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 Monday, November 3, 2008
Fish Caught: Shark
High Tide: 5:00 AM 2.0 FT Low Tide: 2:00 PM 0.1 FT Wind: 5-10 NE Air Temp: 63/82 Water Temp: 74 Clarity: dark
I just haven't been able to get out fishing. The few days that I thought I could take the time the weather turned too windy or rainy.
But I have spent an hour or two in the late afternoons down on our dock with some kind of bait in the water. It's a little slow, we don't get a lot of big fish up this far on a regular basis but now and then a nice snook, some keeper mangrove snappers and even redfish and tarpon will surprise us.
But something happened today that surprised us even more. I had a shiner on a bobber in the water for about a half hour. It was getting near time to change it for a fresher one. I looked down the canal and saw a very large wake headed right up the middle of the canal. We've seen manatee and dolphin come by many times and this wake was more like a dolphin. But dolphin always breach frequently and usually are playing or zipping back and forth and very often their fins stick out of the shallow canal water.
But this wake came straight up moving about 6-8 miles per hour, went right past us and my dying bait fish and continued on out of site. Karen was with me and we had our eye on this wake for at least 3 minutes. We never saw a fin or tail or the kind of wake left by the big tail of a manatee. It was more like a submarine went by.
About 10 minutes later, I was watching for a return trip of the wake and sure enough I spotted it coming back down. I had put a fresh bait on and had it right in the center of the canal so the wake would have to pass close. I grabbed another rod with a small Heddon popper and cast it across the canal and waited.
The wake passed within 4 feet of my bait but never slowed or turned to look. So I started retrieving my popper trying to time it so it would pop right in front of the wake. And that's what it did, about 3 feet in front of the traveling wake. But again it just kept going, never slowed or turned. I watched it travel down out of sight and again it did not show itself at all. The wake was so big it was bouncing off the seawalls and had the entire canal roughed up after it's pass.
I have to assume it was a shark and that maybe it was on the look out for a mammal in the water? Or perhaps there was some kind of blood trail in the canal? I don't know for sure but it was interesting. Be glad to hear comments or guesses about what we witnessed.
