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, Sail Cat, Spanish Mackerel, Skate/Ray
High Tide: 7:00 AM 1.8 FT Low Tide: 4:00 PM 0.2 FT Wind: 5-10 N Air Temp: 55/69 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: clear
Finally, the weather cooperates and our plans to take the boat down to Gasparilla Sound for a few days fishing will be realized. It was kind of cool in the morning so I didn't rush out too early, but when I was finally packed and ready to go the boat wouldn't start. Turned out the battery shorted overnight (was fine the day before) so after a trip to get a new battery and installation time we were ready to leave the dock by about 10:30 AM.
The plan was for Karen and Julie to travel by car to meet Bimini and I at Eldred's Marina in Placida. Bimini and I would make a few stops along the way to see if we could catch a few and meet them for a late lunch and then some more fishing.
Our first stop was Trout Creek and our first fish was a small snook on a white Gulp Swimming Mullet. But soon after we started catching trout, lots of trout, but most were 12-13 inches. We caught about 15 trout on shrimp, greenbacks and Gulp with only 2 going over the 15 inch minimum but of course there is now a closed season for Nov-Dec. But it was fun catching them and nice to see so many around.
Next stop was supposed to be Bull Bay but neither of us had been down there for a long time and we made the turn in a little early and passed thru Turtle Bay. We paused in the middle of the pass and caught a few big ladyfish in very shallow water. Just as we passed into Bull Bay there were a couple small islands that really blocked the cold wind so we anchored there for a while. There were a lot of Mullet jumping and after a while we started spotting reds tailing in the shallows just a little out of casting range. Bimini poled us in a little closer and I dropped a Gulp on one of them and boated a nice 19 inch red. It was awful shallow but the site of those tails was more than we could resist. But when we decided to head for deeper water we found we were stuck. It was about dead low now so after pushing and shoving we settled in to wait for the upcoming tide to float us again.
About 2 hours later I jumped in the water and lifted the engine enough to get us going again. We were very late for our lunch date so we postponed it to the next day by cell phone and finished the day in Bull Bay. As we drifted near the entrance to Bull Bay the wind really picked up and clouds blew in from the north, it was cold. But we caught a nice Mackerel on chunked ladyfish and a huge sail cat on a live pinfish and a bunch of other small stuff.
About 4:30 or so it was really getting windy and the sky was dark so we headed back to Eldred's. It was a cool ride back but a nice exciting day on the water.
