Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
March 21, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/17/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Well, we’ve gone from and extended period of extreme low temperatures to an extended period of extreme high temperatures. We’ve been well above average for a couple of weeks, now, and the fishing is heating up as well.

First up for the week was Jim Cowee, one heck of a nice guy that I fished with back on January 12th. This time he had his wife Carol along, and her friend Barbara. We had a beautiful day with a light east wind and the high to be in the mid-80’s. We left Punta Rassa at ten o’clock and headed up the river to do the ladyfish thing. The girls caught on pretty quickly and caught lots of ladyfish, a jack crevalle, and a puffer.

With enough ladyfish in the well to make a late day run at the reds, we headed out to find shiners. After some throwing around the causeway, we headed up to the Mail Run Cut. Some chumming and about three throws of the net had us stocked up on shiners.

Jim and the girls wanted some fish to take home, which meant trout fishing, for sure. We took our shiners and hit some of my favorite trout holes with great success. Oh, everyone missed a lot of fish, but still managed to boat a couple of dozen or more nice trout. We kept six for dinner.

Late on the tide, we went to a flat and tried for redfish. The water was absolutely filthy with floating seaweed to the extent that we couldn’t keep our baits clean long enough to get a bite, yet we managed four hits, but no reds in the boat. Never mind. Jim and the girls were a blast, and we had a lot of fun.

Tuesday was my first trip with Great Lakes charter captain Mark Koch, of Loose Canon Charters, in Huron, Ohio. We left the docks at eleven o’clock and headed up river to Cattledock Point for ladyfish. The ladyfish were there, and Mark and I caught plenty. We kept three for redfish bait later in the day.

We headed back out to the causeway and caught beautiful bait on the third span in three throws of the net. We headed up into the Sound for trout, first. Although our hook setting technique is exactly opposite than what Mark is usually teaching his customers, Mark caught on pretty quickly and put lots of big trout into the boat, along with one snook. He earned that snook, too, as the threads on the handle shaft of the Shimano Sustain stripped (not because of the fish) and he had to wind the fish in by turning the reel rotor by hand.

As the tide rose, we headed to the redfish flats to see if we could chum up a few. The water had cleared up nicely, and I had a feeling we’d have a descent bite. We put out four rigs with chunked ladyfish on them and waited. It didn’t take took long before we got action. The Daiwa Emblem Z 2000 reels I use hold about 80 yards of 10 pound test. I routinely cast most of that line off the reel with a steak of ladyfish on the hook. It very effective because the bait is out there on the fish, and the fish don’t know we’re there, because we’re so far away. But, that long cast creates problems for the untrained angler. It takes patience to get all the slack and line stretch out of the line before striking the fish. Most folks just have a hell of a time getting it down. Capt. Mark was no different. But, he did manage to boat one nice red of about 6 pounds of about 8 strikes. That fish was good for the Slam.

I can tell you after a day of fishing with Mark, that he must be a great guy to go on a charter with, and would recommend him highly. He’s easy going, fun to be with, and loves kids. If you’re going to be in his neck of the woods, you should book a walleye date with him.

Wednesday, I had another captain, an ocean master with a long history of going to sea and fishing, Bill Liggett, of Seattle, Washington. Bill is a long time visitor to Pine Island, and did some of his growing up there. But memories fade, and things change, and Bill was looking for a little help and tutoring on how to catch some keeping fish from his small skiff.

I picked Bill up at the Waterfront Restaurant at eleven o’clock, and we headed up the river for ladyfish. To my great surprise, we only caught one ladyfish on several drifts. They were there, but just not interested in eating, probably because the tide was coming to a standstill. We took our one big ladyfish and headed back to the causeway for bait. After some fruitless effort there, we headed back to the Mail Run Cut. Some chumming produced quick results, and in several throws we had plenty of bait.

Bill had complained that he had not caught a keeping trout from his skiff since he’d been here, so the first order of the day was to teach him how to pothole fish for trout in the winter. Bill was very pleased with the size and quantity of trout he caught, and caught a couple of nice jacks, as well.

