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 Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fish Caught: Redfish, Snook, Jack, Catfish, Mangrove Snapper, Stingray
High Tide: 2:05 AM 2.2 FT Low Tide: 10:20 AM -0.5 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 68/86 Water Temp: Clarity: dark
My two sisters, Judy and Kate, walked for breast cancer (Judy is a survivor) in Tampa last weekend. They were both very tired and struggling to walk on blistered feet, so they spent a couple days with us, one sitting by the pool and one sitting on the boat. As it turned out the day on the boat was not all that physically relaxing. A good thing!
We got Kate up and on the boat by 7:00 AM, a miracle I'm told. And we started right off catching small mangrove snapper and catfish. The bite was light and we fed a lot of those little thieves very well. We tried a couple spots and got a couple keepers one over 13 inches. We ended up by the docks at the end of the canal were we added several small reds and a very small snook to the tally.
It was a nice cool, lazy, breezy morning when an odd noise slowly caught everyone's attention. It sounded like the squall line of a big thunderstorm with the big heavy rain drops hitting the water and racing towards us. The sound increased in volume until we had to raise or voices to speak above it and the water came alive under the far end of the dock. The splashing spread out across the canal and came in our direction until we were surrounded by splashing, roiling water. It was such a vicious feeding frenzy we were actually getting wet sitting on my pontoon boat a good 2 feet off the water. And everyone hooked up with a jack varying from 9 to 12 inches long. Lots of fun. I wish I had my video camera so you could see and hear that approaching wall of white water. I've been around feeding jacks before but never such an aggressive bunch and never that close. You could hear them hitting the bottom of the boat, I'm sure the net would have picked up 3 or 4 per scoop if we'd wanted.
Of course it ended any other fishing as they passed. They continued to resurface in huge schools for the rest of the day. We motored out a short way into the canal and caught and released a few more before a guy stopped and asked what we were catching. When we told him he asked if he would be bothering us if he dropped his seine net next time they surfaced. We were anxious to watch and told him so and about 10 minutes later we got to see him in action. I think he said he's allowed 3 (maybe 4?), 500 ft nets on board. When the jacks showed themselves again he raced off to one side of the school and tossed one end of his net in. Then he circled around the outside of the school letting the net feed out until he circled back to the beginning. He then pulled both ends into his boat, tied one end off and started hauling the other end in. It looked like a tough job. He had a big u shaped area around the back of his boat that he put the net and fish in. It looked like a gill net, the fish were mostly stuck in it. We could see lots of jacks and lots of catfish. When he got the whole net in, about a half hour, he shoveled ice on top of it. We asked a few questions and found out he estimated that haul to be about $200-$300 worth of fish. He said it would take him 2-3 hours longer to get the fish out of the net. Each catfish would have to have all 3 of its sharp spiky fins cut off to get them free of the net. I assume he sells all this as bait to crabbers but we didn't get the chance to ask that. It was interesting to watch but we all had to wonder about taking so many fish in such a short time. But I guess we have the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission taking care of limits and fishing methods to preserve the fish at sustainable levels. I hope they know what they're doing. We wondered back home slowly, got a few more mangrove snapper for the cooler, trolled up a few more jacks and small reds and got back to the dock before 2 PM.
I think Kate and Judy got the kind of rest they needed. I know I had another great day on the water and look forward to seeing them 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.
Fish Caught: Redfish, Snook, Lady Fish, Jack, Mangrove Snapper, Catfish
High Tide: 6:30 PM 1.1 FT Low Tide: 12:01 PM -0.75 FT Wind: 20-30 S Air Temp: 53/77 Water Temp: Clarity: murky
My neighbor, Bimini, asked if I'd like to go out fishing with her. Of course, even though I have an awful lot of work to do, I couldn't say no to that offer. Bimini is know for her fish catching abilities and I wanted to learn anything I could from her.
So I ran down to El Jobean Bait & Tackle Shop and got some shrimp, packed up some lunch and fishing gear and stood on my dock with my thumb out. Bimini slowed as she passed my dock (she didn't want to waste any fishing time) and I jumped aboard..
