Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
June 16, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 5, 2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The week began on a sour note with bad weather, and ended on a tragic note with the sinking of BarHopp'R I. That's right! Read on.

Monday belonged to Dave and Anne Kerschner, who have fished with me once before. I had the best time with them, and we really hit it off. I've been eager to see them again. I was really tickled when they met me at the dock last Friday. They were really excited about fishing again. But the weekend brought some God-awful windy weather, and by Sunday night it was becoming apparent that it would indeed be too windy to fish on Monday. I talked to Dave early Monday morning, and he was justifiably disgusted with our weather, and ready to cancel his week and head back to Ohio, which in fact, I believe he did.

Tuesday was my first trip with David Peterson, of Belleville, Illinois, and the wind was down to a gentle roar at 15 to 20 knots! At least we could fish! The best place to hide would be the outside along the beaches. And, that's exactly where we headed after catching bait at Chino Island.

The bite along the beaches should already be fantastic for both snook and big trout by this time of year, but this year is different. I don't know if it's cooler than normal water temperatures, loss of habitat, or what, but the big snook days just aren't happening, yet. We did catch some nice fish, though. Dave bagged 7 or so snook and 8 to 10 nice trout, of which he kept four. Later in the tide we headed back inside into the wind, and tried to get some redfish action going. We only managed to trick one, but it was enough to give Dave the West Coast Slam on a pretty blustery day.

Wednesday, the wind was back up to a steady 20 knots for Tom O'Hara, of New York. Tom is boss to my good customer and friend, Chris "Vinnie" Venezia. Chris and his best bud, Scott Gibney have had some great trips together, and Vinnie had been bragging to Tom about me. Unfortunately, Tom arrived just in time for the weather to shut things down. I should have known when bait was tough that the fishing would follow suit.

We headed back outside for snook and trout action, and to get away from the wind as much as possible, but in all the time we were there, Tom caught one snook of around 25 inches. The fish were lockjawed! They would not eat, period! When we finally gave up and headed back inside, I spotted what I thought was a small pod of tarpon cruising the beach and got position to throw a bait to them. The bait was hammered instantly, and when the fish hit, it turned sideways, and I could see that we had a school of jack crevalle that must have been 30 to 40 pounders. They were huge, and powerful! The hook didn't hold, and the fish got away. We chased the school down again, and presented more baits. They were spookier now, and didn't want to let me get close enough to cast to them. We finally did, and got another bait into the fish, which was eaten instantly. The fish accelerated unbelievably hard at the same instant I went for a hookset, and blew up the 12 pound line. It sounded like a gunshot as it broke. We were not able to get anything going the rest of the morning, and I'll bet Vinnie will think twice before he brags on me, again.

Thursday, the wind was down some for Bob Brockway and his neighbor Vince Gerardi, of Pompano Beach. I hadn't seen Bob in a while, and was looking forward to spending the day with him. We headed to Tarpon Bay to check out the bait situation, and I figured that with the wind down to 15 knots, and not bite on the outside, we'd stay inside and try to get it done there.

Bait was great at Tarpon Bay, and we were soon headed up into the east side of the Sound to a redfish hole. Action was slow until we got later into the tide and went to a different part of the Sound. There we managed to catch 3 nice redfish to 26 inches, and a good dozen snook to 24 inches. All in all, it was a pretty good day, and we had a lot of fun.

I could never have imagined what was about to happen as I launched Friday morning. It would be a day I'd never forget. My customer was Bruce Carruthers and his friend Dave, of East Lansing, Michigan. Among other things, Bruce was interested in buying two of my Cardinal reels, and was interested in my backup boat, BarHopp'R II, which was for sale. This trip would be an opportunity for him to evaluate the boat.

After I launched that morning, and was waiting for Bruce to show up, I noticed an occasional short shot of water coming from the twin bilge pumps. I figured that one of the hoses linking the self bailer to the outside had come loose, and I was getting a little water into the hull from the outside. I made a mental note to look at it when we returned. I checked, and there was no water accumulation in the hull.

Bruce, Dave, and I headed to Tarpon Bay to catch bait, and did so very quickly. We were soon headed to the beaches to see if things had improved there, as the wind was back to 20+ knots from the east, and fishing inside would be difficult. The fish were still lockjawed, or perhaps even gone. We caught one trout and one jack, and that was it.

I headed back inside to my favorite redfish flat. The bay was rough as hell, and had been for weeks. Once inside on the flats, and baiting hooks, I noticed the boat felt heavy, and check in the bilge. There was a lot of water in there! The pumps were pumping 1,500 gallons per hour out, and soon kicked off. I thought perhaps we managed to force water in through one of the scupper holes as we were running. But, the pumps kept kicking on and off. Meanwhile, I had pulled up right on top of a great school of redfish, and the first baits in the water were hit. We were on fish! We had great action going, and from one trip back to get bait to the next, the hull had nearly filled itself with water. We WERE sinking. The pumps couldn't keep up. I sounded the alarm, and cranked the Yamaha. I knew I had to get to a shallow bar somewhere quick, or I'd loose everything. The closest bar I could think of was up inside Blind Pass adjacent to Roosevelt Cut, so that's where I headed. The hull was so full of water the motor would barely move it. At this point, water was pumping up out of the rear access hatch onto the motor. I prayed and kept pressing on, determined to get my boat to a bar and ground it before she could sink far enough to submerge my motor.

