Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
May 15, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 5/14/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I was at the ramp early on Monday morning, for my trip with two of my favorite friends, Steve and Liz O'Rourke, of London. I had a chance to talk to several of my friends there, and most were talking about the tough fishing on the previous Friday, and over the weekend. Along with everything else that affects weekend fishing, there was a big redfish tournament that added probably a hundred boats to the fleet. It often takes a day or two after a busy weekend for the fish to settle down, so I was expecting the fishing to be hard.

Steve and Liz arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, or should I say bright tailed, and bushy-eyed. Liz had partied a bit too hard the night before, and was a bit hung over. Worse, her back was acting up, and she was uncomfortable.

We headed straight to Picnic Island for bait, but the wind was already blowing pretty hard our of the south/southeast, making the water on the south side of the first span very bumpy. I was concerned about Liz's back in the rough water, but she assured me it was fine.

Once at Picnic Island, we found the water racing out of there, which was completely against what I saw on the NOAA tide charts. The fast moving water made bait hard to catch, at first. But, once we got Steve dialed in on just where to put the chum to get the bait in front of the boat, or at least within reach of my castnet, we did fine, and loaded up. It took a while, though.

As we drove off the bait flats I asked Steve if he'd like to do something different; chase big snook for a while. He was all for it, so we headed to Ding Darling Sanctuary to see if we could get some of those big girls to eat, and if we could get them out of the mangroves. The answer was no. Steve managed to dig three snook and a jack out of the bushes, but the snook were small ones. He missed several other hits, and Liz got a nice redfish.

Fishing the mangroves is hard! As Steve can now attest. A four pound snook gave him fits, but he eventually won his battle. We decided we'd opt for some easier, and hopefully, more productive fishing on the flats.

Our next stop produced a few quick snook, and a redfish or two. But we agreed that we wanted to try to get a redfish bite going, even though the odds were against us. So, we took up position and began chumming. I couldn't spot a school anywhere, so we would have to try to call them in to us with bait.

I began chumming, and it wasn't long before we were catching redfish. We didn't have a real hot bite, but we were steady catching. It wasn't long after we got started with the fish that my buddy John Objartle showed up and joined the fun. We were all catching! I was fishing both live and cut baits, trying to figure out which might really get the fish on a good bite.

Steve hooked a big redfish on the cut bait, and was having quite a time of trying to get her to the boat, when all of a sudden we spotted a 6 foot blacktip shark zeroing in on his fish. I urged Steve to pump and reel the red in as fast as he could, but fast wasn't fast enough. As the fish neared the boat it literally jumped trying to escape the jaws of the big shark, right at boatside. When the shark slashed the redfish in half as it tried to jump, Liz almost jumped into my arms! She thought the shark was attacking the boat, or was going to jump into the boat with us, and she would have climbed on my shoulders if the shark had gotten any closer.

In an instant, Steve's beautiful redfish was reduced to nothing but a head, still gasping for life. Judging from the head, the red would have been 10 to 12 pounds, and plus 30 inches. It was sad that the fish met it's fate at the jaws of that shark. But, now the smell of blood was in the water, and the blacktip shark was still cruising around us, keeping a safe distance. Twice I got the camera out and tried to get some video, but the big shark didn't come back to take the redfish head that Steve quickly put back into the water. Well, don't you know that the instant I put the camera away, here came the shark and attacked the redfish head. Damn! Now, Steve had another battle on his hands, and was enjoying it, but it didn't take long for the shark to cut the leader with its rows of razor sharp teeth. The blacktip won that war, all the way around. But, it had been quite an experience, especially for Liz, who was still in a state of disbelief at what she'd seen take place. It was tragic, scary, and way cool, all at the same time.

Needless to say, we didn't have a lot going on after that, but it wasn't all the shark's fault. The tide was about done, and so were we. We were all ready for something to eat. I was so hungry I was shaking, and that's not a good thing for me. We decided we were going to head to the Waterfront Restaurant for lunch, leaving John and my friend Rey Rodriguez, who had just joined us, with the fish. Steve and Liz had caught about 15 redfish, and missed a few, as well.

We laughed and recounted the days events over a great lunch, especially the Jaws attack on the Talon. Steve and I had fun teasing Liz about it, and she thought it was pretty cool that she had a true story about a shark attack to take home with her. It was a great day with great friends.

