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: 6:30 PM 2.2 FT Low Tide: 2:30 AM -0.5 FT Wind: 5-10 E Air Temp: 61/89 Water Temp: 74 Clarity: clear
Its been way too long since my last fishing trip. A lot of work is not always a good thing but considering the economy I guess I won't complain. This week we have a guest from Connecticut, Lorraine, staying with us. So I but in some very long hours to make sure I had time to get her out on the water.
So I got 3 dozen shrimp from El Jobean Bait & Tackle Shop and about 9:00 AM we left the dock to see what we could do. Bimini had also given me a few nice shiners our frien Dave had caught from the Venice Pier. We stopped at the docks at the end of the canal and immediately started catching small mangrove snappers. Many were right about the 10 " minimum but I kept throwing them back hoping we'd find some a little bigger. I wish I'd kept them.
The tide was very odd, not really maintaining any movement, just a lazy in and out never moving quickly in any direction. I suspect the east wind was blowing a lot of water out of Charlotte Harbor and keeping our tide from coming in. In the calm clear water I could see some pretty large spade fish coming up along the dock pilings but I was unable to get them to eat my shrimp. Bimini managed to catch a few large ones the day before and I'd hope to get a few. But no luck.
We finally got bored and decided to head to the El Jobean bridge where we anchored in about 12 feet of water with the slow tide dragging our bait into the bridge. On one of those nice shiners I hooked something quite large but I couldn't hold it away from the bridge and it finally cut my line. My guess from the slow heavy fight is a big goliath grouper, but maybe a big snook, I've pulled many from that spot.
I was catching lots of small snapper and finally got Lorraine to hold a pole and she got her first 2, ever, fish. Two small snapper.
We went back to the canal and I threw my Gulp Swimming Mullet up and down the seawalls and was finally rewarded with a nice 12 inch snapper and that with a couple that were just legal made a wonderful lunch on Thursday.
We finally called it a long day about 4:00 PM. Headed for the dock and some wonderful margaritas. another wonderful day on the water.
I just wanted to post a note here to keep a time record of this incident. As I was throwing an unhooked snapper back into the water it gave an energetic flip and its very sharp, long, top fin stuck into the side of my finger. It was quite painful for a few seconds but it does happen and I ignored it. Well, the next morning the tip of my finger was numb. Maybe a slight sensation of pins and needles but very little sense of touch. Where the wound was, between the first and second knuckle, was not extremely painful. There was a spot that hurt when pressure was applied. It has been hard to grip things with that hand but that is subsiding now. But the feeling is not returning to the tip of that finger as I type now. I guess that fish hit a nerve. By twlack, At
June 7, 2009 9:35 AM
