Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
April 9, 2006
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 4/8/06 by Capt. Butch Rickey

With seven days scheduled, it was a long week, even with Saturday lost to weather! It was a great week of fishing, but a tough week of catching for two reasons. First, the tides were terrible all week long, with those long, slow 15 hour crawlers being the norm. Second, the abundance of bait. This is just my theory, but it’s founded in many years of experience fishing the flats. We’ve had a bait hatch the likes of which I’ve never seen! Although we are still catching bait at the causeway, there are billions of glass minnows, threadfin herring, and probably shiners, everywhere you go. So, my theory is that with so much bait in the water, there’s really not much reason for the fish to look at what we’re offering with a hook in it. All they have to do right now literally, is gulp in place. So, although the catching was slow, my customers did catch a lot of quality snook and big trout, with plenty of keepers in both species.

Sunday, yes I said Sunday! My customer was Lee Garrett and his son Matt, of Indianapolis, Indiana. I told Lee after we met that morning that if I’d had any idea when he booked his trip back in October, what a mess we’d have with our ramp, we wouldn’t be standing there having that conversation. But, we were, and were determined to make the best of it. I had been on the water hours before the sun was up catching bait at the first span of the causeway, and was cleaned up and ready to go.

We had a tide that was sitting absolutely flat for the first several hours of our day! That would make things tough, if not impossible. The key would be to find some water moving even a little bit, and I had the place in mind. Once we got there we could see that the water was just barely crawling. We did manage several snook before moving on.

I decided to turn my attention to trout, just for the sake of trying to generate some action. I went to a long, narrow hole that always has plenty of trout in it, so it’s just a matter of getting them to bite. With some chumming and patience, we did. It wasn’t a hot bite, but good enough for us to have some fun catching trout, and we caught a few.

Once the tide began to move to the incoming, I headed on up into the Sound once again in search for snook. We fished a small key that gets good water flow around it, and did manage a few nice. But, we were one redfish away from the boys having their Slam, so we opted to turn our attention to reds.

It’s been hard to get any kind of big redfish bite going so far this spring, but once we were set up and putting some chum in the water, we did managed to get a bite going, and put 7 redfish in the boat before we were done. That completed the Slam, and what for most folks would be a pretty good day of fishing.

The biggest surprise of the day was that back at the ramp, we seemed to miss the big parking lot mess at the ramp. That was mainly due to the fact that Lee volunteered to get in a little early in hopes that we could avoid the mess.

My Monday trip was my first with Martin Smith, of Churubusco, Indiana. Martin had first contacted me about fishing two years ago, and we were finally go to get to fish together. Little did we know as we left the dock it would be a great day!

I had the well full of bait. Enough in fact for a couple of days of fishing. I headed into a beautiful area of Ding Darling Sanctuary in an effort to find some moving water on the awful morning tide we were facing. I hoped to find snook and trout that would be willing to eat.

And, we did. Trout, anyway. I put several bats of chum out, and it wasn’t long before we had fish crashing the baits. They turned out to be trout, but boy they were beautiful trout, some of which were over 4 pounds! The snook weren’t biting, but my God, the no-seeums sure were! It was too much to bear, so when the trout bite tapered off, we were out of there.

After many days of windy conditions, the wind was finally down. In fact, it was glass slick, and as we made our way up the east side of the Sound we were treated to the sight of a huge tarpon free-jumping a couple hundred yards in front of us. I slammed on the brakes and shut down the Yamaha. “What was that?” Marty inquired. Excited, I explained that it was a huge tarpon, and that there may be plenty more. The poons usually show in that area about this time every year. We sat for a few minutes, and as the fish settled down they began to roll and jump. They were everywhere in pods, and we saw several more free-jump! We HAD to try to hook at least one, even though the only gear we had in the boat were small Stellas. Marty had never hooked anything like that, and most of the fun is in jumping the fish a time or three, anyway. So, I drew out a Stella 3000FB, which is exactly the same reel as the 2500FB, except that it has a larger line capacity and the handle knob is larger. I dug out a big shiner, and knew that I had maybe a dozen of the outsized baits in with the hundreds of smaller ones.

I jockeyed the boat around and up the very slight breeze, and drifted back into the middle of the fish. Once we had a pod surface within casting distance, I put the big bait right in front of their direction of travel and gave the rod to Marty. Within a second or two, BOOM! And, like a Polaris missile the huge Silver King launched skyward as if trying to achieve orbit. What a sight. But, gravity got to her, and pulled her back to the water with a tremendous splash. But, she wasn’t done with her missile act, and again rocketed skyward. Again, she was pulled back with a tremendous splash, and as she did, she turned on her afterburners! The small Stella began screaming from the drag as if she were in pain, creating some of the most beautiful music there is to a fisherman’s ears. Suddenly, the line went limp. She had escaped. We assumed she had broken off. But once the line was retrieved we saw that she had broken the 1/0 circle hook! Yes, a 1/0 circle hook had firmly hooked that huge fish with a mouth of solid bone.

