Finally! A Full Week!
Capt. Butch Rickey
April 10, 2014
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week ending 2/22/14......
I had a full week on the books, and managed to get four of them in.
First up was Rich Rosenthal, from Charlotte, North Carolina. Rich was rescheduled from the previous Friday, and is a major outdoors-man. Rich was staying at Castaways at Blind Pass. I had to pick him up there at 8 AM, and take him somewhere else to launch. Yes! You read that right! I hope every one of you fishermen that reads this will be as insulted as Rich and I are, and never give Castaways any of your business for any reason. They actually forbid me to launch there at Castaways, even though Rich was their paying customer, and was paying for his fishing trip. They denied him the right to fish with the guide of his choice from their launch. Seems more than fair then, that my customers should never patronize Castaways.
Fortunately, my old friend Chic Bruning was willing to let us launch from his place on Captiva, so we could fish the Buck Key area. I knew Rich would love it, and it's my favorite fishing grounds. We were in the water and on our way by 8:30.
We made our way around the northern tip of Buck Key and down to the area we would fish. I wanted to fish a spot I love to fish on the first part of those super low winter incoming tides, as I haven't had much access to the area. It's always been very productive for redfish and big winter trout, as well as flounder and other fish. But, on this morning, the spot was dead. The fish just weren't there. We got some bumps, but that was it. We moved on.
The second spot was the charm. It's usually non-stop action on the low incoming, and it didn't disappoint us. We caught a load of speckled trout, jacks, and ladyfish. It lasted for quite some time. Meanwhile, with Rich busy I went to check another hole nearby. It has been such a great spot over the years, but the few times I've been there this year, it has been dead.
Once the water was high enough to push the fish out of our hole towards the shallower holes, we made a move to another of my favorite areas, where the big trout lurk. Six and seven pounders are common. We caught some nice fish there not too long ago, but they weren't buying what we were selling on this morning.
It was time to see if we could spank a few redfish before the tide was done. We made the run to my spot, and then I stood up and slowly paddled into the area, watching intently as we went. We pushed singles and redfish doubles going in. Although I didn't see any pods bigger than that, I knew my fish were there. Now, if they would just eat. We anchored up where the water begins to deepen and went to work. We caught two very nice redfish before the tide ran out of gas. We had plenty of fish for dinner including some trout.
Now, it was time for what I really thought might be the biggest treat for Rich. A trip through the Buck Key mangrove tunnel. We put away our fishing stuff and made the boats as clean as possible before we reached the entrance to the tube. I sent Rich ahead of me so I could more easily help him if he got tangled up in the mangroves, or something.
To say Rich dug the mangrove tunnel would be an understatement. He loved it. It really is cool. Lots of wildlife usually, and other interesting things to see. Then, there's just the stark beauty of it, too. I usually take 30 – 35 minutes to paddle through it. One we exit and come out of the cove, Chic's place is just across the way.
The day was about over, but the fun surely wasn't. The launch area at Chic's is very narrow and the bottom is full of oysters. I grew up not far from Chic's place, and never knew until I launched at Chic's a few times that oysters obviously have legs that they only use in the dark of night. They must have! Every time I've launched at Chic's place, I've cleared the area of all the obvious oysters. They're live and sharp as razor blades, and about the only thing that's safe from them is a steel hulled boat. When I come back to launch the next time, there are more oysters all over the launch area. They must be walking themselves back into the area in the still of the night.
The tide was way low when we left, and was way up, now. As I went to pull my boat up some, I triped over a submerged mangrove root, and wound up dropping the stern end of my boat. I didn't realize it then, but she landed hard on an oyster, and put a deep cut in the hull. I would soon find out, though.
Our first order of business after getting the boats moored was to drain our bladders. So, there we stood shoulder to shoulder when I heard a female voice I didn't recognize. There was supposedly no one home. Chic had left a few days ago. Rich and I scrambled to get our equipment put away and rinse our hands. We'd been caught red-handed, or perhaps right-handed.
When we turned around we were greeted with the big smile and greeting from Kathleen. Chic's very lovely wife. In all the years I've known Chic, I'd never met her. We had a good chat, and even better laugh, and she's a hoot. It was great to meet her, finally. It was the perfect end to a great day with a super guy.
I was back at it on Tuesday with John D., who hails from Newton, Mass. John was staying on Sanibel, but I had to bring him just off island to Port Comfort, where we would fish Punta Rassa Cove. We had a beautiful day on tap, with high pressure and northerly breezes. We met at 7:30, and were on our way to the fishing grounds by 8:00.
We stopped to fish along an edge along the way. But, the tide was gradually slowing to a stop, and nothing was doing. We went ahead to my next spot, and got staged and ready for when the tide turned. We didn't actually have to wait, though. We began catching as soon as we got there. And, it was non-stop trout and ladyfish action for most of the morning! We didn't attempt to keep tabs on how many fish we caught. How many are there in a bunch? It was a fish every cast for most of the bite.
Late in the morning, the bite finally stopped, and we went hunting for redfish and/or snook. They've been hard to come by in the Cove this winter. After blind fishing a spot that nearly always has reds on it, I went stalking. I did see a handful of reds and a couple of snook in two areas, but they were just laid up, and not in the least interested in eating. They didn't even want to move!
