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 Sunday, May 24, 2009
Fish Caught: Sugar Trout, Sail Cat, Lady Fish, Gar
High Tide: 3:00 PM 2.4 FT Low Tide: 11:45 PM -0.5 FT Wind: 5-10 E Air Temp: 71/88 Water Temp: 81 Clarity: murky
We had a little BBQ for Memorial Day and all our guests came by boat. After dinner we packed up a couple boats and ran out to the El Jobean bridge. I had some shrimp from El Jobean Bait & Tackle Shop and a couple others had been catching and freezing mullet and rays for a few days. Shark was our goal.
The sun was down but the sky was still brightly colored when we anchored up just a few hundred yards north west of the El Jobean bridge in the Myakka River. The tide was ripping out so our baits were carried towards the bridge and the El Jobean fishing Pier. In the top photo on this page we'd have been just in the right edge of the picture. We set up some IV drips (literally) of menhaden oil, tossed out a bunch of varied baits both on the bottom and under corks and settled in for the night. The radio played some great classic rock, the wind blew just enough to keep bugs away and keep us comfortable on a nice warm night.
It was a night to catch big sail cats and that started immediately. I think Beth probably got the first and the most but I think I had the biggest. The sail cats kept us busy all night long. I know most people don't like them but they are really very good to eat. They need to be quite large to make it worth the effort of filleting them but we were catching some of the biggest I've seen and we ended up with a cooler full which are headed for the dinner table.
There was also a school of sugar trout and I seemed to hit that hole with a shrimp on a lead head jig. I pulled in just shy of ten sugar trout and tried a few as bait under a cork. But they only attracted the attention of some big sail cats. The bait was about half the size of the sail cats but they ate them anyway.
Julie hooked into what we had hoped was our first shark. But when it got into view of the boat lights it was a huge, nearly 4 foot long, gar. It was almost scary thinking about bringing that thing into the boat to unhook. But luckily, after playing with it for a while, it released itself.
And that's about it for the night. Sounds kind of uneventful as a fishing trip but I assure you it was not. It was midnight before we decided to head home. The hours passed in what seemed like minutes. Good weather, good music and most importantly good friends made for an extremely enjoyable evening on the water. I hope to do it again soon.
High Tide: 2:00 PM 1.75 FT Low Tide: 8:00 AM 0.5 FT Wind: 0-5 S Air Temp: 66/89 Water Temp: 75 Clarity: clear
I was sitting on our dock yesterday when my neighbor, Bimini, was bringing her Mom and Dad in from a day of fishing. They had spent the day trying to catch spadefish from under a dock where they'd stumbled on a large school with some large fish. I'd only caught them accidentally and they were always small so when Bimini asked if I'd want to go back with her in the morning I couldn't resist.
I went down to El Jobean Bait & Tackle Shop a little before 6 Am and picked up 4 dozen shrimp and by 6:30 we were on our way down the canal in Bimini's boat. When we got in site of the sea walls the water was alive. So we cut the engine and drifted on the outgoing tide casting Gulp and drifting some big shiners caught from the Venice pier.
Bimini had several misses on her shiner and I cast my Gulp in front of a big, fast moving wake and hooked up with a nice big jack that kept me busy for the next 5 minutes. We got a couple rays and catfish and when we reached the end of the canal the tide was just turning in so we headed back to drift some shrimp under the docks. We immediately spotted a school of spadefish feeding on jellyfish delivered to them by the incoming tide. I can say that's what they were eating now because once we started catching them, each one would regurgitate a small pile of jellyfish onto the deck of the boat. I had never known any fish to eat jellyfish but I did some Googling and found it is a favorite food of the spadefish. I'd noticed my last trip out there seemed to be a lot of jellyfish in the water, I guess that's why the spadefish have moved inshore so far.
Bimini had spent a day already catching these fish so she told me what I needed to do. A smallish hook with a 3rd of a medium shrimp and the shrimp had to be shelled first. She also said a steel leader but I couldn't get myself to use a steel leader with such a small hook. What fish is ever going to take that bait that was so obviously attached to a big bulky steel leader, right? Well after hooking several spadefish and having them wrap my line around the docks pilings and snapping me off I accepted Bimini's steel leader. We got a lot of spadefish after that, letting many smaller ones go (no size or bag limits) and keeping the larger, platter sized fish you see in the photo.
Here's the best spadefish catching story of the day. They are extremely strong fish. They turn that wide body against the water and they go just about anywhere they want and you better hold on to your rod with two hands. So once you managed to hook one (they nibble at the shrimp until there is just a tiny piece left) the big ones just run right under the dock and around and around the pilings. I hooked a good one and it ran three times around the piling nearest the boat until I could no longer see or even feel him on my line. So Bimini runs to the back of the boat and puts slack in the anchor line while yelling to me to let my line slack. She runs back up and moves the boat right up to the dock piling and tells me to hand the pole under the dock to her. After we did this 3 times the line was still snagged in the barnacles and oysters, it wouldn't unwind any further and I still couldn't feel a fish. So I dipped the rod down under the water and started trying to untangle it from the pole when suddenly the spadefish burst out from under the dock and the line came free from everything. My thirty pound mono leader would have been useless under those conditions. I'm surprised my 20 lb. Power Pro Spectra braided line held, I don't think Fireline would hold up to that abrasion. But we netted the fish.
When the tide really got moving fast the spadefish moved off and we started feeding the little mangrove snapper that are almost always there. I got three that were between 11 and 13 inches which is a nice size for eating.
We drifted on the tide for a while throwing Gulp and floating a couple of the big shiners. A big shark hit Bimini's but it quickly spit the hook and we couldn't seem to hook it again even though we saw it a few more times. The bait was pretty lively and that shark gave up trying to catch him even on a cork.
So by about 2:30 we were tired and still had to clean fish so we headed home. Another great day on the water.
The spadefish was good eating. We blackened it, the taste is great, the meat is a little mushy in texture but overall very good blackened. I'll gladly spend another day fighting with the spadefish.
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
