Charlotte Harbor fishing report

Charlotte Harbor and all our surrounding communities have been greatly affected since hurricane Ian made landfall west of Fort Myers on September 28th. Up to this point, most of us have been focused on providing relief to those impacted the most. Normal is nowhere in sight. our waterways now have lots of debris and pollution scattered throughout. I’ve been out only once ,just this past Sunday, along the east side below Punta Gorda and was very careful as I navigated our way around all familiar waterways and mangrove island shorelines. The water was cloudy and visibility was minimal. Keep in mind, tropical storm Nicole had just gone through. However, the fish are still here and did chew pretty good. On this day, we threw soft plastic paddle tails and I felt very lucky as Tom got his slam, a good sized redfish and snook to go along with a few trout. There were also lots of ladyfish as well as some large jack crevalle. We even managed to hook a good sized cobia that ate right at the boat. All the fish were released safely.