I don't know how, but we made it. I beached it on a sandbar next to a very small oyster bar inside Blind Pass. The water lever inside the hull assumed the level outside, and didn't change. I turned off the power. I made a few cell calls to some of my friends. I apologized to Bruce and Dave, and Dave assured me that he was having a ball on such an adventure. I told him that BarHopp'R II would probably not be for sale for a while, after all. Before long, my good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez showed up, and was happy to take Bruce and Dave safely back to the ramp. Later, Capt. Cullen Sanders, one of the best fiberglass men around, showed up, and we loaded everything we could get out of the boat onto his boat, and left the BarHopp'R swamped on the bar. She damned sure wasn't going anywhere, and we certainly couldn't tow her, so I had to come up with another solution.

Back at the BarHopp'R camp, I quickly called my insurance company to see what they wanted me to attempt to do. Unfortunately, I got hold of some young punk that kept telling me I shouldn't have left my boat, and didn't want to listen to what I had to say about the situation. He was only interested in giving me his opinion on things. Shortly after that, Capt. Rey called and said his neighbor was a dock builder, and might have a big gas pump. I had already been on the phone calling all the rental places in Ft. Myers, trying to find a pump, but they were all closed and not open on the weekends. Rey made some calls and arranged for us to go and pick up an 18,000 gallon per hour, 5 inch pump from a jobsite on south Ft. Myers Beach.

Rey would take his boat back across the Sound in darkness back to my sunken boat. I would drive the van/trailer around to the Castaways, and try to find the little ramp there. We would meet there, transfer the pump to Rey's boat, then go and see if we could pump the water out of my boat fast enough to get it floating and off the bar, and back to my waiting trailer. It was our only plan! Would it work?

I had to park and get out and go exploring to find the little ramp tucked away between cottages on narrow dirt roads. Once I did, I pulled the van down to the water so that I could flash my headlights whenever I saw running lights on the water. I sat and waited for a half hour or so before Rey showed up, but he did. We loaded the pump, and were off.

By the time we got to BarHopp'R, the tide was getting high enough to float her, we hoped, once she was empty. We got the pump set up on the bow, primed it, and fired it up. God almighty, what a pump. It emptied my boat of water in less that 30 seconds, and was big enough to keep the hull relatively dry, even with what we later found to be a very large, 12 inch plus hole in the hull!! I pushed her off the bar, cranked the Yamaha, and Rey and I idled off into the darkness back toward Castaways. The trailer was in the water and waiting at the little ramp, and I was able to drive right on to the trailer with pumps a blazin! Our plan had worked. BarHopp'R I was salvaged.

I met Rey back at Punta Rassa ramp, and it was around midnight. We crawled under the hull with a flashlight and discovered that the hull had delaminated in a spot at least a foot across. That boat has probably got at least 2,000 trips on her, so she doesn't owe me anything, but it's odd that it took this long to have a hull failure. Usually, those kinds of things show up early in a boat's life. BarHopp'R II began showing signs of failure in the same place not long after I bought her, and I took her to one of the best glass men around, and had the whole hull redone as part of a remodel to get her the way I wanted her for my purposes. I will never have to worry about that hull breaking.

That was probably BarHopp'R I's last trip. I know what has to be done to properly repair that hull, and I'm guessing it would be a $5,000 repair before it was over. I will probably retire her, strip her of all her goodies, motor, etc., and move them to a new boat. I am looking seriously at the new Talon F-22, the first prototype of which is not even complete as we speak. But, based upon what I've seen of the F-16, it will be one of the most awesome cat boats to ever take to the flats. Another candidate is the Cat Sass, but the owner of the company has not seemed too interested in working with me.

So, what a way to end the week, huh? I'll keep my readers and friends posted as things develop. Meanwhile, BarHopp'R II is on active duty.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 12, 2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The story this week was the full moon, the wind, and dragging BarHopp'R II out of mothballs. Wind, wind, go away. Don't come back some other day! God, I don't remember it being this windy, for this long, in March!

I spent most of the weekend getting BarHopp'R II ready to fish, as it hadn't been used I a very long time. It was a mess, and all the pumps needed replacing, etc. She cranked and ran fine, though. It's not a pretty boat by any stretch, but like BarHopp'R I, is like fishing off your dock.

