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: Mangrove Snapper, Spanish Mackerel, Catfish
High Tide: 1:00 PM 2.0 FT Low Tide: 6:30 AM 0.9 FT Wind: 0-5 E Air Temp: 70/87 Water Temp: 82 Clarity: murky
My Dad had open heart surgery about 5 months ago so he's been working hard at getting back up to par. He finally felt strong enough to spend a day on the water so he and Mom came out for a few days and today was our fishing day.
I got 4 dozen shrimp from El Jobean Bait & Tackle Shop and we got on the water by about 7:30 AM. My Dad really likes to fish for trout and I'd heard of a spot they were getting them recently. It's out just a little past the El Jobean bridge and we went right there and made a couple drifts through the area. But there was nothing there.
So we moved back to the bridge and anchored so we could drift the shrimp, on the incoming tide, into the it. We immediately started catching mangrove snapper. The first was a monster 14 inch fish but after that they were mainly under 10 inches (10 inches is the minimum limit) and while we got an awful lot of snapper, I was catching one on every cast for about an hour, we only ended up with 5 keepers. A nice supper for 4 people.
I also was just starting to retrieve a shrimp that had drifted past the snapper zone when something grabbed it and I hooked it. It seemed obviously different than the snappers and we finally netted a nice big 18 inch spanish mackerel. We've found these are very tasty when pan blackened so we added it to the cooler.
There were a lot of dolphin in the area and my Mom spotted a couple playing just on the other side of the bridge. They were jumping several feet out of the water and splashing back. They continued to do this several times after Mom pointed them out to us. It must be a good life as a dolphin in Charlotte Harbor.
We went through our shrimp very quickly with all the snapper action and it was beginning to get a little warm so we headed back to the dock by around 11:30 AM. Another great day on the water, one of many more I hope to spend out there with my folks.
I was fishing the Charlotte Harbor reef the other day and caught what I thought was a Spanish mackerel,but something just did'nt look right I checked the fish I D site and it was a cero.the meat was lighter and it tasted very good. tight lines Harry By Harry Mullica, At
June 7, 2009 9:14 PM
Hi Harry, Thanks for the note. I'd never even heard of a cero mackerel before but I also just went to the fish ID site for FWC and you may be right. What I caught may have been a cero. Unfortunately I did not take a photo but I did look at that mackerel a few times to be sure it was not a small king, something just seemed different about it. By twlack, At
June 8, 2009 6:44 AM
