Charlotte Harbor Fishing Report The weather is hot and fishing can be hit and miss with the best times early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Redfish that have schooled up can be found today and gone tomorrow. The tarpon seem to making one last show at Boca Grande Pass with a nice pod at the mouth and on the beach. Snook are still cooperating nicely and with the season opening September 1st will become a target of most anglers. The bait is plentiful in some areas while some areas are holding limited to no bait at all. Keep looking for the schools of redfish they should become more steady over the next few weeks. I took Ron S. from Texas out this week for what was to be an all day charter, it rained 5 inches the night before and when I picked Ron up the basin at Burnt Store Marina was full of fresh water. I had caught bait earlier and now all my bait was dead in the well from the fresh water so we spent the first 30 minutes of the charter catching bait for the second time. After a quick run we filled the wells up again and took to look for redfish we stopped at no less than 10 spots and caught numerous snook with not a redfish in sight and the temps rising well into the high 90’s Ron Decided to call it at the half day mark and we went in. My next trip was with Ollie W. and again I picked up at Burnt Store Marina only this time after catching the bait and prior to going into the basin I shut down the intake valve on my live well pumps and opened up the recirculateing valves just in case there was still fresh water in the basin. Off we went again searching for the redfish and ending up instead with snook. One of which toped the scales on the boca grip at over 20lbs. What a nice catch and Ollie’s wife said it was the biggest fish she had ever caught and the photo would grace this years Christmas cards. Looking forward to my card and see you guy’s again in November. “Good Things Come To Those With Bait” Capt Andy Boyette