Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
August 19, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEKS ENDING 8/4 AND 8/11/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Weather was once again a major factor in fishing the first week, as tropical storm Barry made his presence known with lots of rain and storms. I had three trips on the books for the week, but was only able to run one.

That trip was with my old friend Mark Bess, and his friend Steve, a former fellow sheriff. Steve is legally blind, and can only see light and dark, but that didn't keep him from catching fish. We headed up the river to catch ladyfish to use as redfish bait later in the tide, but the water coming out of the river was absolutely black and fresh, and the tide was laying flat. We did have a few bumps, but the fish just weren't in the mood, and we caught no ladyfish where there are usually thousands. So, we headed back out on the flats to try for bait the old fashioned way. There were no shiners to be found, so we kept the largest of the pinfish to cut for redfish. They're almost as good most of the time.

Finally, we were on the flats and ready to chum for redfish. Pinfish chopped into bite sized morsels would have to do. And, it did. It wasn't long before Steve had the first action, but he let it get away. He missed another hit before he got into the groove, but after that, he was on. Mark, who is a great angler, and used to guide here in the Sound himself, was a little rusty after not being on the water in over a year. He missed several fish, too. So, out of a dozen good hits, we boated at least half a dozen nice reds, and had one triple hookup. We also boated one nice snook.

Once the tide and bite quit, we were content to head back to the ramp early and get out of the heat. The rest of the week was a washout because of the weather.

The following week I only had one trip on the books going into the week, and that was it coming out of the week. I haven't seen business so slow since the early days of my guiding career. The economy and summer doldrums are killing us.

The trip was with Justin and Samantha Shelley, a wonderful young couple from Lakeland, Florida. It was the first descent day after the passing of Barry. Although the weather was nice, the conditions were horrible. We checked the river for ladyfish, but the water was even worse than it had been the week before. The tide was moving out quickly, and normally there would be plenty of fish to catch, but we didn't even get the first bump on several passes.

To my surprise, there was plenty of nice bait out on the Picnic Island flats! I didn't think we'd find anything but pinfish there, but even in the dark, dirty water the shiners were there. Go figure! We also checked out the Tarpon Bay flats, and got some bait there. With bait in the well, I had hopes of finding some fish that would eat somewhere in the murky waters.

I knew fishing for snook on the outside would be out of the question so soon after the storm, and decided to fish Redfish Pass while waiting on some water to flood the flats. That plan didn't work because the Pass was so full of seaweed you could practically walk on it. We tried to get some baits down, but the line immediately became very heavy with grass, and it was impossible to fish.

I headed back inside to the flats, hoping for cleaner water. It wasn't much better, believe me. I figured we had as good a chance of chumming up some redfish on the flats as we did of anything, so I staked us out and began pitching chopped and live shiners and pinfish. We did manage to get a bite going, although not a good one. Justin and Sam did have some good hits, but partly because they had never fished using this technique, and partly because there was so much junk in the water to get on the line, the didn't manage to get a fish to the boat. They jumped three good snook (maybe four), and had four good, solid redfish hits, but missed them all. We hit several other spots later in the tide, but couldn't get anything to happen. The Shelleys were very understanding of the situation, and assured me it wasn't the first time they'd been skunked.

I did manage to get my Boatmaster trailer over to Boatmaster for modifications for the new Talon, after moving what's left of BarHopp'R I to the Float On. Also took BarHopp'R to Smith Marine to have the jackplate removed for a friend that is buying it. If you need stuff for your boat, like pop-up goodies, Trolling Thunder batteries, hydraulic steering, nice Action Craft consoles, aluminum trailer, etc., I have plenty. Check my for sale page.

Well, at least I have a full we on the calendar next week. Hopefully, there will be lots of catching to talk about.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 7/28/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The weather and slow business combined once again to make for an abbreviated work week. We had a tropical low pressure causing copious amounts of rain over the weekend, Monday and into Tuesday. I took the opportunity to take BarHopp'R II up to Talon so they could begin stripping engine, jackplate, etc., in preparation for the new hull.

Bill Dean and his son Mark, of Marrietta, Georgia, were the first up on Wednesday, after not having been on the water in nearly a week because of the weather. I, as well as the other few guides who were working, didn't know what to expect, I'm sure. Most of the bait had dried up at Picnic Island, and only tiny net pluggers remained, along with thousands of little pinfish. I ran on up to Chino Island, and we found good bait there, although it wasn't thick. I'm sure all the fresh water coming out of the river had affected the bait.

The front had passed bringing behind it a pretty strong easterly wind, but the biggest factor affecting the fishing was the tide. We had a full week of poor tide, just barely crawling in the outgoing direction each morning. For all intents and purposes, there was no tidal current to speak of, and when you have no moving water, you tend to have no eating fish. In this case, they had been eating on the good tide during the night. We fished in the Sanctuary, primarily because I knew that what little bit of water movement we had would be exaggerated some in the creeks and cuts, giving us our best chance at a bite short of fighting the crowds in the passes. We fished hard, and Bill and Mark caught a keeper redfish, 3 trout, a snapper, and had 3 snook to the boat, but not in the boat! We counted 'em since we had 'em about to the leader, and they had to go back, anyway. So, the boys got their Slam, at least.

