Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
December 17, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/14/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Bad weather and a bad economy are combining to make the guide business a tough place to be lately, unless you have another job. That makes for short weeks and short fishing reports. This week was no exception.

I had a trip scheduled Monday with my good friend Bob McGuire, of Line Lexington, Pennsylvania. It’s usually just Bob and me, and it’s always a good time. Bob loves to fish, and is an easy going fellow. Mother Nature had other plans, however, as she brought rain squalls and thunderstorms, and blew us out. It blew like hell from the north on Tuesday, and Wednesday was supposed to be the best day of the week with another front showing up on Thursday evening or Friday.

Bob and I left the dock at 6:30 on Wednesday, knowing we had a very poor falling tide, and a north wind at about 15 knots. I figured we would struggle. We headed to the third span of the causeway in hopes of finding bait as easily as in the last few weeks, but bait was scattered. Bob took the helm of the F-16, and maneuvered me around so that I could throw the castnet. We hit bait on three of about six throws, and had a good combination of assorted shiners, threadfins, pinfish, and a few mojarra. Several of the other guides weren’t so lucky. Some had decided to anchor and chum, but I suspect the current was too strong for that to be effective. We were LIFO, which pleased me, and were quickly headed for the first hole.

The first stop was out of the wind, and after we had caught several nice jacks we were nearly consumed by no-seeums. They were awful. They got into our hair, or what’s left of it, into our clothes, into everything, and I felt like I was on fire. I remembered I had some Skin-So-Soft, and got it out and sprayed Bob and me with it. It gave us about five minutes of reprieve, then the bugs came back as if they had developed a taste for the stuff. I think we could have scored some snook there if we had been able to stay, but it was just impossible.

Through the morning Bob managed several big jacks, which he loves to catch, a gag grouper, a big gafftop sail catfish, and a couple of lost trout. It wasn’t until the last stop of the day, where we worked a long canal edge, that we found some snook that would eat. Bob got four descent snook before the tide quit running, altogether.

We headed to the waterfront Restaurant for lunch, and I think it was there the we realized we had finally quit burning and itching. I had the scallop basket, and no one does scallops as well as JD and his crew. Awesome!

It was clear for part of the day Thursday, but began raining off and on in the afternoon, and I began to suspect my Friday trip with Ted Shotzberger, of Stevens, Pennsylvania, was in jeopardy. The radar didn’t look too bad Thursday night and Ted and I agreed to make the call in the morning. We also agreed that we didn’t mind getting wet, as long as there was no severe weather with lightning involved.

Friday morning I was up at three o’clock to the sound of the trees banging the side of the fishcamp. That’s a pretty good meter that the wind is in the 20’s. Not good. I got up and checked the radar on the computer, and there was lots of bad weather sitting just offshore. Lots of heavy stuff. So, I called Ted and moved our trip to Saturday morning. I told him that it would be blowing like hell from the north, but the rain would be cleared out, and it wouldn’t be dangerous, but the fishing would be tough.

So, Saturday morning we met at 6:30. He presented me with a bag of goodies that included lures manufactured by a friend of his back in Pennsylvania, and some lubricants. They were great looking topwater poppers that looked to be Yozuri quality, complete with saltwater hooks, but produced by Stillwater Lures, in Manheim, Pennsylvania. He brought me two Smack-it 1-1/4 oz topwater poppers, 2 Smack-it Jr’s, and two Clatter Shad. I figured it might be a good day to try them. It was howling from the northwest. We headed to the third span of the causeway for bait, and I knew it would be tough when I saw how bad the chop was in front of the second span. Fortunately, Ted is a boat owner, and did a great job of handling the Talon and keeping me in the boat. I guess I threw half a dozen times, and got baits on several of the throws, including one good hit of threadfins. It was enough for him to fish if we managed our bait well. I felt lucky not to have been ejected from the Talon, as some of the waves were three feet in height, and it was very hard to stand up.

Ted and I headed of into the Sound. The first thing we found was that the hard wind had the weak incoming tide at a standstill. It was barely crawling, and if the passage of the front weren’t enough to kill the fishing, this probably would be. We fished a number of good snook spots in the Sound without so much as a hit. It wasn’t until we were on our way up the river that we found our first fish. I tied on one of the Stillwater Lures Smack-it Jr.’s Ted had brought me, and almost immediately had the first snook on. We lost three or four on the plug, but Ted finally caught a nice snook on a threadfin. Later, in the river, we caught a nice jack crevalle on the same plug. We never saw another snook, or any other fish. It was the toughest day of fishing I’d endured in a very long time. Ted was great, though. He told me he’d had a great time, and that he sometimes goes days fishless back home! We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to enjoy a great lunch and lick our wounds. Note: Stillwater Lures can be reached at 717-664-2935. They have a nice color brochure.

Since it’s a slow week of reporting, this is a great time to tell you about the castnet I’ve been using for some time. I have for years used either West Coast Nets or Caloosa Nets, both locally made. I have preferred West Coast nets for a number of reasons. A few months ago, my good friend Lew Joseph, of West Coast Nets, gave me a new net to try. It’s called True Spread, and retails at about half of what the West Coast Classic Pro Net sells for.

The True Spread is a professional style net with six pie shaped panel construction. It features double knotted monofilament netting, all hand tied nylon braided lead lines that are triple tied and locked at each mesh, 100 lb. test monofilament braille lines, a 12 millimeter Aussie swivel to reduce braille line twist, 1 oz. ball lead sinkers, giving 1 1/4 lbs. per foot total weight, and a 5/16” hollow braided poly floating hand line of 30 feet.

The first thing you notice when you take the net out of the bucket is the obvious high quality of components and construction. This is a very well made net. In fact, one of the first times I threw it, I caught a big catfish, and by the time I got him out of the net, it had a hole about 8 inches round in it. Most nets would continue to unravel from an unrepaired hole like that, but not the True Spread. I intentionally left the hole to see what might happen. That was months ago, and the hole has not grown at all. The net is in tact.

The second thing you notice is how beautifully the net opens when you throw it. It truly is a True Spread net, and it’s aptly named. Now that we are catching bait around the causeway, I have found that it is a great net for catching the bait down deep, because it has enough lead to get it down over the bait quickly. Another selling point as a bridge net is that at half the cost of a West Coast Classic Pro, it doesn’t hurt nearly so badly if you have the misfortune to loose it on bottom obstructions.

Bottom line is; it’s a great net, not even considering the price. Might make a great gift for your favorite angler this Christmas. You can check them out on-line at http://www.westcoastnets.com , call them at 1-866-249-NETS, or email them at [email protected] .

My calendar is empty for the last two weeks of December because I had planned on being out of town over the holidays. I’ve had to change those plans, and now find myself needing to book some last minute trips. So, I’m offering a Christmas Special to anyone who would like to take me up on it. I will discount any trips not currently booked 25% through December 31, to any customer I have fished with in the past, and 15% to any new customer. That means the 6 hour half day trip that normally goes for $400 is $300 for existing customers, and $340 to new customers through the holidays. So, come on folks, lets go fishing!!

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Butch Rickey
• Pine Island Sound Fishing Reports
• Southwest Florida (Cape Sable to Boca Grande) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports