Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
July 9, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 7/6/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I began the holiday week with four days booked, but lost one unexpectedly. Here’s how the holiday madness went.

The first trip was on Tuesday with my old friend and favorite fishing buddy, Dr. John Hitt. I told John when he booked it would be a very tough day. We had an awful tide with no moving water to deal with. In addition, our water looks like coffee because of all the fresh water intrusion from the water flowing down the river from Lake Okeechobee. It usually happens at some point every summer, and just kills the fishing for a spell. The wind was from the east at about 10.

We headed up to Chino Island for bait, and found nothing but tiny shiners, threadfins, and pinfish. The big bait had disappeared, perhaps because of the fresh water. I don’t know. Anyway, we hit a lot of spots and did a lot of looking on the inside, and I never saw the first redfish, and we caught squat. We made a trip outside to the beach on Cayo Costa where the water was better and caught a handful of snook. The action was abruptly over, though. We headed down to North Captiva looking for maybe snook or trout on the beach, and found neither. Depressing. I headed back inside and across the Sound to a couple of small trout holes. Guess what? We caught a few small trout out of them! Then we headed to a spot in Matlacha looking for snook and managed to catch one jack crevalle to go with one other jack we’d caught earlier.

It was a tough day for sure, but John and I always manage to have fun regardless. Nasty looking weather brewing to the east ran us off the water a tad early, but John and I believe in safety first. And, John learned a couple of new spots on this trip.

My customer for Wednesday, Ryan Peat, canceled on short notice. I think I need to institute a much harsher cancellation policy. Perhaps I should start with him.

Thursday, it was John Hitt and I again, along with John’s good friend and fellow guide Capt. Bill Enis. Bill guides part-time in the Mosquito Lagoon area on the east coast. We had very similar conditions as on Tuesday. The tide was only slightly better, and the weather still volatile, the water black. Bait was still very small.

We chased redfish that morning, but only caught trout. We worked a big school, but couldn’t get the first hit. The trout were very nice, and we got around a dozen. Bill seemed impressed with their size. We also went outside on Cayo Costa again and managed to catch half dozen snook, and the bite abruptly ended. We worked hard at it, and at least had 7 or 8 big trout for the boys to take home for dinner.

Friday was my first trip with Jim Cokos and his lovely wife, Cathy, over from St. Cloud, Florida. Geez, I’m brain dead. I hope I have her name correct. Jim is an avid bass fisherman and loves to fish artificials. For the first time in a week, we had a half way descent tide. We caught bait at Chino as usual, and it was small, as it had been. I headed straight to where we had found the redfish the day before with John.

The water was flat that morning. You could see anything that moved on the water. We immediately found several good schools of redfish working the flat. Since Jim is an artificial guy, I suggested we try to catch the reds on a Mirrolure Top Pup. Jim had not worked one before, but it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it. In fact, I had him practicing at Chino while I was catching bait, and as I recall he caught one or two trout. I wanted him ready in case we found the school reds.

Well, we found them all right, and we had a ball. I spent most of the morning poling Jim around on the flat, with him taking his shots. Later in the morning, my good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez showed up and joined us on the flat. Rey had two anglers fishing and they caught two reds on Yozuri topwater plugs. Jim caught 4 or 5 reds, the largest of which was just under 27 inches. No, it’s not the most productive way to catch redfish, but it sure as hell is the most exciting!! There is nothing finer in flats fishing that having a big red blow up a topwater plug. Because of their anatomy, they usually have to turn sideways on the plug, or pounce on it from above, and they often miss, which means the angler has to have the composure to keep working the plug through all the excitement of the hit until he feels the weight of the fish. Jim did a commendable job with the reds on topwater, and I think he only missed 2 or 3 fish.

The tides will be getting progressively better as next week rolls along. I look for improved fishing with the improving tides. Stay tuned.

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