At that point I’m pretty sure Marty was shaking! He had never experienced anything so violent or beautiful at the end of a fishing rod, especially one so light. Once Marty had his composure, I asked him if he wanted to try, again. Of course, his answer was a resounding, “Yes!” Quickly, I tied a 3/0 circle hook on to the same Stella rig and dug out another big shiner. We were still with fish rolling all around us, and it only took a few seconds in the water to get eaten by a second tarpon. Marty and I could see the line begin running off to the right, and I urged him to wait until the fish swam into the rod to set the hook. I knew if he struck before then he would miss the fish.

In seconds the line came tight and all hell broke loose. The big fish, easily over 6 feet long, blasted skyward, and the fireworks had begun, again. Reel screaming wildly against the violent acceleration and speed of such a fish, she jumped a second time. She was hooked, and was now stripping line from the small reel at an unbelievable rate. I was right on the trolling motor, but it wasn’t capable of that much speed. Line was fast disappearing. I lit the Yamaha, and tried to get the boat moving without throwing Marty down. He kept his feet, and began getting some line back on the reel. Once we had about half back, I shut down the boat, and began to teach Marty had to put extreme pressure on a big fish with light gear. I knew that if I could get Marty to put enough pressure on the fish she would jump again. And, this time I would be there with camera waiting on that one good shot.

I kept coaching and kept coaching Marty on what to do, and he executed flawlessly. And, then it came! Airborne without a parachute! And, I got that one picture I wanted. I kept coaching Marty on how to pressure the fish and get it to the boat, and before long she was right there. I got a couple of shots in the water, and had no intention of trying to boat the fish, as it’s very bad for the fish. But, as we got her to us and were about ready to work on releasing her, the leader parted. It was only 40 pound flouro!

We sat there, celebrating! Marty was ecstatic and in shock all at the same time. He was in total disbelieve at what I had taught him; that it was possible to put so much pressure on such a big fish with a rod and reel that weighed only 10 oz. But, he had done it, and seen for himself that it was indeed, possible. It was a lesson I think he will never forget.

As we regained our composure, I realized that we were only a snook and a redfish away from a Grand Slam; a snook, trout, redfish, and tarpon in the same trip. We HAD to get the Grand Slam! So, without further ado, we were off in pursuit of a snook. The first stop at a small mangrove key gave us our snook, and we quickly agreed to immediately turn our attention to catching a redfish.

But, the bronze torpedoes of the flats eluded us. We couldn’t catch a redfish to save our necks! All we could catch was more snook and outsized trout. Oh, darn! We had a blast the whole day, and near the end of the day Marty had his redfish on. But, it wasn’t to be. The fish got away. But, the bait was still attached, and it had definitely been signed by Mr. Redfish! We had failed to get the Slam, but Marty kept talking about what a great day it had been. So, we weren’t crying over spilled milk. It had indeed been a day to remember forever.

Tuesday’s trip, my first with Bill Erne, and his beautiful wife Laura, of Glen Allen, Virginia, was tarpon-less, but every bit as good a day. And, Bill and Laura did get their West Coat Slam. The tide was just as awful as the two previous days, but I had a well full of bait, and hoped that I could chum some fish into submission!

At our first stop we got on big trout to 4 pounds, again, and a gag grouper. No snook. Plenty of noseeums! What discernible water movement we had was soon over, and so was our big trout bite. We moved on. The next stop gave us a couple of nice snook, but not an extended bite, so once again we were on the move.

I decided to do some pothole fishing while the tide was still fairly low and hardly moving. It proved to be the charm. We caught some nice snook in the potholes, including about half a dozen keepers! Once we were sure that was over, and it appeared that the tide was beginning to move a little better, we switched gears and went looking for redfish. Instead, we caught more snook and big trout. I love those big spring trout. They’ll go from 3 to sometimes 6 pounds, and are full of row, waiting to move to the beaches and spawn. Finally, before our day was done, we did catch a redfish, giving Bill and Laura the Slam.

It hadn’t been an easy day, but it had been a good one, and Bill’s sense of humor kept me chuckling most of the day. Funny guy! We closed out the day at the Waterfront Restaurant, with their usual great lunch.

Wednesday was another tough, but good day with great folks. It was the first BarHopp’R trip for Dan and Judy Quenzel, of Oak Lawn, Illinois. Dan had called in to the Capt. Mel Show while I was host, and it was cool to talk to someone before I had fished with him. The tides had been getting worse every day, and I knew that I’d been lucky to catch what we had so far during the week. My gut told me we would struggle for the rest of the week. The tides were just almost non-existent. We were baited up and ready to give it our best shot, though.