The tide was rushing out when we reached the end of the canal. We anchored up so we could drift our shrimp under the docks and started feeding little mangrove snappers. In the first couple hours, on a tide running out very quickly, we caught several small snapper, Bimini got a redfish that was just over the 18 inch minimum by 1/2 inch, a small snook, a huge jack and finally a very nice snook that was about keeper size. It took me a while to get the hook out so I didn't take the time to measure it before returning it to the water but I'd guess about 27 inches.
When the tide turned in we moved to the upstream side of a very shallow oyster bar and anchored so we could drift our shrimp over the bar to a deeper trough. I got tired of feeding shrimp to the little snappers and switched to throwing a white Gulp Swimming Mullet. The wind was really blowing out of the south by now and the tide was moving in extremely fast. The water was all churned up and we kept seeing these big swirls and tails flashing in the chop. Finally my casting efforts paid off and I hooked up with a nice big snook and a real fighter. I got him to the boat twice only to have him take off again dancing on the water before he at last gave in on the 3rd approach and Bimini scooped him in the net. He was hooked right in the corner of the mouth so we took a few seconds to measure him at 31 inches and then got him right back in the water. I'll come back looking for him again when snook season opens.
I got one more snook about 25 inches before the rain came and we headed for the dock tired and cold and smiling from ear to ear. Another great day on the water.
High Tide: 7:15 AM 1.3 FT Low Tide: 11:20 AM 1.0 FT Wind: 0-5 E Air Temp: 75/93 Water Temp: 85 Clarity: murky
We got a nice early start leaving the dock about 6:00 AM with a nice comfortable 75 degrees and a nearly full moon. We weren't sure we'd go so we had no bait but managed to net some white bait from the canal on the way out. There has been lots of small bait, about 3/4 to 1.5 inches long, in the canal and around sun up they swim right on the waters surface in small schools making them easy to spot and net. Although it is a lot of work to throw that big net to catch 6 fish at a time but I got a couple dozen in the live well and worked up a good appetite which I sated on the remainder of the trip with my P&J sandwich.
It was just about sun up when we reached the sea walls at the end of the canal and I started throwing my Gulp Swimming Mullet at the fish that are always snapping against the walls at this hour. We were within about 6 feet of the sea wall when a school of something started popping up against the wall right in front of me. I flipped my Gulp against the wall about 6 inches above the water and it dropped in to the white water. A tiny twitch and something grabbed it. It didn't feel very big for a few seconds but then I guess it realized it was hooked and off it went. Under the boat, around the motor with me chasing behind feeding the pole around the bimini top, under the pontoon, down under the motor and I still had a fish on when I finally got free of the boat. It was still a battle but we finally netted a nice big Jack.
I threw the Gulp and drifted the white bait under a bobber for another hour or so with just couple tiny hits on both. So we decided to head to the El Jobean bridge to see what was going on out there. We haven't been out there much lately opting to spend a little less money for gas, but it was a beautiful morning so we made the trip.
Which wasn't worth the effort. I fed my bait to tiny mangrove snapper only managing to get one in the boat. We did see tarpon rolling under the bridge more than a few times. And a school of Jacks exploded the water right in the middle of the waterway under the bridge but I was too far away to reach them.
After I used up my bait we headed back to the canal and stopped at a few favorite spots to cast the Gulp. It was just a lazy hot summer day on the water and we got back to the dock about 11:00 AM for a quick swim to cool off before cleaning the boat. Another pleasant morning on the water.
Fish Caught: Jack, Sail Cat, Catfish, Mangrove Snapper, Stingray
High Tide: 3:45 PM 1.25 FT Low Tide: 10:00 AM -0.1 FT Wind: 20-30 SE Air Temp: 64/82 Water Temp: 75 Clarity: clear
Living on the canal, with the boat always there ready to go and being self employed gives us the freedom to take a break and head out to do a little fishing almost any time we choose to do so. So normally when we check the weather and it says 20-30 MPH wind we stay home or at least in our own canal. But today we had friends come down from a snow storm up in CT and it was the only day they could get out and we really wanted to give them a good day on the water.