John and I finished the day with a trip through a mangrove tunnel along the way home. John enjoyed that, and thought it was pretty cool. That one only takes about ten minutes to navigate.
We were blessed with a hot bite, good weather, and that made for a very good day. But, my bilge pumps kicked on a few times throughout the day, and I knew I had a slow leak, somewhere. I suspected that I'd sustained an oyster cut or puncture when I had slipped and dropped the stern of my boat on the previous trip. I had a leak to find.
Wednesday, I had a blast with my good friend Frank Faust, his son Rick, and their life-long friend Dave, all from Iowa. Frank wanted me to get Rick and Dave out while they were down, and Frank joined us in his own boat, the Hobie 12 ft. inflatable. Frank and I have known each other since September, 2011, and he's a prince of a guy. I think it was love at first fish for both of us, and we've been friends ever since.
Frank wanted to put the boys on some of that hot trout action, so we fished from Port Comfort in Punta Rassa Cove. We met there at 8:00, and were on our way by 8:30, or so.
We began our fishing along the edge (drop) of the main channel. It can be very good. The fish bit pretty well for us until the tide ran out of gas. We had a strange tide that day. We made our move to the trout grounds on the change of the tide. It wasn't long before we were back in the action. We just lined up our four boats and went at it. I tried to keep track of what was going on, but it was hard. Best I can tell, we boated around 5 dozen trout and ladyfish. The bite was better than that number, but sometimes it hard for folks to get the hang of working that lure in a fast current. We had a lot of fun. Frank is always a laugh a minute, and Rick and Dave were, too. We finished the day off with a trip through the mangrove tunnel on the way home. It's a great way to end the day. My leak seemed to be getting a bit worse, as the bilge pumps came on about every hour during the day. But, back at home I searched the bottom of my Mother-ship with a fine-toothed comb, and couldn't find anything that appeared to be deep enough to leak.
Thursday's trip had to cancel on short notice.
Friday, I was back on the water with Andy Stanioch, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was staying at South Seas Plantation, and had arranged for me a gate pass, and to launch at the south marina. We would fish the Buck Key area off Captiva.
We had a front approaching, and I had been watching the weather intently. The forecast remained for 10 to 15 MPH S/SE winds with a 30% chance of rain and thunderstorms. That wasn't too bad a forecast. But! By the time I'd gotten to South Seas and met Andy, and we got the boats into the water, we had a real surprise when we rounded the corner coming out of the marina into the open bay. It was roaring E/SE at easily 25 MPH, and the water was really chopped up since the wind was running against the tide. It was blowing so hard, and the chop so sharp, we had to lock our trolling motors on #4 speed and then paddle. It took us over an hour to get to the fishing grounds, and by bilge pumps ran more than they didn't on the way. Andy's pumps only kicked on a couple of times. I was afraid my leak was getting worse. It didn't seem to me I was taking that much water over the bow.
We stopped at a large pothole along the way to see if there might be some action. It can be good, but I hadn't fished it in some time. We got anchored with the wind roaring at our backs, and I didn't like the looks of the front it was feeding. My bilge pumps did settle down and were not coming on, and wasn't sure what was going on. I knew I had a leak, because it had manifested on my trip with John D. after fishing out of Bruning Place. I felt pretty sure the oyster cut, wherever it was, was getting worse.
We got on a pretty good trout bite in that hole, and caught at least a couple dozen, including some nice keepers. I was just waiting on the strong south wind to take over the tide and push it in earlier and higher than it was scheduled to be. That's when we would turn our attention to redfish. I just hoped the weather would hold. We were a couple of miles from South Seas, and I had a plan for the return route to keep us out of most of the nasty stuff we'd had to run the gut of getting to the flats.
I left Andy catching trout as I watched the water moving up the flats. I wanted to be there when the fish arrived and began to feed. If we could catch a few quickly, and have some redfish fun and stringer a couple of keepers, we could head back to South Seas hopefully before the weather came in. I got staged.
Before I had the first bite, Andy was on the way. The trout bite had predictably stopped. I directed him where to stake out and what to throw, and we went to work. Andy and I both hooked up about the same time. My fish ate a Z-man new penny shad. Andy's ate a DOA CAL stark naked shad. We had our keepers! We're only allowed one each. But, we quickly caught two more nice fish. Well, Andy did, and I was glad for him. By this point the front appeared to be moving in on us, and Andy and I decided that good judgment was the better part of valor, and headed in. But, the fun wasn't over.
I didn't want to make the run home out in the open like we had done going out. My plan was to go straight across to the mangrove tunnel and ride that to the calm waters of Roosevelt Cut, even though it was a bit out of the way. We'd be in protected waters for all but the last couple hundred yards of the run back to South Seas, and I was pretty sure Andy would really dig the 30 minute paddle through the tube. He did. Really had fun with that. Once we were out of the calm of the tunnel, and in the calm waters of the Cut, with our wind now out of the south, we were pretty well in the lee, and had an easy trip back.
Back at the dock I cleaned the fish while Andy's family looked on. Everyone had fallen out to greet us as we came into the lagoon. The actual storms and rain didn't come in until much later, but we were more than happy to err on the side of safety. Mission accomplished. Andy had a blast!
Target Species:
Redfish and Trout
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