Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
December 15, 2004
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 12/4/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It's a short week before taking a little time off before the holidays. I ran two trips with a couple of great fishing buddies, John Hitt and Tom Smith.

I met my old friend Dr. John Hitt at his dock bright and early Sunday morning. John loves to fish for trout with artificials, and we figured that with the weather and fronts we'd had, it was a good time to go throw lures.

As we made our way down the river and toward the Sound, I decided we should stop and fish a nice flat in Matlacha that I generally only fish in the winter. I decided to tie on a topwater plug. John went with a jig. It wasn't long before we were both catching trout, but the coupe de grace was a beautiful four pound trout on my topwater plug. We moved on.

We again stopped on a deeper flat near the powerlines where ladyfish, grouper, jacks, and trout often accumulate in good numbers. We drifted on the breeze in about six feet of water and caught ladyfish and one bluefish. As we got to shallower water about three to four feet, we got into trout big-time. We stayed with them until they slowed down, and moved on.

We headed to a pocket of water inside a small key where the trout often hang out. There we found some trout and I managed a nice keeper snook on a Bass Assassin jig right off the edge of the shore. It was a great fight on light tackle.

From there we moved to a series of potholes on the eastern side of the Sound, and were again in trout. We caught fish after fish, but not as well as usual in that area. We decided to wrap up our day with a shot at grouper with lures. All we had that I knew they'd eat was TerrorEyez. I would prefer to have had some Bill Lewis Rattletraps, but didn't have any along. John did manage to catch one nice grouper on the TerrorEyez before we called it a day.

It was a fun day. Although most of my fishing is with live or cut baits except in winter, I do love to toss plugs. It's always fun to catch trout on jigs or topwater plugs, especially when it's every cast! Every man has a little boy in him that just loves to catch!

On Friday it was my old friend Tom Smith and his friend Mike up from Naples by way of St. Louis. We had a falling tide during the morning, and an incoming in the early afternoon, and I decided the best thing to do would be to fish the last hours of the outgoing tide, and the first hours of the incoming. It meant that there would be no water on the flats during the whole trip.

After catching bait we headed into the Sound to an area that always has beautiful snook during the winter months. Problem is, you can't always get them to eat! We pitched shiners into swift falling water without so much as a hit other than from some gafftop sail catfish. I couldn't believe it, but that was the way it went. Actually, I think one of the guys caught a nice trout, but......

We moved on to another area littered with potholes, and caught trout after trout on jigs. They weren't the usual large size I was accustomed to catching there, so we moved on to another hole. At that hole, which always has beautiful trout this time of year, we were met with little happening. I sensed that perhaps we just weren't giving the fish what they wanted, and while Tom and Mike pitched shiners, I experimented with shiners and small pinfish tagged to the bottom with jigheads. The action was instant! Soon, the boys were catching beautiful trout after beautiful trout. They ran from 2 to 4 pounds, and we were regretting that we couldn't keep any of them to take home for dinner.

Once the action slowed, I asked Tom if he'd like to take on the shallow water gag grouper he'd been reading about. He was more than ready! The wind was coming from entirely the wrong direction to fish the spot, but we made it work, and Mike and Tom both caught some nice gags, and also got their clocks cleaned any number of times. That's OK. I don't mind tying lines. It's both fun and humbling for most anglers to try to catch those gags in shallow water around pilings, rocks, and rocky holes. They are just fierce. Usually, I screw the drags down to where I can barely pull line from the reels, and yet those grouper will rip it right off the reels once they're hooked. Actually, I teach my customers to be as quick as possible to grab the spool skirt and hang on. The philosophy is to make them break you off, because they certainly will cut you in the cover. The trick with light tackle is to lock them down and go like hell. Once you learn how to do it, you can land more than you lose.

Well, that was it. I'll be gone from the water and the computer for the coming week, and there's not a lot going on until Christmas week. Fishing will depend upon the weather, and I have a feeling we're in for a cold winter.

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 11/27/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I hope all my friends and subscribers had a great Thanksgiving Day. Of course, I took the day off, and had four days booked for the week. Not surprisingly, weather got in the way of one trip.

