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present information on the fish to be found here, the
tackle that can be used to catch them, and some techniques
that have proven effective in doing so. All of these
will, of course, be presented from a Coastal Conservation
Association (CCA) perspective.
What is the CCA and what is its
perspective, you may ask? The CCA is a national
organization of anglers from Maine to Texas who have
volunteered their time, effort and money to help
preserve and protect our marine resources. CCA of
Florida (CCA FL) has been doing just that for the
past 20 years and has made many significant
contributions to the protection and preservation of
fishing in this state. As one of the recent past
presidents of the Charlotte County Chapter said,
what we do is “for the fish”. We are just a bunch
of volunteer anglers trying to help other anglers.
We seek to ensure that our kids and grand kids will
have fish to catch and that they will not be unduly
restricted from catching them.
The Bay
Let’s begin with the
essentials, the marine environment. Charlotte
Harbor is a pretty substantial body of water. It
has a surface area of 185 square miles. It is formed
by the confluence of two rivers, the Myakka entering
from the north-northeast and the Peace entering from
the east. The bay is bounded on the west by a
series of coastal barrier islands separated by a
number of passes through which tidal waters flow
from the Gulf of Mexico to mix with the fresh water
from the rivers. The resultant brackish water is a
nutrient rich ‘soup’ that is an ideal medium in
which fish, crabs, turtles, aquatic vegetation, and
marine mammals like manatees and dolphins, thrive.
The bay is bordered on all
sides, with but a few exceptions, by a dense
mangrove forest. The mangrove shores are continuous
is some areas and broken into many small islands
with intervening channels in others, forming
hundreds of miles of shoreline around the bay. The
mangrove forest is home to an awesome variety of
birds and small animals. Since some species of
mangrove can grow in saltwater, their root structure
offers shelter and protection to many marine
creatures like crabs and small fish. The abundance
of small aquatic creatures draws larger fish that
feast on them, making Charlotte Harbor a truly
outstanding place to fish.
The bay is relatively shallow
in most areas. Perimeter sand bars extend along
both the east and west shores of the upper bay,
separated from the mangrove shores by slightly
deeper grass-filled troughs. Yet other sandbars, or
shoals, extend outward into the bay like those at
Cape Haze and from the south end of Hog Island.
Elsewhere, large areas of shallow, grass-covered
flats can be found such as those that extend
southward into Matlacha Pass and Pine Island Sound
and northward into Turtle Bay and Bull Bay.
All things considered, the
topography of the bay bottom is quite diverse,
despite the fact that it is relatively quite
shallow. The diversity of sand and grass bottoms,
shoals and troughs, mangrove islands and passes, and
the mixture of salt and fresh water, creates
conditions and environments that are very attractive
to an equally diverse fish community.
Charlotte Harbor Tides
If you are accustomed to
regular and relatively predictable tides, get ready
for some surprises. For a number of reasons, the
tidal ebb and flow in the bay can be pretty
erratic. We seem to have a few days each month with
a single low and a single high tidal stage. At
other times we can have two high and two low stages,
but with a difference of only 6 inches and a period
of only 3 hours between one of the highs and the
next low. The tidal range from ebb to flood, wind
effects not considered, can be as much as 2.5 feet,
but the range is typically a lesser value.
Fortunately, you can pick up a monthly tide card at
just about any of the bait and tackle shops in town
so you won’t need to try to out guess the forces of
nature.
Seasonal variations can be very
pronounced, with winter being particularly so.
Strong and persistent north winds that accompany the
periodic passages of cold fronts from late October
into May can overcome the tidal effects and force a
lot of water outward into the Gulf, leaving many of
the sand bars exposed. While this time of year may
be uncomfortable to some, it is an excellent time to
see what the topographic structure of many of the
bay’s best fish-holding locations look like.
Weather Effects
Punta Gorda, like most of
Florida, experiences both a wet and a dry season.
The nominal winter and spring months are noted for
extended periods of clear skies, low humidity, and
little or no rain. Fresh water discharge from the
Peace and the Myakka Rivers drops throughout the dry
period. Water clarity improves markedly and
salinity increases to the point that some species of
fish that prefer higher salinity conditions, such as
bluefish, enter and travel well up into the bay.
Sight fishing is excellent, but a stealthy approach
is mandatory because while you can see the fish,
they can see you as well.
The inverse is true during the
summer rainy season. The set-your-watch-by-them
daily thunderstorms and the occasional tropical
depression or, perish the thought, hurricane can
drop huge amounts of fresh water over the rivers’
drainage basins. Tannin stained color, that can be
as dark as strong coffee, characterizes the
increased river discharge. The fish don’t seem to
mind the change but anglers and boaters had better
hope they remember where the shoals are hiding.
The other weather-affected wild
card is the water temperature. Summer water
temperature routinely reaches the mid-to-upper 80’s
or higher, while winter temperature can drop into
the low 60’s to upper 50’s. Fish, despite their
minute brains, instinctively seek out areas in which
they are comfortable. Water temperature, water
chemistry, and gas absorption are all related and
all have a pronounced effect on the fish. We’ll
investigate what those effects are how to handle
deal with them in future articles.
Summing It Up
Charlotte Harbor holds a wealth
of mysteries. You could reasonably spend years
fishing the bay and still only discover a few of its
many secrets. However, if you would like to learn
more and do so more quickly, 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 July
27, 2004. We always invite a local guide or tackle
shop proprietor as a guest speaker to keep us up to
date on what’s biting where and what we need to
catch them. 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,
you should join the CCA. 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. In closing, if you have
comment, suggestions, or would like to recommend a
subject for a future article, please contact me at
genebenuzzi@juno.com. 
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an
experienced Florida saltwater angler, you may find
the information we present to be restatements of
things you already know. If that is the case,
please accept our apology. In response to our
invitation to contribute to this fine publication,
we decided to direct our message to folks who are
either relatively new to the area or who are perhaps
considering moving here. In general, we will 
