Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

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

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 6/16/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

After marking this week off my calendar for vacation, then finding late that I had the wrong week marked, it was impossible to fill it on short notice. As a result, I only ran two trips.

The first trip was Thursday with my new friends Roland and Shannon Hartich. I though I would do something different, and give them a chance to see a different part of the Sound, so after catching bait at Chino Island, we headed way north.

We had a slow moving tide, which in itself, makes for tough fishing. But, it didn't take us long to notice that we had virtually lost our breeze than had been around for some time, keeping us relatively cool in this hot weather. With the air still, we just cooked in the heat. Roland commented that he didn't know how I could possibly work in such heat every day. Sometimes I wonder, too, and sometimes by Wednesday, I can't hardly go!

Long story short, three snook were missed, and Shannon landed the only snook caught that morning. I have a feeling she'll be reminding Roland of that for some time. By around eleven o'clock, both Roland and Shannon had had all the heat they could stand, and when I asked them if they'd like to run to the Waterfront Restaurant for drinks and lunch, they were very quick to agree. They just don't see weather like ours in Berlin! The heat seemed worse than it was because with no fish biting, there was only to stand there waiting, thinking about how hot it was! A tough day!

Friday was a totally different scenario. We had a little breeze back to keep us cool, and the tide though not great, was quite a bit better for my old friends Stew, Lucy, and Morgan Evans, of Denver. I picked the Evans up at North Captiva at the end of the runway, and we headed across to Cayo Costa for bait. There was plenty of glass minnow and pinfish activity, but we caught no shiners in two places. I headed down to Fosters Point, and within two or three throws, we were baited up and ready to fish. The bait was beautiful, and plentiful.

In all the times that we have fished together, I couldn't remember taking the Evans fishing in the mangroves, and Stew agreed that it sounded like fun. With the manatee zones everywhere changing the way we're fishing, I have a renewed interest in fishing in the Sanctuary. It offers lots of opportunities in a relatively small area. Of course, fishing the mangroves has it's own share of problems for the inexperienced. To quote Jessie Jackson, you have to, "Stay out da Bushes!" Stew, Lucy, and Morgan did pretty well for their first time fishing the bushes, and by morning's end they had boated 3 jacks to 4 pounds, 2 nice 16 inch trout, one keeper redfish, and more than 20 snook. Stew seemed to be pretty amazed at all the fish hiding back in the mangroves. It was hotter than blazes, and I think I let the heat get to me, but we had a good time and had some food for their table.

We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant. Stew requested a visit there, as he's heard so much about it, but wasn't sure where it was or how to get to it. It's a bit out of the way for a North Captiva trip, and that's why I'd never taken them before. As you might guess, Stew and Lucy just raved about the food, atmosphere, and service, and I know they will be back. It was about a 25 minute run back to Safety Harbor.

It was a short, hot week! I could tell from those two days that it will take me some time to reaclimate to summer this year. The tides next week are much better, so I expect to see an improvement in the fishing.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 6/23/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a short work week due to the fact that this was actually supposed to be a vacation week, but plans changed at the last minute with the sinking of BarHopp'R I. I did get in three days, though.

John Leinhauser, and his son Jimmy, of Jacksonville, Florida, were first up on Monday. We had a good looking tide, and an easterly breeze at about 10, and I expected some real good fishing. We headed to Tarpon Bay for bait, and got plenty out on the flat. We were off!

I headed into the Sanctuary for the first part of the tide expecting good snook action. Actually, we did have a lot of hits, but many were those evil "hit and run" type that make it impossible to hook a fish. So, of course, the boys missed a lot of fish, but no one could have done better when the snook are acting like that. John and Jim caught a gag grouper, 2 mangrove snappers, a speckled trout, and 3 snook before we headed out to look for some redfish action. Redfish have been spotty to say the least, but I hoped to at least get a couple.

We headed across to the eastern side of the Sound and began chumming and pitching sliced and diced pinfish in a nice looking spot where reds often congregate. It didn't take too long before we had our first fish on; a beautiful 26 inch redfish. We caught a total of 3, and missed a few, and as I recall hooked a couple of stingrays and catfish, too, as the tide came to a halt. That's always a sure sign the water has quit moving when the rays and cats show up.