My old friend, Mike Howard, who lives in St. James City part of the year, and in New Hampshire part of the year, was first up this week. Mike bravely faced lung cancer just a few years ago, and beat it, and is looking just great. He now actually has a little extra meat on his bones, and it's great to see!

Although it was a week of pretty good tides, they were the tides on the full moon, and inshore fishing can be tough. I hoped we could get the fish to eat, even with full tummies. After meeting Mike at the Waterfront Restaurant, we headed back to Picnic Island for bait. We got a good combination of big and small pinfish, shiners and threadfins, and were soon off to the first hole.

Since we were on the low tide, I thought pothole fishing for trout was in order. I brought a couple of my new St. Croix Legend Tournament Series rods especially for jigging the trout, and we rigged them with Bass Assassin green bodies. We had a good bite at our first stop, and caught trout after trout. We didn't keep count, but we caught a bunch! Mike also caught a flounder and a ladyfish.

From there I introduced Mike to shallow water grouper fishing. Shallow water grouper are really tough customers on light tackle. We're fishing 15 pound test Power Pro on light rods with Shimano Stella 2500 or 4000 reels, and the only way to get those grouper out of their rocky digs is to screw the drags down to where it's hard to pull line from the reel, and really kick butt once they strike. You've only got a second or two to get them stopped and turned around, or it's over. If the grouper is still able to strip line against the tight drag, which many of them are, you have to just grab the reel spool, and stop them. They WILL cut you off if you don't stop them, so the philosophy is to make them break you off. They often cut you off in the first second or two, regardless of what you do. He managed to dig 7 or 8 grouper out of the rocks, and lost at least as many. If you can bat .500 at this game, you're doing pretty darned good.

As the grouper action slowed we turned our attention to redfish. Once we were set up on or spot and chumming, we had some action, but not what I was looking for. They weren't in a real eating mood. Oh, Mike caught some nice fish, but half a dozen was all we could muster.

We finished the day chasing snook. With the tide about done, we didn't have long to find them and get them to eat, but after the first hole didn't pan out, another spot nearby did the trick. Mike caught a dozen snook before the bite was over, and we were ready to head home. We finished a great day with a great lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, where Mike's wife, Cindy, joined us.

I had my first trip Tuesday with Harold Singer and his life-long friend Howard Rubin, of Chicago, Illinois. As soon as I met Harold and Howie at the ramp I was sure we were going to have a great time, regardless of how the fishing went. We had a front to our north, and the wind was around to the south at 20 plus, and I really thought the fish would eat. But, as we found after we had gathered bait at Tarpon Bay, it wasn't the case. The fish weren't very interested in eating. And, there were no shiners to be had on the south end of the Sound. We began a little later than usual, and that could have been the reason. Sometimes, if you don't get shiners just as the sun is coming up, you just don't get them.

I decided to introduce Harold and Howie to grouper fishing, since they're quite fond of pinfish, and we had plenty of those. We headed to one of my favorite grouper spots. The boys soon found that the inshore, shallow water grouper were really tough customers, especially on 15# line. They got their clocks repeatedly cleaned, but were having a blast trying to get those fish out of their rocky homes. They both got a few fish, but they lost more than they landed, by far.

As the tide continued to flood the flats things were getting right to try to put the boys on some redfish. I felt sure I could get them to eat. But, once we were set up on our flat, the action was very slow. OH, the fish were there, but they weren't interested. But, the several redfish we did catch were beauties. Howie got a beautiful 10 pound, 29+ inch fish on a cast that must have been 200 feet from the boat. By the time he got the fish to the boat, his arm was aching. Howie said that one redfish like that on light gear was quite enough. The guys also caught a large speckled trout and a limit of catfish!

In spite of the slow catching, the fishing was a blast, and the company was great, and we had a ball. Back at the dock Harold told me that he had been fishing with hundreds of guides over some forty years, and that I was one of the very best he had ever fished with. Wow! Talk about making my day. What a wonderful thing for him to say, and for me to hear. He also intimated that he would write a testimonial for the website, so I'm interested to see what he might have to say.