One thing I had done the day before is find an area that was loaded with snook, big trout, and some redfish. I knew that on such a do-nothing tide, the best plan would be to fish an area where there were plenty of fish, and fish it hard. I had several such areas in the plan.

The first stop, was the best stop of the day. Right out of the box Judy put a 27 inch snook in the boat! Dan followed with some snook of his own, but not quite as big. They both caught some dandy trout, a ladyfish or two, and a flounder. But, Boy! Did it get tough after that?!

I returned to the potholes where we had scored some great snook the day before. The place was lousy with snook, including many big fish. But, the dead tide was just too much for them, and they were lockjawed. We worked all the holes in the area, and got only one snook to eat. We even had a huge snook that must have weighed 25 to 30 pounds swim up out of the hole right in front of us. She was so dark she looked black, and had I not known it was a snook, I would probably have thought is was a tarpon because of it’s size.

We finally moved on after exhausting every trick to get those snook to eat. But, the catching was over. We couldn’t draw another strike, and I knew it would likely stay that way. So, it was Waterfront time! Dan and Judy were great folks. I had suggested that they come to the fishcamp over the weekend so that I could prepare a snook dinner for them. They said they’d like to do that. I have to apologize to them for not getting back to them. My schedule has been so busy that I have had no time to do anything but run my trips, deal with several hundred emails each day, and then deal with computer problems. I hope we can get together next time they’re down, and I’ll cook them the best fish they’ve ever eaten.

Thursday was yet another good, but very tough day with a new customer. My customer was Jay Schwartzman, of Bainbridge Island, Washington. Interestingly, he had grown up back in the old days in Miami. He’s a few years older than I, so you can imagine the changes he’s seen.

The tides had reached the point by now of being double-horrible; sixteen hours from start to finish! I feared we could be skunked! We had plenty of bait, and I had a customer who hadn’t fished Florida in decades, but I knew there was a fisherman living inside Jay. And, it was cool that as we fished he told me great stories of how they fished and some of the crazy things they did in Miami fishing as kids. He said that he and a buddy were using shiners for bait back then, and always caught lots of fish. Well! They were decades ahead of the curve, as shiner fishing is thought to have been invented in the last 25 years, or so. We certainly didn’t use them, and I don’t think had even discovered them here back when I was a kid. We fished mostly pinfish and mutton minnows when we livebait fished, but used mostly lures. The best story was of how Jay and his friend would fish for rats in the rocks when the fish weren’t biting! Too funny! I forgot to ask Jay if he’d ever had to take the rabies series of shots.

Well, anyway! The day went much better than I had anticipated it would. At the first stop Jay hooked the snook of a lifetime right off the bat! That fish spanked that poor shiner and took off almost as hard as that tarpon had a few days earlier. In a heartbeat it had stripped 50 yards of line and had reached the mangroves. I knew the fish was probably lost.

I always hope that the big snook of the day won’t come on the first fish. It’s not fair to the customer. They have so much speed and power, that it’s almost imperative to have some smaller snook to learn on and practice with before tangling with a big one. Jay hadn’t had that chance.

Realizing that the fish had not cut itself free yet, and Jay realizing he had no idea how to manhandle that fish, he passed me the rod. I plunged the rod into the water as far as I could go, and pumped and reeled as hard as I could go, locking the spool each time I pumped. Soon, the fish was 30 feet away from the mangroves. For a fleeting moment, I thought we might actually have a fighting chance of landing her, but there was a long way to go to the boat, and she still had plenty left. And, I knew she had eyes on the other shoreline that was nearby. I also knew that if she reached it there would be no way to get her away from it, because we were on that shoreline. So, I kept extreme pressure on the fish, hoping I could get her to a point that it would be safe to turn her back over to Jay.

99% of the time the circle hook does its job, and lands right in the bony corner or lip. That’s a great thing because it means you’re not on the leader, which won’t last long when it’s rubbing back and forth on the raspy lip of a big snook. Most of the surrounding tissue of a snook’s mouth is very delicate tissue, similar to that of a trout’s mouth. What often happens is that when the fish comes tight, the tissue tears, leaving a long hole in the tissue. At that point, the fish is not hooked, but rather lassoed with the hook. The most common escape then is for the snook to jump and shake its head, thereby throwing the hook. But, on this fish the tissue just didn’t hold. Big snook rarely jump, although they try. The pressure I put on the fish was absolutely necessary in order to have a chance at landing her. Her mouth simply couldn’t handle the pressure.

Jay was shocked at the power and speed of that fish. And, he was equally shocked at the pressure he had watched me put on that fish! He had never tangled with anything with that much horsepower on such light gear. He knew we had lost the snook of a lifetime. I knew that I had found seven snook over 35 pounds laying dead in that hole years ago after a hard freeze during a really cold winter. Snook like that rarely ever see the boat because in environments like that, they quickly overwhelm their opponent anglers and are free to fight another day.

Fortunately, Jay landed many big trout and several snook at that first stop, making the loss of a trophy snook a bit easier to accept. But, I know he will never forget that brief encounter with Grandma Snook! Who could?

We moved on, and as we were running we stumbled upon a big ladyfish feed. I asked Jay if he wanted to stop and catch a lady or two, and he seemed indignant that I would suggest such a thing to a Florida native until I told him they were excellent redfish bait. We quickly had one of the biggest ladyfish in the well that I’ve seen in recent years. It was quite a strong and acrobatic fighter. They don’t call them Poorman’s Tarpon for nothing.

We pressed on. It was time to revisit the holes that were so full of snook. We worked them hard, chumming like crazy trying to shame them into eating. But, it was to no avail. Jay got one snook for our efforts.

Once we had exhausted the holes, we turned our attention to redfish. Upon arriving on the flat, I quickly spotted several small schools of redfish moving around near us. We also had a large blacktip shark that was working on them. Worse, the water was gin clear. It would be tough to get them to eat.

But, we stayed with it, and kept working them. We tossed countless baits right into the middle of the schools, and they’d part and swim right by them. Talk about frustrating. Finally, I decided to just anchor and try to chum a stupid redfish or two into eating. We used shiners under popping corks, and steaked ladyfish. I figured even slack tide redfish wouldn’t be able to resist the ladyfish steaks. But, the did. Eventually, though, our patience was rewarded, and Jay brought two redfish to the boat, both on shiners. That gave him two Slams for the day. Slams in hand, we headed home.

It was Friday. Normally, the last workday of the week for me. But, I was booked right on through next week! My body was screaming at me from the early get-ups, throwing the castnet 20 to 30 times every morning in the darkness, and the late nights of sleep deprivation trying to catch up with computer work. Sitting here now writing this report, I’m not sure I was fit to be around by then. I still ache all over.

But, down the dock walked the lovely Tina Luick, and her sixteen year old son Dale, who I first fished with last year. We’d had a good trip, and they caught lots of fish. Tina confessed they had actually misjudged, and kept more fish than she should have. She only wanted to keep a fish or two this time.

It was good to see her, and I was amazed at how much Dale had grown in a year. It’s a neat thing in this business that I’ve watched a whole generation of my customers kids grow up. I warned Tina that things would likely be very tough this time around, because we were fishing the worst of the worst tides. And, we had a big south wind feeding an approaching cold front that would make conditions tough! My hope of hopes was that the front would turn the fish on, but that never happened.

At the first stop we had the best, and nearly only action of the day! Dale quickly hooked and landed a nice 29 inch snook. We had already caught some nice trout, and had one in the well, and Tina and Dale were willing to let her swim free to fight another day. I was glad of that. Dale wound up with 4 snook, and Tina with 1, before moving on.

I knew the fact that the bite was over at the first stop signaled the end of the catching for the day. The tide was absolutely flat from there, on out. The big wind was causing line problems, and even after Tina and Dale were doing all the right defensive moves to avoid the problems in the wind, one reel was still having problems even after I changed the line. I was working hard trying to make something happen for Tina and Dale, and was exasperated that the wind and tide had conspired against us with such success. My apology to Tina if I seemed a bit on edge by the end of the day. It was one hard day, and at the ramp I again gave Dale hi-fives for doing a great job of landing his 29 inch snook. He had not forgotten his lessons of last year!

Beaten as I was at this point, I was looking forward to Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with my old friend John Hitt. I’ve certainly grown to love him over the years, and love fishing with him. He’s a very special person to me. But, checking the weather reports Friday night, I knew that at least Saturday was in jeopardy. The forecast was for winds gusting to 28 MPH! That’s just too much wind to have a good day of fishing, and is hard on anglers and boats alike. I called John, and after talking it over we mutually came to the proper conclusion; we would stay home. John had been working a grueling schedule, as well, so in truth, it was a much needed day of rest for the both of us.

We did get together Saturday, though. I had serviced three of his Shimano Sustains, and repaired a Shimano Calais, and he was eager to have his toys back. So, I dropped by with them and we got to visit for a while. We both knew at that point that Sunday might well be a nasty day, as the forecast was for rain and thunderstorms, as well as winds to 20 MPH. Well, at least we could play with our fishing toys!

It was a long, slow week, and I’m whipped. My thanks to each and every one of my customers for their patience with the poor tide situation. I think everyone did admirably well in the face of the conditions we were presented.

Tight Lines!

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