Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
February 27, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/26/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a great week of fishing with mostly new customers, which is a bit unusual for me since so much of my business is with long-time friends. But, new customers means the birth of new friendships, and this week was no exception.

First up was Charlie Cooper, down from Concord, Massachusetts, and his lovely daughter, Emily, who had come down to visit her dad from Washington, DC. Charlie wanted to book four days, but I only had two available; Monday and Thursday. I referred him to my good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday morning dawned to a strong south wind just two night off the full moon. We had a great early tide for pothole fishing for big trout. The challenge would be navigating our way to the potholes in the shallows with a boat with no wheels on the bottom. So I thought. Once there, the challenge was getting the fish to eat.

We were tossing the Exude RT Slug, which has been so deadly on the big trout this season, but the fish just weren't very interest. Worse, the big trout weren't interested. We fished hard, and by the time the water was up and it was time to move on, Charlie and Emily had boated at least a couple dozen trout. Certainly not what I'm accustomed to!

We headed to a favorite spot of mine for reds and snook up near Pineland feeling sure I could put them on some fish, there. I had a bait well full of shrimp which should have done the trick. Charlie boated one red, and missed several others, and also jumped a snook. We later joined Capt. Rey on another shoreline where he had managed a few reds, but we never got one to eat for us.

We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant, which Charlie and Emily just loved. It was Presidents Day, and it was jammed, and the water crowded as well, especially with big cruisers. We had a great lunch and then a Disney style ride back to the ramp, which Emily sure seemed to enjoy. It had been a tough day, but we caught some fish, and had a great time in spite of the tough fishing.

Tuesday was a calm, beautiful day for Scott Howell, Dave Stebbins, and his son Michael, of Chesterland, Ohio. Their main mission was to catch enough fish to feed six people a nice dinner. I knew that would be most easily accomplished with speckled trout. So, I figured we'd pothole fish for trout until we had a couple of limits, then move on and see if we could add a redfish or two.

My biggest concern was getting across the extreme shallows with three anglers aboard, and not blowing the landing. Although it was a beautiful morning, it was overcast, and with the sun low on the horizon, the potholes are near impossible to see. As I made my approach to the area flaps down and motor up I thought a couple of times I wouldn't make it, but I just keep raising the motor and watching my water pressure gauge. Finally, I thought I was approaching the hole I wanted to fish and shut down. But, the water was so shallow that we skidded to a stop about 50 feet short of the hole. Oops!

We all got out and pushed, but the Talon was pretty hard aground on the hard sand bottom. So, knowing the tide was coming in, I used the time to get the boys used to the Stella spinning reels, and working the Exude jigs in a fashion that might attract fish. After about a half hour we pushed, again, and were able to get the Talon to the hole and floating pretty easily.

With everyone back aboard we were ready to fish. It didn't take long to get into some fish, and although it wasn't the hot bite I was hoping to find, it wasn't bad for being a day off the full moon. Scott and Michael caught some fish, but Dave really had the hot rod. I didn't seem to matter what color I rigged his jig with, he caught trout. We were having fun, and catching fish. Mike was having trouble keeping them hooked and eventually wouldn't take a hooked fish from me. We had fun teasing him. And, by the time the tide was pushing the fish out of the holes we had a well full of nice trout. My friend Capt. Rey joined us not long before we were ready to move on, and they too, got into the trout. Our mission of catching plenty of fish for dinner was accomplished, and it was time to move on.

By this time the wind had flipped to the southwest and kicked, causing the Sound to cap up. We headed across the Sound, taking a longer but smoother path. We settled on some nice redfish spots, but couldn't get anything interested in eating our offerings. Capt. Rey called and said that he and Charlie had found a few snook that would eat. Rey had decided to catch bait for the first time coming out of winter, and had gotten plenty in one throw. He offered to give us a few scoops. But, by the time we met up later and actually got some bait, the tide was nearly done moving. About all we could manage was a jack and a flounder.

But, it had been a fun day on the water with some great guys, and had accomplished our goal. Dinner was in the well. I had also seen two manatees out in the shallows, the bait had shown up in great quantity under the first span of the causeway, and I saw a snook being cleaned at the dock. All the signs of spring that I'd been waiting to see before switching back to live bait fishing, and chasing snook.

The forecast for Wednesday morning was calm with patchy fog. I was ready to catch a well full of shiners and take my new customers Monte West, and his friend Gordon and son, Justin, of Vienna, Virginia, live-baiting for trout and snook.

