Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
March 9, 2003
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/8/03 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The big issue for us guides in Pine Island Sound this week was bait. After showing up on the flats real well, it disappeared. Bait was tough, and in fact I didn’t find any one day. As bait goes, so goes the fishing. I had four trips this week. Two were great! Two were very tough.

I went to the ramp Monday thinking I was fishing with my party of three for the first time. Paul Rush had booked the trip, and I didn’t recognize the name. But when I met them at the ramp, I realized that two of the three guys looked very familiar. Turned out, I had fished with Paul and Chet Simmons, back in October of 1998. Chet had booked the trip. This time they had brought a new friend, Kevin, with them.

We left at 8:30 and headed to Picnic Island, where we got beautiful bait. Bait seems to be here today and gone tomorrow. Armed with such nice bait, I felt good about the prospects for fishing. We headed up into the Sound, and were in good action nearly all of the day. Paul, Chet, and Kevin were typical buddies, and teased each other, and me, all morning long. We had a great time, and they said I fit right in with them. Yes, they missed a lot of snook, some trout, and three reds. But, they caught plenty, too.

You can always tell what kind of fish has tried to eat your shiner by the signature bite he leaves on it. Snook will scale the shiner across the mid-section, but never break the skin. Redfish will skin the bait up from one end to the other, and it will look like someone took a rasp to it. Trout will make what looks like a snake bite on the bait with it’s K-9 teeth.

By the time we were done, we had fished five or six different areas finding action at nearly all of them. The boys caught 8 or 9 snook, and 30 to 35 speckled trout, all of which were 3.5 to 4 pounds. The problem was catching trout small enough to keep. Those big trout lay up in the same places snook lay up this time of year. They’re not out on the open flats where you seem most folks fishing for them. They like potholes on the low water, and places like oyster bars and mangrove shorelines as the tide floods.

Tuesday’s trip was with Don Callen and his friend Harry. I was really looking forward to this trip because Don and I have corresponded for years via email. He has been wanting to fish with me for years, and his daughter Janine bought him this trip as a Christmas present. I had hopes of keeping Don in great action all day, but Mother Nature seemed to have other ideas.

The wind was howling from the southeast. My good friend Capt. Butch Boteler was fishing, too, and since bait had been so hard to find, we worked together hitting different areas for bait, and staying in contact via cell phones. We were striking out everywhere. Finally, Butch called and said they had found just enough to fish with on an offshore marker. We headed out to meet them, and it was a nasty ride right up the wind and tide. We arrived just in time to see Butch pull what was left of his net off some debris on the bottom, probably put there by someone for the very purpose of discouraging people from catching “his” bait! Butch gave us enough bait to fish with, but we’d have to manage our bait very well. I elected not to loose my brand new True Spread net on the same debris, as I had lost two nets in as many days last week. I headed back inside and north to see if we could find more bait. We never saw a shiner, and finally gave up to go fish with what we had.

Don and I fished hard. Harry was not a big fisherman, but said he sure enjoyed being out on the boat and watching Don and I.. We did get Harry to reel in a few fish, though. But, catching fish was about like catching bait had been. They just didn’t want to eat. If I had been in possession of enough bait to chum our holes, we probably would have caught many more fish. But, without the aid of chum we were at the mercy of the fish. Don caught probably 6 or so snook and about the same number of trout. We kept four big speckled trout, which Don said would please the women because he rarely brought home any fish. Don did have some excitement when a monster of a fish, probably a big female snook, hit his bait and took off for Mexico. It hit on my Shimano Stella 2500, spooled with Power Pro 20 pound test line, and took off like a rocket. Even after I put some serious brakes on her with the drag, she kept taking line. She had very nearly spooled the reel when the hook pulled. We would have given anything just to see that fish.

We fished well past the end of the incoming tide trying to make up for some of the time we’d spent trying to catch bait, and didn’t leave until we were sure it was very unlikely we’d see any other action. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for lunch. Don was staying just up the street from there.

It certainly wasn’t the day I had envisioned for Don, and I felt awful. Don assured me that he usually had a little black cloud over his head when he went fishing. Don was as nice in person as I had imagined he’d be, and it was great to finally meet him. I hope I’ll get to take him out again under better conditions.

