Charlotte County Fishing Report and Photo Essay

We travelled to Charlotte County this week and did some fish-catching. We have a Charlotte County Fishing Report for you!

Upcoming Events-

-Aloha Protect Our Waters Fundraiser! It should be called th FUN-raiser- Mai-tais, tropical cuisine, and live music highlight this event. There might be some well-known fishing personalities, too. All funds raised help support Anglers for Conservation’s youth fishing education programs. Oct 14, 3-6 PM. For more information visit www.anglersforconservation.org/pow . I hope to see you there!

-MINWR Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. Oct. 27, 830 AM. In this all-day seminar I SHOW you where to fish, and TELL you how to be succesful. For more information visit http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/

-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar. Oct. 28. In this four hour seminar I take you out in my skiff and show you all my secrets. For more information visit http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/

Fishing!

Monday I had to visit the chiropractor. He did not fix the problem and it colored the rest of my week.

Tuesday I got up in what seemed the middle of the night and drove to Port Charlotte. Old friend George Allen had moved there from Orlando and I was going to visit.

I’ll be hornswoggled.

We went out in George’s 26 foot Sea Hunt, cruising out to Charlote Harbor. I had zero expectations, never having fished the area before. Zero is what we got, too, until we saw a few tarpon roll. We cast a couple of pinfish out and I’ll be horn-swoggled, we got a bite. I fought the 60-70 pound fish up to the boat, where it posed for a photo. After that, even though tarpon rolled all around us, it was a hot sailcat bite. After that first fish, who cared? The back was fine so far. Thank you, George!

The pond at Deer Prairie Creek Preserve.

Wednesday I went to visit Deer Prairie Creek Preserve. A small dam on Deer Prairie Creek backs up a small pond. I opted to fish here instead of below the dam. That was perhaps a mistake, but I will visit the area again and hit the lower creek.

You’ll see lots of signs like this one.

The upper creek was gorgeous. As the morning passed the songs of birds gave way to the humming of cicadas. If you listened you could hear traffic sounds, but they were distant and easy to ignore.

I paddled upstream until it became obvious that if I went farther turning around would be difficult. The stream was too overgrown in most places to fly fish. I wished more than once I’d brought a UL spin outfit.

The creek was too overgrown to fly fish in many places.

The four-weight did come in handy though. Once the creek started opening up the fish started hitting my popper. The first was a feisty little bass, quickly followed by a garfish. After five bass and a stumpknocker the back was bothering me too much to fish any more. Loading the boat back onto the car was an exercise in slow and painful.

Bass on popper, always fun!

Stumpknockers are as aggressive as they are beautiful.

I visited Snook Haven for lunch. It’s an old-Florida style fish camp on the Myakka River, and is definitely worth a visit. The river is over its banks and is not fishing well right now, not that I tried.

We had dinner that evening at Carmelo’s  in Punta Gorda. Five stars and two thumbs up!

Logan casting to rolling tarpon.

Thursday morning I met Logan Totten http://flykayaker.com in Englewood. In the dark he drove me somewhere onto the Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park . The sun was not up yet when we launched the kayaks into a small pond.

we dragged the boats into another pond.

After crossing the pond we dragged the boats into a second pond and began fishing. Baby tarpon rolled around us. In spite of several fly changes baby tarpon did not bite. A few Mayan cichlids did, so no skunking for us! Logan led me through a mangrove tunnel (I love doing stuff like that!) into another pond. Again, rolling tarpon, no biters.

Logan, still casting.

We eventually went back through the tunnel into the second pond. More Mayan cichlids and a few small snook. Tarpon still not cooperating.

Score!

We dragged the boats back to first pond, paddled back to his truck, loaded up, and went to another pond. Tarpon rolled all over it. We took two drifts across without a bite and called it. Tarpon of any size can be so ornery…

Another snook, a mini- model.

Thank you, Logan! I loved the adventure! You get the JK stamp of approval!

Upper Myakka Lake. The water is high.

Friday was return home day. I stopped at Myakka River State Park  on a fact-finding mission for future reference. It’s beautiful there! As stated earlier, the river is over its banks. That and the fact my back was still bothering me kept me from going paddling. It was still so tempting…

Myakka paddle notes, at the canoe livery there.

My take on Charlotte County is that there is a lot of kayak fishing to be done there. Charlotte Harbor has all kinds of saltwater fish. In addition there are all the small natural ponds, with tarpon, snook, cichlids, etc. There are the Myakka and Peace Rivers and their tributaries, and loads of canals (peacock bass and snakeheads in addition to native species) and retention ponds. West Wall Outfitters in Port Charlotte is the place to stop for information and last minute tackle needs.

And that is the Charlotte County Fishing Report! Thanks for reading!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
http://www.spottedtail.com/blog
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All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2018. All rights are reserved.