Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
September 6, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 9/3/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Back to work last week after being off for most of August. The heat, slow fishing, red tides, and the near passing of hurricane Katrina all combined to make it a good month to be away from the water. The south winds we got with Katrina blew the red tide out for a short while, but by late in the week it was back with a vengeance.

My first day back on the water was Tuesday. It was my first outing with Bill Null and his friend Sammy, from right here in Ft. Myers. Sammy, like myself, is a Florida native who grew up right here. Frankly, after not being on the water in three weeks, I didn't know quite what to expect with bait or the fishing. But, Bill and Sammy were willing to be guinea pigs, saying that a slow day on the water beats a great day in the office. How true!

We met at 7 AM, and headed up to Chino Island to see about bait. We caught tons of pinfish, but no shiners. We moved on to the flats north of Flamingo Cut, where we found enough shiners to round out our bait situation. I had told Bill that our tide was a slow crawling, but very high tide, and that I thought our best bet would be to chase redfish, which aren't as sensitive to slow tidal movement as snook are. So, that was our plan.

I headed to or chose flats to begin our hunt for redfish. It took a few minutes to find them, but once we did, we were in the fish! Bill and Sammy had a blast catching redfish from as small as 22 inches to as large as 29 inches. By the time the fish slowed down we had a good 24 redfish and 8 or 9 snook in the boat. It had been a great morning of fishing, and both Bill and Sammy told me that was the most saltwater fish they'd ever caught in one outing! That made my day.

With the tide only marginally better than the day before, I had hopes that I could duplicate Tuesday's success with Bill and Sammy, for my good friend Dr. Ron Kolata. Ron was in town from Cincinnati, for some much needed piscatorial therapy.

We headed straight to the Flamingo flats where bait had been great the day before, only to find the bait had all but disappeared. With a lot of work we finally gathered enough bait for our morning of fishing, but we certainly weren't overloaded, by any means.

I headed back to the scene of our previous day's success, knowing full well the redfish would be right there. They are, after all, creatures of habit. Well, the redfish were there, all right, but they had different ideas about eating. I didn't realize until the next day, the cause may have been the red tide moving back into the Sound. Ron and I fished hard, and managed 8 redfish and 2 snook, but certainly didn't equal the success of the previous day. But, a good guide friend of mine was quick to remind me that night, "There's nothing wrong with 8 redfish, Butchie!"

Ron and I finished our day at the Waterfront Restaurant, with a great lunch. They have a new menu item now, soft-shell crabs, and boy are they good!

With the passing of each day the fishing got tougher. Katrina had now exited up into the northeast and left behind bluebird skies and high pressure. We would soon learn the red tide was back. The tide was the best of the week, to that point. I was to fish for the first time Thursday and Friday with Mike Stock, of Atlanta, Georgia. He brought along a friend, and long time customer of mine, Bill Myer, who has just moved down permanently from New York. In fact, Bill had recommended me to Mike.

We met Thursday morning at 7 AM, and headed straight up to Flamingo for bait. But, I stayed to the south of the channel this time, and the bait was plentiful. We were loaded up in just a few throws of the net. With bait being easy, I was hopeful that would be a harbinger of the fishing to come. But, as we made our approach to the first flat we would fish, I opened the baitwell only to find my bait spinning and going crazy in the well. It was dying, and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it other than turn on the auxiliary aerator and hope for the best. I knew the cause was that the red tide was back in our waters.

We chummed and fished, and chummed and fished our way across some of the most fertile redfish flats in the Sound, and caught one redfish. We turned our attention to snook, and didn't have a look. There was an eerie absence of mullet jumping and other activity we normally see on the flats. After trying several spots, I opted to cross the Sound in search of better water. Problem is, we have no way of knowing what is better water. We fished several more very nice spots without so much as a bite, and saw many dead fish floating. In fact, I ran through a flotilla of floating corpses in the area of McKeever Keys, and the stench was awful, even at 40 MPH.

