Port Charlotte Beach Park

[Pmoconnor89]

Contrary to the name, the only thing thats beachy about this park is a small stretch of sand. It includes a boat ramp, pier, some shuffleboard courts, tennis courts, and other usual park stuff. As for fishing, its very close to the mouth of the Peace River, so expect dark water and muddy bottoms.



This is a pay to park kinda place so don't forget the cash, its gonna run you $.75 an hour. I forgot the cash and had to find an ATM, which did lead me to a gas station with a nice hot counter where I found a delicious sausage egg and cheese croissant, but thats a different story for a different day.



Heres the "beach" and the pier. This is where I chose to launch.



I parked right off the bat, but I dont see why there would be a problem staging your vehicle by the fence while you launched to shorten your hauling distance. Also, on the other end of the park theres spots for you to launch, but the parking is all trailer spots on that side since thats where the boat ramp is.



Heres a map of the area. The park is located right where it says "its time kayak rentals" For a quick leisurly fishing paddle, 20-30 yards off the peir I was catching some decent trout, without much of a paddle. However, you have access to quite a few creeks and channels to explore. The whole area is mainly dark water with muddy bottom. There were plenty of spots that were less than half a paddle length deep and I couldnt see bottom.



My only bounty for the day were trout. I was throwing gold spoons and gold DOA shrimp at em. I got my biggest with the DOA, a roughly 20 incher who came unbottoned when he decided to head to the back of the kayak as I was throwing the rod in the scotty to unhook him. I did manage to run over a small school of reds. I wrote them off as mullet since there were SO MANY in the area, ran over them and saw a very distinct spot on the tails of three that spooked and ran right underneath me. If the snook stick to there normal habits this year you should find some in the creeks, I didnt make the paddle up creek since I was fishing an outgoing tide.

As far as coming home, just look for the triangle roof tops!

[0119]

Man that was the only beach when I was growing up! If you have the time for a long paddle, it is worth going thru Muddy Bay into the more or less man made bunch of mosquito ditches going into Three Sisters. Good Snook, great Red area. When the waters ups and you feel strong, you can even end up going into the Myakka cut off of veer north into Tippicanoe and Sam Knight Creek. Easier to hit it off SR 776 though.

[Offlander]

The whole area is mainly dark water with muddy bottom. There were plenty of spots that were less than half a paddle length deep and I couldnt see bottom.

The water Is not as dark as you think, the red fish see you like they do in gin clear water.
The reason I know this is: a friend and I were fishing the Myakka River in his gheenoe. A spring broke on the outboard, we made a hard left and WE all went for a cool swim. seeing it was 8' to 10' deep i needed SCUBA to retrieve our stuff. While on the bottom I rolled over to look up through the tannic stained water and to my surprise it was gin clear. (Could not see the white sand bottom from the surface)

Things to remember when fishing tannic stained water, Fish see you first!!!

[Rik]

Very nice launch post. We need more like this!

[trevorb]

0119, I recently moved to a house on the canal system connected to the three lakes, I never caught anything in the summer months but I caught some really nice reds in early spring and just recently. I assume that whole area lights up in the cooler temps? I tried to go back in there with a recent negative low tide, but could not do it, so if you go in there, make sure you have high enough water to get out.

[0119]

Yeah Trevorb thats for sure. I imagine you live off Ohara somewhere. Your area will be hot till late spring. If you get a chance go inland more towards the county park on Tea Street. Last spring after the big freeze, we caught more giant snook up there than Ive ever seen.

[trevorb]

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to give it a shot