Lots Of Redfish Around, But.....
Capt. Butch Rickey
October 26, 2013
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week Ending 10/19/13.....
Two trips to talk about this week. Lots of redfish to catch, but lure fishing is still hard, and biz is slow in this economy.
Tuesday, my life-long friend Ellen Hennigan and I went to explore the Punta Rassa flats, which is that stretch of water along the shore from Bunch Beach down to the Sanibel Causeway. There is a series of bars and sloughs there, and I hadn't fished it since probably back in the early 80's. My cousins and I used to wade fish that on the weekends with my aunt and uncle, and the fish went into his big gas cooker still quivering. That's fresh fish.
I was mainly interested in finding some redfish, with trout as a second. We had a screaming incoming tide just before the full moon. Ellen and I worked our jigs, spoons, and popping rigs, and never saw a trout.
I did find a school of redfish, and quickly hooked a beautiful red. The lure was right in the corner of his mouth, hanging out, and a half dozen or so of his buddies chased him around for a while as I fought him, trying to get the spoon away from him.
We were on schools of redfish for a good two hours, and that's the only one we got to eat. We had bumps and follows, but they just didn't want to eat. The likely two reason are full bellies from feeding on the bright lit night, and the presence of massive schools of bait everywhere you looked. They only had to slurp to eat.
We fished the tide to completion, and only caught that redfish and a couple of small fish. We had a great time, though, and saw a lot of big redfish. And, I was really proud of Ellen as she decided she was going to learn how to stand up and fish in the kayaks. It was like a duck to water.
Thursday, I had my second trip with Brian Jensen, founder and CEO of Fishidy.com, from Madison, Wisconsin. This year he brought his good friend Jeremy Gaynor?, who is the founder of Tacklebox.com. Brian and I had a great trip back in late 2011, I believe it was, and caught lots of redfish. Brian is a great guy and a very good angler.
I decided to take them to fish Punta Rassa Cove out of Port Comfort, hoping that we would find some fish willing to eat. The first surprise was that the water in the Cove was still pitch black! The water out front on Punta Rassa flats had cleared up enough for us to see redfish. There would be no sight fishing, here. We got the boats ready and were off pretty quickly.
I took Brian and Jeremy first to a spot where I have found redfish schooled up every time I've fished it. Even though the water was low, there was no seeing anything, anywhere. We didn't draw a bump. We moved on.
You can usually find good trout action in the Cove, especially on the lower water. We spread out on the flat and went to work. I had several hits on my popping cork rig early, but we only managed one 15" trout. They just weren't eating. After giving it a proper amount of time, I suggest that I take Brian to a snook hole that has been very good to me with big snook. Jeremy had moved down a ways, and had found another snook spot on his own, and after seeing bait spraying, decided he's stay and work on them.
After I got Brian set up on his snook hole, I went to a nearby spot that usually gives up a red or two, flounder, and trout, depending upon the time of year. I did manage a nice red there, but that was it. I hear Brian hook up on a nice fish, but he never got to see it before it good loose. Meanwhile, Jeremy found a redfish, a snapper, and a jack at his spot.
Brian was doing a good job of working over his area, and once things slowed down for Jeremy he came and joined me at my next spot. I had gotten some nice redfish hits that resulted in mangled weed guards, but no hookups. Jeremy struck out, and Brian got a nice jack at his spot.
We made one more move, where we again had hits that just wouldn't convert. The guys had a plane to catch and needed to be off the water no later than 1:30, and it was time to head in. They helped me get things put away quickly so that we could get the boats on the trailer, and once they were, the boys could take off.
It was a fun day of fishing, even though it was a slow day of catching, at least with artificials. Again, being right on the full moon and the abundance of bait in the water were the main offenders. I'm looking forward to seeing Brian again in the spring, when he will be bringing his Dad. Should be lots of fun.
Target Species:
Redfish and Trout
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