I had wanted to try fishing the Myakka river for awhile now, but haven’t taken the time until this week. My wife and I got up early,  loaded the gear, the dogs, our lunch, cooler and everything else, hooked up the boat and headed to Snook Haven on Thursday morning. Well, apparently the banjo club or country music club or something simular takes presidence on Thursdays (and Sundays) to boat launching so you can’t launch there on those days. I guess a little home work would have come in handy prior to arrival time. A little disheartened and at a loss at where to head to from there, we headed home and decided to try again on Friday.

We got a bit of a late start on Friday but made our way north from Snook Harbor at about 10:00. This was to be an exploration of the river as much as a fishing day. Using the trolling motor to head upstream, I began casting different lures to see what would work . I really didn’t care what I caught, but snook was really what I was hoping for. We were the only ones on the river, except for some gators. Eight in all during the day from two feet to about eight feet in length. If you have never been on the river, there are parts that seem totally uninhabited and quite wild, really kind of cool. Anyway, back to the fishing part. After trying some stick baits, jigs, and some topwaters, I threw on a Lucky Craft rattle crank. Two casts later and WHAM line is screaming off the reel. (Shimano Curado baitcaster on a Carrot stick 6.6 heavy medium rod, 12# fluro, no leader) I spent a few minutes wrangling the fish without ever getting a glimpse. FINALLY, it showed itself on the surface, a 34 inch Gar hooked in the corner of the mouth. After landing, measuring and gingerly removing the hook, I was ready to continue. A  few casts later, here we go again. This one was a bit bigger. He stayed on until I was reaching down to grab him when “SNAP” there goeas the line (and my $15. lure) with him. I think I said “Darn”…… or something like that and started to cry. Being the persvering and well stocked fisherman that I am, I pulled out my matching lure, tied on a 20# leader and away I went. Of course two fish (all Gar) later, I lost that one too. Time to grab the Sebile’s.

We were North of the 75 bridge on a little bend of the river casting the Sebile rattle when I got a solid hit and it felt different than the gar that had been rather active over the first couple hours. Sure enough, a Snook. OK, so it was only 18 inches, but it was my first Snook so its all good! An hour later, on a straight stretch of river, my reel started to sing. This was a GREAT fish, I could tell from the feel. Rod bent, drag fairly tight but still taking out line, a smile on my face, I was in fisherman heaven. After all this time enjoying the scenery of the river, a 32″ Snook was wrestling with ME!

I turned him loose, put on a new leader and cast again. On the very next cast, I hear the sweetest sound a fisherman knows, it sings a melody like on other, of line going the wrong way against a struggling drag when the distant end is hooked to something that dosen’t want anything to do with the fisherman, the boat he’s in or the dogs that are barking in excitment at all the commotion as it jumps clear of the water not once, not twice, but three times. A twin of the last one, it finally succumbs my superior skill, quality tackle and expert  boat handling. After letting that one go and eager to go again, I cast to the same area. Another snook and the fight is on, forgetting to check my leader prior to the cast cost me this fish as he was approaching the boat, unfortunatly he took my Sebile with him. As did the next one on the next cast. This one wrapped me on my own trolling motor, broke off and kept my last Sebile rattle as a momento, a trophy to show his friends how he humbled te great fisherman. The fact that there were now 5 fish in the river with $75 plus worth of lures makes me  (and especially my wife) wonder who bested who.

The weather was perfect, the company delightful, the quarry exciting and the setting spectacular, what else could anyone ask for?

Ok, so after the meeting I was riddled with guilt for not posting after I had been fishng. This is me repenting for past sins.  So Wednesday I went out alone in my Nitro 185 sport (read as not an off shore boat). Left he Venice outlet at 6:45 headed for open water. Still dark, figured I might as well get an early start. M13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were on my list of places to visit. Furthest out is about 10 miles. A little bumpy in my boat but not too bad. Went to the first location, spent 30 minutes cruising the area looking for something on the bottom with the Humminbird but didn’t find anything like a fish (or structure for that matter) so headed out to the next mark (15) anchored in building breeze and threw on a live shimp, BAM, first red grouper in my life was in the boat. This went for about 90 minutes, never waited for more than a few seconds before I caught a bite. Red Grouper, snappers,  a few grunts and a puffer. Then it stopped, I caught 6 more puffers in about 30 minutes and pulled up stakes and moved to a new marker. This one was about 10 miles south west of stump pass. I anchored on some promising structure, caught a couple grunts, a sheephead and some goat fish. I had just about run out of shrimp so I threw on a little grunt that I had just caught. In about 30 seconds BAM, I set the hook hard and for the next 10 minutes had my pole bent in two trying to move the fish off the bottom. Unfortunatly I was using a lighter spinning rod, 12# test with a 30# leader. after pulling me around from one side of the boat to the other it finally broke off. I never did see it, but what ever it was didn’t run much, didn’t move more than 20-30 feet away and didn’t care that I was doing everything I could to coax him to the surface.

The 4 guys in the other boat on the same reef were enjoying the show, so at least they were amused when it broke off causing me to stumble just a bit and sit down hard.

I headed in around 2, fished the flats for 30 minutes, caught 2 reds and was out of bait, heard thunder and called it a day.

Other than 2 of the snapper and 1 sheepshead that I kept to eat, the rest were returned to the gulf, except that one goat fish that the pelican got before it could make it off the surface.

Pics are poor, because I didn’t have a photographer with me and I hate to lay fish on my carpet.