Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
May 25, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 5/25/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The weather has been a big factor this week. An unusual and strong winter front pushed through here Sunday bringing us much needed rain, but now at the end of the week the high is still sitting over us causing small craft cautions every day with winds at 20 or more. There are three trips to report on, and two our of three were tough.

Steve Burch and his two buddies from McMinville, Oregon, were up first, and drew a very tough day. The second late season cold front had just passed and with the wind out of the northeast, everything would be different. The fish would be stubborn.

I picked Steve and the boys up at the Waterfront, since they were staying in Bokelia, on Pine Island. We headed straight to the Chino flats for bait, and although it was tough, we got plenty. We worked for it. From there we went hunting fish. I went to an area that I knew to be full of snook, that I wouldn't normally be fishing this time of year as most of the snook are stacked up outside. But I had fished it a few days prior, and it was full of nice fish that were eager to eat. I hoped they would on this day.

We found few snook, but there were a lot of nice trout in the hole, and I was thankful for anything that wanted to bite just after a front. We worked a number of holes, all of which hold good fish, in that general area until the tide was done running. In the end, Steve and the boys had boated 3 or 4 snook, lost 1, missed quite a few, and boated 7 or 8 trout. A tough day, but probably about as good as could be expected under the conditions. We finished back where we started at the Waterfront, with a great lunch.

It blew like crazy Tuesday, and I didn't mind the fact that I was off. I hoped if would go away by Wednesday, for my friend Bob Brockway and his buddy, Bob Watson, of Pompano Beach, Florida, but it was not to be. It was still howling from the northeast. My guys were game and ready to go, though, so off we went. I'd heard reports from others that bait had gotten even tougher, so I decided to begin the hunt at Picnic Island, and chum my way north if necessary. We got as much in the lee as you can from Picnic, and were able to get enough bait for a day of fishing, with nice shiners for bait, and plenty of threadfins for chumming.

This was almost like fishing a winter pattern. We had a fairly low forecasted tide, but the strong north winds had pushed the water much lower, just like during the winter. I decided the first stop would be a winter pothole that usually is full of big trout and some snook. it was a good choice, as the hole was full of nice trout. The boys had a good time catching them, as a good bite is always fun, and there were a few ladyfish mixed in. It took Bob Watson a little while to get into the flow of things, as he's a bass fisherman who's used to always having a tight line. But, he did well.

From the trout hole we went to see if we could coax a snook into biting, and were treated to a descent bite. The boys caught around 9 snook including a couple in the keeping range. Of course, there are always snook hits that are missed outright or lost after the hookset. That's part of the snook game.

From there we went to a nearby trout hole that often gives up very nice fish. We caught trout from that hole until we literally ran out of bait.

Considering the weather we'd had a good morning of fishing, and a great time beating on each other about missing fish. Good stuff. And, Bob is a one man comedy show anyway, and always keeps me laughing. When it was over we headed to our favorite place, the Waterfront Restaurant. It's always the perfect ending to any fishing day, whether good or bad.

Crossed signals gave me Thursday off, but it was still blowing like crazy, and may have been a blessing in disguise.

Friday, with the wind still blowing now from the east, and now nearly on the full moon, the fishing got very tough for Dale and Peggy Pricher, of Tampa. Dale is also a Talon F-16 owner, and loves his boat as much as I do mine. He said it's a close to a perfect boat as one could ever hope to own, and I couldn't agree more. It excels at whatever you ask it to do.

My long time friend Capt. Butch Boteler was also fishing, and left the dock at 7 AM headed to Picnic for bait. Everyone was complaining about how tough bait was that morning. Dale and Peggy were almost an hour late because of traffic problems, and when I got to Picnic, Butch had no bait. We headed to Chino. Things weren't much better there, though. In more than an hour of throwing the castnet I had no more than two dozen shiners, and a bunch of small pinfish. Ditto for Boteler. The pins were in great supply, but they just aren't very good bait compared to a nice frisky, succulent shiner.

We would be fighting the wind, full bellies, and a tide that would be over around 1 PM. I finally decided our time would be better spent trying to get something to eat what bait we had, rather than wasting more time catching bait that might not be eaten.

I guess it was a good call. We went without so much as a nibble at the first three stops. Trying to conserve what shiners I had for when we did find a bite, we were putting out one shiner and a couple of small pinfish under popping corks to keep them out of the weeds. It was one the first cast at the fourth stop that Peggy had a hole in one on a snook. The skunk had been removed from the boat!

But, it seemed we couldn't get more than one fish per hole, so we kept moving. Everything we caught was on shiners. We kept sending out pinfish, live and cut, and never had the first hit on one. Probably the highlight of the day was another first cast at a new spot that was immediately eaten, and Peggy landed her first redfish ever. It was a keeper and went home with her.

We finished the day with 4 snook, 3 others lost, and 1 redfish. A very tough day. But, we had fun. It was great to get to know another Talon owner, and that gives us an automatic bond. Dale is a super guy, and his Peggy is as sweet as she can be and pretty as a picture. I hope we can stay in touch.

Well, that's the week in review. A tough on, indeed. I think the wind is supposed to finally lay down about Monday, and perhaps we will then get into our summer pattern of hot, hot, hot.

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