Fishing Charlotte Harbor Area (Lake Placid: repairs, jury duty, harvest)

[Messing About]

Began the day at sunup, as the first at the ramp. Worked a topwater lure for an hour but had no strikes.

Fished DOA Deadly Combo rig in the Myakka Cutoff. Caught one 16" speckled sea trout that was pretty fat, so he stayed aboard. 4 lady fish, one saved for bait. The morning tide was really low and I had to pole my way into the cutoff. Winds were sustained 10-15 just as forcasts but it laid down to 5-10 later, like they said.

In the afternoon, met up with WPC and his boat near hog island on the outside. We fanned out the two boats in search of Pomano but found none. Moved onto the outside flats and deployed cut lady fish with two rods. Only caught a catfish but I did real good using my De-Hooker.
WPC took off in search of his own trout. Looking forward to his report.

Cool morning but still comfy enough for shorts with a windbreaker. Water temp was 60* and not bad for wading. I rescued a nice 5 gallon bucket from the mangroves in the cutoff.

This picture angle makes the fish look like a guppie but believe me he was a nice one...and my hand really isn't as big as my poling platform. It's hard to take fish selfies when you're alone out there. But you wanted pics.

[wpc691]

Headed for Hog Island about 11:30 to look for Pompano. Exchanged a few texts with MA about the conditions, and decided to go right around to the west side to hide from the wind. Ran about a mile into the river, turned onto the flats in about 4' of water, and headed back into the wind on the trolling motor (turns out I couldn't hide from it). Pulled a DOA deadly combo off the back, and pitched pompano j**s and silly j**s off the front. Nothing. MA showed up after about 45 min, and we both worked the flat for 45 min. Nothing. I took off for Pirate Harbor to put some trout in the boat. Got the boat trimmed out perfect, and got 3.8 mpg for awhile, best I've ever gotten. Ran inside PH to get out of the wind, and pitched the deadly combo. Got trout immediately, but all 13". After 8 shorts, I finally hooked a really good one, got him to the boat... and he spit the hook. Unusual with the DOA shrimp; even small trout inhale the whole shrimp. Taking that as a sign, I headed for home. As soon as I got on plane at the end of the harbor, the overheat alarm went off; I looked back, and there was no water coming out of the motor. I shut down, disconnected the hose fitting, attached it to the raw water washdown, and pumped water through the motor for 5 min to cool it down. Raised the motor, and the pick-ups all looked clean. Reconnected the hose fitting, turned the motor on, and fortunately saw water coming out. The harbor outside the channel had been full of algae and weeds that have blown in with all the wind; algae must have gotten sucked up against the pick-ups, blocked the water flow, then fell off when I shut down. Ran home without incident; motor sounded good, and got 3.4 mpg into the wind, so it appears no harm was done - if I need a ring job 400 hrs from now, I'll know I was wrong.

[Salty Dave]

Originally Posted by Messing About

Began the day at sunup, as the first at the ramp. Worked a topwater lure for an hour but had no strikes.

Fished DOA Deadly Combo rig in the Myakka Cutoff. Caught one 16" speckled sea trout that was pretty fat, so he stayed aboard. 4 lady fish, one saved for bait. The morning tide was really low and I had to pole my way into the cutoff. Winds were sustained 10-15 just as forcasts but it laid down to 5-10 later, like they said.

In the afternoon, met up with WPC and his boat near hog island on the outside. We fanned out the two boats in search of Pomano but found none. Moved onto the outside flats and deployed cut lady fish with two rods. Only caught a catfish but I did real good using my De-Hooker.
WPC took off in search of his own trout. Looking forward to his report.

Cool morning but still comfy enough for shorts with a windbreaker. Water temp was 60* and not bad for wading. I rescued a nice 5 gallon bucket from the mangroves in the cutoff.

This picture angle makes the fish look like a guppie but believe me he was a nice one...and my hand really isn't as big as my poling platform. It's hard to take fish selfies when you're alone out there. But you wanted pics.

Thank You for the pics, was a day catching not just fishing...... either would be good for me!

[Salty Dave]

Originally Posted by wpc691

Headed for Hog Island about 11:30 to look for Pompano. Exchanged a few texts with MA about the conditions, and decided to go right around to the west side to hide from the wind. Ran about a mile into the river, turned onto the flats in about 4' of water, and headed back into the wind on the trolling motor (turns out I couldn't hide from it). Pulled a DOA deadly combo off the back, and pitched pompano j**s and silly j**s off the front. Nothing. MA showed up after about 45 min, and we both worked the flat for 45 min. Nothing. I took off for Pirate Harbor to put some trout in the boat. Got the boat trimmed out perfect, and got 3.8 mpg for awhile, best I've ever gotten. Ran inside PH to get out of the wind, and pitched the deadly combo. Got trout immediately, but all 13". After 8 shorts, I finally hooked a really good one, got him to the boat... and he spit the hook. Unusual with the DOA shrimp; even small trout inhale the whole shrimp. Taking that as a sign, I headed for home. As soon as I got on plane at the end of the harbor, the overheat alarm went off; I looked back, and there was no water coming out of the motor. I shut down, disconnected the hose fitting, attached it to the raw water washdown, and pumped water through the motor for 5 min to cool it down. Raised the motor, and the pick-ups all looked clean. Reconnected the hose fitting, turned the motor on, and fortunately saw water coming out. The harbor outside the channel had been full of algae and weeds that have blown in with all the wind; algae must have gotten sucked up against the pick-ups, blocked the water flow, then fell off when I shut down. Ran home without incident; motor sounded good, and got 3.4 mpg into the wind, so it appears no harm was done - if I need a ring job 400 hrs from now, I'll know I was wrong.

