Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
September 13, 2003
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 9/13/03 by Capt. Butch Rickey

My God, it's good to be home and back on the water again. I had a wonderful time touring southern California, but really missed my native waters, and the fishing. No, I didn't get a chance to wet a line out there! You can bet I won't make another trip without taking fishing gear and arranging for some fishing for whatever there is.

It was to be a five day work week beginning on Sunday with my old friend John Hitt, but my party for Thursday had to cancel at the last minute because of illness in the family. So, there are four days to tell you about.

I met John Hitt at his dock Sunday morning at 6:30 in the drizzle from a remnant of TS Henri. We didn't think it would last long, and it didn't. By the time we cleared the manatee zone in John's new Coastal, it was about over. John put her on plane at 40 MPH, and we were quickly at Tarpon Bay chumming for bait. It only took three or four throws to get all the bait we wanted; a nice combo of pinfish and shiners. We were off to the first spot.

I don't know who was more anxious, me or John. Neither of us had fished since our last trip in August, before I went on vacation. We had a slow moving, nearly high tide all morning. I wasn't sure how the fish would react to the high, slow water. The wind was howling out of the west feeding Henri, and I thought it would be best if we could score fish on the east side of the Sound. I decided to return to where I'd been doing very well with the redfish before I left, and sure enough, the reds were there. When things slowed there, we moved about a mile away to a spot I hadn't fished in some time, but have had good days at, and the fish were there for us, too, for a while. The tide was done before noon, and by that time we had caught a good dozen redfish to 27 inches, and had a grand time. We decided to head in so John could get an early start at getting his boat ready for storage.

Monday morning the wind was still blowing pretty well out of the west/northwest for my friend Willie Vandervorst, of Belgium. I incorrectly stated he was from Austria last year, and Willie has been on my case about that one. Willie brought along his friend Paul, who works for him at Federal Express, and speaks very little English.

We headed straight to Tarpon Bay once again for bait, and were quickly loaded up. I thought staying on the east side was still a good plan, so I began at what is usually a great snook hole when the water is right. The water was a bit high, already, but we did find fish there. In fact, we Slammed at that first stop, catching a keeper trout, a couple of mangrove snapper, a couple of small snook, and several redfish. At subsequent stops we caught more redfish and a couple of big stingrays. I usually discourage fighting the stingrays, especially if they're big ones, but Willie wanted to battle them. On the first one I showed him how to put more drag on the fish with his left index finger on the skirt of the spool, and he broke the ray off. Later on the second on, he had a protracted fight, and got it to the boat. Our redfish total for the morning was around 8 or 9.

I had not taken Willie to the Waterfront Restaurant in the past, so we ended the day there. We'd had a good day, and Willie is always fun, as are his guests.

Tuesday belonged to Russ Hubbard, one of my best friends and customers, and his customer Scott Stevens. It had been a couple of years since I'd seen Scott. We had a better looking tide, but the wind had finally switched around to the north as the high pressure built in behind Henri. Bait was once again very easy at Tarpon Bay, and we were off quickly to the first stop.

We went to one of my favorite snook holes on a low tide with a north wind. It's mostly a fall, winter, and early spring spot, but the snook were there. On the fourth cast, Russ banged a beautiful 31 inch snook, and quickly put her in the boat. Snook don't stand much of a chance with Russ! We had a few other half-hearted hits, but that was it.

We hit a couple of the spots that had been giving up redfish earlier in the week without a bite. I was afraid that the north wind may be shutting down the fishing. I mentally surfed through my database of low, incoming, north wind spots, and decided to cross the Sound to a flat that is almost always good to me under those conditions. I hoped it would be, again.

I made a long, quiet approach on my new MinnKota 74 pound thrust RipTide, and PowerPoled us into position. I began chumming with live and cut shiners and pinfish, and put out four rigs; two with small pinfish under Cajun floats, and two with sliced and diced pinfish on the bottom. The reds quickly sniffed out our chum, and we had a bite going. It was a good bite, with some very nice fish to 12 pounds, and before it was over Russ and Scott had boated some 22 big redfish. Scott had trouble getting the hang of things, and Russ caught most of the fish, but we had a blast. We finished the day with another great visit to the Waterfront.

Wednesday was my first trip with Dr. Joe Sandza and his lovely wife Helen, both of whom love to fish. The Sandzas hale from St. Louis, and have recently bought a home in Bonita Springs. Joe has fished all over the world and has a boat here, and was interested in learning about fishing the local waters. Although the fishing had been pretty good all week as the full moon approached, we were now right on the full moon, and I wondered if the fishing would hold. Bait at Tarpon Bay was certainly easy!

The wind was now around to the northeast; perfect for one of my favorite snook holes. The tide was just about perfect, too. Along the way, I thought I'd introduce Joe to pothole fishing. The water was fairly low, but not as low as it needs to be to push the fish into the holes. We had a couple of trout hits, but didn't catch anything. So, it was on to the snook hole. The water began moving well not long after we arrived. We had a couple of nice snook on, but boated only about 6 juvenile fish, along with a trout, and a redfish, for the Slam. It was Helen's first redfish, and snook.

But, we didn't have the action I was looking for there, and I decided it was time to go back to the spot we'd had some much success with the day before. I knew the reds would be there. And, they were, but they didn't want to eat. We kept with it, moving up the length of a cast once in a while, and managed about 8 nice redfish to 12 pounds. In fact, Joe had a 12 pounder blow up the St. Croix rod he was using! Broke it like a matchstick! He landed the fish with what was left of the stub. As the tide came to an end, I moved to another flat about a mile away in search of snook, and we managed to catch another 3 redfish fairly quickly. We finished with a dozen or so reds.

Once the bite was over it was time to introduce the Sandzas to the Waterfront. It had been a good day with good fishing, and I had made some new friends. That's what it's all about, and I guess that's what I missed the most while I was gone.

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