I spent Tuesday on a fun trip with Capt. Norm Weston, who I've only recently met in the last couple of months. He's a heck of a nice guy, and I was looking forward to fishing with him. We took BarHopp'R II, and headed to Tarpon for bait. We had plenty of beautiful shiners in just a couple of throws, and were off to a spot Norm like to fish for reds. He was nice enough to share the spot with me, but it is so far back into the new manatee zone I doubt I'd ever fish it. It just takes too long to get to. We had a couple of hits, but were basically there a little to early on the tide. We gave it plenty of time, but it was nothing doing. So, we headed up north to a spot I hadn't fished in quite some time where Norm said there were plenty of snook holding. Boy, was he right. They were there by the thousands. We had a great time catching a couple of dozen before things slowed down. We were also treated to two large tarpon swimming right across the bow! One actually bumped into my shiner, but didn't eat it. Me and my Stella 4000 were ready to take that baby on! A couple minutes later, a large cobia, probably near 50 inches long swam idly by. We threw baits at it coming and going, but unlike cobia, the fish wasn't interested, either. I had a lot to do, so we headed in early.

Wednesday, my old friend Jack Crozier and his dad, Dave were up. Jack and Dave are veterans of many trips on the BarHopp'R, and with my old buddy Mark Bess, and know the ropes. They have seen some very good days of fishing here. Jack is a lot of fun, and has a great sense of humor.

Bait was still plentiful at Tarpon Bay. We had a good tide, and still stiff easterly breezes. I expected a good day. But, snook being snook, had other ideas. They just didn't eat well. We were on the fish just fine, but they weren't in much of a mood to eat. Jack and Dave did catch 13 or so, with the best at 8 pounds. We finished the day with a great lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant.

Thursday, I had to have surgery on my right hand. I had developed a sore a couple of weeks before, that looked like a boil that couldn't come to a head. It was painful, and I couldn't relieve any pressure by squeezing it. Finally, I lanced the thing myself, thinking I would relieve whatever was inside, but there was nothing but blood. Only a couple of days afterward, it was really starting to enlarge and look ugly. I made a quick appointment with Dr. Jay Herbst in Port Charlotte, and they got me right in. Dr. Dave Crozier had told me the day before that he thought it was a squamous cell carcinoma (spelling), and that I needed to have it removed. I was convinced it was some kind of sore.

Well, Dave was right. The instant the doctor looked at it he confirmed that Dave was correct. He said that he didn't even need to send a sample to pathology because he was so sure. I only had one day in which to try to deal with it, and asked if he could removed it right then. He was soon cutting and burning and mining for cancer. It let quite a crater in my hand, and of course, the Doc told me to keep it dry!! Ha! He said it would look worse before it looked better, and he was certainly right about that. It's not very pretty right now. I passed the up close and personal inspection for other things growing where they're not supposed to with flying colors. All of my fishing friends out there, please don't take the skin cancer thing lightly. It can be nasty stuff. The type I had is very fast moving and invasive, and the fact that I messed with it made it worse. Have a yearly checkup, and check anything that doesn't look normal right away.

OK! That's my lecture and report for this week. Next week is back to business with a full week to close out June. Stay tuned.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 6/30/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a busy week with another tragedy thrown in just to keep things interesting. Read on!

The week began with Chic Bruning, of Mount Prospect, Illinois, who I hadn't seen in a couple of years. This time he brought his teenage kids, Rachael and Chez (Charles), for the first time. We had a lousy morning tide, and very little air moving, so I expected a slow bite. We got plenty of good bait at Tarpon Bay, and headed outside to fish the beaches for snook.

To my surprise, the bite was pretty good. Chic and the kids caught about 20 snook and a 4 pound trout before things slowed down. These are not the numbers we're accustomed to racking up this time of year in the past, but still pretty good action. We headed inside to finish the morning off fishing the mangroves, and Chez nailed a beautiful 10 pound snook, and Rachael got a big jack. We capped off the day at the Waterfront Restaurant for a great lunch.

Tuesday was reserved for my friend Rod Heflin, and his son Todd. Rod wanted to surprise Todd with a fishing birthday present, so they went out in their boat along with Rod's wife Judy, and I met them on the water at Chino Island.

We had the same horrible morning tide as the day before, but the wind had kicked pretty hard from the east. I figured that since the fish had eaten well the day before, they would do the same on this day, but boy was I wrong. First, bait had disappeared overnight. I don't know how that's possible, but it did! I went to every spot between Punta Rassa and Useppa Island that should have had bait this time of year, and never got a shiner big enough to cast. Wanna see a fishing guide get testy? No bait will do it every time!

I finally told Rod we needed to go and try to catch something with the pinfish we had, knowing full well they weren't likely to catch much. We had also missed the best, coolest part of the day, and predictably, we only managed to catch 2 snook and 3 mangrove snapper using the pinfish. I thought that was about as bad a day as I could have, but I didn't know what was just around the corner. We finished the day at the Waterfront, where Judy and grandson met us for lunch.

It's amazing how things can change from day to day. Wednesday, things were much better for John and Barbara Sofield, who were over from Port St. Lucie, Florida. The tide was marginally better in the morning, and the wind was still pretty stiff right out of the east. We got enough bait to fish with at Picnic Island, and some at Tarpon Bay. We weren't loaded, but we had enough. We headed outside to fish the beaches. Although we didn't have a furious bite, we did see steady action, and John and Barb boated somewhere between 12 and 15 snook. We had a good time, and finished once again at the Waterfront.