As we eased out of the channel clearing the ramp and turned toward the causeway, I could see bait flicking everywhere. I gave Monte the helm, and after a couple of tense moments while he got used to things, was able to throw the net. I could barely drag it back into the boat. It was the mother load! We were all set, and had more than enough to chum every hole, as well.

We headed off toward the second span on our way into the Sound, but after we cleared the second span of the causeway the fog became white soup. Thinking it was just a localized condition, I pressed on, trying to hold my course. Patchy fog, my butt! The fog didn't break, and the strong current soon had me far off course. We stopped in about six feet of water and soon heard voices. It turned out there were several other boats within a quarter mile of us all floundering around waiting on the fog to lift.

As we waited on the fog, I could see my plans for fishing the first hours of the incoming tide going down the dumper! After close to two hours, I decided to use the light breeze to try to navigate my way to the shore of Sanibel. I knew if I could find that I could then navigate my way to the area I wanted to fish if I could keep the shoreline in sight. The plan worked, and after idling along for a while with the breeze on my right shoulder, a faint vision of land emerged from the soup. As we moved closer I was able to see that it was indeed Sanibel, and I appeared to be just east of Tarpon Bay. From there we were able to navigate our way up Sanibel to the area I wanted to fish. The hardest part would be as I approached the area and would have to leave the sight of land to find the flat I wanted to fish.

Well, I found the flat, sort of! I wound up in the right area, but in the wrong hole. I was about a half mile from where I wanted to be. But, as we came down off step and shut down, we were treated to the sight of a huge tarpon free-jumping several times right within 100 feet of the boat. That was when I actually realized exactly where I was.

It was a long shot, but the boys were all for throwing some of our small shiners at the tarpon. I chummed a couple of bats full to see if I could get them interested. I could see large swirls the tarpon were making as the moved around, but they wouldn't eat. But, the trout did. We soon had plenty of trout going on. And, it became obvious that Gordon was going to be the catfish king. We caught trout, ladyfish, and catfish until the water got high enough to make some other options available.

We moved to an area I hadn't fished since last spring to see if the snook were staging there, yet. We caught several very nice snook there, with Justin taking the largest at 28 inches. Once the action slowed we headed across the Sound and tried some other areas looking for snook. We caught mostly more very nice trout, and I believe a flounder or two before we called it a day. It was getting late, and I had a bunch of fish to clean. Although my original plans had been foiled, we had made the day work, and had a blast. It was fun being in the middle of Monte, Gordon, and Justin, all jabbing and teasing each other as we fished.

Thursday morning I met Charlie Cooper for our second trip. He was thrilled with the two days he'd spent with Capt. Rey, which had included some snooking on Tuesday, and chasing tailing reds on Wednesday. The highlight of Wednesday was an eleven pound tailing redfish that ate his shrimp. Seeing hundreds of tailing reds and catching that fish had been a real thrill for him. I was hoping I could give him a great final day that he would long remember, as well. I asked Charlie if there was anything in particular he wanted to do, and he quickly told me he'd enjoyed catching those snook with Rey, and had let a big one get away. He really liked the way they fought, and wanted to do it, again. I was all for that, and we headed out of the ramp for bait. I had to throw the net twice, but loaded the Maverick as full as she'd ever been with shiners. We were ready.

We had about an hour left of the falling tide, and I knew just the place I wanted to be. We headed into the Sound to the first snook spot of the day. It was my first day of live-baiting snook of the approaching spring. The first two baits that hit the water were eaten. Charlie did a fine job of landing his snook, and I lost mine while watching him. The fish were there. We caught several there, but the falling tide soon ran out of gas. I decided to use the lull to move to the next spot, which I expected to be on with the incoming tide.

We got there just as the water was beginning to crawl. We got a slow start, but by the time the water got moving well, the fish began eating. We caught snook from 1 pound to 5 pounds, along with some nice fat trout, and a couple of fat flounder. After moving to another spot nearby, Charlie caught a couple of redfish and another snook. Charlie had Slammed in that hole!

We moved on to what I hoped would be the spot of the day. I was counting on some larger snook in this spot that always begins to heat up as the water warms with the coming of spring. Charlie soon had a very nice fish on that challenged his angling skills on the ultra light St. Croix Legend rods and Stella 2500 reels. Although the fish was hooked in the lip with the circle hook, she had apparently gotten first hooked back in the gill or the throat, as she was bleeding profusely. I hurried to get her back into the water so that her wound could coagulate, but she had lost too much blood. Although she sprang from my hands after some intense resuscitation, she soon floated to the top, belly up! Charlie and I were sad to see that fish die. It was just barely short of the 26 inch slot. Some might have kept her and taken their chances.