Once the time was right, we headed to a nearby flat to try for redfish. As I poled the BarHopp’R onto the flat, I stopped at a pothole that is usually full of big trout and suggested Bill cast a bait into it. He did, and the shiner was immediately inhaled by a big winter trout. After landing the fish, he cast the same, half dead shiner back into the hole, and it was immediately eaten again by another big trout. After landing that fish, Bill tossed the now stone dead shiner back into the hole, and yes, it was again eaten by another nice trout. Hi biggest trout of the day was 4 pounds.

We could have sat there and caught trout for the rest of the tide from those potholes, but I wanted Bill to have a crack at a redfish. I poled on. Once on my spot, I cut ladyfish and chummed, then put out four rigs. Four ladyfish steaks in the water are as good as chumming, and are sure to get noticed if there’s a redfish, or even a snook in the area. Pretty soon, we had our first action. By my count we had 10 good hits, 8 misses, one red to the boat, and another that cut the leader on something out there on the bottom. But, Bill also landed a beautiful 27 inch snook. I figured it was a serious contender for the fish of the week spot on this fishing report.

So, Bill also got his Slam, and said the trip was a great success. He said he’d learned a lot, caught his most and biggest trout ever, his first snook, and would have never figured out the ladyfish technique for redfish. He was happy, and so was I!

After a day off, I was back out on Friday with Dr. Jerry Matlen, and his good friend Paul, of Birmingham, Michigan. Jerry and I did a couple of days snook fishing a couple of years ago, but his big ones got away. I knew Jerry would want to concentrate on snook, and I also knew we had a lousy, slow moving tide that would not be good for the snook bite. But, when I met Jerry and Paul at seven o’clock Friday morning, I was encouraged by a south wind blowing. A front was approaching from the north, and expected late Saturday. Perhaps the south wind would make the fish eat.

We headed to the causeway looking for big snook baits, but even chumming, none were to be found. I threw the net more than I care to around the second and third spans and caught three shiners. I headed to Picnic Island and tried there with the same result. Nothing but pinfish. So, I headed once again to the Mail Run Cut, and sure enough, there was plenty of nice bait there. Now, don’t you know that if I’d run all the way up there first, there would have been no bait!

That was our last struggle of the day. We headed up to an area called Flamingo, and anchored on a deep water spot, and from the time the first bait went out, we had plenty of snook action. They weren’t big snook, but it was way more action than I had anticipated under the conditions, and we were happy for it. Jerry and Paul boated about 13 snook, and one big jack crevalle by my count.

From there I fished a spring pattern, which was basically fishing mangrove shorelines. In the first stop Paul got a nice 27 inch snook, and a 26 inch snook. In the second and last stop, Jerry beat Paul and everyone out for fish of the week with a 28 inch snook. These fish were not very heavy for their length, as they’ve just come out of the rivers and creeks where there has been nothing to eat during our harsh winter. It looks like the snook are coming out with a good appetite and a bad attitude. That’s great!

Paul had to be back at the dock fairly early, and after spending more than two hours catching bait, we didn’t get a full day of fishing time, but the time they had was good. Paul was a newcomer to fishing here, and of course, to snook fishing, and really had a blast, and I think Jerry was pleased with his snook.

So, it looks like things are busting loose. The front that is approaching is not a strong one, and won’t drop our temperatures much. But, it might make for a couple of windy days.

FISHING REPORTS FOR THE WEEKS ENDING 2/24 AND 3/3/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Most of this week was spent fighting computer problems which appeared to be software related, but which turned out to be a hardware problem. I was also plagued with the W95.MTX virus, which for a few days, was all over the place. I mention this because virtually everyone out there reading this is a computer user to some degree or other. My Sarasota machine crashed while trying to send the last published fishing report. Suddenly, Windows 98 was trying to install new hardware on my system that didn’t exist. It couldn’t find drivers, and had things screwed up royally. I discovered the virus during this same time, and didn’t know if it was related, or not. After exhausting my ideas, I called my favorite guru and good friend Chuck Freeman, of C & S Computing, in Bradenton, Florida. Chuck started out chasing a software problem, too, but had the good sense to take the cover off the box because the machine seemed to be running hot. Guess what! It was more than hot. It was cooking, and a heat sync on one of the cards had separated from the chip it protected and fallen onto the board below it. Windows was detecting the shorted board and an unknown device and trying to install it.