So Tom and Arlene arrived at 9:00 AM and as planned several weeks ago, we headed out for an adventure. It was perfect timing to catch the low to incoming tide at my snook spot at the El Jobean bridge but with the wind so fast I knew we'd never be able to anchor. So I instructed my fishing crew on where I wanted them to drop the menhaden and told them I'd hold the boat steady under power and they should be careful not to get thrown off in the rough waves. It all sounded like a great idea.
BUT, as they were dropping their bait a huge gust of wind and a giant wave hit us at just the wrong moment and turned the nose of my boat in just the exact wrong direction. I was nose into the bridge piling with the wind blowing us hard towards it and not enough room to swing back out in either forward or reverse. I turned the wheel hard to the right, gave it some gas with the intention of pushing off the bridge with my hands to keep the rear of the boat and motor from hitting the bridge. As I rushed from the captains chair my hand tapped the throttle and everything happened a little faster than I'd planned. I managed to get a hand on the bridge but not soon enough to keep from scraping just a little along the wood bumpers. Of course the extra power sent Tom back pedaling to maintain balance. Lucky for me Arlene and Karen were both seated and Tom was coordinated enough to stay upright and on board. He later sad he saw what was happening and was expecting the get away, although not with the sudden acceleration, but being aware was enough for him to keep safe.
We abandoned the bridge fishing and headed across the harbor for the mangrove bays behind hog island. The wind was whipping straight up Charlotte Harbor and the waves were much larger than any I've been in before. A pontoon boat is a little like a bar of ivory soap in a tub full of kids. It was slow going and we got very wet. Salt spray was in the air in sheets, the wind was almost too loud to yell over and hog island was almost invisible through dripping sun glasses. After 8 hours with no food and water we finally started getting into the lee of the mangroves. Well, I guess it only seemed that drastic.
But once in the mangroves it was calm and quiet and sunny with just enough breeze to keep us cool. We spent the rest of the day idling around from spot to spot catching only a big jack, some stingray, and Arlene caught a catfish AND I LET HER KEEP IT (a private joke). The only sign of the pandemonium whirling outside of our mangrove sanctuary was when you cast your lure up above the mangroves. The wind would grab it an fling it way off it's intended destination, usually well into the mangroves. I've always found fishing in Florida to be much better on those beautiful, sunny calm days we're getting so used to. I always thought it was my state of mind that made it seem so. But over the last few years its starting to seem like the fish also enjoy those nice days to dine. I think even the fish in Florida are relaxed and mellow and choose to venture out only when its a beautiful day on the water!
Our trip home was no less brutal. But we motored very slowly directly across the harbor to the lee of the far shore before turning back north west towards the bridge. It made the trip a little shorter and we only got mildly wet. It was plenty warm enough so being wet didn't bother anybody and with 30 MPH wind we dried fast once we were out of the spray. We stopped in the Apollo canal and played with mangrove snapper, stingray and a sailcat and decided it was time for a still, quiet seat on the lanai out of the wind and a cocktail. I won't say it was a beautiful day on the water, but it was exciting, it was fun, it was a very nice visit with Tom and Arlene and it was a beautiful day amongst the protective mangroves!
P.S. Arlene took some photos she'll email and I'll post them later.
Fish Caught: Lady Fish, Jack, Goliath Grouper, Mangrove Snapper
High Tide: 8:00 AM 2.0 FT Low Tide: 4:30 PM .25 FT Wind: 10-20 E Air Temp: 75/96 Water Temp: 86 Clarity: murky
Today was the day we felt the most wind from hurricane Dean. So we decided to stay in the canals and avoid the rough water of Charlotte Harbor. Theres a spot I know where two canals meet and the currents have dug out a few holes to about 9 feet deep. On Sunday afternoon I took my cast net, a cooler and a bubbler over to a canal off Biscayne Blvd. and netted some nice sardines. I kept them overnight in a bait basket I made from plans available on BaitBaskets.com. So I didn't have to worry about netting any this morning. We left the dock about 6:45 AM.
