What would you recommend to anglers fishing in Port Charlotte, Florida for the first time?

We fished with Captain Terry Heller of Fish-On Sport Fishing with his homebase right in Port Charlotte and had a great day of fish-catching, laughing, learning and fun adventure. Because of the weather and wind, we left the dock at Placida equipped to fish the inland waters or run out into the gulf. With 3-5 ft waves, the 24 ft boat handled the gulf chop with ease and we made it out to 8 or 9 miles offshore, stopping at several key secret spots that Captain Terry had in his GPS. Drop-offs and wrecks, hard bottoms, sand. He explained why too. We caught fish at every stop! Heart throbbing bites, drag-screaming runs. We landed about 60 fish in our 3-hour lines-in-the-water stint from 1230-330 in the afternoon, catching 6 different species of fish including gag grouper, red grouper, triggerfish, lane snapper, key west grunts, tom-toms. We lost a lot too! We left with a nice bag of white fillets, all cleaned by Captain Terry and ready for the kitchen pan. We learned about the gear, rods, reels, lines, weights, leaders, hooks and differences between them all, and use of baits and lures. These included squid, cut bait, shrimp, frozen minnows and other secret stuff he had. Incredible trip. Great value, great fun. We highly recommend Captain Terry Heller.

It’s a large area and a good guide is absolutely necessary to have a chance at fish. The conditions are really variable per site, from structure to grass flats. Very challenging to keep things going—so moving with tides and conditions is a must.

Two persons maxim with the captain on the boat; six hours are what we liked. Choose Captain Cody or any other skipper with a small boat accommodating 2. And not to venture into the open ocean; stay away from large fish; the Jacks and the Ray we hooked were to our surprise a highly charged bundle of energy; I could not imagine the amount of strength required for a rookie to tussle with a tarpon, shark or other ocean heavyweights. Contact the skipper forehand before sailing and fishing. We were in the bay, boating canals and mangrove rivers; a good start for novices.

We were a bit confused once we arrived in the parking lot as to where to actually meet our charter. There were no signs indicating that the 'dock' was 'this way', We arrived at the address provided and it was a building with no identifying signs. It was a building for children day camp or something. Cody did his best to help us over the phone but it really wasn't his fault as he was on his boat and we were walking aimlessly around the parking lot. We ended up at a sailing building which was the wrong place. We eventually found him but never being to Port Charlotte before we felt a bit anxious and stressed with no signage.

Make sure to vet the charter service you hire- ask about experience and for referrals- we got burned

The sharks weren’t out, and although we selected an inland excursion, some fish just left for warmer waters. That said, we did well.

It was a little chilly and threatening rain, I suspect there are better times to be out on the water, but this happened to be the time we were in the area on vacation. No regrets!

Find out the fishing season for particular fish if you care about the catch. We had lots of fish and lots of fun allowing whatever would come.

If you have children or grandchildren who want to have an exciting experience, then here is where you need to go.

It was very windy the day we went. We caught some small fish, but no large ones because of the wind and waves.

July is HOT. Go in the morning! Get a Guide like Straw Hats- Success Rate significantly increases.

Good place to work on your skills try bait lures with several species to try for

The water is a little too warm for the fish, but anytime spent on the water is a great day.

Talk to your captains and find out what fish you could keep an ear and which fish you cannot.