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: Redfish, Lady Fish, Trout, Snook, Blow Fish
High Tide: 10:00 AM 1.6 FT Low Tide: 5:30 PM 0.5 FT Wind: 0-5 NE Air Temp: 51/82 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: very clear
It was foggy again this morning so I didn't leave Eldred's Marina until about 11:00 AM. But by then it was beautiful weather with bright blue sky and next to no wind. It was our last day in Placida so I was alone to make the long trip back home. With as much fishing as I could stand along the way.
I went straight to Bull Bay and fished the point just inside the entrance to the west. The water was glassy calm and there were bait fish schooled just up on the flat next to the deeper channel. I netted a bunch and started catching trout with them and on my Gulp Swimming Mullet. I don't know how many I caught but it was a lot, all under the 15 inch minimum. I also caught some big pinfish and the largest blowfish I've seen in shallow water. When it finally got all puffed up it was about 8-9 inches in diameter.
There was a bunch of mullet jumping nearer to the mangroves and I keep reading "find the mullet and you'll find the redfish" so when I was tired of feeding the trout I poled over that way. I threw some bait out under a bobber and started casting my Gulp around over the grass and up near the mangroves. And about the 8th cast produced a nice 20 inch red. I poled around there for another hour with out much more action and decided to drift out with the tide towards the deeper water.
Just before the deep water the flat runs over an oyster bed which was only about 3 inches deep and 3 feet wide. I cast over it and had a nice hit but missed it. I had to pole around the deeper side of it and as I drifted back down to where I had had the hit I saw a school of about 5 redfish the biggest about 24 inches. The water was still glassy calm and very clear so while I was seeing the fish they were seeing me and scattering.
As I continued to drift that edge out towards the channel into Bull Bay I could see the bottom in 4-8 feet of water very clearly. I was seeing lots of reds in the shallower water but as I got farther down and deeper I started to see schools of snook. At times I saw as many as 10 snook in loose schools and they would scatter as I got near them. I cast my Gulp past them and tried bouncing it along the bottom towards them but it only seemed to frighten them off. I dropped some bait down with the same results. I think it was so clear they could watch me and could clearly see the line. Or they just weren't hungry, but either way I had no luck getting them interested in anything with a hook in it. It was nice to see them all there though.
It was getting late and I had a long way to go for my 15 mph max speed so I headed back around the point towards the Myakka River and home. The water was still glassy calm and speeding over 3 to 6 feet off water was more like flying over the terrain. Lots of stingrays and sharks were sunning themselves just inches below the surface. I saw several black tips the largest was about 4 feet and a hammerhead about 2.5 feet long. Stingrays were every where in large schools and I even saw 3 spotted eagle rays. I tried to get a photo but by the time I saw them I'd already frightened them. But here's a picture I found of the spotted eagle ray if you're interested.
I stopped at Trout Creek very briefly with no luck at all. I also stopped at the El Jobean bridge, again with no luck. I'd had 3 solid days on the water fishing and if you've ever spent days out there like that you know it will wear you out. So I headed for home and got the boat up on the lift by around 5:00 PM. Tired and relaxed, ready for a beer and to tell my fish stories of another great day on the water. First I had to clean fish for supper.
