i-Pilot FOR POMPANO

Home in Port Charlotte

Lows 60s, highs 80s

I fished the past 2 Saturdays and brought home tasty Pompano for dinners. 

Also caught a lot of Jack Cravelle and Bluefish.  Those aren't table fare for me but they sure are fun to fight and great practice for landing larger, in-shore, species.  For much of the morning, I was accompanied by some huge bottle nose dolphin, whose presence put a damper on the fishing. 

The trolling motor on my Mako flats boat has the new Minn Kota i-Pilot feature. It is a GPS enabled virtual anchor. Once I set it, it captures the longitude and latitude of my position and self adjusts to the current and wind to hold me within a few feet of that spot.  I have to say, it is absolutely amazing. 

I fished both days in a strong incoming tide, enhanced by the wide channel narrowing to a bridge opening, coupled with 10-15 mph winds.  The i-Pilot held my position and allowed me to concentrate on landing fish, not running the boat.  With my newly installed Power-Pole shallow water anchor system, I now have the tools I need to fish where I want to and (hopefully) catch what I want to. 

After I had my dinner secured in the fish box, I moved onto the mangrove channels in search of redfish but none were found this trip.  Nonetheless, accessing the skinny shallow flats just to get near the habitat is a fun adventure. 

These photos show the areas where I fished yesterday. 

Click on each one for full screen images. 

This first shot shows the Little Gasparilla Pass, where Placida Harbor meets the Gulf of Mexico.

The bridge I fished can be seen where the word Boca is listing the Boca Grande Causeway. 

This shot shows a wide angle of the Gulf Inter Coastal Waterway, along the Cape Haze peninsula. 

The barrier islands separate the ICW from the Gulf, seen left of the beach. 

I saw a huge manatee along this route yesterday. 

There are mangrove islands along along here, which can hold redfish at anytime...if you can find them. 

Every inshore channel in this photo was visited by my boat yesterday.  And every fish living there stayed well hidden from me.  Still, it was a beautiful tour of the sights and sounds of life on the barrier islands.