Good to hear that it was nothing serious, alarms are nice in the early days that could have resulted in a trashed motor! Keep the reports coming for us unfortunate ones that have not yet moved to paradise.

[Messing About]

WPC...now I know why you and McGiver have never been seen on the water together!
Nice job on the troubleshooting. Was great seeing you out there. We got to go deep again. I know Bucknut would love to join us for a grouper/snapper trip. Let's make it happen!

For everyone, this was just posted by Fishin Frank:
If you have been looking for reds on the flats, and your school is gone?
Look in the canals, 2 Captains both reporting 30 + Reds caught on night time Snook trips in the canals, All on Shrimp rigged on rockport or Twicth sticks.
Just thought you might like to know where your Reds went.
There is still a lot of Reds on the flats in Gasprilla sound & Pine island sound, The Pompano are moving into the East side heavier by the day
catch ya again later
Fishin Frank

Don't forget, this Tue Wed is the Fishin Club meeting at Luigi's. I have to be at a 3 day meeting in Orlando, otherwise I'd be there. His biggest sale of the year happens next month too.

[wpc691]

Tough out there today. Windier than predicted, and built through the afternoon. Started out just north of Pirate Harbor channel, outside the bar, and worked north on the trolling motor. Saw some big rays; had the cobia rod ready, but none following along. A BIG pompano (maybe a permit) cruised by; I pitched a silly j** at him half a dozen times, but no soap. The puffers and/or pinfish were out in force, and DOA shrimp were on the menu; I've got a special going on DOA shrimp heads, 10 for a buck. Gave up on the surf-like conditions, went inside the harbor, and found half the fishermen in Charlotte County. Pinned down outside the channel, and pitched shrimp and a Storm Twitch for 30 minutes - one short trout on the Storm Twitch saved me from getting skunked. All in all, a very tough day. But the sun was shining, I had my lunch on the front deck of the boat, and I pulled out of the weeds on the trolling motor, so no plugged pickups - pretty awesome.

[wpc691]

Originally Posted by Salty Dave

Good to hear that it was nothing serious, alarms are nice in the early days that could have resulted in a trashed motor! Keep the reports coming for us unfortunate ones that have not yet moved to paradise.

Thanks, 2x on the alarm. I'm paranoid about the water flow, and look back frequently to check it, but this one got me. Kind of embarrassing to sit looking at weeds for an hour, then not put two and two together - I should have checked the lower unit as soon as I got back in the channel.

[wpc691]

Originally Posted by Messing About

WPC...now I know why you and McGiver have never been seen on the water together!
Nice job on the troubleshooting. Was great seeing you out there. We got to go deep again. I know Bucknut would love to join us for a grouper/snapper trip. Let's make it happen!

For everyone, this was just posted by Fishin Frank:
If you have been looking for reds on the flats, and your school is gone?
Look in the canals, 2 Captains both reporting 30 + Reds caught on night time Snook trips in the canals, All on Shrimp rigged on rockport or Twicth sticks.
Just thought you might like to know where your Reds went.
There is still a lot of Reds on the flats in Gasprilla sound & Pine island sound, The Pompano are moving into the East side heavier by the day
catch ya again later
Fishin Frank

Don't forget, this Tue Wed is the Fishin Club meeting at Luigi's. I have to be at a 3 day meeting in Orlando, otherwise I'd be there. His biggest sale of the year happens next month too.

The way the wind has been, grouper/snapper seems like a distant dream...but, one of these weeks it'll calm down. Unfortunately, of the few trips I have left, 2 are scheduled on Frank's Feb and March meeting days. Starting in April, I'll make every Tues...or Wed...or both. I'll definitely be at the sale - crazy that the top guys from so many companies are there...kind of a "can't afford to miss" opportunity.

[wpc691]

This seems too simple to post, but it took me awhile to stumble on it, so maybe helpful to somebody else. When I got here, I had always fished with mono. I switched to braid, and quickly discovered line twist and wind knots. I read on THT and other places that the best way to remove twist was to let the bare line out behind the boat and cruise around for awhile. That sort of worked, but was a pain in the neck. Last Sat before I went out, I noticed a lot of twist on several rods. I had been putting up rod holders in my outdoor closet, so my driver drill was sitting there. The obvious idea popped in my head. I put a split shot on the end of the line, put the rod in a rod holder on the dock, set the drag extra light, and walked the line down to my neighbor's dock. I put the split shot in the chuck, put the drill in reverse, and 10 seconds later, there was zero twist in the line. I did the rest of the rods in less than 10 minutes. The only wind knot that day was a rod I forgot to do, so it seemed to work pretty well.

[Bucknut1]

Wpc,

Such a simple fix for a nagging problem with braided line. Back in Chicago on the lake I fished peeling the line off poles and dragging it behind the boat at slow speed was our method to eliminate line twist. Problem was if your dragging line around your not fishing! Wpc I have to give your method a try with the drill. Good thing about your method is I could have a cocktail and a good cigar close by!

Talk to you soon,

Bucknut