Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
December 15, 2003
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/13/03 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Monday was the first full day after the passing of the first big cold front of the season. I knew it would be a tough day to fish, as we the temp was in the 40's, and it was howling form the north. A sure formula for no bite. I regretted that my customer Jim Henderson had drawn this day, as it was our first trip together, along with his friend Pat Capretto. But, Jim and Pat were quick to reassure me that the weather was infinitely better than what they had narrowly escaped in Pittsburgh.

Bait of any kind would be the first challenge. I was sure the bait that had been thick at Picnic Island would be gone; blown out by the cold. It was. I had stopped and bought a few dozen hand-picked shrimp on the way to the ramp, both as a backup, and to see if anything would eat them. I knew full well that even if we did manage to find some shiners, it was doubtful anything would eat them in the cold water. We chummed and cast the net in several places, looking for pinfish, and even they were hard to find. We managed to get a few dozen off the western edge of the bar at marker 34. That was it.

I thought that if anything would bite on this day, it would be the gag grouper. Boy, was I wrong. We drifted pinfish after pinfish across the grouper hole without so much as a look. Definite cause for concern! On to a great trout hole. After all, trout are the go-to fish when nothing else will bite on those nasty winter mornings. Well, we didn't have much of a trout bite, either, but we did manage to catch a few. Jim and Pat caught some on small pins, some on trout, some on jigs tipped with shrimp, and some on jigs. But, the total for the morning and several stops was only about 20 trout.

The highlight of the morning came when Jim drifted his pinfish armed float rig under a mangrove on the current, and it was inhaled by a nice snook as it snagged in the roots. And, there we were. Jim had the best fish of the day, and what was probably one of the only keeping sized snook caught in the Sound that day, hung in the mangroves. But the fish was still there. Actually, if it weren't for the cold water, the fish would have been long gone. But, she was very lethargic in the cold water, and didn't put up much of a struggle. Jim wasn't sure what to do, so I showed him how to pull a snagged line out of the bushes. One of three things had to happen; if would pull free and the fight could go on, if would break the mangrove root to which it was tangled, and allow the fight to continue, or the line or leader would part, and it would be over right there. Fortunately, the float came off the line, and that was probably where it was tangled, as the fish was freed. Jim brought her to the boat. After a few pictures, she swam lazily away.

It was a tough day, but we managed to have fun in spite of the conditions, and caught a few fish. You can bet it beat sitting around a motel room or walking around in a mall fighting crowds.

Tuesday morning it was nearly 10 degrees warmer, and I was in shorts and a jacket instead of long johns when I met my good friend Bob McGuire. Dittos for Bob who had just arrived from Line Lexington, PA! But, the water was still very cold, and seemed to have pushed even the pinfish off to parts unknown. If I hadn't left a dozen or so pins in the livewell of the Talon overnight, we would have had no live bait. We only caught two pinfish in several stops, but the cold water in the well had kept the pins well through the night.

Bob and I were anxious to fish, and Bob is happy catching whatever will bite. He's not afraid to adapt to the conditions and take what Mother Nature is willing to give us. So, we headed to an area near Demere Key that often has trout schooled up on it this time of year. I put a pinfish under a float for Bob, while I scouted the waters for trout with a jig. Very quickly, Bob had the first snook in the boat on that pinfish rig, and we though it was a fluke. But, after a short move up on the edge we were fishing, Bob again boated a snook. He also missed one or two as we went. Finally, I was into the trout, right about where I had expected to find them. And, boy! Were they there! I continued to mess around with livebaits and shrimp, but caught only catfish. I even caught a couple of catfish on the jigs. Hardheads! Cold water? Soon, Bob and I were both throwing Bass Assassin jigs, and the fun was on. For several hours Bob and I caught nice specked trout on nearly every toss. Bob was having an absolute blast, as was obvious from his big grin and his comments about how much fun the trout were. I was having my fun just watching Bob. It was the proverbial kid in a candy store. Bob was the kid, and the trout were the candy!! I don't know how many fish Bob caught, and it's really not that important, but I'd say a reasonable guess would be 70 or 80 trout.

One the bite finally slowed down, and we were sure they weren't going to start, again, we headed to a grouper hole to try our pinfish on them. I decided to try something a bit different than I normally do, which is to rig a slide sinker above the leader. I simply put a half ounce Troll-Rite jig on the leader and put the pinfish on that, hooked up from the bottom of the mouth through the top of the nose. Man, the grouper spanked them hard. It's hard to get those critters out of all the cover with light tackle, and they cleaned our clocks on most of the hits. We managed to catch 4 nice gags on the 14 pinfish we had in the well, but every one of them were slammed!

With that, we headed in. I had to get my trailer over to Boatmaster for some much needed repairs. I had lost a tire the afternoon before, and one of my tail lights was completely out. The folks at Boatmaster (JDCI Industries) are always great to me, and took care of those problems, but also several other serious things they found. I also had the starboard side of the trailer fitted with beautiful aluminum wheels and radial tires while we were at it, and will do the other side as soon as I can get it back in there. I'd like to thank John, Joe, and all the folks at Boatmaster trailers for their friendly, great service.

Wednesday morning was nicer, still, with the temperature up even more, into the 60's. I was loving it, and fully aware that it could be the last shorts day of the winter. Why? There was another front on our doorstep, and I wasn't even sure we would get to fish. I checked the radar on the computer after I bounced out of bed, and there was a lot of scattered rain on our doorstep. There was no way to forecast whether it would come ashore on us, or not. I went to the ramp and put the Talon in the water, and was ready to take Scott Flick and his father-in-law John, on their first BarHopp'R trip, if they were willing to brave some possible elements.

John, in his 70's, was obviously a bit concerned about the weather, but he is a sport model, and decided to go for it. I was glad, because I had a good feeling about the day. I figured if there would be a bite, it would be today, before the front arrived.

We left the dock shortly after daylight, and headed up to Chino Island. I was hell-bent on finding some pinfish, and hadn't bought any shrimp. I had to have bait, or go on artificial alone. We stopped at a marker near the island, and began chumming. We were all thrilled to see several dozen pinfish and several dozen nice shiners in the net as I pulled it back on the first throw. Bait!! After four or five throws we had plenty of bait for the day, and I would have caught a bit more, but we could see the leading edge of some bad looking weather coming across the Sound. The island were already out of visibility. We took a vote, and high-tailed it for the Waterfront to seek cover. Fortunately, some of the crew were there opening up, and we were able to go inside and have coffee while we watched the rain.

After an hour or more in the restaurant, we were on our way once again, and stopped at a grouper hole to begin the day. The grouper were quite willing to strike our shiners, but were hard to hook. We had myriad grouper and snook hits, but only managed to boat 4 nice gags.

We headed to the area where Bob and I had done so well the day before, and soon found the trout still there and willing to eat. The easiest and quickest way to catch them was with the jigs, and we had a good time with them for quite some time. During that time, John told me that although he'd owned a condo on Sanibel for some 25 years, and been on many fishing trips, he'd yet to catch a snook. I told him I would do my best to put him on his first snook on this day. WE finished our trout stop with probably 50 to 60 trout. It's hard to say for sure.

From there we made another stop for grouper, but this time in a different kind of cover. I again rigged the Troll-Rite jigs, and we were immediately in the action. We got our clocks cleaned numerous times, and managed to get 3 gag grouper into the boat. It was time for snook! Yeah, right!

I took Scott and John to several great snook spots, but our enemy now was the tide. It had all but quit moving. I told John I had a 19th hole that was along the way home. I knew because of the distance and time involved, the tide would already be running out, there. It was. I said to John as we tossed the first shiners at the mangroves, something to the effect of, "So, John! This is where you get your first snook!" A couple of minutes passed, and I rebaited John's rig, and he tossed it back to the trees. I saw the line take off to the right and went instinctively to my coaching mode. John hooked the fish, and with me instructing and John executing, John put the beautiful snook at boatside, and I brought her aboard. It was John's first snook, and it was 30 inches long. He was one happy camper, as was I. I'm not real sure about Scott. I think he might have had a touch of "snook envy".

It was a story book ending to a fairy-tale fishing story. I was just thrilled that John got that fish, as was John. Now, we could go home with smiles on our faces. As we made our way home we high-fived and celebrated the fact that we had toughed out the weather like we were a bunch of football players who had just won a championship. Well, in a manner of speaking; we were!

All in all, it was a great three days of fishing. Winter can be tough. All you can do is make the best of it. We get cold fronts on the average of every four days or so this time of year, so it's an endless cycle of on and off. The next front is due right on schedule this Sunday. As of now, I don't have much going on next week, but I'm booked up for the last two weeks of the year.

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