Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
December 20, 2000
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR PINE ISLAND SOUND FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/9/00 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Nasty weather kept most of us off the water Monday and Tuesday of this week. Wednesday, my friend and BarHopp'R veteran Dr. Bob Rose, of Galvaston, and his good friend Dr. John Sheridan, braved the elements to fish. I was cold and humid, and we froze our buns off!

We first headed up the river for ladyfish and jack action, and found plenty. We caught fish after fish, all ladys save for one jack. Then we headed out near Ft. Myers beach to catch bait. We loaded up with beautiful shiners and pinfish, but from there it was a challenge to find any finny critter that would eat them. The snook and reds just wouldn't eat. The only other action we had was around 15 trout. Tough day! The Waterfront Restaurant was a welcome sight by midday.

Thursday, the weather was much improved for my old friend Bob McGuire, of Line Lexington, Pennsylvania, and his son Tom. This was Tom's first BarHopp'R trip, and of course, Bob and I decided to start him off up the river with intense ladyfish action. We caught tons of them, but finally tired of them, and headed out for bait. Bob and I decided we'd do something different since the prospect for snook and reds wasn't looking very good; grouper fishing.

We ran to a very good grouper hole, that usually holds some very nice keeper size gags. We had four smaller grouper in the boat pretty quickly, but the action stopped after that. We tried another usually productive hole without so much as a bite. Then we switched our attention to trout and reds. We did manage 10 or so nice trout and 1 redfish before heading to the Waterfront for lunch.

Friday the winds were light and variable, and the high was to be around 80 for my friends Fred and Polly Liebold. Fred and Polly are a hoot to fish with. Fred is fun, but Polly giggles and squeals when she's got a fish on, and I love to watch and listen to her fish. It doesn't matter what she's catching, she's havin' fun! They were hoping we could have another big redfish day like we'd had last time out, but I cautioned that it may be tough to pull off.

We headed up the river once again, this time not just for the fun of catching ladyfish, but for ladyfish as redfish bait. We quickly caught plenty, as well as a couple of jacks, and were off to catch shiners.

We fished the reds on both the low and higher water, and they were indeed, tough. We only managed to get three reds into the boat. The biggest was 9 pounds. Polly also caught a big 24 inch trout. Although it had been a slow day for reds, we did have our limit, and the Liebolds were happy. We have another trip scheduled next week, and snook will be the target species then.

The extended forecast is for a whole week of warm weather with no fronts expected. With a little luck, that will bring some of the snook out of hiding, and make them a bit more active. We can hope!

REPORT FOR PINE ISLAND SOUND FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/16/00 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a week of fog, more fog, fish, and old friends! Although we had some rain, and plenty of fog to deal with, this was the first week in I don't know how long that the weather allowed me to get in five days of fishing.

Jeff Kates, of Palm Beach, Florida, and his dad, Jack were first up this week. They also had Tuesday and Thursday reserved to fish. Jack brought his neighbor Joe along for Monday's trip. Since they were staying on Pine Island, I picked them up each day at the Waterfront Restaurant. We had a dreary day with a good chance of rain. On our previous trip Jeff and Jack had caught tons of redfish, and were hoping to do a repeat. We didn't have as favorable conditions, but we decided we would target redfish.

So, we first headed up the river to catch ladyfish for bait. The ladyfish were thick, as usual, and the boys caught plenty. They also caught 3 jacks. Once the boys had had enough ladyfish action, we headed to the flats in front of St. James Creek to see if we could catch some shiners and pinfish. Although bait there was tough, we did catch enough for some snook and trout fishing.

Although we were well baited, it was still early on the tide for reds on the flats, so we decided to try to catch some speckled trout. I headed to a series of small potholes in the vicinity of Regla Island, where we found good trout action for a while. We put a good dozen or so in the boat, all nice fish in the keeping slot to 17 inches. Too bad the season is closed.

