Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
July 9, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 7/9/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I had a four day work week, that proved to be four days spent with some of the nicest folks on the planet.

First up was my old friend John Hitt. We had a very early tide and met at John's dock at 6:30. We headed right to Kiesel's flat to catch what I thought would be easy bait. But, the baitfish had other ideas. We got enough bait to fish with, but it was tough. I figured it might have everything to do with the long holiday weekend, and figured the fishing would be equally tough.

That proved to be true, as well. The fish weren't in much of a mood to eat. We were on fish everywhere we went, and had lots of scaled baits, and missed a few snook, too. But, our total in the boat for the morning was 8 snook. The highlight of the day was when John landed a beautiful 10 pound, 33 inch snook. A fish like that has a way of speeding up a slow day! Snook are out of season for harvest, so she was free to fight another day. Unfortunately, we didn't find any redfish, so we took nothing home but smiles for dinner.

Wednesday and Thursday, I had my first two outings with Brad Frazier, and his seventeen year-old son, Ben, down from Merritt Island, Florida. I knew about as quickly as I met Brad and Ben that they were a couple of great guys. I noticed immediately that they seemed very close, and knew we'd have a good time.

We headed again to Kiesel's flat for bait. I felt sure the bait would be much better after having had a day to settle down from all the traffic running over them. We had no more than gotten there and were getting set up to chum, when my baitwell quit pumping. A quick check of things revealed that the bait pump had fried. We hadn't put any bait in the well, yet, so there was no cause for panic. I keep a spare pump motor in the boat, and quickly had the cartridge type pump replaced. Then, we got plenty of bait, butt it wasn't what I expected. There was plenty of new-hatch small bait mixed with a good amount of big baits. We had plenty for both fishing and chumming.

I decided to fish the Sanibel side on the early tide, because the tides are earlier there. We found descent action everywhere we went, but as you might expect, there were a lot of missed hits. I joked with Brad and Ben about having "No Jerks in the Boat!" But, when you're used to striking a hit immediately, it's a hard habit to break. Oh, they missed some fish, all right, but they also managed to boat some 15 snook, and 1 redfish. We had a great time, and the boys were ready to do it again on Thursday after a some rest and a jaunt out to check out Sanibel and Captiva.

We had been in the Talon, which Ben loved, on Wednesday. The Maverick needed to be run, as it had been a good month, so I got her ready Wednesday evening. I had to make sure everything worked so there would be no surprises Thursday morning.

But, there were surprises. First, my back was giving me bad pain from the time I got up. Second, the bait had mysteriously disappeared from Kiesel's flat. The best I could do was one or two per throw. Third, the net that I had in the Maverick was a new net that was given to me by a customer as partial payment on a trip. Although it looked like a nice net, it was awful. It was giving me a hard time, and the combination of the net, tough bait, and my back killing me, was exasperating me.

We made several moves with the same results, so I finally picked up and headed to a flat off Captiva. There it didn't take long to get great bait chummed up, and in the well. But, I was in rough shape. I wasn't sure how I'd get through the rest of the day.

I decided to stay on the east side of the Sound and fish a combination of mangroves and oyster bars, just to give Brad and Ben a taste of something a bit different. We began our day at an island north of Regla where we found some snook action. Immediately, there was further exasperation. The trolling motor which had worked fine in the boatyard Wednesday afternoon, didn't want to work in forward. So, I got us around by turning the motor around backward and using reverse to propel us forward.

We fished our way northward throughout the morning and early afternoon. Seaweed was a much bigger problem on the east side, and made fishing very difficult. It's hard to catch anything when you can't keep your bait clean, and it was taking only a very short time for our baits to be covered with big wads of turtle grass. We kept at it, catching a fish here, and a fish there, and fishing some very beautiful spots that Brad and Ben surely seemed to appreciate. By the time we were ready to head in, the boys had boated 9 snook, 2 redfish, and 1 jack crevalle. It wasn't as good as we'd done the day before, but not bad considering the conditions, and the poor tide. Brad and Ben seemed very happy with the results, and had been patient with me and my condition. They had also observed a big difference in the Talon and the Maverick.

All in all it had been a great two days with a couple of the nicest folks you could ever want to meet. I was taken at how close Brad and Ben were, and how the interacted with each other and enjoyed each others' company. It was refreshing to see.

Friday was reserved for my old friend Bob Brockway, over from Parkland, Florida, for a week of vacation. Bob had been fishing all week from his Hewes, and doing very well fishing nothing but lures. We were supposed to spend the day in his Hewes, but Thursday he had problems with his trolling motor that he couldn't resolve. We decided to use the Talon. Bob just wanted to see some new spots and learn from me. We fished lures, which my back thanked him for, as did I. I love fishing artificial baits, and wish I could do it more often with my customers and friends.

Bob had been doing well with DOA shrimp and Exude shrimp in light colors. I was shocked, as my experience would have dictated dark colors in our badly tannin stained water. I opted to begin with a DOA TerrorEyez and a Crystal Flash.

We headed into Tarpon Bay, where I hoped to find some redfish, and perhaps a snook or two. But, the water just wasn't moving. I caught a small jack on the TerrorEyez. Then Bob nailed a snook on his DOA shrimp, and a little later a nice fat flounder. He also lost what we think was a redfish. The whole time we were in Tarpon Bay the water hardly moved at all.

From there we headed north to a beautiful spot in Ding Darling Sanctuary. It's good thing it was pretty, because the fish weren't having anything to do with us. I showed Bob around, and then we headed north into the Sound.

The first stop gave us a snook, which ate the dark DOA shrimp I was casting. Bob was surprised. We whittled away at it as we headed north catching a snook here, and a redfish there. All in all it was a very slow day on a very slow moving tide. The wind was also all over the place, somewhat frustrating our efforts.

Bob and I had been keeping a watchful eye on the sky, as we knew that hurricane Denies was just south of Cuba, and coming our way. It was supposed to influence our weather before the day was over. Finally, at about 2:30, watching dark clouds build rapidly on the southeastern horizon, we decided to head in, hoping we'd made it before the weather did. I ran my little cat a bit harder than I normally do, but I was more concerned about the weather erupting on us before we could get back to the ramp, than I was about fuel consumption. We were passing the few boats that we saw along the way, and the Talon really eats up the chop when you wick it up. I don't often do that when it's rough, as I know it scares folks that are not used to being in boats often, but Bob seemed to be quite enjoying the brisk ride.

As we rounded the manatee markers at Shell Island and headed toward the ramp, we saw the black cloud letting go of her rain right in our path. We were soaked by the heavy, stinging rain, but at least the cell wasn't making any lightning. By the time Bob and I got tied up at the dock, it was about over, but we were wet. But, it had been a blast to spend the day with Bob. He's always more fun than the law allows, and keeps me laughing. And, this day was no different.

As of this writing on Saturday afternoon, I can tell everyone that hurricane Dennis will pass about 100 miles to our west, giving us a lot of wind to around 50 MPH, and 5 to 10 inches of rain, if the weather folks get it right. Looks like we dodged a major bullet. But my heart goes out to those folks in the panhandle, who are watching Dennis approach, bringing with him tremendous destruction for the second time in less than a year.

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Butch Rickey
• Pine Island Sound Fishing Reports
• Southwest Florida (Cape Sable to Boca Grande) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports