The Holes of Charlotte Harbor
Distance from the ramps to the 20 foot hole at bottom of page
These Holes are great for Tarpon, Sharks or mackerel fishing.
Even though we call then holes they are
more like deeper depressions without defined edges.
they slope very gradually to the deepest part. finding dead center is not that
important,
These G.P.S. number are a guess and should or may be correct but they will get
you close.
20 foot, This is the most famous of the holes and the one which holds the
most Tarpon, and sharks
This is the approximate gps 26 52.379 082 07.735
The
Middle hole is not really talked about
but it defines the route the 26 49.742 082 06.442
Tarpon take from the pirates harbor hole to the 20' hole, Shown on
the 2nd picture.
Pirate harbor Hole / reef is the second most well known place for Harbor Tarpon,
what is not generally known Is Charlotte Harbor has a lot of Shrimp Trawler
working it.
If a trawler gets something in it's net they will haul it out of the way, either
to the reef or to the Pirate Harbor Hole, So over the years there has been a lot
of debris,
dumped there, Occasionally some one will Try to build their own reef,
maybe a washing machine or just sink an old boat, If the shrimpers snag it in the
nets,
it gets moved so they do not have to deal with that again.
It is not a legal reef just a place where things have been put
for 60 ? years or so. 26 47.766 082 06.098
This is a screen shot from a Navioncs depth Chart you can get for your G.P.S.
Here is a trick for those of us
who are GPS challenged,
The old fashion way to find the 22' hole is to go to
Marker #1
At 25 mph you should travel about 4 minutes, your depth finder will be reading
20 foot,
that is pretty much close enough.
This shows the three holes, You can easily
see the path between the holes,
If you are looking for Harbor Tarpon
Follow this basic run pattern it is not important you be right on the holes.
It is important you keep your eyes open.
When you see a wave that shines silver you found the Tarpon.
Pirate harbor Hole is the second most well known place for Harbor Tarpon,
what is not generally known Is Charlotte Harbor has a lot of Shrimp Trawlers
working it.
If a trawler gets something in it's net they will haul it out of the way, either
to the reef or to the Pirate Harbor Hole, So over the years there has been a lot
of debris,
dumped there, Occasionally some one will Try to build their own reef,
maybe a washing machine or just sink an old boat, If the shrimpers snag it in the
nets,
it gets moved so they do not have to deal with that again.
It is not a legal reef just a place where things have been put
for 60 ? years or so. So you could say The Pirate Harbor hole is
also a Reef.
26 47.766
082 06.098
From the boat ramps to the 20' hole
what wait a minute you are not in South west Florida. Here it we went from a beautiful warm winter right into Summer. one day I walk out of the house at 5:am and it was chilly and the next day it was hot and humid. wow what a change. The water temps are that of what should be June, the gulf is on the mid 80’s and parts of the Harbor are reaching 90 degrees. So what's all this mean well good news Shark and Tarpon even Cobia are all here and biting in full out eat something mode. But the flats is a different story as the water warms up you will need to start slowing down, much the same as when the water gets below 70 degrees in the winter, the main difference is the lack of oxygen, Hot water will not hold oxygen so the fish slow down just as you do when it is hot. a neat trick I use in the winter and summer months is to use a very small reel, instead of using a 4000 or 40 size reel I switch to a 1 or 2000 size, even though when you turn the handle it spins at the same speed like 50 to 1 ratio, the spool size is much smaller so you bring in less line per turn of the handle when retrieving a lure, allowing the fish time to see it, hear it and make up it’s mind to eat it.
Now the middle of the Harbor
is deeper and deeper water takes longer to heat up, and the
fishing there continues to be good. the Tarpon who may breath
either under water or air form above don’t care what the oxygen
in the water is, and are hanging out in the deep holes of the
Harbor where fish like whiting, cat fish and or thread fins are
hiding from the heat. and while seeing rolling tarpon is always
better I would say weather you see Tarpon rolling or not. stop
over the deep hole either the middle hole or the 20 foot hole
and on one rod put out a live thread fin free line, and on the
other rod a cut bait under a float. The cut bait should be about
5 to 6 feet below your bobber or float and the size of your
fist,
now this is not written in stone you may place the live thread
fin under the float and let the cut bait free line, if you do
this I would take off the Fluorocarbon leader and replace it
with the AFW knot-able steel leader. The new leader from AFW you
do not need crimps tools or a lighter to melt it. You just tie
it the same way you would tie on your fluorocarbon leader
including a line to line knot. then just tie on your hook. any
knot will hold but a Uni knot works best. keep in mind when
tying a uni to uni from your braid line to the leader pull
slowly and when tying on your hooks pull the knot down to the
hook not the leader through the eye of the hook or the leader
can get curly on you. This new steel leader we have tested it on
Tarpon, Sharks, Snook, red fish, and you will get a few more
hits while using fluorocarbon leader, but if you are dragging a
cut bait free line while Tarpon fishing you will lose a lot of
leader to the sharks, and if you switch to the AFW tie-able
steel you will hook up and land not only the Tarpon but the
Sharks as well, and that is cool. The one thing is if the water
is very clear as it is along the beach, the Tarpon will see that
steel more so than in the darker waters of the Harbor, and there
is not the shark problem along the beaches so there along the
beaches I would stay with the 60 pound Fluorocarbon leader. but
in the Harbor I would switch it when ever you are free lining.
after all a hook up with a Shark or a hook up with a Tarpon both
are fun.