After a couple of days off for Thanksgiving, I was to be back at it on Friday with John Howell, his son, and son-in-law. John lives and practices law in Orlando, and is building a home in St. James City. Our front had passed through on Wednesday, and I was really concerned about our Friday trip. I had fished with John the first time back a couple of months ago, and we had a great trip, with lots of fish caught. I knew he wanted to put the boys on a great bite, and felt certain it wasn't likely to happen what with the high pressure built in, and the full moon. I decided to wait until Friday morning to see how conditions looked. I put the Talon in the water and headed to the Waterfront Restaurant in St. James, where I was to meet John and the boys. I explained how I saw the day unfolding, and they took my recommendation to reschedule at another time, and just go out in John's boat and have some fun. We had a good time chatting over breakfast before I headed back to Punta Rassa.

It was blowing pretty hard out of the northeast Saturday morning as my old friend John Hitt and I headed out into the river toward the Sound. We knew it would be an ugly, tough day to be out, with now water in the Sound for most of the day, but John really wanted to fish, and I was with him, regardless.

We began our trek for bait at Picnic Island, moving to Tarpon Bay, moving to, moving to.... We got plenty of pinfish, but no shiners or threadfins. Finally, we headed up to the area of Demere Key to see if we could find some trout in the potholes in the area. The water was so dark, the potholes were almost impossible to find, and we only managed a handful of trout. But, we moved to a pothole in another area a few miles away, and caught plenty of trout.

We decided to use some of our pinfish to catch some of those feisty inshore grouper, but as we were about to leave Demere we saw bait flashing everywhere around us. I couldn't resist, of course, and we got out the net and made a toss. In one throw I had tons of shiners, threadfins, and pins. John wanted to make sure he still remembered how to throw the net, and made one toss to add to the bounty. We were all set. John caught some nice gag grouper, and missed a few as well. It's hard to do any better than one out of two fish to the boat.

Once the grouper action was slowed, we headed to the flats to try for redfish. The water was just crawling, no doubt held up by the north wind, and the fish weren't in a mood to eat. But, we did manage a couple of nice reds in a fairly short time. Since we couldn't keep more than those two, we decided to move on and try for snook. But, the snook handed us the old skunk, refusing to eat.

So, we didn't get our Slam, but we'd taken a lousy looking weather day and turned it into fun. Yes! We got bounced around a bit, and wet coming and going but it was great fun, nonetheless! And, we had some nice redfish for dinner.

If you're wondering what to get your favorite angler who has everything for Christmas, here's a thought. I have decided to sell several of my retired Stella 4000 and 2500 F's. I have 3 of the 4000's and 1 of the 2500's that I'm willing to part with. I always keep one of each series of reel I use for my curio. Anyone who has fished with me once or twice knows how anal I am about my expensive gear, and how well I maintain it. Actually, these Stella F models were pretty much reserved for my regular customers who I knew I could trust not to abuse them, and weren't used on a daily basis. I did maintain them myself, as I have all the special tools required to open them up, however, they were also sent in to the Shimano Platinum Service folks for annual physicals and a D & C. The reels are perfect, with the boxes, papers, and protective pouches. The 4000's generally retailed for about $539, and the 2500's around $475. I'm asking $400 per reel, and they're worth every penny.

Well, that's it for this week. I hope all of you had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving Holiday with your families and friends.

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 11/20/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The week began with a very windy and cool Monday, with wind gusting to 36 MPH out of the northeast! It settled into much better weather with most days beginning on the breezy side, but laying down in late morning. It was a recipe for beautiful days, and save for one trip, it was a filled with good friends and good fishing.

My old friend Dr. John Hitt, of UCF, and I started that windy week off on Monday. It was nasty. But, John hadn't been on the water since July 1st, largely because of the hurricane season claiming so many days, and was ready and willing to go even in the face of the wind and a very poor tide. I had made a note in my records that the July 1st trip had been one of the worst of my guiding career, and sure didn't want a repeat of that. However, the conditions sure favored another stinker day.

We actually managed to get bait on the Picnic Island flat, but had to anchor John's big Coastline the old fashioned way. The waves and wind were just too much for the titanium stake on the Power Pole to deal with. Once we were in one place, we got some descent bait, consisting mostly of pinfish with some shiners mixed in. I knew the problem would be to get something to eat it.

