Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
March 17, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/12/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was another one of those weeks where too many days are lost because of things that are out of your control. The Yamaha on the Talon was still not wanting to shift into reverse when cold, so I thought I’d use Monday to get her over to Danny at Fowler Marine and have him service the lower unit. The fuel gauge was also acting up, and I suspected a loose connection, somewhere. He had her done in one day, and found the cable housing on the shift cable on the engine end had fallen apart, and was the culprit in the shifting problem. He also replaced the zincs, both cables, the fuel gauge, and in general gave he a good physical. I was glad to have the shifting problem behind me.

I was scheduled to fish with Jim Mercer, a local fellow, on Tuesday, but Mother Nature socked us in with rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Boy, talk about a conflict of interest for a fishing guide! Our state and area is dangerously dry because we’ve had so little rain through our normal dry season. And, all of us guides desperately need to work because we’ve lost so much time since last year’s hurricanes. It’s hard to begrudge a couple of days of much needed soaking rains, because we need it so badly.

After two days of rain and wind, I knew the fishing would be horrible on Thursday, and probably Friday. I had rescheduled Dan Parsons and Bill Julius from the week previous because of bad weather, but I had to tell them what the outlook was for our Thursday date. Bleak!

But Dan, of Greentown, Indiana, and his sidekick Bill who has a place here, were determined not to be denied their day on the water, no matter what the results. We managed to catch bait, but from there it was nothing but tough fishing. Thank God Dan and Bill were such great guys and fun to be with, and just happy to be out there. Although they missed several snook during the day, they only managed to boat one snook, and three big trout. Well, at least we didn’t get skunked, again! And, we had fun!

Thursday night I finally heard from my old friend Tony Ronci. I had been trying to communicate with him in Canada via email, and having no luck. Turned out he was getting my emails, but I wasn’t getting his responses. We haven’t figured that one out, yet! But, he was here, and ready to fish.

I warned Tony that it would be tough fishing, what with the conditions. After two back-to-back cold fronts that knocked the water temperature back down into the low 60’s, and the red tide still hanging around and killing manatees, things were tough.

With Tony at the helm, we caught plenty of bait at the second span of the causeway, and were ready to fish. We headed up into the Sound, optimistic, but expecting fishing to be tough. But, we persevered, and throughout the course of the day Tony caught two nice snook at around 26 inches, 2 redfish, and a bunch of big, fat speckled trout. Yes, it was hard fishing, but fun fishing, and Tony got his West Coast Slam, twice! It was a good day, and actually much better than either of us expected after all the goings on of the week.

It was the kind of week that illustrates very well why there are no rich fishing guides, unless they were rich when they came to the business, but tough fishing with great people still equals a great time! That’s what matters.

Next week is a full one. I’m hopeful the weather won’t again be a factor, but hey! It’s March, and it’s been a strange one. Stay tuned.

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