After installing a second higher output cooling fan in the chassis, and a HP CD-R/W, I was still reluctant to send fishing reports until I was absolutely positive that I had my machine clean of the virus, and no one was sending it to me. My friend and customer David Jaeger alerted me to a site on the net that offered software to clean the virus, which Norton seemed incapable of doing. I had 88 infected files!

I was finally able to get out that Thursday with Art Lewis and his friend Rev. Ward Patton, of Lakeland. This was Art’s second BarHopp’R trip. The weather was a far cry from the weather of just a couple of weeks earlier, with light winds out of the east/southeast, temperatures in the 80’s, and hardly a cloud in the sky. I picked up Art and Ward at the Waterfront Restaurant. We found good bait along the south side of York Island not far away, and were off.

We first headed to a cut in the 40 Acre Bay area. We found a good snook bite there and the boys caught 9 or 10 snook and a jack crevalle before it slowed. From there we headed to a big pothole on a shallow flat that is often full of trout on low tide. The hole was full of big trout, and the boys had a blast catching 25 to 30 of them. Nearly every fish was in the slot, and we had plenty of trophies over 20 inches. Ward seemed to quickly get the knack of catching those trout on shiners, and caught most of the big fish. We kept a limit of 12 fish, along with two nice flounder. It was a great day, and Art said he’d learned a lot, which was exactly what he wanted.

The following week, I managed to run two trips. The first was on Thursday with Dan and Kathy Mosher, the wonderful couple I first took out back on January 16. This time, Dan brought his 79 year-old dad, Wes. And unlike our first trip, the weather was gorgeous.

I wanted to try for some redfish on the top of the tide, so we first made a quickie trip up the river for some ladyfish bait. We quickly put 3 large ladys in the boat and were off to the flats at Picnic Island to catch shiners. It didn’t take too long before we were loaded up and ready for the first stop of the day.

The first stop of the day for snook produced nothing save for one redfish. It was just under the legal limit. The second stop for trout produced lots of nice trout with plenty of keepers, as well as several snook. Kathy really didn’t fish because she was exhausted from days of moving into their new vacation home out in Alva. She has almost as much fun just being out there watching her boys have fun. Dan and Wes stayed busy, though, and I think Wes had a blast with the trout.

For the last hour or so, we headed to one of my favorite flats to try for some reds. I found my customer from a few weeks ago, Capt. Bill Liggett, there in his small skiff practicing what I’d taught him. He said he’d caught a few fish, but hadn’t boated a red. It was his last day of fun before returning to Washington. He thought the several fish he’d broken off were reds. We pulled along side about 50 yards away, but couldn’t get the fish he had chummed up in front of him to spread a little and come to our baits. Eventually, we pulled around on Bill’s other side where it was a little deeper, but had the same result. To finish the day we went to a nearby hole and caught a few snook. It had been a great day, even without a redfish bite. Dan did get his Slam, though.

Friday, I met Cooke Bauseman, one of my favorite customers and fishing buddies, at ten o’clock. We were going to fish, then cap the day off with dinner and cocktails at the Seafood Center and Crabhouse. Cooke was going to camp with me at the BarHopp’R fish camp that night. Cooke is an IGFA representative, and has his hands into more businesses than he can keep track of. He loves fishing and being on the water and even gets to Cabo several times a year for tournaments. He’s a lot of fun to be with.

We began up river catching enough ladyfish to toss a some redfish later in the day. The ladyfish are running really large right now, and fight like hell. We quickly had 3 big ladys and a jack. We headed back to Picnic to catch shiners, and after an hour or so, were on our way to fish for trout and snook. We opted to catch a few trout first on the lowest part of the tide. We had been plagued with slow moving tides all week, which are not very conducive to good fishing, but had been doing pretty well. Cooke caught plenty of nice trout, with lots of keepers and several trophies. But the biggest trout would come later in the day.

