Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
April 16, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/24/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I took Monday of this week off to recover from the Sebring 12 Hour race, but had the rest of the week booked. But the weather reared it's ugly head again and gave us gusts to 32 MPH on Tuesday and still to around 25 on Wednesday.

Of course, it hadn't kicked yet when Rob Winnick and his Dad, of Edrina, Minnesota, and I left the dock on Tuesday morning. Oh, it was windy, but fishable. But, before we had completed our quest for bait the wind was absolutely howling, and the Sound was churning whitecap buttermilk, and we were getting wet trying to get anywhere. I told Rob not to be ashamed to toss in the towel if his heart wasn't in it, and shortly afterward, he did just that. Turned out to be the right decision, as the wind kicked even more through the day. I was really sorry the weather double crossed us, as Rob was taking his Dad on the trip as a birthday present.

The wind was down slightly on Wednesday for Joe Trad, and his group, but it was obvious it would be another miserable day to be out. All but a couple of guides canceled, and I bet they wished they had before it was over. I told Joe I would do my best to book him with another guide, since all my dates were full. Wednesday evening my friends Bo and Susan Mack, of Suffield, Connecticut, arrived to spend the night at the BarHopp'R camp with me. We had dinner and a good time. Thursday morning things weren't much different from the rest of the week, but Bo was so sick of fighting the cold and snow back home that he said he didn't care how bad it was, we were going fishing. So, we went!

Well, we went from Punta Rassa all the way to Cayo Costa Island chasing after bait, and used the better part of a 2.5 gallon bucket of chum and three hours, and for our efforts had maybe a dozen baits at the outside!! I was on the cellphone with several other guides, and everyone was having the same result. Bait had all but disappeared. Even worse, we couldn't get anything to eat our shiners or pinfish. Actually, we never got a hit on a pinfish, and caught 1 trout, and missed 4 fish on the dozen shiners we had managed to catch.

Desperate to find some kind of action, we headed up the river to catch ladyfish. Thank God, the ladyfish didn't double-cross us, too. There were plenty of them, and we had a good time catching those outsized fish that always seem to be in the river. We also got one jack crevalle. We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant, and that may well have been the highlight of the day. The food was fabulous, as always. I always love to see the Macks come, and am sad to see them go. They're such fun people. And, Bo is the guy who dubbed me "Radio Snoz"!

They say timing is everything, and it certainly was for Mark Moeller and his seventeen year-old son Andrew! The still angry winds of Thursday gave birth to a Friday with light and variable breezes. The Moellers drew the best weather day of the week, and the best fishing day, too.

We stopped on the Picnic Island flat to see if [maybe] we could get bait there. To my surprise, the bait was back! We got plenty. I wanted to start Mark and Andrew off on ladyfish to get them in the groove, and go put some redfish bait in the boat at the same time, so up the river we headed. The big ladyfish were there in spades, and we caught a load of them. What fun they are!

From there, we headed up into the Sound to try for trout. At the first stop, we had a bonanza of keeping sized trout, and caught plenty of them. We had been on steady action all morning to that point. For the final portion of the trip, we headed to a beautiful spot that often gives me great snook and redfish action. We switched to the ladyfish baits. Although we weren't able to get a good bite going, we did catch 2 redfish and 1 snook, completing the West Coast Slam for Mark. It was a great day, and the only descent weather day of the week.

If the ides of March would just go away, I think we'd see some really good fishing. Maybe next week we'll get that good weather we're all looking for.

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/31/2001

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

This should have been a report on six days of fishing this week, but as you might imagine, the weather claimed two of those days.

The first trip of the week was on Sunday with Shawn Reynolds, his dad Art, and son Matt, of Rumson, New Jersey. Shawn had been trying to fish with me since last year, when I had to refer him to another guide. I didn't have the heart to turn him away again, but warned him that the weekend fishing would likely be tough. There is so much boat traffic on the flats during the weekend, that I'm surprised we're able to catch much of anything before Tuesday of the following week! I agreed to work Sunday for an extra $50, and Shawn was agreeable.