And, we spend most of the morning trying to do just that, with nothing more to show for our efforts than a nice catch of hardhead and gaftop sail catfish! The snook and redfish didn't want to eat. With maybe a couple of hours left to fish, John reminded me that he just loves to trout fish, and we agreed it was time to try to find some trout. One of our problems was that there had been no water in the Sound for most of the day, and there still wasn't. An already low tide was being blown much lower by the mean wind. We were just able to get ourselves through the skinny water and into a favorite winter spot of mine, and that was just what the doctor ordered. It didn't take us long to figure out where the trout were stacked in the hole, and what color they would eat, and the bite was on. We caught trout after trout on Cotee jigs with a white paddle tail body bumped along the bottom. I'm guessing we caught 35 to 40 fish before we called it quits.

Then we had to face the grueling ride home, and what a ride it was. But, as we cleared the manatee zone at Shell Island in the river, we got a real shocker when we found ourselves facing 5 ft. waves rolled up by the tide racing against the strong wind. The hard part was that they were only about 6 ft. apart! Friends, there's just no good way to negotiate a chop like that, but John took off into it. We took a pounding, but except for one time when John tried to slow down and took water over the bow, the Coastline performed flawlessly. It was one of those days when we started off getting wet, and got wet coming home, but we were happy that we had stuck with it and made it work. John and I had fun, and that's what it's all about.

I would have bet my last nickel that Tuesday would be a repeat of Monday, as the weather is usually awful for at least two days after the winter fronts. But, fortunately for Tom Collins and his friend Bill Colson, I was wrong. Oh, it began quite breezy, but nothing like the day before. I hadn't seen Tom in over a year, and he had since moved to Miami, and was over to visit Bill, who lives on Pine Island.

I didn't sleep well at all that night, probably worrying about what in the world I would do if the weather was again awful, and the fish wouldn't eat. So, I climbed out of bed at 4 AM, and got ready. I figured I might as well see if I could find some better bait that John and I had found the day before. Shiners were almost non-existent. So, I was on the water well before the sun came up, and began my quest for bait at Picnic Island. I had a ton of pinfish in the well, but at 7 AM, I still hadn't seen a shiner. But, apparently all they needed was for the sun to come up a bit, as all of a sudden they magically appeared for a friend and me, and we loaded up in just a couple of throws. I had great bait, and was at the Waterfront Restaurant to pick up my guys by 7:45. When I went in for coffee, I found them having breakfast inside.

The day began slowly for Tom, Bill, and me. We still had a lousy tide to deal with, and no water to fish. Our first stops yielded little more than a couple of flounder and a small snook. I figured I could put the boys on some real kick-butt grouper action, especially on the light tackle, as grouper are one of the go-to fish in the winter pattern. So, we were off to one of my favorite areas for fishing gags. We had immediate action, and although Tom and Bill broke off numerous grouper in the rocky bottom, the did manage to boat about half a dozen fish to 20 inches. Boy, are they fun fish in shallow water on light tackle!

I figured our best action of the day would be with the speckled trout, and it certainly was. I had found the trout the day before with John, and knew we could catch plenty of them with the right action and color. I favor matching the water color as nearly as possible, and chose to have the guys fish a couple different shades of green Bass Assassin jigs. It was the right call, and the guys were catching very nice speckled trout on virtually every cast! As the numbers climbed, Bill said he wanted to stay and catch fish until he had beaten Tom's mother's record. Tom had brought his Mom out on a trip with me, and she had caught 59 trout as part of the trip. Bill said he was tired of hearing about those trout and was going to fish until they'd caught 69! And, that's what they did.

And, with that we headed back to the Waterfront for lunch. It had been a fun day, and great to see Tom once again, and to meet Bill.

Wednesday dawned windy, again, for John Hitt and me on our second outing. We were looking at 15 to 20, but it wasn't anything like it had been on Monday. WE had a very short window of opportunity to fish for reds before the tide blew the water off the flats taking the fish with it. We decided that since we both had some ladyfish frozen for a rainy day, we would forego catching bait, and go straight to a flat and chunk ladyfish steaks for redfish. Although we didn't catch a bunch of fish, the plan worked, and John caught a nice red and two snook, including a nice keeper, before the tide forced us off the flat.

