NO ESCAPING THE RED TIDE THIS WEEK
Capt. Butch Rickey
March 9, 2013
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week Ending 2/23/13.....
Two trips on the books again this week, but only got to run one of them. My friends for Thursday misread the meeting time in my email the night before, and never showed up. I tried to call them when I realized something was wrong, but found out later their cell phone was off. We were supposed to meet at the Circle K at 6:30. I finally went home at 8:30. Found out later they were sitting waiting on 8:30 when they found my message on their phone. It was an honest mistake, and we were all disappointed. We'll try again next year.
Friday morning I picked up my long time fishing friend Andy Mount and his daughter Rachel, at Casa Y'bel on Sanibel, and we headed to Castaways. At the ramp I could smell the red tide in the air. I wondered if it would be a factor.
We got the Ultimates launched, and made our way out to our first stop. I got Andy and Rachel set up to fish it, and moved down a ways and went to work. It quickly became apparent that the fish weren't eating. I told Andy I was going hunting for a bite, and suggested they fish their way along the edge they were fishing. As I hunted for a bite, Andy called me on the radio and told me he'd caught a 22" redfish and a nice trout. Later Rachel caught a trout. I was still fishless at that point.
I finally reached an area that is always full of nice trout in the winter and was sure I'd find a bite. I did find some nice trout eventually, but by the time Andy and Rachel got their, they had already quit. The wind was up pretty well, and I recommended we fish closer to home in case it kicked up even more. Along the way I found a dead manatee around 8 feet long floating in the shallow water distended belly out of the water. It had no doubt gotten pneumonia from breathing the red tide, and had succumbed to it.
I also ran up on a school of big redfish on the flat, but they refused to eat. We fished the area hard, and never got a redfish bite. We finished the day with only nine trout and the redfish, and took home the red and 3 very nice trout. The red tide had certainly been a big factor in the fishing. It had been very tough at a time and on a tide that it should have been very good. It didn't phase Andy and Rachael, though. We had a good time in spite of the red tide and the slow bite. And, there's something that's always very special about seeing and fishing with old friends that go back a lot of years.
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