I was frustrated. Here I was with a fellow who has fished all over the world, and caught nearly everything that swims, by his account, and I can't get anything to eat. And, I've got the man who recommended me to him in the boat!! Finally, with the clock running out on the fishing I decided to head back toward the mouth of the river, hoping to find some cleaner water. But, that was a double edged sword, too, as we had already been told that pulse dumping of all Katrina's rainwater from Lake Ocheechobee, had begun. That means big-time freshwater intrusion into our estuary, which brings its own set of problems.

We finally found a few fish that would eat. Mike and Bill caught a couple of mangrove snapper, including one of the biggest I've ever seen caught on the flats, and half dozen or so very nice specked trout. But, no snook. I would have stayed out longer trying to make something happen, but Bill had things to do that afternoon. Besides, Mike reminded me, we still had tomorrow.

That night, just before ten o'clock, Mike called me and canceled our Friday trip. He assured me that he'd had a good time and learned a lot in spite of the slow fishing, and that he had no issues. He said that we would fish together, again, and that he would refer me to others. Yet, he didn't want to fish, and further insinuated that I should refund his Friday deposit! Well, Mike! As a friend and customer of mine who guides on the Great Lakes once told me, "Butchie, you're a fishing guide, not a fishing God!" No, my friends, Mike and I will not fish again. He canceled a trip without giving me a valid reason and with no regard to my business or his obligation. I have no control over the circumstances and conditions that Mother Nature throws at us day to day.

So, after having an unexpected Friday off, Ron Kolata and I were at it, again. Ron is one of my favorite fishing buddies, and he and his wife Pat have been great friends over the years. We now had a new problem; fuel shortages. Virtually, all but a very few scattered gas stations were out of gas, and had their pumps covered up. I had used my small reserve for my generator to refill the Talon. Rumors were that we would not have fuel delivered to our area again for some nine or ten days! With that in mind, I decided that it would be prudent to stay closer to home and avoid the usual long runs that we normally make into the Sound, and to fish with artificials. I suggested to Ron that we fish in the mouth of the river, Matlacha Pass, and places closer to the ramp to conserve fuel. Ron was fine with that.

So, we headed up the river Saturday morning intent on beginning the day with catching ladyfish near Shell Island, as I used to do before all the manatee zones. I had brought along a heavy rig that we could use to fish for grouper or large snook with the live ladyfish, if we choose to. But, the ladyfish were nowhere to be found. Nor were the trout, or anything else for that matter. We fished all around the mouth of the river without so much as a fish.

Oh, we found big river jacks blasting live baits first thing. I had Ron throwing the old standby DOA TerrorEyez, and I was throwing a High-Roller topwater plug, sent to me by owner Dan Stock, who is the brother of Mike Stock from Thursday. We hit the feeding jacks on the head time after time with those lures, and the closest we came to catching one was drawing a blow on the High-Roller. They just wouldn't eat our offerings.

Eventually, we moved into the southern end of Matlacha Pass in the Swordfish Point area, and worked it hard with our lures. We threw everything we had in our arsenal, and Ron finally caught a snook on a silver Tony Acetta spoon, and I caught a mangrove snapper on a gold Johnson Silver minnow. Eventually, we gave up on targeting snook, and went after trout in Matlacha. We never got a strike. We ended the day fishing mangroves keys in the Miserable Mile area, without so much as a hit. It was one tough day.

But, you know what? We had fun. And, as Ron said, we hadn't gotten skunked, and he had fun practicing his casting to the mangroves. And, folks! He made some great casts that were just ignored. Ron said, "That's fishing, Butchie. Sometimes you catch 'em, sometimes you don't!" Well, at least we were able to find gas that afternoon on the way home. Perhaps our gas crisis will be short-lived.

With all that's going on I won't make any conjecture about the fishing next week. You'll just have to stay tuned!

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