Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
April 4, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/23/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

FISHING REPORT FOR PINE ISLAND SOUND FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/23/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

This report week was busy and full of fish. The snook fishing, as well as big trout and redfish was just great.

First up on Sunday was Roger Rafferty, down from Minnesota to take a trip bought for him by his daughter as a birthday present. We had canceled once previously for weather. I’m always hesitant to fish on weekend days because of traffic, and didn’t know what to expect in the way of a bite.

We gathered bait quickly at Picnic Island, and were off to the first stop. We were greeted with a great trout bite, and caught them nearly as fast as we could bait his hook. By the time we had fish a couple of trout holes we had boated easily 40 trout to 4 pounds. Lots of fun. We also chased snook for part of our trip, and Roger boated 10 to 12 fish to 27 inches. It was a great day of fishing, especially for a Sunday.

Monday was a great day, and probably the best trip my good friends Bo and Susan Mack and daughter Becca have had together. Seems every time we fish together, I manage to hurt myself somehow. I think Bo has a Mack curse on me, or something.

We were treated to a beautiful day with a nice southwest breeze and a high of around 86. Bait seemed to have disappeared from the flats of Picnic, so we headed to Tarpon Bay, and found plenty there. We headed to a hole that often holds lots of trout along with snook. We didn’t have much trout action, but the snook did respond to my chum. From there, we moved up into the Sound, and had a great snook bite that gave the Macks snook to 5 pounds. Bo had his first “out of boat” experience when he hooked a monster of a snook; I’m guessing over 20 pounds, and it was parallel to the shoreline. It took off like a bat out of hell heading for the mangroves. I knew Bo’s only chance of turning the fish would be to leave the boat quickly and try to get behind the fish where he could exert some pressure to try to stop her. I told Bo, “if you want that fish, out of the boat, and go like hell!” And, without a second thought, Bo was practically walking on water. It seemed that Bo was going to win the battle at the trees, but the hook pulled from the fishes huge mouth, and it was over. Once Bo was back in the boat, he realized he still had wallet and everything in his pockets. No matter, it was the experience of a lifetime for a shallow water angler. Maybe he’ll win the next battle. Still, the Macks put around two dozen nice snook and 4 trout in the boat. It was a great day, and after the stinker we had last year, they deserved a great day!

Tuesday was a wind and weather repeat of Monday. With a similar tide, I expected similar results for my first trip with Tom Carlin and his son Patrick, TC and PC, of Arlington, Illinois. We did the bait thing at Tarpon Bay as on the day before, and were soon off chasing snook and trout. To my satisfaction, and that of PC and TC, we had a great trip. We only hit a couple of spots, but the boys managed to boat 15 to 20 nice snook to 27 inches, and several big speckled trout to 5 pounds.

Wednesday, we were still breezy from the southwest and in the mid 80’s. Beautiful fishing weather for Bill Smith and his gang, of Colts Neck, New Jersey. But, the bait had seemingly disappeared from the south end, and I wound up going to the flats north of Chino Island for bait. It was there in huge schools of big shiners. I think we were loaded up in two throws.

At our first stop, we had descent action, but it turned into great action when we realized the fish were preferring a moving bait. So, we all began crawling our shiners back to the boat, and they’d hardly make a cast without a hit. We had a riot, and did our best to keep track of the numbers. Best we could figure we had boated 6 to 8 beautiful redfish to 26 inches, 6 big speckled trout to 5 pounds, and 24 to 26 snook to 27 inches, including a number of keepers. Oh, yes, and one jack! It was a great day!

Thursday, my last workday of the week, was a day I had long waited on. I was finally going to get to take my friends Darin and Julie May, of Hopkins, Minnesota, on a fishing trip. You see, they were honeymooners last year when they were here, and we were weathered out at the ramp. So, we did the only thing avid anglers can do when they can’t fish, we went to breakfast and talked about fishing and everything else until into the afternoon. We had a ball for not wetting a line. And that was the birth of a wonderful friendship that we’ve maintained for a year.

I was really hopeful that I could deliver the same kind of results for Darin and Julie that we’d seen during the rest of the week, but the tide was a tough slow, crawling one. I figured it would be a slow bite. And, although we didn’t have the intense bite that we’d had the day before, we did have plenty of action, and the Mays just had a ball, missing and catching redfish, snook, and trout. Julie seemed to be really taken with the fact that I would throw live chum, wait on the fish to bust the bait, then cast to where the fish busted, and catch the fish. Oh, they missed some big fish, but they caught some might nice ones, too. I forgot to write down the numbers, but it was a good day by the May’s standards. In fact, I think Darin told me it was his best ever day of fishing. Jules told me later that it spoiled Darin for pier and beach fishing. I was glad we had not been weathered out once again, and that we had managed to catch some nice fish.

Well, as you can see, things have really heated up. The fishing is just great! It will probably remain so for quite a while, and that is why spring is one of my favorite seasons to fish.

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Butch Rickey
• Pine Island Sound Fishing Reports
• Southwest Florida (Cape Sable to Boca Grande) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports