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: 9:30 PM 1.5 FT Low Tide: 6:00 AM -0.25 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 48/79 Water Temp: 70 Clarity: clear
We finally got a chance to go out fishing and the wind didn't pick up to stop us. It seems like it's (the wind) been watching us and plotting to keep us on shore.
It was a strange tide, coming up slowly all day long. I went to get some bait early in the morning but couldn't find any. So we went up to Fines Bait in north Port and bought a couple dozen, mostly small, shrimp. I guess cold snaps make it very hard to get larger shrimp. But they also say to fish with what is available because that's what the fish are eating.
So we took our small shrimp and when the tide was just high enough we slid the boat off the lift and headed straight to the El Jobean bridge. It was around 1:00 PM when we got anchored and started drifting shrimp and casting Gulp at the bridge pilings. We spent about 2 hours feeding small mangrove snapper. I got about 7 in the boat the largest was just about keeping size which is 10 inches. But the rest were much smaller down to 5 inches. Anyone that fishes for snapper knows they are experts at taking a shrimp off your hook and avoiding being hooked. So as you can imagine I was busy with these little things. I also hooked and boated a small skate. Not many people in this area call them skate so I did a little looking and if you're interested here is a great site about fish and this page in particular is about skates and rays. After a couple hours we gave up and headed back to our canal.
It was still early (3:30 PM) and such a beautiful day that we decided to throw some of those little shrimp under the docks on the way up the Apollo Waterway. My second cast I had a nice bite but missed it. As my shrimp just got to the surface a nice Sheepshead grabbed at it but missed and turned back under the dock. A few casts later I felt a heavy tug and the line started moving at a steady pace under the dock. When I set the hook I thought I'd gotten wrapped around the dock piling. But when I finally managed to get the fish out from under the dock and it hit open water it took off. I realized then I had a nice fish. I yelled to Karen to get the net and as she came along side me the fish rolled and she yelled "that's not a fish its a whale." Well it wasn't quite a whale but it was a beautiful redfish and it gave us quite a fight before finally sliding into the net.
The bad news is it was 2 inches over the slot limit of 18 to 27 inches so we had to throw it back. So no fish for supper but another great day on the water!