Tuesday was no different! My old friends Ed Mahoney, Tom, and Mike were back in town for another shot at the fish. They had been to Chokoloskee the day before in their own boat, and had managed some trout, and a nice 34 inch snook for Ed.

I just love fishing with these guys. They're all about my age. They jokingly call themselves the Three Stooges, but they're just three lifelong friends that love to fish together, and give each other a hard time all day long. It's fun, and I love being a part of it. I try to do my part to keep them on their collective toes. Of course, they do the same to me. It's a fun game with three great guys who I suspect love each other very much. It's the kind of bond that I suspect is peculiar to life-long fishing buddies.

We headed straight to Picnic Island for bait. Although it took a little longer than usual, we got plenty of bait while Ed, Tom, and Mike joked and razzed each other back and forth. As we prepared to head to the first spot of the day, the boys assured me there were no "jerks" on the boat. What they meant is that there were no fishermen that would jerk with the rod before reeling tight to the fish. No jerks! But, I knew better. I think one of the hardest things in fishing is for an angler not to strike on a bite while using a circle hook.

We headed to our first stop of the day back in Ding Darling Sanctuary. The tide charts seemed to be a bit off, as the water didn't move until well after what had been forcasted. But, once the water began to move, things began to happen. The boys had lots of hits, and lots of misses, and a few fish into the boat. They boated two mangrove snapper, one gag grouper, one nice redfish, and two or three snook before we decided to move on in search of snook that would bite.

At the next area we fished we concentrated on snook, and whittled away at them for a total of around 10 snook. It was a slow day, but as Mike said, any day they can go out and catch 10 snook is a good day. We had lots of laughs, but perhaps the laugh of the day was when I threatened to send Ed to the back of the boat and make him sit in the corner for laying one of my $800 Stella/St. Croix rigs on the deck while he was messing around with something. The guys teased Ed about that for the rest of the day, and the next morning when we met on the flats to catch bait together, Ed told my customer Scott Wilder that I made him go to time out! I think they really had Scott wondering for a while! We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant recounting the days events.

And, that Wednesday, was my first trip with Scott Wilder, of Chicago. Besides being one hell of a nice young man, at age 33 he had already been the owner of a Burger King franchise for a number of years, and is quite successful. He's one of the youngest, if not THE youngest, Burger King franchisees.

I picked Scott up at the Waterfront Restaurant, in St. James City at 7:30. We had a very late tide, that was even later than the NOAA forecast, and could have started much later, but I was concerned about parking at the ramp, and getting bait late in the morning.

We headed back to Picnic Island for bait, where I met Ed, Tom, and Mike, to help them with bait. They were in the red Action Craft, Numb Knots. As was the case for the last several days, we had the tide going out, and the wind from the southeast, which is basically one against the other. To catch bait we had to toss the chum way out away from the boat, and throw the net way away in the opposite direction. It took a while, but we finally loaded the Talon's well, and gave the boys a few scoops to supplement the five or six dozen mixed baits they had managed to catch. We were all ready to fish.

We had a while to wait for the water to begin moving in, and I figured Ding Darling was as good a place as any to be when it finally began moving. The boys and I had seen a lot of bites in there the day before, but just hadn't gotten a lot of fish to the boat. Scott and I waited almost an hour before the water finally began moving. I joked that we could have slept in, but he was enjoying just being out there on the water.

Finally, as the water began to move, we began to get hits. Some were bona fide hits, and some were the classic "I don't really want to eat it" snook bites. Scott managed to catch a gag grouper, a snapper, a couple of jack crevalle, and a snook or two, and I caught a couple of snook. The big females just didn't want to play, though. After a couple of hours of fishing our way back through this beautiful estuary, we decided to go hit the flats to see if we could find some redfish and snook there that might be willing to eat.

We fished a number of spots that always have lots of fish, and managed a nice speckled trout, a redfish, and a snook or two. I spent the last hour trying my damnedest to chum up the redfish, which I knew were there, but they just weren't having it. Scott caught one nice red, missed a couple, and we had several nice blowups on our bait, but the main quarry was stingrays. They were even eating our livebaits. I told Scott that when the stingrays are active, you can bet the tide is poor, or not moving at all. Finally, at around 3 PM, we called it a day. It had been a great weather day, a great day of fishing with great company, but just not a great catching day. Scott was quick to acknowledge that it beat even the best day in his office.