From there we hit several of my favorite snook areas; spots that had recently given me some nice keeping fish. I didn’t do a very good job of keeping track, but we caught 3 or 4 in each spot, many after throwing the bait where a fish had blown up on my chum. That’s one thing about snook. If one hits a chummed shiner, and you’re ready with a bait, and can put it right on his nose, he will almost surely eat again. I’d say we caught a dozen or more snook before turning our attention to redfish.

The area I wanted to fish for reds looked like a parking lot it was so full of boats. So, we headed to another area that is often productive where we’d have no company. We missed several good hits on ladyfish, and broke off two big reds, but Cooke did catch a beautiful trout of 5 pounds. That finished our day, and we headed in dreaming of the Dungeness crabs and margaritas to come.

March has gotten off to a slow start this year, but that’s about over. I’m booked pretty solid into June, with very few days left open. So, the reports will soon be longer and hopefully full of tales of great fishing. As I finish this report, we have news of a big front bringing much needed rain and one last blast of cold air before winter is declared DOA. The first half of next week will likely be a weather blow-out, but after that, things should heat up. Stay tuned.

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/10/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It seems we can’t quit talking about the weather for one reason or another. This week is no different. Southwest Florida got some desperately needed rain late Saturday and early Sunday with the passing of another late season cold front. I heard that some of the guides that work weekends got some good fishing in while the front was approaching, but once it passed we were hammered with heavy winds from the northerly directions for three days. Overnight lows were back into the 40’s for several nights. I don’t think most of us got back on the water before Thursday.

My Thursday trip was with Carol and Richard Bailey, and Carol’s Dad, who were down from Indiana. The wind was still out of the northeast at around 15, and the high was to be in the 60’s. We first headed up the river to partake of some ladyfish action, and let everyone get used to the equipment. The ladyfish were there, and we caught around a dozen outsized fish. Those big ladys are sure fun on light gear. I guess we should have stayed and fished them, because once we left to get bait and try for other species, we didn’t see another fish for the rest of the morning. Bait had disappeared with the front, and the shrimp were miserably small, probably because the shrimpers hadn’t been able to fish in the wind either. So, all we had for bait was tiny shrimp and several ladyfish to steak up.

The hardest part of the day to accept was that even the speckled trout wouldn’t eat. We never even got a bite fishing many of the best trout holes in the Sound. I’m not so sure the result would have been any different if we’d had shiners in the well. Once we gave up on the trout, we tried to get a redfish interested in our ladyfish steaks, but that was a no sale, too. We had one strike, which was missed. Back at the docks, I talked to only one guide that had met with any success. He had found some trout up in Matlacha Pass. The Baileys took the non-existent bite well, and were a delight to be with, but it’s a hard pill for a guide to swallow. I guess we should have stayed with the ladyfish up the river.

Thursday evening, my friends Marty and Nancy Dietz came in from Boynton Beach to spend the night with me and fish Friday. They were down from Swarthmore, PA, to visit Nancy’s folks and do some job interviews. Yeah! They’ve had enough of the cold, and Marty loves Florida fishing. I love these guys, and hadn’t seen them in about three years, but wasn’t very encouraged by the Thursday fishing. Marty assured me he wasn’t worried about how many fish they caught; they just couldn’t wait to get out on the water. I introduced Marty and Nancy to the Seafood Center and Crabhouse, and to their fantastic margaritas. Marty agreed they were world class. We had a great dinner, and lots of fun reliving our last unbelievable trip together.

The next morning, we rose to light and variable breezes and a beautiful day. We went straight for the bait, and although it was very tough, we did get plenty to fish with at Picnic Island flats. We wanted to concentrate mostly on snook, but the guys also wanted to make sure they had some fish to take home for dinner. To my surprise, the trout still were not cooperating, but we found one of the trout holes full of fat flounder running 14 inches and better. We kept 5, and that’s some great eating. As we went from place to place hunting snook we also caught a couple of big trout. The biggest was 5 pounds. Before the day was over we also caught a jack crevalle, 9 snook, and one redfish. It wasn’t a stellar day, but we had a great time, and Marty was like a little boy playing with his favorite toy all day long. He truly loves being on the water, especially our water. Back at the dock, Marty taught me a really cool way to fillet flounder. I have to practice and get it right before I see him again.