It was a nice cool calm morning. The first bait was in and I was baiting the second pole when the first one almost jumped out of the pole holder. I missed whatever it was. It went like that for the first hour with a couple big jacks, snappers and ladyfish making it into the boat.
We watched a big manatee swim right by the boat, mostly we only got to see a nose and the big swirls they leave behind. Jacks are a tough fight. But then I hooked something that felt much different. It didn't want to show itself to us but it wasn't fighting like a jack, just kind of hanging near the bottom flippings its big head back and forth, and wouldn't you know I hooked it on the smallest rod and reel I own. The reel stripped some gears and locked up, I had to flip off the antireverse and wind backwards to free it up but it wasn't winding a smoothly as it should. The fish almost got me wrapped around a marker pole but finally we got a huge goliath grouper into the net. We took a quick photo but didn't take the time to measure it, we estimate it was 20 inches long and very fat and heavy. Of course goliath are federally protected and carry a stiff fine of $5000.00 per fish. We threw him back.
You can tell a Goliath Grouper by the tail, the end forms a half moon or convex curve compared to a flat or concave curve for all other grouper. Click here for a better photo.
We got one more grouper and some mangrove snapper when around 9:30 the wind picked up and the fishing shut down. We headed back home with just a couple mangrove snapper for lunch, but it was still another great day on the water.
High Tide: 3:30 PM 2.3 FT Low Tide: 9:00 AM 1.1 FT Wind: 0-5 E Air Temp: 73/93 Water Temp: 88 Clarity: muddy
We left the dock at 6:15 to take full advantage of the cooler morning weather. I have been able to net bait fish at some point in the canal but this morning I couldn't find any. So when I reached the Myakka I threw some plastics and popers with no luck. Unfortunately I am out of my favorite Gulp Swimming Mullets.
I poled the boat into some shallows with grass edges but all I netted there were tiny things that looked a lot like baby pompano or maybe jacks. but they were only an inch or less in length so useless as bait.
So we took a ride out to the El Jobean bridge to see if we could get some bait out there, but again I didn't see any. So we went over to the Tiki Bar and picked up a couple dozen live shrimp.
I fed a few shrimp to what I suspect were Mangrove Snappers under the bridge but it was slow action and hot in that sun so we moved back to the Apollo Waterway ant threw the shrimp under the dock by what we call the "Hunt Home". We had a little better luck there with Snappers but small. A lot of action behind the dock but we couldn't seem to attract the attention of whatever was feeding back there. So we headed home.
Our neighbors, Bimini and Julie were parked in one of there favorite spots so we tied up and shared our last shrimp with them. We got a lot of small stuff like cat fish, mangrove snapper, ladyfish and one decent sized jack. There was a little more breeze there but it was still very hot so after the last shrimp we headed for home and the pool.
High Tide: 8:00 AM 1.75 FT Low Tide: 4:15 PM 0 FT Wind: 5-10 SW Air Temp: 75/95 Water Temp: 87 Clarity: clear
We decided to spend the week fishing Gasparilla Sound near Placida, Florida. There's a little marina called Eldred's Marina on the Boca Granded causeway jus before the toll bridge to Boca Grande. They get $10/night to leave your boat at their dock for the night.
So we left home in NW Port Charlotte about 6:10 AM and headed south. We had a little motor trouble which took 20 minutes to straighten out and we got a little lost coming around past Turtle and Bull Bays but we made the marina by about 9:20. Our boat is a 23' Crest Pontoon with a 40 HP Mercury Bigfoot so our top speed is only 15 MPH. It was a pleasant trip at that cool time of day.
We met our neighbors, Bimini and Julie at the marina, they agreed to give us a tour of the area and then a ride home. They've fished the area before so we welcomed their company and they are a lot of fun as well as serious fisher people. Bimini pointed me towards the live bait tanks at Eldred's, which are on the end of a dock. There were about 20 HUGE snook just stacked up waiting for someone to throw dead shrimp from the tank. The biggest one I saw was at least 35 inches and fat.
We netted finger mullet just 10 yards from that tank and headed out with a full livewell to find some hungry fish.
