water. The hits were vicious but I never hooked one. I felt them many times but they seemed to be just attacking not eating. I was getting at least 1 hit every cast and sometimes 3 in a single retrieve. Some fish were very small but there were some nice big ones in there as well. It was a great 1/2 hour of action even though I had no fish in the boat. I did get 1 snook in the boat when I threw the cast net again, a small stingray as well.
We trolled around the harbor a while with no action. I did see a guy pull up a nice net full of sardines all appeared to be about 3 inches long, nice bait. This was also near marker 9 and I did mark some as I passed through. Not a huge school that I could see and tough to find to net but if you were in the right place, you were set for the day with bait.
High Tide: 4:00 PM 2.25 FT Low Tide: 12:10 AM -.25 FT Wind: 10-20 W Air Temp: 71/88 Water Temp: 78 Clarity: murky
Had a few days of rain and wind because of Tropical Storm Barry. So Sunday morning when we woke around 5:30 AM and the wind was light we decided to take a trip out. They were still predicting high wind so we decided to try the canal again. We left the dock about 6:30 and got about halfway out, just under the bridge at Biscayne Rd. and I noticed a large school of bait. I threw the net once and filled my live well with about 50 small green backs.
When we got to the end of the Apollo Waterway I saw a lot of action along the north sea wall, a place I never concentrated on before. So I set us up to drift the length of the wall and dragged a shiner while casting the Gulp Swimming Mullet at the wall. I got a nice 19-20 inch snook on the Gulp and immediately after letting it go I hooked into a huge Jack on the bait. A tiny little rod with a huge Jack is a lot of work and I went around that boat twice passing the rod between the openings in my bimini top before we finally got him in a net.
I caught a few small Mangrove snappers around a drain pipe that comes out of the sea wall. I had a small one almost to the boat when a snook that was very near 3 feet long tried to eat the snapper. He didn’t get it but he gave me a good look at him, I’ll be looking for him from now on.
It was a very pleasant morning, cool, breezy and refreshing. I think we will make many short trips to those local waters this summer.
