Fishing Forecast for September, 2018

Unless you live on another planet, you have heard about the red tide that is devastating our coast. Well fellow anglers I would like to share some of the positive experiences that I have seen on the harbor the past week. Normally this time of year is slow, well this year has been very slow. My good buddy George had a trip booked, so I decided to take a ride with him for bait. We left the dock at first light, because of the recent rains, we had to head down south. We discussed the possibility of not being able to catch bait on the way down. We also discussed being able to keep it alive if we found it. Well I’m happy to report we found bait, and kept it alive. However that is not the best part of that trip that morning. While on our way back we seen close to hundred birds feeding. I will have to admit I was a little nervous about what was about to happen. As we got closer we could see the splashing of feeding fish. As far as we could see was terns and fish having a feast. In a short period we witnessed ladyfish and mackerel feeding on glass minnows. We also seen several large tarpon chasing the ladyfish. It was nice to see our harbor full of life for a change.

A couple days later I had a charter scheduled, so I planned to make a run to the same area for bait. On my way back I seen the same thing. I’m by no means declaring this nasty ordeal is over. The amount of natural resources that we lost will never be known. All that I am saying, it was nice to see something positive. So I got back to the marina around 8 o’clock picked my guys up and headed out to the flats. The tide had just started to go out pretty good. I noticed to my left about a hundred yards away a tarpon roll. So I shut down for a minute, all the sudden juvenile tarpon where rolling all around. Since the issues we’ve been having I went totally catch and release. So I figured what a great way to spend the morning sight casting these guys with 10# gear. Around noon the sun was baking hot, not a puff of wind. So we decided to call it a day. Our final number was 7 or 8 hook ups, and 4 fish to the boat. None of them was over 20#, but we had the tackle to match. We also landed 15-20 sea trout, most was on the small size 14-18″. It was just nice to see the harbor looking somewhat like it should this time of year.

If you would like to experience some of Charlotte Harbor’s finest fishing? Give me a call or send me an email, all of our trips are private and customized to fit you and your party’s needs.

You can also follow me on Twitter @ backbayxtremes for daily and weekly updates.

Captain Dave Stephens * (941) 916-5769 * Back Bay Xtremes * PO Box 510746, Punta Gorda FL 33951

Flats Fishing Charters for Charlotte Harbour, Punta Gorda, Florida