We fished all around Bird Key and the 2 little Mangrove Islands in front of the Fishery Restaurant. We drifted the pass just to 100 yards from the Gulf the flats on the east side of the railroad trestle. We were catching small trout, pinfish, and occasional jack, pufferfish, but nothing we could bring home. We watched dolphins playing and feeding on the very thick schools of baitfish which were every where. It's very different water from the mouth of the Myakka River that we know well.
We anchored near a sandbar and got out to swim and snorkel. There were lots of sand dollars, living conchs and all kinds of shells both alive, rented and empty to bring home for our garden.
It was 3:00 before we called it a day. That's a long day on a boat in the VERY HOT sun. We'll probably limit our trips to the cooler part of the morning for the rest of the week.
High Tide: 4:00 PM 2.25 FT Low Tide: 12:10 AM -.25 FT Wind: 10-20 W Air Temp: 71/88 Water Temp: 78 Clarity: murky
Had a few days of rain and wind because of Tropical Storm Barry. So Sunday morning when we woke around 5:30 AM and the wind was light we decided to take a trip out. They were still predicting high wind so we decided to try the canal again. We left the dock about 6:30 and got about halfway out, just under the bridge at Biscayne Rd. and I noticed a large school of bait. I threw the net once and filled my live well with about 50 small green backs.
When we got to the end of the Apollo Waterway I saw a lot of action along the north sea wall, a place I never concentrated on before. So I set us up to drift the length of the wall and dragged a shiner while casting the Gulp Swimming Mullet at the wall. I got a nice 19-20 inch snook on the Gulp and immediately after letting it go I hooked into a huge Jack on the bait. A tiny little rod with a huge Jack is a lot of work and I went around that boat twice passing the rod between the openings in my bimini top before we finally got him in a net.
I caught a few small Mangrove snappers around a drain pipe that comes out of the sea wall. I had a small one almost to the boat when a snook that was very near 3 feet long tried to eat the snapper. He didn’t get it but he gave me a good look at him, I’ll be looking for him from now on.
It was a very pleasant morning, cool, breezy and refreshing. I think we will make many short trips to those local waters this summer.
Fish Caught: Redfish, Sheepshead, Jack, Mangrove Snapper
High Tide: 1:30 PM 1.8 FT Low Tide: 7:30 AM .8 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 61/93 Water Temp: 79 Clarity: murky
This time of year I sleep with our sliding glass doors open to our screened in pool area. I was half awake this morning when I heard our neighbor’s boat engine start. A few minutes later Karen was calling from outside relaying the invitation to go out fishing with Bimini. I really wasn’t awake as I was pulling on clothes and running to the dock with two fishing poles and a PB&J sandwich for breakfast, dripping coffee down my arm. We were halfway down the canal before I wondered what time it was, 6:15 AM.
I normally travel out of our canal for my fishing grounds but Bimini and Julie, our across the canal neighbors, love fishing closer to home. And I must admit they eat more fish than we do. So I was excited to get the chance to learn a few things from Bimini. Julie is not an early to bed early to rise woman so she was sleeping in this morning, hence my chance to keep Bimini company for the early morning trip.
We went to the end of the canal (Apollo Waterway) just in sight of the Myakka River. Bimini anchored us in 2 feet of water pointing to an area just in front of us which she said had a little trough which fed the back reed filled waters. She said the big fish would move through this area to get to the bait in the shallow back waters. She was right, I hooked a huge jack shortly after starting to cast my Gulp Swimming Mullet, what a battle, as usual for a very large jack. Bimini had many hits on some white bait she had netted the evening before from the fishing pier in Placida. The sun rose while we were in that spot, while we had some action we didn’t get much in the boat. The tide turned in about 8:30 or so and we decided to move to a spot she liked on an incoming tide.
We anchored at the near end of a large dock were the tide woulld pull our bait under the dock. Since I was fishing a Gulp I was able to get a couple casts before Bimini got her bait ready and hooked a very nice 22” redfish. My first in quite some time, I was impressed. I went on to get a couple 12-13” Mangrove Snapper, at that size they are very good eating fish. Bimini was switching back and forth between live shrimp and the white bait. We were each catching mangrove snapper and sheepshead, letting smaller ones go but putting plenty in the cooler.
