Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
April 20, 2006
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 4/15/06 by Capt. Butch Rickey

For the most part, the week was a weather blow out! It started last Saturday with passage of a big front, and roared right on through Thursday with winds in the 20's gusting to right at 30! The brave few who reported fishing did well, but I think there's got to be a limit to what kind of wind you take your customers out in, especially if they're local and have the option of fishing another day. And, that was the case right through Tuesday. Wednesday was to be my one day off.

So, Thursday was the first day on the water. It was my first trip with Brian Christensen, and his twelve year old son, Matthew, of Peoria, Illinois. Brian had tried to book me a time or two in the past, and I had referred him to my good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez a couple of years ago. It was a February trip, and he said that had a blast catching winter trout on artificials.

It was still howling, although the gusts were down to a gentle 26 MPH. We had a descent tide on the charts, but the wind was from the northeast, and it never let the tide come with any strength. It's just amazing how the wind can move water around. It was also the full moon. And, if there's a good tide on those bright nights around the full moon, it can be the kiss of death of fishing the next day. If I or Brian had had the option of another day, I would have tried to reschedule him out of the wind, but we didn't.

I had used the days off to get the fleet back into top condition. I bought a new MinnKota 80 pound thrust motor, and had it installed on the Talon on one of their new quick release mounts. Much better design that the previous one, which was the only thing that made noise on the Talon in rough water. The Trolling Thunder batteries that had been powering the old 74 pound Minn Kota were very tired, so I had Danny replace them with a similar battery which is the same size and technology, but very expensive. The old 74 motor went to the Maverick, along with a quick release. I also had Danny replace my console lights and baitwell light. Boy, was it nice to be able to see what and how much I was putting in my baitwell out there in the dark of the morning. Looks like we'll be catching bait on the causeway barges indefinitely, so it seemed a good repair to make.

I met Brian and Matthew at 7:30, loaded with shiners and threadfins, and ready to challenge the wind and tide. I knew we were going to struggle. I managed to keep everyone dry while making the crossing across to St. James City, with the wind coming over the starboard side, by pushing the port side down with the trim tab and running just fast enough to leave any spray we raised behind us.

As we glided into the first hole I could see snook scattering in every direction. The water had gotten very clear over the few days that I was off. We have been incredibly dry here, and the lack of rain has allowed the water to become gin clear in most areas. It's beautiful to look at, but it makes the fish that much harder to catch. There's an old saying that says you can't catch a snook that you can see, or a snook that can see you. And, with the exception of sightfishing snook on the beaches in the early morning hours, I have found it to be very true.

We were on the last gasp of the falling tide, and had about a half hour or so until the tide would turn around and be coming in. Well, on paper, anyway. The wind held the tide up, and it never did really kick the way it should have. And, although we could hardly get a fish to bite, Brian and Matthew were treated to the sight of hundreds, if not thousands of snook swimming all around us. The shocking thing is that some of them were 4 to 5 feet long! They were absolutely huge females, and there were lots of them; cruising back and forth, and not sure what to make of our presence. One thing is for sure; they were giving us the fin!

There were snook in that hole that made a 28 inch snook look like a minnow! And, the thought of catching one of those fish kept us there longer than we should have stayed. They were lockjawed! Oh, we had a lot of baits scaled, as only a snook can do, and not even yours truly trained professional can feel it happening when they're doing that. But, they sign that bait just to let you know they were there! It's one of the most frustrating things in our world of fishing. Matthew did manage to catch a nice flounder there, though.

Wanting to put the boys on something that would bite, and remembering what fun they'd had fishing for trout with Rey, I decided it was time to see if we could find some trout that would bite. I knew where they were, for sure. But would they eat. We ran about a mile, and settled on a large hole that is always full of trout when the water is low. I've also had some good snook days there.

After anchoring I chummed the hole with two or three bats full of bait. It took a couple of minutes, but suddenly the fish turned on, and we had a good trout bite. Matt and Brian caught them about as fast as they could for probably a couple of hours. It was a good time. But, all bites come to an end, and once ours was over, and it was time to move on.

I really wanted to put the guys on some snook, and perhaps some reds, so that was our new game plan. I really didn't expect much in the way of action considering how the fish had acted earlier, and that we had quite a few baits scaled in our trout hole.

We would be in shallow, clear water. The fish would not tolerate us getting close enough to throw our small baits. I knew the area was crawling with snook, including lots of big ones. We would use weighted popping corks to get our distance, with the aid of the "breeze" we had blowing.

We fished the area hard, knowing we were on fish. And, we managed perhaps 6 or 7 snook, and huge trout of 4.5 pounds, and had a red follow Matthew right to the boat. But, he managed to get the bait away from the red before he could eat it, and when it realized how close to the boat it had gotten, it scooted off in a panic. We had missed the Slam, but we had managed to make the best of a tough day and have a great time. And, all our fish had lived to fight another day.

Back at the dock Brian thanked me for taking them out under tough conditions, and assured me that they'd had a blast and would be back. From Matthew's comments, I think he had more fun on the ride out and the ride back to the dock in the rough water than he did fishing. The way the Talon hops across the rough water is uncanny, and for a youngster, as good or better than any Disney ride.

Although I was body and mind weary even after few days off, Friday was a day I had been long looking forward to. My old friend Alan Warren was coming down to fish, and it would be the first time that I would meet his young sons, Trevor and Brian. Alan's life has been upside-down for the last year or so, and he's hardly been on the water at all. His emotions have been stretched to their limits, and he really needed some time away from the situation in Tampa, and with his boys.

Back when we booked the trip months ago, we all thought we were going to have typical great spring conditions. We had a good tide, and expected good weather in the middle of April. But, Mother Nature has been busy throwing us curve balls. We've had two awful hurricane seasons back to back. We've had a serious problem with the fresh water intrusion from the dumping from the Big O. We've had red tides and rumors of red tides, and the accompanying fish kills. Unless my memory is not serving me well, we normally have the grass grown back in on the places where it typically dies off during the winter. Places like Picnic Island, Tarpon Bay, and areas as far north as Buck Key, have very little grass growing in the shallows. What we do have in most of these areas is this large, leafy green stuff that I call sea lettuce, for lack of a better description. I'm used to seeing it in areas like Sarasota Bay, but not here. Well, at least the wind was down some.

I was on the water before five o'clock Friday morning. I went to the B span of the causeway on the advice of Steve Waugh. Although the first three throws came up empty, once I moved to the inside of one of the barges, I caught plenty of bait in short order, and was back at the dock by 6:30. I had an hour to wait on Alan and the boys. It was OK, as it gave me a chance to socialize with some of the guides at the dock.

Alan, Trevor, Brian, and I pulled away from the dock right on schedule, and as we rode along I found myself debating whether I should go to someplace I hadn't been in a while, or go to where I knew there were tons of snook. The lure of those big snook won the day, and I returned to where I had been the day before. And, as we made our approach we were again treated to the sight of hundreds of snook milling around in the hole.

But, their attitude hadn't changed a bit, and they were still lockjawed. Alan and the boys did get to see probably more snook than they'd ever seen in one place, and did get to see one of those huge females. Again, the hole gave up a couple of flounder and lots of scaled baits.

Trout fishing with the boys was again looking like a good option to get some fish into the boat, so we returned to the scene where we'd caught so many the day before. They fish were there, for sure. It hadn't taken much to get them going the day before. But on this day, even the trout were cantankerous. They just didn't want to play. I chummed and chummed them, and got some fish to eat, but they just weren't that interested. We only managed 16 to 18 fish, I'd guess.

We moved on way north into the Sound in search of snook and redfish. By now there were boats everywhere. After all, it was Good Friday! A boat doesn't have to be sitting where you want to fish to spoil your plans. If a boat is on a flat in close enough proximity to where you want to fish, etiquette dictates that you not go on that flat unless you're invited.

Finally, I found a favorite place of mine up in that area, and we settled in. It was still blowing pretty good, and the wind was changing. It kept bouncing around, making it hard to stay on our target area. We worked the area over well, and missed the first three good hits, finally landing a snook and a nice redfish. That did at least give us the Slam. But, action was hard to come by. It had taken a lot of chumming and patience to catch those fish, although we knew we had plenty of fish present.

At the last stop of the day we managed to bag one more snook and a couple of those big speckled trout that went 4.5 pounds. The boys had plenty of fish to take home for dinner, and for Gramma. It had been a hard day full of fish that didn't want to eat. We'd made it work and had a good time, though, and hopefully, it was the therapy that Alan needed. We've become close over the years we've been fishing together, and we had a long and emotional good-bye.

And, that's how a busy week can turn into a slow week. Just add a big wind and stir. Next week, we'll probably have just the opposite scenario; poor, poor tide, and light winds. Oh, well! Fishing guides are never happy with the conditions!

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