Thursday was a day I'll never forget. Mike Hartnet and his friends Paul and Danny were up for a snook fishing trip. We took off at 6:30 and headed to Picnic Island, where bait was plentiful. Go figure. I noticed I had some water in the hull, but figured it could be rain water, or something. I pumped it out, and it seemed OK. Once we were baited up and headed out to the beaches, the boat began porpoising. I moved some weight up front, but it didn't help much. When the hull listed to one side, I realized that I had a lot of water in the hull. I stopped and realized it was a lot of water. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I pumped it out again, and everything seemed all right. I couldn't see that water was entering the boat anywhere while I was sitting. Long story short, this went on all day, water in the hull while underway, but dry when fishing.

The weather was a bit unstable with a tropical low over us, and at around 10:30, with about 8 snook and 3 trout to 5 pounds in the boat, I opted to head for cover. I knew we were going to get one heck of a rain at the very least, and I expected lightning at the worst. I was going to go to the Waterfront, but as we got further south, I could see that the weather was already in the Sound, and the Green Flash became the best choice of places to hide. Man, did it rain! We were there for a good hour.

With the weather deteriorating and another boat taking on water unexplainably, I wanted to just get back to the ramp safely and try to determine what was going on. But, at York Island, after stopping to pump the water out yet again, the motor wouldn't run more than about 1200 RPM. After thinking about it for a while, I figured something in the advancer linkage had broken, but didn't check it since I had no replacement parts, anyway. We idled all the way back to the ramp from York, with fingers crossed that the weather would hold.

Once on the trailer, I pulled the cover off the Yamaha, and quickly found a ball/socket link had separated, and popped it back together. Then I crawled under the trailer to see if I could find something that might be the source of a leak. I crawled in from the starboard side, and didn't see anything there or in the tunnel, but as I worked my way to the port side, I almost cried when I saw the hull had separated right down the edge for half the length of the boat. God, Almighty! Two broken hulls in less than two months! I made a decision right there that moment to never buy another boat that wasn't from a major manufacturer that had been around forever. There is no one for me to go to for satisfaction or warranty.

So, that evening I tried contacting Gary Goodenow and Bobby Dumont. Two customers/friends that had been nice enough to offer the use of their boats when BarHopp'R I sank. Gary was out of town, and I had a trip the next day, and was desperate for a boat, so I drove to Sebring that evening to pick up Bobby's BC. What a life saver, but I can't borrow boats indefinitely, and I doubt that BarHopp'R II is going to be repairable at a cost that makes sense. So, it looks like I am going to be forced to buy another hull, and I think my first choice is going to be an Action Craft. Their reputation and quality is beyond question, even if it's not really my style of boat. I might also entertain a good used rig, so if any of you readers know of something out there, let me know. I have to have a boat!

Friday, I had a two boat trip with my second cousin Sean Middleton as the second Captain. My customers were Ken and Dawn Crowell, their son, and Dawn's brother-in-law and sons. Ken and Dawn fished with me. The weather was still iffy, and I hoped that it would hold for the morning. Bait was pretty easy at Picnic Island, but being in an unfamiliar boat, I had a tough time getting adjusted to throwing off the stern with seats and poling platform in the way. We all headed out to fish the beaches for snook.

At the first stop we had some action, but not steady enough for me. So, I moved to another spot, and there were plenty of fish to catch. When the action finally slowed there, we headed further north, and caught the tail end of a bite there. By the time we were done, the Crowells had boated at least two dozen snook, and 3 trout, and we'd had a good time. Best of all, the weather held. We finished a great day at the Waterfront swapping lies.

So, that's it. I have two boats and both are broken beyond repair. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm being tested!

REPORT FOR THE WEEKS ENDING 7/7 & 7/14/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It's July in Florida. It's hot, and humid; the dog days of summer. But, one of the best kept secrets about Florida summers is that we're actually cooler than many, if not most, of our far northern states. Our business typically slows way down this time of year, and I know some guides who just take the hottest part of the summer off, once the tarpon run is over. Probably not a bad plan. I'm in the middle of finding a suitable replacement for both BarHopp'R's, and we have the 4th of July holiday also thrown in, so I'm glad I have a slow schedule right now.

I had a trip scheduled Monday with my friend Mike McMahon, and his wife JoAnn, of St. Leonard, Maryland. It was my first time to meet JoAnn. I put the borrowed Backcountry into the water than morning, and don't you know the batteries were stone cold dead. I couldn't see in the dark as I felt around, but I suspect that one of the switches had been inadvertently turned on with a knee and left something running all weekend. I hated to tell Mike we couldn't fish, but that was the bottom line. I had nothing else to fall back on. We agreed to give it a try again on Friday.

