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This month, we’ll talk about what lives out there.
Charlotte Harbor, as with other estuaries around the
world, supports a remarkable variety of fish, aquatic
mammals, turtles, and birds.
Fish of Charlotte Harbor
The brackish waters of the harbor hold
a number of permanent resident fish species along with a
significant number of migratory visitors that come and go
with the seasonal changes in water temperature, salinity and
local food supply. Sports anglers tend to divide the fish
species into two somewhat arbitrary categories: game fish
and ‘trash’ fish. This latter category is as diverse as the
people who fish. Typically, game fish are those that put up
a memorable battle when hooked and/or are good table fair.
Like all rules, there are exceptions, but let’s live with
these qualifications for purposes of this article.
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Red drum |
snook |
spotted seatrout |
Red drum, better know locally as
redfish, along with snook, and spotted seatrout are the most
numerous and better known among the principal resident game
fish species of our part of Southwest Florida. All three
are present year-around and, in varying degrees, can
represent themselves well at the other end of a fishing
line. Several other game fish species are found in the
harbor or off the beaches of our barrier islands. These
include black drum, cobia, flounder, mangrove snapper,
pompano, Spanish mackerel, sheepshead, tripletail and a
variety of sharks. Of this latter group, cobia and sharks
are the largest, while pompano, in the minds and palates of
many, is considered to be the tastiest.
However, the fish that holds a special
place in the lore of Southwest Florida fishing is the
tarpon. These magnificent, mirror-scaled giants provide the
stuff that fables are made of and have brought a degree of
fame to Charlotte Harbor and the Boca Grande Pass. The
tarpon is renowned for its strength, endurance and leaping
ability when engaged in battle. Fish of over 200 pounds
have been caught in our local waters, with 120 to 150 pound
fish being relatively common. The experience of catching
and safely releasing a tarpon is something that you will
never forget.
To complete this section, we need to
touch on some of our local ‘trash’ fish. While these fish
get no respect from serious anglers, their willingness to
take a bait and to put up a good fight for their size have
brought broad smiles to the faces of lots of kids who were
just beginning to learn how to fish. Principal among this
class are the jack crevalle, ladyfish, and catfish. There
are several other species of fish that may be caught, but
we’ll let them be ‘surprises’ should you hook up with one or
more of them.
Marine Mammals and Turtles
Close proximity sightings of some of
the other marine creatures of Charlotte Harbor can often
provide memorable photo opportunities during a day on the
water. Dolphins abound in the bay in summer. These sleek,
intelligent marine mammals are in fact toothed whales. They
feed on fish in all parts of the harbor, so you may see them
almost anywhere.
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Manatees |
Manatees, sometimes called sea
cows, inhabit the shallow, grassy areas of the
harbor during the spring and summer months. Like
the dolphins, manatees must come to the surface to
breath. The exhaling of both species can be heard
at some distance and will help you locate them as
they broach the surface. Manatees are gentle, slow
moving creatures that graze on the bottom vegetation
and at times can be seen in the shallow waters in
Turtle Bay or along the Gulf Beaches |
of Cayo Costa and Gasparilla Islands.
Otters inhabit the mangrove channels
and shorelines. Though not numerous, these clever, playful
creatures have made themselves very much at home with
humans. Otters are most often seen swimming along the shores
of canals upon which people live. These fearless creatures
often dine on live baitfish stored in ‘secured’ floating
cages in backyards of local anglers.
Any of several species of sea turtles
may be seen in the bay from time to time. Sea turtles lay
their eggs on the Gulf beaches. The trails made by females
as they crawl above the high water line of the beaches at
nigh to dig their nests and lay their eggs are very
visible. Volunteer spotters walk the beaches each morning
during the summer and mark the nest locations to protect
them from being disturbed or damaged.
Birds
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Scaup Duck |
The gentle climate, the abundance
of food, and the undisturbed mangrove forests of
Charlotte Harbor create a prefect environment for a
great many species of birds. Several species have
established sizeable rookeries along the shores and
on many of the remote mangrove islands. The harbor
serves as the winter home for a number of migratory
birds from the far north to include white pelicans,
loons, ducks and large flocks of scaup. |
The more common year-around residents
include a number of anhinga, gulls, brown pelicans, frigate
birds, ospreys, and varieties of heron and ibis. On any
given day, one may see eagles and roseate spoonbills.
Though not typically an aquatic bird, vultures also inhabit
the area around the bay and can be seen feeding on dead fish
that have floated up on exposed sandbars.
Summing It Up
Life abounds in and around Charlotte
Harbor. For more information, we invite you to join us at
our next monthly general membership meeting. The CCA FL
Charlotte Chapter membership meetings are on the fourth
Tuesday of each month at 7:00 PM at the Port Charlotte Town
Beach facility at the end of Harbor Boulevard in Port
Charlotte. Meetings are open to the public. The next
meeting will be on August 24, 2004. Our invited speaker is
J.R. Witt, a local guide and competitive fisherman, who will
speak on fishing on the flats. Come early and sit in on our
new “Tackle Table” session in which a senior angler answers
questions and discusses and demonstrates rigging techniques.
If you are already a committed fishing
person, or are taken by the beauty of Charlotte Harbor, or
are at all conservation minded, we encourage join the CCA to
help protect our marine resources. You can sign up at our
next meeting, or pick up a membership form at any of several
Punta Gorda bait and tackle shops, or either call or e-mail
CCA Florida at (407) 854-7002 or
www.ccaflorida.org.
For additional information on Florida
fish and wildlife, check
www.marinefisheries.org, the website of the Florida Fish
and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 
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Charlotte
Country chapter of the Coastal Conservation
Association of Florida published its inaugural
article. In it, we described how the commingling of
the waters of the Peace and the Myakka Rivers with
the waters of the Gulf of Mexico created the rich
aquatic environment of the bay that we call
Charlotte Harbor. 