We were ready to turn our attention to trout. John loves to fish trout, and for that matter, so do I. It's always fun to catch fish one after the other, no matter what they are. Every man has a little boy inside that loves to do that! So, it was back to the trout flats where John and I caught trout after trout for at least a couple of hours. What fun!

A word about trout fishing. I always try to remember to mash the barbs down on the hooks of my jigs when trout fishing. Trout are very fragile fish, and the less you handle them, the better. With the barb mashed down, you can often drop a little slack to the fish at the boat and watch him swim away without handling him. If not, the hook will be just that much easier to remove, especially if the fish has taken the jig deep. And, if you should have the misfortune of being hooked, if will be much easier to remove from your own hide!

Thursday promised to be a beautiful day for my friend Kathy Gomez, who was over for a visit from Miami. She loves to fish, but hasn't had much opportunity to do so. So, she was really excited about getting out for a day. I knew the tide would be about an hour later, and that we would have a longer window of opportunity for redfish and snook, before the water left the shallows. So, we headed to Picnic Island before the sun was up and caught only what we needed to catch the reds and snook; pinfish. I didn't want to waste value time on the flats trying to catch shiners, which would probably not come until later.

So, we were quickly off to the first stop, and it didn't take long to get the first strike! As the water raced off the flats Kathy caught 4 or 5 nice redfish, 3 snook, including a nice keeper, and also missed several strikes. When it was time to leave the flats or get stranded, we headed to the grouper grounds to let Kathy try her hand with the inshore gags. She had her clock cleaned several times, as there were some really nice fish hiding in them thar rocks, but did manage to land 3 gags before we turned our attention to trout. They left her breathing heavy! At the trout hole, Kathy caught one trout after another. We were again using the Bass Assassins, and the fish were gobbling them up. She finished the day with a good 50 speckled trout. So, it was a great day for Kathy, and she said she couldn't wait to get back to Miami and tell her friends in the Cuda Club about her day.

Friday, I had my first trip with Joe Buglione, of Ft. Lauderdale, and his friends Jim and Dave. I picked them up at the Waterfront Restaurant at 6 AM, as Joe and Jim were over staying with Dave in Bokeelia. I knew as soon as I met these guys it was going to be a fun day. We headed straight back to Picnic Island to catch pinfish for our run at the reds on the flats. Finally, we would have some water on the flats for a while, and I just wanted enough big pinfish to chum and fish them. I would catch shiners and threadfins later in the day as I had done with Kathy the day before.

Once the pinfish were in the well, we were off to do some serious red fishing. Along the way Dave told me he was at the stage of life where he just like to put his baits out and put the rods in the rod holders, and kick back with a cigarette and a beer and wait on a bite. I told him I thought he'd like my style of redfishing, as that's basically how it begins. I also told him that it's a hoot once the fish begin biting.

And, they did bite. We had plenty of action. We even had some snook action, which was great for Jim, who had never caught a snook. It was one of his life's dreams to catch a snook, and he managed to catch three, including a beautiful 30 inch fish. He broke many of my boat rules in the process, and even put one of my Stella 2500's in the water! But, he got his fish! Of course, for the rest of the day we all picked on Jim, and had lots of laughs. Jim also got his share of nice redfish, and a couple of big trout. In all, the boys caught some 20 redfish, 3 snook, and 4 big winter trout to 4 pounds at the first stop. Not a bad beginning.

Once the redfish/snook action was over we headed to the grouper hole. There the boys lost their share, but also boated 6 nice gags. Time was growing short, so we turned our attention to trout. We only made one stop, where the guys caught plenty of trout, as well as a flounder and a ladyfish. By that time everyone was tired and hungry and ready to call it a day. It had been a great day with a great bunch of guys, and I look forward to their return.

Well, that's how it went. Not a bad week considering the tides. The tides will be much better next week, so hopefully I'll be able to put my customers on some nice redfish action before the reds move offshore for the winter. That will be happening soon. Usually, the sexually mature fish migrate offshore to spawn in late November/early December, and for the most part, don't return.

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