We met Sunday morning at 7 AM, and headed to the flats at Tarpon Bay to catch bait. We had the makings of a pretty weather day with breezes from the west/northwest at 5 to 10, and bait was good. From the bait stop I headed to one of my favorite low tide trout holes which has also been full of snook. The trout were there, but the snook weren't interested. The boys caught 12 to 15 beautiful trout, and kept four for dinner. Of course, there were a couple of catfish that ate our shiners, too.

From there we went looking for snook, and found a few in the Flamingo area. The boys managed to catch 5. We capped off the catch with one redfish, giving Shawn and the boys a West Coast Slam. It wasn't a stellar day, but I didn't expect it to be. Shawn, Art, and Matt were a lot of fun, and I was glad we decided to go. It was a pretty descent day for a weekend.

Monday was a beautiful day to fish with my old friends and veterans of some great BarHopp'R trips, Stew and Lucy Evans, and their daughter Liz, and son, Morgan, of Denver. This is one of the several North Captiva pickup trips that I do each year, and I love fishing with the Evans. Stew and Lucy have always rented one of the houses there when they come, but this time were staying for the first time in their new vacation home. Stew had asked me to see if I could put together four nice light tackle rigs from my "for sale" inventory for him to keep at their North Cap home. I met Stew at the end of the runway and gave him the tackle, so he would run it back to the house before we went fishing.

I was sure that we'd be able to get bait up around Cayo Costa or at Foster's Point, so I drove straight to Stew. Besides, I prefer to have everyone on the boat for the bait catching routine. Well, don't you know the bait double-crossed us, and I couldn't find the first shiner anywhere up at the north end. I had planned to spend the day fishing north to cut down on some of the running, but wound up having to go back all the way to Chino before finding bait. Since we were there, I decided to stay in the area to fish.

Our first stop was a real big trout jackpot. We caught trout after trout at the top of the slot and bigger, and since the Evans are always trapped on North Captiva, where there are no convenience or grocery stores, they usually want to keep as much fish as possible. They got back into the tight line hookset groove pretty quickly, and voted to stay with the trout bite for as long as it lasted. By the time we were done, they had put 10 big trout, including 4 beautiful trophy fish, in the cooler, and caught many more. That hole also gave us a couple of catfish. Liz had the most fun with a 4 ft. shovelnose shark that kept trying to eat her live shiner until he finally succeeded. She almost had him landed before he got away.

After the trout action things were slow, and we only managed one redfish and one snook. But, the food was in the frige, they got their West Coast Slam, and we had all had a great time. On the way back, we stopped at Jensen's so Stew could fill up a small gas tank for his new Zodiac. Can you believe you can't even buy gasoline on North Captiva? The Evans were having a hard time trying to get their phones worked on, too. I love fishing with them, and look forward to seeing them more often now that they have their own place on North Captiva.

Tuesday evening, I met my charter for Friday, Darin and Julie May, who were down from their native Minnesota, and were wed the day before. They were fishing honeymooners. We had corresponded a lot over the previous couple of months, and the Mays were really excited about fishing here with me, and I couldn't wait to meet them. They sounded like such fun!

We went to the Seafood Center and Crab House, where I introduced them to the great golden margaritas and dungeness crab. I thought Julie was going to nut up over those crabs. Well, they are super yummy! We had a blast over dinner and drinks, then went to the BarHopp'R camp to visit some more before parting till Friday.

As I was walking out the door Tuesday morning, my cellphone rang. It was the wife of my customer Chris Hedges with news that they had arrived late last evening, and Chris had come down with an intestinal virus and was sick as a dog. I felt really bad for him, as he had come down just to fish. Maybe next year!

Wednesday morning, the wind was blowing nearly 20 out of the southeast, and I was afraid it would be a tough day. But as the day wore on, the wind laid somewhat, and it turned into a real nice day. The southeast wind was the first hint of another late season front approaching, though! My party was an old friend and veteran of several BarHopp'R trips, Chip George, of Lake Forest, Illinois, along with his friend Ron.

After gathering bait off Tarpon Bay, we headed up into the Sound. We hit a low tide snook/trout hole, and the snook weren't interested probably because they had been overrun by the trout. The hole was full of beautiful speckled trout, nearly every one keeper size and beyond, and Chip and Ron had a blast catching a good 40 of them. They also caught one good jack crevalle, at least a half dozen nice ladyfish, and a flounder out of that same hole. We stayed with it until things slowed, then went looking for snook and reds. We finished a great day with 3 snook and 1 redfish, giving them the West Coast Slam! Way to go guys!

