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, Sheepshead, Snook, Trout, Mangrove Snapper
High Tide: 6:00 AM 2.1 FT Low Tide: 3:00 PM 0 FT Wind: 20-30 E Air Temp: 62/84 Water Temp: Clarity: dark
Tom and Patty, a couple of Karen's cousins are down for a few days from the cold north. So we needed to squeeze in a fishing day even though the wind was outrageous. We took a few dozen shrimp and set out at 10:00 AM knowing we probably could not venture out in the open water of the Myakka river where the wind would lift us by the bimini top and fly us like a kite at the end of the anchor line.
Even our normal sheltered spots were very windy, I had to break out the bigger anchor to keep us on bottom. But we started catching fish with the first shrimp in the water, which was put out there by Tom. And it was a show stopper, I mean HE was a show stopper, the fish was a redfish about 13 inches long (Arlene, he had to throw it back because as you know the slot limit for redfish is 18 to 24 inches) but Tommy made us believe it was a six footer. I think he was really enjoying the spotlight since he had to leave his poor wife, Arlene, home to work. Tom had us running with the net for every little fish he caught, which was a lot. We caught so many redfish in the 10 to 14 inch range we lost count, I think we agreed it was at least 20 between us.
For a very long time we were getting bites on every cast and many resulted in some kind of fish in the boat. Mangrove snapper (many keepers and a few up in the 13-14 inch range) sheepshead (lots of small ones but 2 went 15 and 17 inches, huge for the canal), of course redfish. Patty started the day saying she wanted to relax and didn't need a fishing pole. But the heavy action got her out of her seat catching fish before too long. She didn't quite have Tom's enthusiasm, no one did, but I think she added her share to the dinner table.
After several hours the wind was getting very annoying so we moved back up the canal a ways and tied off on one of the markers. Bob and Cheryl, our neighbors up the canal were on their way to try some fishing so we had them tie up with us. Cheryl started right out with a small snook that she tossed back vowing the next would be a keeper. That never did happen but she did catch enough keeper snapper so they could have dinner. Bob did pretty well with the beer while keeping his feet elevated. And thats when Tom caught a trout which shocked us all. There haven't been many around this year, at least not up as far as El Jobean so to see one way up in the canal was surprising.
Somewhere around 3:00 everybody started running out of energy, wind and sun burned, hungry and thirsty we turned the boat home. The affects of 5 hours in 20-30 MPH winds didn't become apparent until we got in the shelter of the living room. It felt a little like sensory deprivation, so quiet and still. But we cleaned our sheepshead and snapper and blackened it on the grill and had a great dinner.
I think everyone had a great day on the water (except Robby and Arlene the worker bees at home) I know I did. I can't imagine getting on a plane and heading back north after a day like that, so I'm staying and I wish Patty and Tommy the best until our next fishing trip, you too Arlene and Rob!