As you can see from the photo we had plenty to clean, it was an excellent supper with some left for the freezer for the less plentiful times. It was a very nice morning of fishing, I look forward to many more.
High Tide: 2:45 PM 1.5 FT Low Tide: 8:45 AM .25 FT Wind: 5-10 NW Air Temp: 70/89 Water Temp: 80 Clarity: not clear
Since its warming up we decided to make an early morning run out to the bridge over the Myakka River at El Jobean, FL. The tide was with us as well, with low being about 8:45 AM. We left the dock about 6:30 AM a beautiful time to be on the water when the weather is so nice.
We got anchored and started fishing by a little after 7:00 AM. I threw my Gulp Swimming Mullet with no action. I had caught some bait fish from my dock earlier in the week and I put one on a hook with a tiny split shot to keep it down. It’s hard to get it to stay near the pilings on an outgoing tide where we anchor. So no action on that either until the tide changed about 9:15 or so.
9:15 is about when I caught the 24.5" snook in the photo below. I got it on the bait fish not the Gulp. I caught the bait fish with a cast net from my dock. There were 2 different kinds, one I know the name of -- Striped Mojarra and the other, more abundant, is very similar to a scaled sardine but they don’t have that sharp pointy belly. They are also less hardy and harder to keep alive.
I made a bait basket from the plans at BaitBaskets.com and I find I can easily keep the bait hung from my dock for 3 or 4 days. I throw my net for a few days before a planned fishing trip and I can usually get a dozen or so to give me a head start in the morning. When I was fishing I was watching 4 or 5 other boats searching for a school of bait fish throwing that heavy net out and coming back empty. There were jacks in the water so the bait gets scattered and hard to net. I was glad to have put my time in before fishing day.
I missed a few other hits on the Gulp and bait and was down to my last Striped Mojarra which was rather large about 4" and since they are a rather tall fish its like putting a small salad plate on your hook. I wasn’t too confident about a snook eating that big thing, but one did. I was sure it would be a monster to eat that bait but it was almost identical to the last one about 24.5."
After another half hour we ran over to the bays behind Hog Island. I got a couple more snook about 18-22" before I tired out. We headed home about 2:00 PM.
As we neared the bridge where we started the day we saw jacks in a full feeding frenzy. I could resist so I stopped and tossed a Gulp out and immediately hooked a big Jack. What a strong fish they are, I had a good battle with him and let him go back to his school. Another pleasant day in Charlotte Harbor.
High Tide: 4:00 PM 1.2 FT Low Tide: 8:30 AM -0.5 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 55/87 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: clear
Left the dock about 11:00 AM. First stop was the El Jobean bridge. There were a bunch of boats anchored but everyone looked like they'd been there a while with no action.
My first cast with a Gulp Swimming Mullet hooked a 22" Snook. About 10 casts or so later I got a huge Jack. What a battle.
After about 1/2 hour at the bridge we moved on to the bays behind Hog Island. Absolutely no fish not even a single bite. I fished the Gulp Swimming Mullet the entire time. We did see some jacks busting the shore but by the time we got there they had moved on.
We did see some wild life, a wild hog swimming way back in the mangroves (but only 20 ft from our boat) and a racoon marching along the shoreline of one of the canals of Tippecanoe Bay. If you ever get back there watch out for the sunk boats, I assume from Hurricane Charley, we saw two.
This time of year I sleep with our sliding glass doors open to our screened in pool area. I was half awake this morning when I heard our neighbor’s boat engine start. A few minutes later Karen was calling from outside relaying the invitation to go out fishing with Bimini. I really wasn’t awake as I was pulling on clothes and running to the dock with two fishing poles and a PB&J sandwich for breakfast, dripping coffee down my arm. We were halfway down the canal before I wondered what time it was, 6:15 AM.
Since its warming up we decided to make an early morning run out to the bridge over the Myakka River at El Jobean, FL. The tide was with us as well, with low being about 8:45 AM. We left the dock about 6:30 AM a beautiful time to be on the water when the weather is so nice.