Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
April 29, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 4/13/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The week began with six trips on the books, but a cancellation and a no-show left me with four trips to tell you about.

My first trip of the week was with a very interesting and fun fellow, Rik Dilgren, who is a retired Navy Commander who’s last assignment was command of a 435 ft. Polaris class submarine. Rik now lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

We had a very windy day with east/southeast winds averaging 14, and gusting to 27. Tough for fishing. We headed to Chino Island in search of bait, and it was there that the fun began with Rik. He didn’t see me deploy the Power Pole, and after a while at anchor, he had an inquisitive look on his face as he asked me how the hell I had the boat anchored. I joked that I had a goodie that he didn’t have on his sub called a Power Pole, and demonstrated it to him. He thought it was just too cool. So do I.

The fishing was better than I anticipated with such wind blowing from the east, and Rik caught 4 redfish, 3 trout, a big flounder, and managed about 10 nice snook to 27 1/2 inches, including two keepers. As much as Rik seemed to enjoy the fishing, I think he was more enamored with the Talon. As a man who knows about boats and ships, he just couldn’t believe the Talon could handle the rough waters we had to navigate all day long with such a smooth and dry ride. When we returned from our trip, Rik brought his lovely wife down to the dock and showed her the Talon, pointing out all of the goodies and features of the boat to her. I suspect Rik’s next fishing boat will be a Talon.

It was even windier for my Tuesday trip with my friend Howard Salt, of Algonquin, Illinois, and his friend Eirik Scott, from Houston, Texas. The guys wanted to flyfish, but the wind would not allow it on this day. So, we caught bait at Chino, and were off through the rough to try to find some fish that would eat.

We headed to a spot that had been giving me lots of nice snook to see if it wouldn’t give up a few more. One thing about a 30 know wind; it will allow some very long casts. We were able to cover a lot of territory. Howard and Eirik had a lot of hits that didn’t connect, and they lost a couple of hog snook, but still managed to catch 7 or 8 snook to 5 pounds, 4 or 5 big trout to 5 pounds, and several redfish. It was really different fishing for a couple of guys who mostly flyfish, especially in that wind. But, we had a great time.

After a couple of unscheduled days off, I was back on the water Friday with Dave Zimmerman and Scooter Campbell, who had won a trip from the Polk County Snook Club. It was still mighty breezy, with a 20 knot southeaster blowing. Dave is an avid snook fisherman who has tamed many big ones over on the east coast.

After catching bait at Chino, we were off to fight the wind. There was so much confusion going on at the fish camp that night that I forgot all about marking down our catch numbers. Dave and Scooter stayed with me at the camp, as well as my good friend Mike Schwartz who had just arrived for four days of fishing with me. I can recall that we got into the snook pretty well in a couple of spots in the north end of the Sound, and that we got into the reds and big trout at McKeever Keys. The guys were really surprised at the size of the trout they were catching; up to 5 pounds. I don’t remember the number, but we had a good day, and had lots of fun.

I had two of my favorite people wanting to fish with me on Saturday, so the logical thing to do was to introduce them and fish them together. So, Mike Schwartz, in from Denver, fished with Dr. John Hitt, from Orlando, and as I expected with two such serious anglers, they hit it off, and it went well. The wind was down a bit to southeast/south at 15. Nice, for a change. After getting bait at Chino Island, we were off in search of the illusive snook.

The snook had other ideas, though. The didn’t want to eat, and we only managed to catch two. So, we turned out attention to redfish and trout. We were back at the shoreline that had been kind to us the day before, and it was again, even better. With some chumming with live and cut bait, we managed to get the reds pretty well fired up, and John and Mike caught around 20 of the bronze torpedoes up to 9 pounds. They also caught half dozen or so big trout, including Mike’s biggest ever at 6.5 pounds. It was a beautiful fish!

I have to relate a story here about honor amongst anglers. Late in our trip as we were heading to the last stop of the day, I decided to demonstrate the incredible turning ability of the Talon to Mike. I didn’t know it until we stopped, but I had slung one of John’s tacklebags right out of the boat, and it was full of goodies worth hundreds of dollars. We left our fish and went back looking for it on the odd chance it floated. The bag was nowhere to be found, which meant that either someone had found it floating, or it had sunk and was forever lost on the bottom. I figured it was a long shot that someone had found it, and an even longer shot that they would return it.

Well, don’t you know John emailed me the next day and told me that not only had it been found, but the angler who found it lived in Orlando where John is, and returned the tacklebag to him that day. Fortunately, John had his fishing license in the bag, and that made it easy to track him down. Now doesn’t that help restore your faith in humanity?

Well, that’s how it went. I think the fishing will continue to be good in the coming weeks if the weather behaves.

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