Fishing Charlotte Harbor Area (home, school, moving)

[SeaRay35]

Reports of awesome red fishing on east and west walls. Catch em up boys!

[anglerdavidm]

I am a very lucky man. My wife lets me go fishing most morns when I'm off. I was in my kayak by 7:00 this morning. The fish were not quite as cooperative as Tuesday. I had to keep moving to keep the bite going. The schools of trout are good sized, but just under the 15 inch minimum. I ended the day with 18 trout and 8 Ladyfish. I put at least 10 to the measure stick and only 1 16 inch on stringer (if not at least `15_1/2, I don't keep r/t don't want to explain to FWC if they shrink). Luckily there was a family tent camping at the park when I came in. I really don't like to break out the cleaning stuff for 1 fish so gave it to them. A couple of interesting things today-Saw some kids today that caught about a 5 foot gar on a pole they had left out and had a mullet whack the side of the kayak when it was jumping. That startled me. Hope you all have been finding a few.

[anglerdavidm]

Anybody else been able to get out? I went out Tuesday. I got on water at 0700. I fished for 3 hours. Ended up with 10 trout and 6 Ladyfish. From how good you guys say the fish bite on ladyfish, I hope I will be able to catch as many there. Brought 4 trout over 16inches home. Cleaned and gave away to a couple neighbors. There's just something gorgeous about getting on the water in my kayak at sunrise. I would love to hear about anyone elses adventures.

[anglerdavidm]

Well, I had another great am fishing yesterday. Kayak on the water at 6:45. It started out kind of slow,but finally found the school of trout. Ended up the day at 11:00 when got a call from work that I had to come in. I'm a RN that works in a Recovery Room. I always tell them, "if I have to come in, I might smell like fish". LOL! Since I was on call, I wasn't keeping any. I ended up catching 21 trout (mostly 13-16 inches), 3 white trout,a sand trout, a hardhead cat, a sailcat, a ladyfish and a croaker. I tried unsuccessfully to turn the sand trout and the croaker into a redfish. I got to work at 11:45am and didn't get to leave until 7:45pm. Today was spent working in a drizzle for 5 hours to get all the thing I wanted to do this weekend done! Anyone else being able to fish at all?

[JollyOgre]

I got a red on Saturday. Was on the water about 7:00 and did not get the bite until 10:30 ish. Fished Ponce down to the barge canal right along the mangroves. There were a lot of tarpon rolling on the bar but no hits.

Where do you fish with your kayak?

[anglerdavidm]

My wife and I live about 10 miles to the east of Pensacola, Fl. It is also a beautiful place with very good fishing. The reason we want to move to Port Charlotte from here is that it still gets fairly cold off/on in the winter here. We lived in northern Indiana for 30+ years and grew very weary of the cold winters. We originally moved to Orlando area but didn't really like the big city atmosphere. We moved to northern Florida because it was a closer car ride to home. Since most of our trips are now on a plane, we can finally move to the place we always wanted to go. Congratulations on the Redfish! They should start to pick up here anytime.

[anglerdavidm]

I got out again on Tuesday. I got off water by noon. I ended with 15 trout, 2 over 17-inches, and 2 reds 22-inch and 24-inch. My wife made them into trout/redfish almondine. Very tasty. I will try to get out early Saturday am before Nate gets here Sunday. I plan to come home Saturday and put all my stuff back in the shed again. I will get gassed up tomorrow and we still have all the supplies we got when we thought Irma might head this way. As of now, doesn't look too bad. we will have to keep a close eye on it though.

[anglerdavidm]

I didn't get to go out yesterday am. My wife didn't think it was a good idea. We lucked out on Nate. It knocked a few limbs out of the oaks and blew in my front gate. I was able to get everything cleaned up and gate fixed today. We got quite a bit of rain so the river will be high. I plan on trying to get out again on Thursday morning, although I'm not sure it will clear up by then, and I might have to go for bass. Any of you getting any fishing done?

[anglerdavidm]

I hope you are all doing well. I did end up going to lake on Thursday am for 5 hours. I ended up with 11 total bass. The biggest was only 12 1/2 inches though. That was the only one I kept and it was given to some older folks that were fishing from the shore. This AM, I decided to try my favorite cove and if it was too fresh
go to the East River. I got on the water at 06:30. The sunrise was beautiful. I started catching white trout almost immediately. At 7:00, huge schools of bait started moving in-I mean the whole cove was filled with millions of baitfish (I am not exaggerating)! I have never seen anything like it. That is when the sail cats started hitting. These weren't just the normal 16-18 inch ones. I ended up the day with 3 specks (a 16 incher went home), 33 white trout (4 > 14 inches went home) and 13 sail cats (6 18-28 inchers went home). Ended up with 3 bags of fish filets-a good start for a neighborhood fish fry. I hope some of you are getting out. I can't wait until April. I'm really looking forward to learning the area down there. I love fresh and saltwater fishing.

[storm lady]

My neighbor Jack and I hired a guide and fished out of Placida. We caught over 50, 20" class Snook. Jack caught a really nice Redfish, another 1/2 inch and it would have been over the slot limit. He cooked it up Saturday night, it was delicious, pan fried and plated on a thick tomato slice covered in Tapenade, with a light citrus sauce. It was breezy so we stayed in the backcountry and were lucky enough to dodge the Popup rain storms.

Now I need to learn where to castnet whitebait , it is definitely a great bait.