Tuesday, I had a trip with Pete Dagostino, of Longwood, Florida, who is a friend of my good friend and customer John Hitt, at UCF. There was so much going on at this time, I have to admit that I failed to make notes about our catch, other than that we'd had a good day. I remember that we were able to get good bait at Picnic Island, and that we went outside for snook along the beaches, but I don't remember exact numbers. I'm thinking we caught 15 to 20 snook, though.

Mike McMahon called me Thursday night and told me he was at the local hospital with JoAnn! She was having a problem with her heart, and I couldn't tell you what the condition was called, now, but I think it had the word fibrillation in it. Mike had to cancel our Friday makeup date, but thank goodness JoAnn recovered and is doing well. That's all that's important!

The first trip of the second week was with a new customer, Tony Berringer, of Sioux Falls, Iowa. Tony was new to fishing, and certainly to the way we fish, which is usually a good thing. We got started at first light and quickly caught nice bait at Picnic Island. We headed out to the beaches for some snook, and fished a beach close to some good shelling beach, since Tony wanted to do a little shell collecting while we were out. The snook were on, and Tony, with no bad habits and apparently no male ego in the way, quickly caught on and caught plenty of fish.

Once the snook fishing slowed at that spot we headed to a stretch of beach nearby on North Captiva to do a little shelling. After about an hour of that we headed to the restaurant at Cabbage Key. Tony said he'd heard some of the stories about Cabbage and wanted to see it for himself. We sat right across from one of the big banyan trees and had cheeseburgers in paradise. They were mighty small burgers, but were pretty darned good. By the time we finished lunch and got back to the boat, the weather was looking pretty threatening, and we pointed the Backcountry toward the home ramp.

By Wednesday, the weather was turning around on us because of a tropical wave to our north. We had southwest wind at 15 and better, which makes it impossible to get outside and fish the beaches. We were also into a week of very poor tides, with no water moving. That's a tough combination for catching fish, but fine for teaching, and that's exactly what my first trip with Dirk Steinhoff and his eleven year old son Carl, from Germany, was all about. Although Dirk wanted to learn about our fishing since he now has a home in Cape Coral, I wanted to try to put him on a fish or two, but it was just to rough and dangerous to try to fish outside. We did run across a major school of ladyfish feeding in one of the passes, and we and several other guide boats who joined us, had a good time with them. By the end of the morning, Dirk said he'd learned a lot. He and Carl were lots of fun, and I hope to take them fishing under better conditions in the future.

The last trip of the week with Bob Kouba, of Naperville, Illinois, was another teaching trip. He wanted to learn the how-to's so he could find some success from his own boat. We were still under the influence of the tropical wave, and still had a lousy tide, so it was perfect for teaching. Bait was good at Picnic, but after that things got tough. We did manage to catch a couple of fish while teaching, but that was it. We finished with a great lunch at the Waterfront, where Bob assure me he had gotten exactly what he wanted in the way of instruction.

I had spent Thursday trying to conclude negotiations with the two major contenders to build my next boat, Action Craft and Talon. I began early in the morning at Action Craft talking with Ron Horton. He was very helpful, but couldn't give me a final number until it went through San Carlos Marine. They were to FAX the final figures to my credit union and to me within a couple of hours.

I went from there to Talon Marine in Sarasota, and talked to Rod Wilkens, who was also very nice and willing to try to put me into one of their new F-16's. The Talon F-16 is one incredible flats boat, and is pricey. Top quality always is, and it doesn't get any better than what rolls out of the doors at Talon. The fit and finish, attention to detail, and overall quality are immediately apparent, especially if you've been looking at other boats. Make no mistake, Action Craft builds a very fine boat, also, but the Talon is the 550 SEL of flats boats.

Rod had sharpened his pencil overnight, and presented me with numbers I can make work, and it looks as if I'll be in the boat of my dreams within four to six weeks. We just have to work out some details to get things rolling, and I have to get my boat up there so they can transfer engine, etc. to the new Talon. I did go for a test ride on a very windy, choppy day in Sarasota Bay, and was amazed at how soft and dry the ride of the 17 ft. Talon is. It's quite amazing. The decision to go with Talon was made much easier by the fact that San Carlos Marine never did as of Friday, anyway, send the purchase order I was waiting on, and I never heard from them or anyone at Action Craft, either. I can't imagine why, but the mere lack of follow-thru was enough to turn me to Talon.

I'll be keeping my readers posted with the progress of the F-16, and will attempt to get some pictures of one to put up on the site. All of you folks who have trips coming up in the fall are in for a treat!

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