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 Friday, November 7, 2008
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.
High Tide: 8:15 AM 1.75 FT Low Tide: 4:45 PM 0.2 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 51/79 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: clear
Thursday morning was a bit foggy so we waited until about 10:00 AM to leave Eldred's Marina and we went straight out to the far side of Devilfish Key. There were a couple other boats there and a few guys wading along the sanding shore casting into the deeper grass flats. We anchored just off the east point where we could see a lot of action in the water. Turned out to be mostly mullet with ladyfish moving thru a little and lots of pinfish. After a half hour or so with only a couple ladyfish I chummed up some pinfish, threw my net and put a half dozen pinfish in my live well.
We picked up and went over to Bull Bay. It was still breezy and a little cool so I went east upon entering Bull Bay and we went up on the south side of one of the bigger islands in the lee of that north wind. It was beautiful there and we pulled a couple small redfish out on a Gulp Swimming Mullet. Karen had a nice hit on one of the pinfish but she missed it. We poled around in about 1-3 feet of water with mullet jumping all around us and an occasional school of bait fish passing thru with little more action.
In the mean time the wind died and it got very hot in the sun. We started back towards the mouth of Bull Bay but almost a soon as I started the motor something took off from about 20 yards in front of us. I managed to motor close enough to see a 4-5 foot black tipped shark. We stopped by one of the stilt houses and drifted a pinfish under a Cajun thunder cork just outside of the stilts. On every pass I hooked a grouper looking fish that I had never seen before. I looked thru all the grouper listed in the fish identification charts at My FWC and the closest thing I see is the Black Sea Bass. The picture there is not great but the description lists "iridescent blue and ebony markings" which were very obvious on the few fish I caught. then end of all it's lower fins and tail ended in a line of bright iridescent blue, it was beautiful. All were around a foot long and the minimum size limit is only 10 inches. I think we may have released a nice dinner. I wish I had taken a photo, doe anyone have one they could send me?
We didn't have much luck fishing beyond that. We looked for conch shells on the sand bars just outside Bull Bay and while there were plenty only two were unoccupied. We caught more ladyfish as huge schools moved around us but mostly we enjoyed the weather which had turned perfect and the water which was like glass.
On our way back to Eldred's we stopped once more by Devilfish Key, on the east end where there's a shallow bar that the outgoing tide was washing over. It was just loaded with schools of pinfish feeding on the debris washing over the bar. I don't think I've ever seen so many pinfish schooling in one spot before.
The sun was getting low as we idled under the Boca Grand Causeway Bridge into Placida Harbor, another great day on the water.
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.
High Tide: 5:00 AM 2.0 FT Low Tide: 2:00 PM 0.1 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 63/82 Water Temp: 74 Clarity: dark
I just haven't been able to get out fishing. The few days that I thought I could take the time the weather turned too windy or rainy.
But I have spent an hour or two in the late afternoons down on our dock with some kind of bait in the water. It's a little slow, we don't get a lot of big fish up this far on a regular basis but now and then a nice snook, some keeper mangrove snappers and even redfish and tarpon will surprise us.
But something happened today that surprised us even more. I had a shiner on a bobber in the water for about a half hour. It was getting near time to change it for a fresher one. I looked down the canal and saw a very large wake headed right up the middle of the canal. We've seen manatee and dolphin come by many times and this wake was more like a dolphin. But dolphin always breach frequently and usually are playing or zipping back and forth and very often their fins stick out of the shallow canal water.
But this wake came straight up moving about 6-8 miles per hour, went right past us and my dying bait fish and continued on out of site. Karen was with me and we had our eye on this wake for at least 3 minutes. We never saw a fin or tail or the kind of wake left by the big tail of a manatee. It was more like a submarine went by.
About 10 minutes later, I was watching for a return trip of the wake and sure enough I spotted it coming back down. I had put a fresh bait on and had it right in the center of the canal so the wake would have to pass close. I grabbed another rod with a small Heddon popper and cast it across the canal and waited.
The wake passed within 4 feet of my bait but never slowed or turned to look. So I started retrieving my popper trying to time it so it would pop right in front of the wake. And that's what it did, about 3 feet in front of the traveling wake. But again it just kept going, never slowed or turned. I watched it travel down out of sight and again it did not show itself at all. The wake was so big it was bouncing off the seawalls and had the entire canal roughed up after it's pass.
I have to assume it was a shark and that maybe it was on the look out for a mammal in the water? Or perhaps there was some kind of blood trail in the canal? I don't know for sure but it was interesting. Be glad to hear comments or guesses about what we witnessed.
