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: 6:30 AM 1.5 FT Low Tide: 2:00 PM 0.0 FT Wind: 5-10 S Air Temp: 64/82 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: clear
My 2 sisters, Judy from New Jersey and Kate & husband James from Lakeland, FL are visiting for a weekend of fishing. The 5 of us set out from the dock, with a live well full of Sardines, at a liittle before 10:00 AM. It was still foggy so we stopped in the canal for a half hour until the sun burned through. No action in the canal.
When we got to the El Jobean bridge there were a lot of boats and all my favorite spots were occupied. We anchored out a little southeast of the bridge where the outgoing tide starts to slow. There was a school of small sand trout feeding on bait fish and the Gulp Swimming Mullet did the trick. I must have caught and released 15 small sand trout between 6 and 12 inches long.
James had never caught a fish before and I'm glad to say I helped end this streak by hooking him up with the monster sand trout you see in the *photo. Judy hooked what seemed to be a nice fish only to net a 3 foot gar. Exciting! James muscled even a bigger Gar right to the side of the boat and almost into the net when the spit hook flew over my head and stuck in the back of my shirt.
Many years ago when Kate was very young she and I would occasionally go flounder fishing and bring coktail sauce for flounder sushi from our first catch of the day. James, Kate and I tried one of the sand trout as sushi, it was unanimously agreed that sand trout is NOT sushi grade fish. It is amazingly chewy!
When my favorite spot was vacated we pulled anchor and zipped right in behind the leaving boat. The tide was just getting slack and I knew there'd be snook there shortly. And I was right, the first 2 came on the Gulp Swimming Mullet and then 2 more on live sardines. I got 3 of those and Judy got one. Kate tried hard but no luck. They all ran about 21-23 inches, a fun fish but under sized and out of season until March. But I know where to be on March 1st.
We ran out of bait around 3 and headed home. Another great day on the water. When we got home we loaded the truck and went down the street to catch tomorrows bait. So we're all ready for another day of fun in the sun. I think we'll go right out to the Myakka Cutoff to get out of the 10-20 MPH SSE wind they're predicting for today. We'll be poling around the Mangroves in very skinny water. Hopefully some big reds will be sunning with us.
*Kate took all the photos on her digital and we couldn't get them to my computer to post today. She'll email them when she gets home and I'll add them then.