Finally, the tide was getting right for reds on the flats and we made our move. After some chumming with cut ladyfish and shiners, it didn't take long to get the action going. But, Jeff and Jack were predictably a little rusty at the tight line hook setting technique since last year, and missed a lot of fish. Although the boys only boated four of a dozen reds they had on, they were happy they had their limit, and had enough to feed the gang a big fish dinner that evening.

What a difference a day makes. Jack and Jeff seem to share my love of those hard fighting redfish, and wanted to target them again. So, we did a basic repeat of the day before, except that Joe wasn't along. We got plenty of ladyfish, and four jacks up the river, and we quickly got plenty of big shiners and pinfish out on marker #8. But we had a lot of fog on the water that sure made getting around difficult. Visibility was only a couple hundred yards for the early part of the morning.

Once we were up in the Sound chasing fish things changed. It was like the boat had bad karma. The fish didn't want to eat, and when we did get hits, we couldn't get them hooked. I had as much trouble as Jack and Jeff. We missed a good half dozen redfish hits and four snook hits, and only wound up with two big trout landed the rest of the morning. Jack and Jeff are just great guys, and they don't put pressure on me to put them on lots of fish. But, I was visibly frustrated with the situation. It was just one of those days, I guess.

As tough as Tuesday was, Wednesday was as good! Fred and Polly Liebold were ready for the second trip of their vacation, and wanted to target snook on this trip. So, we dispensed with going up the river for ladyfish, and went right out to #8 for bait. One throw of my old bridge net filled my well to capacity, and we had to turn half of the bait back. Boy, if only I could do that every day!

We headed up the Sound to our first snook stop, but the fog was so thick that I thought we'd have to stop in the soup and wait for it to burn off. I held my heading barely on step, and eventually we broke out of it right on course. We headed to a long cut up in the middle of the Sound that I hadn't fished in ages. It was full of big snook, as well as small snook, but after spending a good hour trying, we couldn't get them to eat.

For the rest of the morning, though, things went just fine. At the next two snook holes Fred and Poly managed to boat a dozen or more snook, including 9 and 10 pound fish that Polly landed, and 8 big winter trout to 5 pounds. Needless to say, Polly was thrilled with her twin big snook catch, and it got her the fish of the week for this week. Way to go, Polly!

Thursday, I picked Jeff and Jack Kates up at the Waterfront once again. We decided we'd chase snook this time around, so we headed straight out to the marker for bait. After a few throws, we were baited up and ready to go. Fog was still a problem, and made it difficult to get across the Sound. We decided to try for a few gag grouper while the tide was way low, and headed north. At the grouper hole we managed to catch three undersized fish, along with a keeper snapper. When the grouper bite didn't materialize, we were quick to move to the first snook hole. Between that and another snook hole, we boated 24 or more snook, but none quite big enough to keep, 8 nice winter trout to 5 pounds, 1 redfish, and a jack. It was a good day with plenty of fish, but no keeper snook. It was great to spend time with Jeff and Jack, and they reminded me that anytime they were on the water together was a great time, no matter what they caught.

Friday brought my old friend and veteran of many BarHopp'R trip, Russ Hubbard, and his new customer John XX, who is a recent transplant to our area. John, aged 63 years, had not fished in nearly 50 years, so Russ and I made the decision to go for action, rather than big fish. To that end, a trip upriver was in order to break John in on the ladyfish and jack action. After lots of fish, and seeing that John was getting the hang of handling the tackle and the fish, we headed back out for bait. After four throws, we had plenty of bait, and were off to catch snook and trout.

We never left that first snook hole. We had great action, and it was perfect for John, and Russ enjoyed it, too. Russ and John boated nearly 30 snook to 25 inches, a snapper, and 6 big trout to 5 pounds. When the action finally subsided, we took John for his first Waterfront meal. That was the the perfect finish to a great day on the water. And, with the exception of Tuesday, it was a great week, blessed with great weather for a change. But the winds of change are in the air!

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Butch Rickey
• Pine Island Sound Fishing Reports
• Southwest Florida (Cape Sable to Boca Grande) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports