Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
February 23, 2004
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/21/2004 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a long week of tough fishing. The front that came through last weekend sent the temperatures plummeting back into the low 40's, and the wind blowing out of the north. That combined with some unbelievably low tides, made fishing a tough proposition once you actually found a place to fish.

My old friend Jim Dougall was first up on Monday, along with his son-in-law Jerry, and son Sam. Jim is in the last stages of what is hopefully a successful cancer treatment, and looks great, and has an fantastic attitude. I picked the gang up at the Waterfront Restaurant in St. James City, on Pine Island. We headed straight up into the Sound.

The day began very slowly with very little in the way of action, even from the go-to fish this time of year; trout. Actually, that pattern established itself for most of the week, and every other guide I spoke with complained of the same situation. Jim, Jerry, and Sam fished hard, and only managed a couple of flounder and a couple of trout early. But, around ten o'clock Mother Nature apparently rang the dinner bell, and the fish began to bite. For the rest of the morning we had a pretty descent bite with lots of nice trout, a redfish, and a pompano. I believe it was Jim who caught the red with a nice cast to a small pothole not more than 5 feet around. It ate the same Culprit bait we were using for the trout, as did the pompano.

All in all, the day turned out pretty well, and back at the docks there were a lot of folks making a big fuss over the 10 nice keeper trout the boys put in the cooler. They included two 4 pound trout, and a keeper flounder. It was good to see Jim once again, and to see him doing so well.

Tuesday, I had my first trip with Bruce Sweet, of North Reading, Massachusetts, and his young son. We met at the ramp at 7 AM, and it was noticeably colder than it had been on Monday morning. It was also blowing pretty well from the north, but the worst was yet to come on Wednesday.

We headed up the Sound, and I decided to stop and see if we might catch enough bait to have another option for the day other than artificials. Bruce, who has a 35 ft. twin diesel offshore rig and a skiff back home, masterfully handled the Talon while I threw the net. We were forced to keep the strong breeze at our backs, as it was enough to blow the 10 ft. net shut before it got to the water. The first throw netted us perhaps 5 or 6 dozen shiners, along with some pins and threadfins. We managed to catch a few more, but the bait seemed to thin the more we threw over them. We went fishing.

As with the day before, and the whole week, the action was almost non-existent before ten o'clock. We only managed a few fish. But, late in the morning we got into acceptable action on trout, and loaded up with a limit of keepers. As the tide worked it's way to it's highest point, we began throwing shiners to see if we could get a slow moving winter snook to take a look, and had two snook hits, as well as catching some trout and a ladyfish on them. But, the highlight of the morning came when Bruce managed to bring a 28 inch snook to the boat, and invite it home for dinner. Bruce seemed quite impressed with the pulling power of that lethargic winter snook.

We fished until the water had all but stopped moving, and called it a day knowing that there would be no more action for the day. Although it had been a slow start, we once again finished with a pretty good day considering the conditions.

Wednesday morning it was again cold and blowing, and the tide was as low as I've ever seen it. My new customer, Brian McNulty, actually showed up in shorts. Most folks think I'm a big fella, but Brian is a monster of a man at 6 ft. 7 in., and 280 pounds! He works outside year-round, and said the cold was nothing for him. His 10 year old daughter Kerry wasn't dressed all that warmly, either. His father-in-law Jack was also along, and not sure whether he wanted to brave the cold, or not. He decided he would.

We headed up the river to let everyone have some fun catching ladyfish while they were learning how to handle the equipment, and learning the techniques. We were forced to run through the slow zone because the entrance to the open run zone was out of the water! It was cold! We were all right until we got up around Shell Island where the wind was coming right over our port side with nothing to stop it. The current and wind had the water whipped up, and Brian was getting wet. There is no way to avoid it at idle. But, he never complained the first time.

Apparently, the ladyfish were cold, too. They weren't in much of an eating mood, which is rare, indeed. Worse, the wind and current combined to make it impossible for my anchor to find something big and hard enough to hold against. I couldn't stay in the fish once we found them. But we made it work and managed to catch enough fish to have some fun. Brian caught on quickly and caught plenty of the ladys. Jack did OK. I helped little Kerry with the casting and hooking part, and she did a good job of pumping and reeling the fish in.

Folks, it was miserable out there. Kerry lasted longer than I thought she would. Around 9:30 she began to tell her dad she was cold. We decided to call it a day around 10 AM, and headed back to the dock. We had at least managed to get in three hours of fishing and have some fun, albeit cold fun. Brian finally said, "Burrrr" as we pulled up to the dock. That was the extent of his reaction to the cold. I let him decide what the fare would be since we had not been able to do a full trip, and we rescheduled for Sunday. But, that didn't work out later because his wife had made other plans. I was glad we went, though, as Brian was as much fun as I had thought he would be, and Jack seemed to enjoy himself, as well.

Thursday proved to be the toughest day of the week for catching. Even though it was not quite as cold, and was supposed to rebound into the mid-70's I began the day layered in long johns and layers of clothing. Even though it was supposed to warm up later in the day, I knew the damage had been done to the fishing by what amounted to two back-to-back fronts.

It was the first of two trips with Ed Regan, down from South Carolina, and of course I wanted it to be a good one, but Mother Nature had other ideas. I had warned him it would be a very tough day, and had tried to reschedule, but it was not possible since his friends Frank and Horst were leaving the next day. Fortunately, the wind was down to a gentle roar from the day before, and it was considerably warmer. The tide was another whopping low that exposes land and bars rarely seen.

We began the day up the river with the ladyfish, which the boys all seemed to enjoy. Although they didn't bite like the usually do, they caught more than enough to have fun. They also caught the first of their keeper trout in the brown waters of the river.

Once the water slow in the river, we headed into the Sound to try for speckled trout. I knew I could put the boys on plenty of big fish, but I also knew it was very likely they weren't going to eat. Of course, I was right. We know when the conditions are going to shut down the fish. But, we didn't have other options, and had to make this day work. The boys fished hard, and the fish were few and far between for the first half of the day. We did catch one nice 3.5 pound trout in one of the potholes, but basically the fish were lockjawed.

Later in the morning, as we went to Plan C or D, we finally began to catch some fish, but most of them were shorts. It was the toughest day of trout fishing for keepers I've seen in a long while. I think our total catch was between two and three dozen fish, with only four keepers. But, Ed, Frank, and Horst were all a lot of fun, and that's half the battle. We still had a great time out there, even though it wasn't a stellar day of catching.

Plans changed, and my Friday trip with my old friends Jeff and Peggy Lane didn't materialize. Hopefully, we'll be able to make it work next year.

As the weekend arrives it brings warm weather and the promise of much warmer weather next week. As it stands next week is not very busy, which is fine with me. March begins the big spring push, and there will barely be a day off for quite a while. Hopefully, we've seen the last of the big winter cold fronts and the fishing will do nothing but improve from here out. Stay tuned.

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