Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
February 2, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 1/27/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The fishing week began in typical fashion, with the approach of another cold front and windy, drizzly weather. Dennis McKeever, of Mt. Ephriam, New Jersey, and his sons Shawn and Ryan, were supposed to fish Monday morning. I suspected the day was in jeopardy through the night as the wind was banging the limbs of a tree up against the fish camp. When I hear that sound, I know it's blowing a good 20 knots. I got up and got the boat ready, but as I pulled in to fuel her I saw light raindrops on the windshield. Not good. I headed on down to the ramp, and when I pulled into the Bait Shack for supplies it began drizzling harder. I called Dennis right then and suggested we postpone the trip to Thursday, which was supposed to be a pretty nice weather day. Dennis agreed, and I headed on down to the ramp to chat with the other guides who were there, but had canceled their trips.

The next couple of days were cold and windy, and I didn't fish again until Thursday, when Dennis and I tried it again. We were still looking at northwest wind at 15 to 20 and a high of only 60. The water was still below 60 degrees. I explained to Dennis that when you fish with kids, the trips has to be planned around the kids and their abilities. He understood. We left the ramp at nine o'clock and headed up the river to let the boys break in on some serious ladyfish action. The fish were there in big numbers, and everyone caught tons of them and had a good time at it.

Once the tide slowed we headed up the Sound with trout as our main quarry. I stopped at a favorite snook hole, as much to get out of the wind for a while and let everyone warm up as anything else. I explained that the likelihood of catching a snook in this cold water was very remote, but that there were also trout, grouper, snapper, sheepies, and small reds that may bite. We were fishing shrimp in a variety of presentations. Well, don't you know the first thing I know young Shawn gets tagged by something about to take him out of the boat. Both the boys were pretty good little fishermen, but not familiar with the tricks needed to land fish like snook in close quarters on light tackle, so I immediately went into the coaching mode. Shawn followed my lead, and after a few minutes of serious struggling, had the fish boatside. He was thrilled, and I was surprised, with his beautiful snook that went around 9 pounds. It was the biggest fish, and the toughest fish he'd ever tangled with. Although there were no more snook caught that fish made the day. The boys did catch 3 snappers and a sheephead there before we moved on. After taking up residence on a shallow water trout hole, the McKeever boys caught a pretty good mess of speckled trout and four flounder. It had been a pretty good day of winter fishing.

Thursday evening my good friend Dave Latimer came down from St. Petersburg to spend the night at the fish camp and fish Friday. "Fishaholic" Dave is one of my favorite people. He started out as a customer, as most do, but quickly became one of my favorite fishing buddies. He has been very generous at offering me a spot on his boat anytime I can make it, which I just love. It allows me to leave the responsibilites and pressures of being the Captain behind, and just enjoy some good ole lure fishing. In turn, I've been trying to introduce Dave to some of the areas around Sarasota and Tampa Bay that I used to fish rabidly.

I took Dave down to the Seafood Center and Crab House for dinner, where he discovered that the golden margaritas were indeed fantastic, and had his first dungeness crab. He was worried about having enough crab, and having to work too hard to get at it. Ha! Dave made a lot of animal noises through that meal, and I noticed his eyes were often rolled back in his head. That crab blew him away. We had too much of everything, especially margaritas, and were stumbling sideways when we left.

We hit the water around 7:30 the next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, with my Stellas ready for action. I had shrimp in the boat, but we figured to fish lures as we usually do. We headed up the river to catch some ladyfish, both for fun and to have a couple for bait in case we ran across a school of reds. After having some fun with the ladys, we began working our way up the Sound. We did a lot of pothole fishing, and a lot of looking. We caught a little big of everything, and got the Slam for the boat. We ended the day up north of Demere Key, and had caught 1 small snook, 2 redfish, 6 or so trout, around 10 nice flounder, and of course, a bunch of ladyfish. I had really hoped to find some reds holed up somewhere, and we did find a few, but they weren't much interested in eating. I fished mostly with the small Bass Assassin Glass Shad, and Dave with a DOA rootbeer shrimp. I don't have the patience to work a shrimp, but Dave is very good with it. I just hate working any bait that slow. I might as well be livebait fishing.

We had a great time, and it was a textbook day with light breezes and a high around 70. Dave says I usually outfish him, but I think he outfished me that day. That night, back at the camp, I introduced Dave to flounder sashimi, and broiled a redfish and trout for dinner. I also got Dave to try grits for the first time since he was a small boy. He at them, but said they'd never be on his favorites list.

So, another short week! What's new. Things are slow for just about everyone I've talked to. I think the weather has scared off some of our would be customers. Well, it can't stay cold forever.....can it?

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