Thursday morning, I met my old friends Mike May, and his son, David, at 8:00. Mike wanted to do another instructional trip with David. I warned Mike that we had a very tough tide to fish, but he and David weren't dissuaded. We headed out to Picnic Island for bait. The same conditions that would make fishing tough, would make bait tough. The water wasn't moving. But, we chummed, and watched the water closely as it tried to move, and were able to load the Talon in an hour or so.

I asked Mike if there was something in particular he wanted to do, and he said he wanted to learn more about catching snook. I decided to stay on the east side of the Sound to teach him the whats, wheres, and whys of snook fishing. We visited many spots beginning at Regla Island and extending as far north as Pineland. The bite was horribly slow. We had many baits scaled, and both Mike and David missed some fish, but the bottom line was that they didn't get a lot of opportunities. Mike and David managed to boat a couple of snook, several reds, and a flounder. David had a keeper redfish in the boat that came off the hook as he brought it in. He managed to steer the fish back into the boat as it came off the hook, but the redfish was about to flop back into the water. So, David kicked at it with his foot, and the fish went out the other side of the boat!

Mike's wife, Carol, had put in a standing order for a nice redfish. David figured he was in deep trouble. But, a couple of stops later, at Panther Key, Mike hooked and landed a beautiful 26+ inch redfish that would make Carol happy. David had let several redfish get away, and wasn't happy with himself, but the meat was in the well, now. Actually, David came up with a great acronym that I predict will become very popular; CPR. It stands for catch, photograph, and release! Is that cool, or what? I'd like to see CPR become our mantra! It had been a tough, but fun day with a couple of nicest guys you could want to go fishing with. Thanks, Mike and David for a great, relaxing day.

I was awake way early on Friday morning. I was scheduled to do my first trip with Cliff Fletcher, of Orlando. Cliff was staying up on North Captiva, which meant it would be a very long day. We had basically planned for me to catch bait, and meet him in front of the runway at around 10:00 AM. But, I was up so early, and on the water early, that I actually got a parking place at the ramp, and had plenty of bait in the Maverick before 8 AM. I called Cliff and suggested he meet me at 9 AM, and that we go and do some exploring. He was up for that.

We headed north out through Captiva Pass and up Cayo Costa to check on some spots I used to snook fish during the summer months. The first spot was very different. The second was in tact. The third was changed, but still there. As we headed down to Charley's Pass, we both spotted something floating in the water that we thought was a manatee calf. We circled around and found a big sea turtle tangled in a long piece of rope. I had starved to death right there, with the rope around its neck and left front flipper. It was sad to see. Once at Charley's Pass, I noticed that the cut is very narrow and the front is shoaling up. I predict that it won't be flowing water for very much longer. If it gets through the summer, a good winter storm will surely close it.

We were done exploring by around 10 AM, and on the way to the first hole. The very first bait Cliff tossed into the hole was gobbled by a snook. It wasn't a small or average fish. It was a violent hit. But, the circle hook didn't connect, for some reason. It wasn't long, though, before Cliff had his first snook into the boat.

We were fighting a dreadful tide, starving birds, and a strong east wind. I had warned Cliff that it would be a tough day, but that first spot had given us 4 snook, and that great fish that Mike missed

We kept on moving and whittling away at the snook. It quickly became apparent to me that Cliff, who had caught one small snook in his lifetime, never caught a redfish, was a very quick study and a polished angler. He quickly learned to apply the things I was teaching him, and I knew that if we could get the fish to eat, he would do well.

And, he did! Over the course of the rest of the day, Cliff landed a dozen nice snook, a big trout, and a redfish, for the Slam. Actually, we had opportunities for redfish, that just didn't get stuck. He had another nice redfish right to the boat when it got away, and missed several good hits. We headed back to North Captiva at around 4 PM, and by 5 PM I was back at the docks at Punta Rassa.

That's how it went. It was a tough week of fishing. Each day got a little tougher than the one before it. And, the tough tides will continue right on until around next Thursday. But, the tough week was graced by some great customers and friends that make every day a delight.

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