Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
October 19, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 10/15/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I had two trips on the books for this week, but only ran one. It was a tough one!

I met my old friend "Texas Wader" Ron Hunter, on Thursday morning. Ron brought along his girlfriend Pat, and his son Ron. The trip was actually a present for Ron's upcoming birthday. We had a very high tide that was just a few days before the full moon, but the tide would only move about .8 ft. over six hours! That's poor tide for fishing as a rule, especially for ambush feeders like snook. But, often foragers like redfish will feed on those slow tides. That was my hope this day.

Bait has been an issue here since the red tide came. Every guide I talked to told me bait was impossible to come by. Based upon that information, I decided to chum my way north, and hope to find bait. It was a good plan, but it didn't work. We got pinfish, but no shiners. Finally, I went back to the hole where John Hitt and I had found small shiners and threadfins, and after some ado, had enough small threadfins to fish with.

Finally, it was time to fish. I had already decided to target redfish on the poor tide, and set about doing that. But, the fish had other ideas. We fished hard with both pinfish and threadfins, and there wasn't much doing. We caught a few trout, and Ron hammered the catfish, but it was slow. Finally, we found some reds and snook. Ronnie got a nice snook just short of the 26 inch slot limit, and the gang got maybe 5 redfish, and another snook before the tide ran out of steam, all together. Of course, there were several other snook that were missed or got away.

It was a tough day, but a fun day because I had great folks in the boat. Ronnie had a great time, and was thrilled with the fish he caught, and that was the main goal. And, we had a couple of nice keeper reds and some trout for dinner.

I was to fish with my long-time friends Rod and Judy Heflin on Friday. But, knowing the tide would be very nearly the same, and that the bait situation was very tough, I called Rod to let him know. We had already canceled this trip a time or two because of weather, but I suggested that Rod might want to cancel again, in favor of better conditions. After all, he lives right on a canal in St. James City, and can go any time. Rod and Judy thought it over, and decided that was a good plan.

Since we weren't going to fish, Rod invited me to come out and visit. That was a grand idea, and the Maverick needed some exercise, so Friday morning late, I put her into the water and took off for Rod's place. We spent a great afternoon talking, playing on the computer, and enjoying some libations, and capped it all off with dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant. I headed home and got the Maverick hosed down just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. What a great day!

This report is late because I was out of town for several days and not able to get to it. We now know that we have a very real and present danger of hurricane Wilma making landfall somewhere in southwest Florida on Saturday afternoon. It's almost surreal to think about. We haven't recovered from the devastation of the hurricanes of 2004, lead by Charley. We've watched Katrina and Rita nearly miss us on their way to destroying the gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The devastation there has further diluted already overtaxed resources like tradesmen, contractors, roofers, laborers, and all kinds of building materials. I drove through Punta Gorda over the weekend on the way to Sarasota. There are still FEMA trailer towns along the interstate, home to thousands of folks who lost everything, and everywhere you look there are homes still awaiting roofs and other repairs.

I ask that you folks who love to come to Florida to vacation and fish, pray for us. I don't mean to sound negative, but with all the hits to our local economy over the last year, another direct hit could be the final nail in the coffin of our small guide/fishing industry. We stand to loose some fine fishing guides, forever.

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