First time customer Ron Lewen, of Batavia, Illinois, drew one hell of a weather day on Thursday. It was blowing pretty well when I launched the boat, but it was acceptable. We headed around to Tarpon Bay for bait, which was great, but by the time we pulled out of the relatively sheltered cove, the wind had kicked and was howling at around 25, and gusting higher. The front was definitely on our doorstep. As we rode across the Sound to our first stop, I told Ron that it was going to be a tough, wet, bumpy day, and that if he wanted to call the trip, I'd understand. He said he was here to fish, and we were fishin regardless. My kind of fisherman!

Ron wanted to target mostly snook, so snook we did. We fought the wind and trying to anchor in it with a trolling motor that was useless in that much wind, and only managed to catch 2 or 3 snook at each stop. The wind seemed to be getting worse as time passed, and it was so bad that the Sound was frothing white with whitecaps. I knew we HAD to cross it somewhere to get home to the Sanibel ramp. After catching at least a dozen snook , a ladyfish, and one trout, and loosing a couple, I asked Ron if he wanted to try to get a redfish for the Slam before heading home. He was agreeable, and we made our way back up the blasting south wind to McKeever Keys.

In position we put out several rigs with steaked ladyfish on them along the treeline. It wasn't long before we had our first take, and it turned out to be a beautiful redfish of about 12 pounds. Ron was thrilled with that fish! But the best thrill was about to come for both of us.

Not long after getting the lines back into the water, Ron had a violent hit just off the trees. The big fish took off to the east, away from the trees, but right across this horrific wind. When she felt the sting of the hook and the resistance of the line, she tried to jump, but in a foot and a half of water, it was too much fish in too little water! The best she could do was get half way out of the water and show us her massive size. She was at least four feet long, maybe longer, and looked like a tarpon, but it was a big, dark snook. It was the biggest snook I've ever seen. She just kept pulling the 12 pound line from the Shimano Sustain 4000 like it was effortless for her. I kept telling Ron he had to slow the fish, as he was getting way into the spool. But, Ron, with his first giant snook ever, didn't know how to slow the fish, and there was no time to show him! She was taking line too quickly. I went for the anchor, since we were about done for the day, anyway. With the anchor up and motor running we were ready to try to get some line back. We were almost to the end of the line. But, the big snook would take line back from Ron as quickly as we could recover it. I knew it was only a matter of time before the line parted, because the line was quickly loading up with seaweed and debris kicked up by all the wind. The monster tried again to jump, but just couldn't get enough bite on the water to do so. We got another good look at her, and she was truly huge. Soon after that jump attempt, I heard Ron utter a rather loud expletive deleted! The line had parted. She had won! What a way to end the day!

Now, it was time for us to boldly go where no man wanted to go; back across the angry Sound. We had to run right straight into a good four foot chop with only about ten feet. separating the waves, and I thought I'd break my boat in half before I got to where I could turn and quarter the waves. We took some major water over the bow, and were soaked to our bones by the time we got across, but nothing broke, and we made it back to the ramp. What a day! It was one I doubt Ron will ever forget!

Finally, Friday was here, and it was time to fish with my new honeymooners Darin and Julie. But, it had rained and stormed most of the night as the front came upon us, and I knew once I checked the morning radar, it would be a washout. I got up and got the boat ready and headed to the ramp at Sanibel. Darin and Julie were already there when I pulled in, and she was literally jumping up and down with excitement. I explained the situation, and they understood, and I think knew already, it was going to be too stormy to fish. God, I hated to cancel that trip. But, it was the safe thing to do.

We headed to the Split Rail back on the mainland for a great breakfast. We ate and hung out there until almost noon, when we finally said our good-byes. It had been raining nearly the whole time. They were so much fun, and such a sweet couple. They promised to be back for that trip next year, and I know they will be.

Many of you may be wondering why I discontinued sending notices after posting the fishing reports. You may recall that I had a lot of problems recently with a virus, and I have been reluctant to send reports to several thousand computer readers until I'm certain there's no chance of sending them a virus. Please check the site occasionally for new postings. Be mindful that we're in our busiest season right now, and it's nearly impossible to stay current with the reports. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

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