Wednesday was an awful day! It was blowing hard from the south/southwest. It was a return engagement for Mark Lucas, his son Andrew, and Andrew’s best friend, of St. Andrew, Minnesota. We’d had a great trip around this time last year, and Mark had gotten snook to 40 inches! But, this would be a different day. We went from one place to another in search of bait, and never caught the first shiner. I had anticipated tough bait, and had bought $10.00 worth of hand picked shrimp as a backup. We had managed to catch a dozen or so pinfish, but most were big. I finally had to make the call to go fishing with what we had, as there comes a point at which you just can’t waste any more time pursuing bait.

When I made the call, I felt sure we could catch plenty of trout for the two eleven year old boys with the shrimp. Boy was I wrong. We did manage two or three hits on the smallest pinfish we had, but never caught a fish all day long on the pinfish or shrimp. Finally, knowing that Mark is an avid bass fisherman and used to throwing plugs, I got out the topwater baits. He had a popper and I tied on a Stillwater popper. The first fish on the topwater plugs was a nice jack crevalle. Later a ladyfish. Finally we scored three snook, and lost another on the plugs. The bait caught two catfish, all day long.

In retrospect, I probably should have continued to search for bait until I found it. But, I didn’t want to waste any more of the tide than we had. Mark knew I had worked hard trying to make something happen, and promised to be back next year. The boys still had fun, mostly with the Talon as it skipped across the bad chop.

Friday it was Bob McGuire, one of my favorite fishing friends, and me. My buddy Butch Boteler was working, as well, and we agreed to once again team up our efforts to find bait. I got started early, as I had to replace a bolt in my Power Pole, and replace a gas cylinder and brackets on my front hatch. It’s about the only thing on the Talon that isn’t stainless, probably because they just don’t make it in stainless. Bob and I headed straight to Picnic Island, and I anchored in about four feet of water using the anchor. The wind was once again blowing pretty hard, and there was a hard chop on the water.

I called Butch and told him I was at Picnic and about to get started. We began chumming, and after maybe ten minutes I decided to toss the net to see if there was anything alive hiding down there. To my surprise and satisfaction, I saw the net begin to sparkle silver as it sunk. Shiners! Load of them. I loaded the well and threw again. I had another big load, and didn’t want to put any more in the well for fear of killing all of them. I called Butch back and told him to come straight to us at Picnic. He was just leaving the canal in St. James City. A few minutes later, as he made his approach, I threw for the third time. One more throw after that, and we both had tons of bait to fish and chum with. He and his crew thanked me, but hey, he had just bailed me out earlier that week. It’s fun to work together.

I felt very confident as Bob and I headed up the Sound. We had plenty of beautiful bait and chum. Bob and I have fished many times together, and he’s good. I knew he would make the most of the hits that came, and boy, did he.

Right from the get-go, we were on fish. We were on big trout and snook at every stop we made. We batted a perfect 1000 on the holes, and Bob just kept telling me what a great day of fishing it was. He was having the time of his life. When it was all said and done, Bob had put at least 25 nice snook in the boat, including 5 keepers to 30 inches. He had caught nearly as many of the big winter yellow mouth sow trout. He’d missed two redfish. And, as fun as anything, we’d had a school of jacks boil up on our live chum and we caught 4 of those. They were big ones, and gave us a great time.

Through all our fun I kept thinking about Mark Lucas on the previous trip, and how I wished he could have been with us there. Next year, Buddy. What a difference bait makes.

I think, and hope that now that the bait has moved back onto the flats, it will be for good, and every day won’t be a bait mystery. I’ve heard some of the guides talking about the possibility of our water quality being part of the problem. Word is that way up at Jug Creek at Bokelia, on the far north end of Pine Island, bait is plentiful. It’s about a 25 mile ride, and that’s just way too far for everyone on the south end save for someone with one of the small four stroke motors that gets really great mileage.

There you have it. The week began and ended with great fishing, but was filled with frustration in between. I think the worst of the weather and bait problems are behind us, now.

Tight Lines!

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