By comparison, Thursday made Wednesday look like a banner day for my friend Tom Terranova and his gang of brothers and out-laws. We had 5 guys and a gal, and I had commissioned Capt. John Shearer as the second boat. We had three anglers each. The day started on a sour note for John as he had a blowout on his trailer coming in to the ramp, and was delayed a few minutes. I headed straight to Chino Island, expecting to find the nice bait I had caught the day before. Not so! It was nowhere to be found. I chummed several areas, as did John. Not the first shiner. I headed over to the "hump", which is another place where bait should be this time of year, but the result was the same. Nothing but pinfish.

Finally, in frustration, and knowing we were missing most of the moving part of the tide as it first started out, I suggested to Tom that we take our pinfish and try to catch some redfish on the flats while the water was still up. Everyone was in agreement, and we dashed to the nearest flat. It took a while, but we finally got several good redfish pickups, but it had been a year since the boys were here and caught a bunch of reds with me, and they were understandable rusty at our technique of hooksetting. They missed all the hits. We did catch one nice snook on the cut bait.

As the water receded from the flat, we headed to several other areas looking for redfish action, but the only thing we caught were catfish, both hardheads and gafftop. Finally, with the water dead still, I suggested we head to the Waterfront Restaurant to recover with a great meal and swap lies of the fish we almost caught. Everyone was in agreement. We had a great time at the Waterfront talking about the morning's near misses, and about the trip last year. Tom has now seen the fishing good, and seen it about as bad as it can be. I hope next year I can put him on one of those 30 - 40 redfish days.

That was it for the week. A tough one it was. I think it may be time to start running up the river in the morning to catch ladyfish. It's not only fun for everyone and gives them a chance to get familiar with the equipment, but it puts great redfish bait in the boat.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 7/21/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a short work week with three trips run and strange weather for this time of year.

I ran a rare Sunday trip with Jeff McCrea, of Gainesville, Florida. I picked Jeff up at the Waterfront Restaurant at 6 AM, and headed back to Picnic Island for bait. We got plenty of nice shiners and pinfish without too much ado, and headed to our first stop. We used the shiners to concentrate on snook, first, and had a good bite. Jeff caught a dozen snook to 5 pounds before the bite slowed.

We then headed to a nearby flat and used our pinfish to chum for redfish. It didn't take very long to get the action going, and Jeff had a ball catching a dozen or more reds weighing up to 8 pounds. When the action slowed with the slowing of the tide, Jeff was more than happy to head back to the Waterfront for an early lunch. He had lots of good things to say about the morning of fishing as we enjoyed a great lunch.

The following day, Monday, should by all accounts have been a good day, too. I felt pretty confident that my first trip with Jim Chumley and his friend Mark, of Ormand Beach, Florida, would be another good one. Well, what a difference a day can make. It turned out to be one of those, "You should have been here, yesterday!" days! We got good bait at Picnic Island, but it seemed that the northeast wind following an earlier front that I thought would shut the fishing down on Sunday, took till Monday to mess things up. We fished the flats, the bars, and the beaches, but all we could muster all morning was 4 snook and a ladyfish. That's tough fishing! Jim and Mark were great guys, though, and understood how fishing can be very humbling sometimes. We guides tend to take the tough days personally, though.

Thursday, I made a trip to Sarasota, home of Talon, and took along Fred Kunkle, my good friend of some 30 years. Years ago, Fred was pretty heavy into building boats, and is a cabinet maker today; a very talented man with a sharp eye for quality. I knew he'd really enjoy a tour of the factory where my F-16 is being built. I was more than right. Fred grinned the whole time we were there, and proclaimed (jokingly) that he wanted a job there!

My last trip of the week was with my long time friend and fishing buddy, Butch Boteler. Due to circumstances beyond either of our control, we haven't wet a line together in some time, and I was eager to get out with him, now that he has become a permanent resident of Pine island.

I made the run back into his canal to pick him up there, and got the royal tour of his place and all the cool things he's done to it since he moved in. We finally headed out to Picnic Island around 8 AM to catch bait. Bait came easily in two or three throws, and we were off to the first hole. We had a perfect tide on the new moon for really spanking the redfish, but the weather had been, and was still pretty unstable. I wanted to show Butch how to chum up the redfish and then catch a bunch, and I did get them chummed and biting pretty quickly. But, after 3 reds and a couple of snook, the weather quickly turned ugly, and with thunder and lightning present, I opted to hi-tail it back to safety. I know Butch was probably not real happy with my decision, but safety is, and has to be, my first concern. It was too bad, as the fish were there and ready to eat, and I'm sure we would have been able to really spank them. Oh, well! It'll have to wait till next time out.

Well, that's it for this week. The weather has not been good to us, and the economy seems to have finally caught up with us, too, as most everyone I know in the guide business is really hurting for trips. It's certainly true for me, too. Last year I worked every day in July except for weekends, but have only worked about half as much this July. Not good, and not good for fishing report material, either! Come on folks! Let's go fishin!

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