Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
June 8, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 6/8/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The week was largely an exercise in frustration, with very poor tides and big schools of reds prowling the flats that didn't want to eat.

I had new customers on Monday, the Lloyds of Williams; Lloyd "Bill" Williams and his son Lloyd, of Isle of Palms, South Carolina. Great guys! After catching bait at Picnic Island, I explained our options with the poor tide, and that I thought redfish would be much more likely to eat than snook. The boys decided redfish sounded just fine to them. So, we headed off to the area where I've been finding the big schools for over a month, and had some great days last week.

When we arrived at the flat there were several big schools working around in the skinny water. They were too skinny for shiner fishing, so I tied on a couple of spoons and got on the push pole. We were on the fish nearly all morning, first in one area in the shallows, then in deeper water in another. One thing about chasing redfish with artificials is that you MUST be able to cast quickly, accurately, and far. If your cast is short you miss. If it drops in or behind the school, you probably spook them. The lure must drop ten feet or so in front of and beyond the school. When it's properly placed, you're often rewarded with a strike.

Well the Williams had lots of shots at reds on spoons, and Lloyd caught one nice fish, had another get away, and missed several. I don't think Bill had any strikes with the spoon. But, I wanted to get the guys into some serious action, so I headed for the deeper water where I can typically chum the fish in on live and cut bait. There was a boat on the flat that I didn't recognize, but would later learn was my customers from last Thursday, Ed, Tom, and Mike. I kept my distance as I worked the fish. They just wouldn't settle down. The school kept roaming back and forth between my boat and the other. We only managed to catch two big reds, even though we put live baits right into the middle of the school several times. In fact, Lloyd said it was his biggest red to date. We did catch half dozen or so very nice speckled trout on the flat, though.

I wanted my guys to have a chance to catch some fish, so we left the redfish school prowling the flats and went in search of a few snook before quitting time. We did manage to find several that would eat, giving us the Slam, and then turned our own attentions to eating at the Waterfront, where we ran into Ed, Tom, and Mike again.

Tuesday was my first day with Pete Damp and his father Hans, of Nashville, Tennessee. With the same miserable tide, I anticipated another tough day. I told Pete and Hans of the fishing last week, and of the last couple of days, and we decided to give the reds a try once again. I figured they had to eat sooner of later, and when they were ready, I wanted to be in the middle of it. We caught bait at Picnic, and were off.

We found the reds immediately on the flat, up in the shallows again, but they were spooky and on the move, and I couldn't keep up with the pushpole. So, we moved to the deeper water to do the chumming routine, again. Numerous times we had the school rise up and move right into our baits, but through it all we only had three hits, and lost two. Pete boated one redfish. They also caught half dozen nice trout on that flat.

I decided early to leave the lockjawed reds for snook. The snook action was not hot by any stretch, but the boys did manage to boat half dozen of them, as well. The one red gave us the Slam. Pete and Hans were fun and patient, and we had a good time.

Wednesday was my first trip with Scott and Tia Jackson, and their son Reese, of Bradenton, Florida. They were down with their boat on vacation, and had started things off with boat problems, and hadn't been able to do much fishing. I wanted badly to put them into some fish, but knew it was going to be tough. I wanted to show them some good spots to fish during they rest of their stay, too.

We began with bait at Picnic, and then headed up into the Sound. We started with a snook hole that is dynamite for most of the year on the right tide, but is best during the cooler months. From there I showed them the where and how to chase the big redfish schools. Then is was on to a beautiful part of Ding Darling sanctuary, where we got into some good snook action for a while, but most of the fish were missed. We did manage to boat several, though. From there I decided to head up the river to see if we could find some big snook that might eat. We hit several areas, but only managed to catch one snook. So, we ended the day with half dozen or so in the boat.

The tides became marginally better as the week progressed, and all the areas I show the Jackson are full of fish, so hopefully they will encounter some good fishing before they return home.

It was a tough week of catching, but predictably so. One thing about inshore fishing is that it's totally tidal. When the water isn't moving, or is crawling slowly, the fish respond with tight lips. We're looking at much better tides next week, so I expect the fishing to be much better. Stay tuned.

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