The next fish was much bigger and stronger, and Charlie was having a blast. After the fish was in the boat and measured at 28 inches, we put her in the well to see if she would make it. She had also taken the hook right into her stomach. I guess she really wanted that bait, and the circle hook never had a chance to work. Although she wasn't bleeding at this point, I was suspect that she would make it. Even with the added flow from the 700 GPH pump, she didn't make it. She would make the ride home with the two flounder I had kept to make sashimi.

By around one o'clock I was starved out of my mind, and the bite was slowing down considerably. You could tell the weather was about to change just by observing the sky. I suggested to Charlie that we hit the Green Flash, which he likes, for lunch. Once there we were shocked to see the place so full there was barely even any standing room. We decided that the Waterfront Restaurant would do very nicely, and headed to St. James City. Although they were busy, as well, they were able to get us seated right away, and we were able to enjoy a great lunch and recap all the fun of the day and the week. Charlie was thrilled with the 14 snook, 2 reds, 3 trout to 4 pounds, and big flounder he'd caught, and was very happy with the great mix of fishing he'd done with Rey and me. He hated to have to board an airplane later that night and head back to the land of snow.

Charlie is a great guy, and I was glad that I and Rey had the opportunity to be his guides for his first fishing here. He was full of praises for both of us, which is the greatest reward for any guide. He's already plotting his next trip here, and hopes to be able to return in March.

I woke up around four o'clock Friday morning. I thought I could hear the pitter-patter of rain dropping off the eves, and the distant rumble of thunder. I hadn't heard that since last summer. We've been in a drought, and desperately need a good, soaking rain. We also need to work. I laid and listened, and sure enough the thunder was moving closer. Curiosity got the best of me, and I got up and cued up the radar on the desktop. To my surprise, there were large cells of storms building up just off the coast, and the were coming right at us. By the time I had looked at them on the screen, they were making landfall, and it was booming nicely.

I sat on the patio with a cup of coffee enjoying listening to the rain and thunder, watching the lightning. The show was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing, and I knew it was my old friend John Hitt. We were supposed to go out and spank some of those snook, but things weren't looking good. The forecast was for more of the same throughout the day. We decided to wait and see if the day looked doable, and hope we could fish on Saturday, if Friday was a complete rain-out. The storms finally passed at around 8 AM, but light showers remained, and there was the promise of more to come.

The forecasters were calling for a day of clear weather and then more all day rains and storms on Sunday from an entirely different low pressure center. I met John at eight o'clock at his dock and loaded my gear. It was a bit on the chilly side. We were hopeful that bait would still be easy and that the fish would bite.

We headed down the river to the Sanibel Causeway to find that bait wasn't as easy at all, but we did catch it. The first throw gave us a couple dozen threads. The second a couple dozen shiners. The fifth was the mother load, and gave us hundreds of baits to fish with. I threw once more just because a fishing guide can never have too much bait! We were off.

The delay in catching bait had delayed our arrival at the first stop, which is a spot I love to fish on a spring outgoing tide. The tide was about done. All it gave us was a trout and a mangrove snapper before it pooped out.

We used the dead water time to moved to the next spot, at which I anticipate great action. It was not to be. We had a strong easterly wind that kept flopping back and forth from southeast to northeast, making it hard to throw our small baits where we wanted them. The bite that should have been was not forthcoming. I knew the fish were there, as I'd caught them earlier in the week. We worked hard at it and only managed a couple snook and trout.

On to the next stop which I hadn't yet fished this spring. Not a look. We decided upon a change of venue to the other side of the Sound. The first stop, which I have established is full of nice snook, only gave us a couple of snook. Those were the last fish of the day. We fished hard, but as we got closer to the end of the tide and later into the day, it became apparent that the fish were done, whether we were, or not. The fat lady had sung.

Our total for the day was 4 snook, 4 trout, 1 snapper, 1 flounder, and 1 big ladyfish. Tough fishing. But, at the gas stop at the marina we were told that all the reports for the day were of really tough fishing. No one had caught diddely. Sometimes that's just the way it is, and there's not a darned thing you can do about it. That's still why it's called fishing instead of catching. And, I suppose that if it were easy all the time we anglers would soon loose interest. Mother Nature knows what she's doing.

And, that's it. It was a fun week that wasn't as full as it was supposed to be, but I still managed five days on the water. Things will continue to warm, and the fishing will continue to heat up with the weather, especially on the good tide days.

You may go to http://www.barhoppr.com to view this report with color pictures.

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