I’m booked nearly solid through June, with very few days left to fill, and the full court press began this week. March is a volatile month, weather-wise, though, so it remains to be seen how many days we’ll actually get to fish. But, the fishing reports should be growing in length and be a lot more interesting now that we’re leaving Old Man Winter behind.

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/17/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The story again this week was weather; wind to be specific. But, then it’s March, so I guess that’s to be expected.

Monday morning wind was roaring out of the southeast at a good 25 knots when I met Steve and Kyle Zabrin, of Wheeling, Illinois. More often than not, the fish will eat on a south wind, so if you’re going to deal with that much wind, you want it to be from a southerly direction. I figured that if we could catch bait, we’d do alright with the fish.

Bait presented the first hurdle we had to clear, and almost from the start I had trouble anchoring the boat. The anchor kept pulling loose, and I couldn’t imagine what was going on. I had actually anchored my boat and Capt. Mark Bess’ boat one day in more wind than this, and it held! We chummed and fought the anchor from place to place looking for late morning bait, but didn’t find any to speak of until we got to Chino Island. On the second spot, out on the flat, we loaded up with beautiful bait.

From there trying to fish turned into my worse nightmare. The wind kicked even more, and it seemed no matter how I backed the boat down on the anchor, as soon as we would get baits into the water, the anchor would pull up. God, I was frustrated and exasperated. Actually, I was furious with the situation, and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Steve and Kyle must have thought they were fishing with a physco, but were very understanding of the situation. More than that, they were as nice as could be.

Well, the long and short of it was that we only managed to catch 3 snook, lost one, and caught one nice jack. I’m certain we’d probably have done quite well if I could have stayed anchored, but we literally blew every hole we fished. Worse, there was way to much wind for the trolling motor, so once we were off anchor, I had no choice but to fire up the Yamaha. I did notice as the day wore on that the flukes of the anchor were coming in bent. I began to evolve a theory that the anchor had been attacked by the salt water to the point where the metal had lost it’s tempre, and was causing me to loose mine. The only way to know for sure would be to change anchors for the next day.

I felt like hell about the whole debackle, and if we’d not had such a tough winter with so many lost days, I would have given Steve and Kyle a free trip. Steve was one of the nicest and understanding guys I’ve ever had on my boat. After all that, he even gave me a tip!

Tuesday morning, I met my old friend Bo Mack, his son Ed, and friends Bill and Kip at the ramp at 9 AM, armed with a brand new Digger Anchor. The wind was still south at 15 to 20 knots, and I would soon know if my anchor had indeed been the problem. It’s really hard to fish four anglers on the flats, and a strong wind makes it even harder. If my anchor problem wasn’t solved, it would be impossible.

We headed first up the river to catch ladyfish, and there were plenty to catch. Along with all the big ladyfish we caught, we also caught a nice mackeral, and a couple of gafftop sail catfish. Yes, those gafftops are actually gamefish, and will readily strike lures. With some catching under our belts, and several nice ladybaits in the well, we headed out to catch shiners. Having caught beautiful bait at Chino the day before, I went straight to Chino again. To my dismay, there were no shiners; not one. We chummed a number of different places and the only thing we caught was pinfish. Man, this weather is making bait a challenge! Bo and I eventually had a quick conference. The weather was threatening, and I was afraid we might be run right off the water within a couple of hours. We decided to take our pins and ladys and try to do the best we could with them. Well, hindsight is always 20/20! The weather never materialized, and neither did the fish. We managed to catch one redfish, lost one snook, and caught one nice trout, and that along with our ladyfish was the day. They just didn’t want what we had to offer. Oh, we did miss several redfish while fishing around Mckeever Keys with our bait, but basically, that was it.

But, Bo and the bunch are always fun, and we had a blast in spite of the tough conditions. We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant, which is the perfect end to any fishing day. Next week, Bo and his wife Susan will spend the night here at the BarHopp’R camp, and fish the next day. God, I hope we draw some descent weather.

