Punta Gorda Smorgasbord

By Jan S. Maizler
Article & Travel Editor
Photos By Jan S. Maizler

The last time I'd fished with Captain Ralph Allen- the dean of Punta Gorda's historic angling and sightseeing Kingfisher Fleet- I promised myself I'd return within the year…and that was an oath I was able to keep. That first time we fished together, I was astonished at the productivity of his area- even though my home waters of Biscayne Bay could be good, the diverse convergence of the Peace and Myakka rivers into Charlotte Harbor was and is a habitat with a wealth of baitfish and inshore gamefish that Miami rarely if ever sees.

It is without exaggeration my recollecting that in April 2009 Ralph and I caught snook after snook under the midday sun. Mind you, this action was only two blocks away from my most recent base of operations: the ultra-‘luxe Wyvern Hotel in downtown historic Punta Gorda. And that's the snook fishery in Ralph's backyard- the Linesiders are simply everywhere.

But this trip with Ralph would be a challenge to catch the greatest variety of fish possible in marvelous Charlotte Harbor. When we discussed his initial planning, Ralph told me that we'd be fishing a wide swath of his home waters to get the greatest number of species. In retrospect, it turned out to be a trip that had us fishing the open bay, the Cape Haze shoreline, the mouth of the Myakka River, and as previously mentioned, right alongside downtown Punta Gorda. This was all in the midst of Charlotte Harbor proper, Florida's second largest estuary encompassing over 200 square miles of fishable water.

Planning is Always Key

Ralph felt that late April would begin the season when the cold fronts would be diminished as well as time of year that would see water temperatures on the rise. Not surprisingly, he asked me to time the trip on a weekday. He felt this was especially important in Charlotte Harbor because the immense productivity of this habitat has attracted a huge number of shallow water anglers in all varieties of flats, bay, and tower boats.

I was glad to find out we'd be fishing in Ralph's 18-foot Redfisher. This vessel had an excellent capacity to handle big open waters and windy weather in comfort as well as the kind of shallow draft that could ease us into foot-deep shallows with no problem. His skiff also had two huge livewells for whitebait, which was always the beginning go-to bait for the inshore gamefish. In addition, Ralph said he'd plan on taking some fresh crab quarters as well as ladyfish chunks as backup baits in case the redfish wouldn't gulp the "livies" we'd be casting.

Since I was to meet Ralph at 8:00 a.m. on April 24th, I decided to make the four-hour drive from Miami the day before and arrange a stay at the brand new Wyvern Hotel. I was anxious to sample a luxurious "overnighter" there, have a cocktail at the Rooftop Bar and then take dinner downstairs at Lulu Restaurant. The staffing, room, drinks and dining I experienced at the Wyvern made me conclude that it was the premier destination in Punta Gorda.

"D"- Day

Once I got onboard, Ralph idled his skiff out of his headquarters at Fisherman's Village. When he arrived in the boat channel, he pointed his vessel towards the southwest and pushed the throttle forward. We jumped on plane and ran about a half-hour. Ralph backed off into idle mode as he pointed to some diving birds 100 yards away. He said, "There's our mackerel" as we saw perhaps a half-dozen fish skyrocketing. It didn't take long before we released three nice macks on white jigs rigged on fast-retrieve spinners. The fish were hitting with abandon and it was hard to leave them, but maximum variety on a 7 –hour trip was our mission and off we sped.

Our next stop was the point at Cape Haze, where Ralph netted all the bait needed after a little chumming and three good throws. I was astonished at the flashes of bait all around us. Ralph then got on the poling tower and poled us about 50 yards to a basin in the middle of the flat. After staking up, he started launching chum baits with his famous sawed-off plastic wiffle bat. The water started exploding all around the baits in short order. Ralph hooked a live bait on a light spinner rigged with 8-pound braid and a 30-pound fluorocarbon leader topped off with a 1/0 hook. I made a long cast and quickly came tight with a snook of about 5-pounds. After releasing that fish, I followed up with 7 more snook of slightly larger size as well as a large 3 to 4-pound trout. I probably missed a dozen strikes. Ralph said, "That's three species. Let's go."

He fired up his engine and idled about a mile to the northeast along the shoreline before he turned off the ignition and started poling. He said that he'd found redfish 2 weeks earlier in this stretch of shoreline. Ralph anchored his skiff about 40 feet off from some overhanging limbs and told me to cast my whitebait into the shadows. Though my casts were good, I did not get any strikes. Meanwhile, loads of snook swam by us along the shoreline, but they ignored the live bait in this shallow ultra clear water. Ralph said, "Time to change tactics" and he baited up a slightly heavier spinning rod with a quarter of a fresh crab and made a perfect cast into the shade of the mangrove shadows. He did the same with a second rod about 50 feet downtide. Ralph then used the "wiffle rocket" to launch a few chunks of ladyfish and crab uptide- hopefully, their scent would arouse the redfish working into the current in the direction of our baited hooks.

It took about 20 minutes before one rod heeled over in the holder and the drag screamed. I struck hard and two minutes later had a big sailcat alongside. While we were deciding whether to count this as another gamefish species, the other rod went down. I grabbed it out of the holder and struck. After a very different kind of fight, we were not surprised, but delighted to be releasing a 4-pound redfish.

Ralph told me to rack the rods as he fired up his engine. We then made a long run back towards U.S. Highway 41 into the open bay where the Myakka River was flowing out. Ralph said there had been a good recent run of sporty blacktip sharks. As he anchored after checking his shoreline ranges, he said we'd first need some bait. After seeing my puzzled look, he said they'd been eating sand trout chunks. He then took a whitebait rod and added a small sinker. After hooking a whitebait, he let the bait go to the bottom 10 feet below the skiff. Almost instantly, Ralph's rod bent and he sunk the hook into what would be a 1-pound sand trout. Together, we caught about 10 of these spotless trout. Then we chunked them into chum and hook baits, the latter of which were fished with circle hooks and wire leaders under floats. Within a minute, my float exploded into the water under a savage strike. Since I was using a circle hook, I simply reeled to come tight. Ten minutes later, we were posing a 15-pound blacktip shark for the camera. After catching two more sharks, Ralph expectedly said, "Time for a change."

Ralph ran us to downtown Punta Gorda and eased us against a seawall with his pushpole. He tossed some live chum and the area came alive with striking snook. I hooked up immediately and after seven snook told him I was totally satisfied with a trip whose story I could not wait to tell. As we eased back into his berth in Fishermen's Village, Ralph told me to come back soon when the fishing really got good. All I could do was look back at him and smile.

Contact Data

Captain Ralph Allen
Web Site: www.kingfisherfleet.com
E-Mail: captain@kingfisherfleet.com
Phone: 941-639-0969

The Wyvern Hotel
Web Site: www.thewyvernhotel.com
E-Mail: jperez@thewyvernhotel.com
Phone: 941-639-7700

See all the photos from the outing in Jan Maizler's Photo Gallery.