Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
September 19, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 9/21/02 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a short work week with three trips scheduled, made shorter by a cancellation due to family problems. The two trips I ran were very good ones, both with old friends.

The first trip was on Tuesday with my friend Bruce Miller, and his neighbor Chris, of Cape Coral. Bruce and I have been out several times together, and always have fun. This was the first time out for Chris.

We headed straight to Chino to catch bait, but unlike previous weeks, bait was tough to find. I had to make a few moves, but we finally got enough bait to fish with. Once bait was collected we headed to the flats near Regla for some trout, jack, and ladyfish action. The fish were still there, and hungry. I had Bruce and Chris tossing jigs, and I threw the new Yozuri topwater popper. Conditions were less than desirable for topwater plugging, but the trout were eager to eat the Yozuri. Dittos for the jigs. In the space of a couple of hours we caught over 50 trout, a snapper, a gag grouper, several jack crevalle, and 2 ladyfish.

We left the fish biting to go try to find some redfish. I headed across the Sound to one of my favorite areas to see if there might be some reds showing up there, yet. I found another guide in a center console boat sitting on the flat. I quietly trolling motored in and anchored a hundred feet or so off his port side. I’d no more than gotten set when he cranked up his outboard motor and left. I figured he certainly blew any fish that might have been there out, so I left, too.

I headed back across the Sound and north. We stopped at a mangrove island that often has redfish on it. There were two boats there, already, both fishing under the bushes, probably for snook. I anchored some distance off the key in about three feet of water, which is where I’ve been finding the big bull reds. I steaked the ladyfish the boys had caught earlier and rigged three rods. Bombs away! I didn’t take long before we had our first strike, and a big redfish in the boat. We caught a half dozen redfish to 9 pounds, and the guys in front of us on the bushes never knew we were catching them. They picked up and left, but apparently cranking their big motor spooked our fish, and our bite was over.

We’d had a good day, and the heat was getting to all of us, so we decided to call it a day and head to the Waterfront for lunch. Our plans were put on hold when we found the restaurant closed for vacation.

Wednesday was my second trip with Mark Anderson and his good friend John, of Ravena, New York, whom I had fished with two years ago. This time they brought along another good friend, Jacob. We had had a great trip a couple of years prior, and Mark’s wife Lori told me he was really excited about fishing with me again. I wanted this trip to be a great one.

Since bait had been tough at Chino on my last trip, I decided to begin looking for bait at Picnic Island. We spent a good hour there without seeing the first shiner. We caught pinfish of all sizes, though, and kept some for redfishing later.

I headed on up to Chino, and as I rounded the corner into the bait area I was treated to the sight of a topwater jack attack. I told the boys to grab a rod with a jig on it and get ready. As I ran the trolling motor toward the school, they began casting, and were into fish almost immediately. We caught a good number of nice sized jacks, along with a few trout before we decided to go back to catching bait. I had to move a couple of times before I got bait, but once I found them, I loaded the boat in two throws.

We headed up to Regla to see if the trout were still thick as thieves, there. They were there, but not biting well. We only caught maybe 30 or so before deciding to turn our attention to redfish. I headed north into the Sound to one of my favorite area, and as I approached I could see a boat sitting in my spot. It turned out to be my good friend Capt. George Halper, who said he’d just gotten there and caught a couple of small reds. We joined him, and had one pickup which we missed, and caught a trout or two, but that was it. We all decided to move on.

At the next stop things were different. As I approached one of my favorite flats I could see two boats already fishing there. Gone are the days when I had it all to myself. I made a quiet approach on the trolling motor and anchored between the two boats with about a hundred feet on either side. The boat on our right caught a fish. I began chumming with both live and cut bait, and put out two shiners under popping corks and one sliced and diced pinfish. Way out! We had our first redfish on almost immediately. And another! And another! The other two boats became onlookers. We were all aware of the customers in the other two boats watching us catch those fish. Within twenty minutes, they both pulled anchor and left. Neither one of them use trolling motors, which I’ll never understand, and left on their big motors. But our fish kept biting for a while, and we boated some 15 big reds before the tide stopped.

We’d had a pretty good day. Lots of jacks, trout, and redfish, and we had 3 keeper trout, and four nice reds in the well. WE took some pictures, and headed home.

I will be off on vacation next week, so there won’t be a fishing report then. The tides will become tougher as the week progresses, and the weather could become a major factor if the storm south of Cuba misbehaves. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

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