By Wednesday morning at ten, the weather had settled down somewhat. I had another party of four anglers, Larry Keys and his partner Kevin, and their mutual friends Mitch and dad Bill, down from Tampa. After the first two days of this week, I was frankly dreading another party of four. Then when the boys informed me that they were all novice fishermen, I knew it would be a long day. What I didn’t know, was how crazy these guys were.

We headed to the flats north of Tarpon Bay for bait, and got plenty of good bait. Right from the start, these guys had me laughing, and kept me laughing all day long. At the first stop, Larry hooked what he surely thought was a monster something, and fought it for quite a while. It turned out to be a big jack crevalle of around seven pounds. The boys also caught several nice trout, and more than their share of catfish. Later we found some redfish and snook, but the boys only managed to boat 3 snook and 2 reds, and missed another 4 reds. By their own admission, they lost many more fish than they managed to catch. But, we had a blast, and it was all part of the learning process for newcomers to fishing.

Thursday’s trip will go down as a very memorable one. I met Chris Sims, and his 76 year-old Dad, from Kensington, Maryland at ten o’clock. I could tell his Dad was getting pretty frail, as he had a difficult time getting into the boat, and keeping his balance once in. I knew we’d have to try to tailor the trip to Dad, and fish he could handle, if he was to catch some fish.

We headed straight back to Tarpon Bay for bait, and I’ll be darned if we could catch anything but little stuff. So, I headed back to Picnic Island where I’d scored the day before, and the bait was great! Go figure. As we rode from place to place, Chris and I realized that Dad was having trouble staying upright. Chris tried to support his Dad from the other side of the boat behind me. I know it was difficult. After catching bait, we headed up the river to catch some ladyfish. We didn’t have a real strong bite, but enough to have fun and put some bait in the well.

Chris decided after putting his Dad on the console seat where he was not real happy, to try to hold him up while we were riding. We put the cooler right in front of the console seat where Chris seated himself, and put his Dad on the cooler directly in front of him. Chris was then able to lean his Dad back and hold on to him, cradling him in his arms.

Up in the Sound we managed to catch a few fish, but were struggling trying to get something going. A couple of phone calls revealed that two of my friends, John Shearer and Rey Rodriguez were already on one of my favorite redfish flats. Rey was catching. We took off for the flat thinking that we could join in the action, as so many have done to me when I have been out there catching fish. But, once we were there and anchored up off Rey’s port side, we could not get a bite. I chummed with ladyfish, pinfish, and shiners, and put all of the above out for bait. We couldn’t get a bite! The fish were chummed up in front of Rey’s boat, and weren’t about to stray away to find something else to eat. John couldn’t catch a red, either.

Not too long after we got there, the bite slowed for Rey, and another guide, Ozzie, who was on Rey’s right side. I wanted Chris to catch some fish, and opted to leave and chase some snook on the last of the tide. At a spot not too far away, we found some snook willing to play, and managed to catch a dozen or more, and even got a double with Chris’ Dad. Fortunately, most of the fish were short, and Dad was able to handle them.

The thing that really impressed me about this trip was that Chris was willing to not only take his elderly and frail dad fishing, but was willing to look after him all day, and try to insure that he had a good time. In these times, there are very few guys who would be willing to be bothered, or put forth the effort to do that for their Dads. It was very heart warming to see, and I think Chris is a pretty special guy.

I took Friday off, and by early afternoon, Jean and I were on our way to spend the weekend with my friends and customers Bobby and Della Dumont, over in Sebring. The ocassion was the 12 hours of Sebring, which I had never attended. We drove straight to the Sebring track to meet Bobby and Della. We had a great time, and all their friends made us feel very welcome. Bobby told me that the boys had planned to get me liquored up, then get me to show them some spots to fish in the Sound. Well, if they did, they must have done a great job, cause I don’t remember giving away any secrets. Saturday was a long day by the time it was over. Twelve hours of racing is quite enough for anyone. If I suddenly begin seeing Bobby and his friends in my fishing holes, I guess I’ll know their plan was a success!

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