Cold Fronts and Juggled Schedules!
Capt. Butch Rickey
June 8, 2012
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week ending 4/28/12..........
It was yet another week of four trips booked, juggled schedules, and only two trip run, thanks again to the weather.
I was to fish with Phil Cox, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, on Monday, but frontal weather and winds forced us to try to reschedule. My long time friend Jim Turman, who I'd fished with last week, was scheduled for a second trip on Tuesday. I wanted to try to get everyone who was scheduled to fish, out to fish if possible. Jim is as sweet a guy as there is, and I had a feeling he would be willing to let his second day go so that someone who hadn't had a chance to fish could do so. I called him and ran it by him, and he was very gracious and gave up his day so that Phil could fish Tuesday.
So, I met Phil and the Circle K Tuesday morning, and we were off to Sanibel to try to beat the odds. Althougth the chance of storms was behind us, it was obvious it was going to blow like hell for our trip. And, it blew hard enough to hold up the incoming tide. And, it made for a very hard bite!
We fished some potholes early on the tide, and managed a handful of trout to keep us occupied while waiting on the water. As the water moved higher we moved with it, and got on a redfish bite. It wasn't a big bite, but we managed to catch 10 reds and a snook there before it came to a stop. And, once it did we moved to another area in hopes of finding some late eaters, and did catch 2 more redfish.
That was our catch for the day. Not bad for such a windy day behind a front. We had fun, and that's all that matters.
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Wednesday, I was to fish with my life-long friend, Ellen Hennigan, whom I'd already rescheduled once before because of weather. Ellen and I go back to early high school, best we can remember. The foreccast was once again for big wind, and we decided to reschedule. This would be the first time for Ellen and I to fish together, and also her first kayak fishing trip! I wanted to have a shot at giving her a real good trip. So, we put our trip off again in hopes of drawing a better weather day later.
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Thursday, Hilary Petrus was up again for another try. It looked like we would draw a good weather day this time. I met Hilary at his condo on Fort Myers Beach at 10:00 AM, and we headed to Lovers Key State Park. Once on the water it quickly became evident that there would be no bite. We struggled for most of the day to get something going. We fished both sides of the narrow bay, and up until almost the end of the tide. We had half a dozen trout, a 26 inch snook, an a couple of redfish hits to show for our efforts.
I parked Hilary at a great spot that always gives me plenty of redfish and snook, and went a short distance away to check out another spot while Hilary worked that one. Shortly after arriving I caught a trout and several snook in rapid succession. I called Hilary to come join me as soon as I'd caught the firstcouple of snook. Hilary came to join me, but in the short time it took him to get there the bite was over.
It was a hard day. Hilary was a trouper, and fished hard, and was a great guy to have aboard. Although it was a tough day for catching, it had been a great day for fishing, and we had a good time.
Target Species:
The SLAM!
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