First up on Monday were Dave and Kaye Heyes, of Freemont, California, who told me they had been fishing together for some 40 years. It was blowing from the northeast at 20 knots and gusting. It was the day of the full moon. Our snook and redfish are very nocturnal feeders, and for several days either side of the full moon, they prowl the flats eating all night long in the light of that moon. Come morning, you have a great tide, but the fish have full bellies, and aren't interested in eating. Fishing can be tough even without weather considerations.

I fired up BarHopp'R II, and we headed to Tarpon Bay for bait. The boat ran perfectly, thank God, and it didn't take long to load up. Soon, we were off to the first hole of the day. I headed to an area up in the mid section of the Sound, where I have been catching some redfish. I poled into the area, and saw reds pushing near some potholes. We fished a large pothole on the low water and didn't have a hit. I moved to a smaller hole, where I had seen reds pushing, and we were immediately into the action. We had lots of good, solid hits, but the Heyes had a heck of a time getting a redfish hooked. Although they were very experienced anglers, they weren't experienced at our kind of fishing, where your previous experience often works against you as your worst enemy. Old habits die hard, and Dave and Kaye had a heck of a time getting into the groove of reeling completely tight to the fish before striking. They did catch one redfish and several trout from that hole.

At the next stop we had a good redfish bite after some chumming with live and cut shiners and pinfish. Dave and Kaye had the same problem, and missed fish after fish. They did catch a big stingray and a jack crevalle. Finally, I moved to an area where we could concentrate on snook, and they had a good time catching maybe 8 or 10 fish. The Heyes were very nice folks, and we had a great time.

Tuesday was reserved for my good friend and fishing buddy, Dr. John Hitt, president of University of Central Florida, in Orlando. John loves to fish, and I love fishing with him. He also shares my love of fine fishing things, and brought along his to Shimano Calais baitcast reels. They're wonderful works of fishing art!

John and I left the docks at eight o'clock and headed straight to Tarpon Bay for bait. It was plentiful, and after two or three throws I had the Jacuzzi sized well on BarHopp'R II full of bait, and we were off to the north end of the Sound. We hit quite a few holes, and had good action at each one. The problem was that with the wind blowing so hard, and the fish in a fickle, non-committal mood, we had a hell of a time hooking a fish. I don't know how many snook hits we had, but it was plenty, and we only managed to boat 4 or 5 snook and a trout. The wind kicked and gusted to 30 knots that afternoon, and John wisely decided we might as well head in a little early. It was a good call.

Wednesday was also reserved for John, but after such a tough day Tuesday I felt something different was in order. I knew it would be another, tough, windy day. I told John Tuesday night on the phone that I wanted to make it a boys day out, no money involved, we just fish artificials only and have a good time no matter what. I also wanted to fish from John's 17' Maverick since I had never been in one, and am in the market for a new BarHopp'R.

I met John at his place in South Seas Plantation at 8:30 AM. We loaded all our expensive toys into his Maverick and took off. The wind was already howling! I told John I thought we ought to fish Ding Darling to try to stay out of the wind. I wanted to show him a very productive redfish hole there for starters. Once we arrived in the area, I could see a rental boat that appeared to be sitting in my hole. I was shocked. How, I wondered, could some tourists in a rental boat have found that spot?

We got on the trolling motor and were casting silver and gold spoons at the mangroves. As we approached the rental boat, we quit fishing and cut a wide swath around it. As we did so, I inquired of the fishermen in the boat if they'd had any luck. The reply absolutely shocked me. I heard someone as if I was Capt. Butch Rickey! I didn't believe my ears. Here I am in a strange boat, 70 yards away from these folks, and someone recognizes me? Well, it turned out to be Larry Haas and his family, who I had communicated with via email, but never met. He told me that he had been following me on the internet for several years, and recognized my hat, outfit, etc. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't have recognized me on John's boat.

After we had passed the Haas boat, John had a terrible tangle in his braided Power Pro line. I decided to go back and shake hands with Larry, and meet him up close while John was rerigging. It was pretty cool meeting someone like Larry and his family.

John and I spent hours fishing around different areas of the Sanctuary, trying different lures, without so much as a hit. Finally, we decided to head to a flat where I'd taught him to catch redfish chumming with live bait, and drift that casting spoons. We worked the flat hard, and anchored once we had the first hit. We threw silver and gold, new and old, and I brought my silver Johnson's Silver Minnow back to the boat 3 or 4 times with the weedguard bent completely down against the spoon. That's the surefire way to know that a redfish has tried to eat your spoon, but didn't get hooked. I never felt a thing! John managed some hits on his gold soon, but we didn't seem to be able to hook anything. I had several good hits on the silver spoon, but couldn't get anything hooked. Finally, I tied on a Bass Assassin Crystal Minnow in gold. Nothing! I tried silver, and finally, caught the first redfish of the day. After the second fish of the day, John began to wonder if he should switch to the silver Crystal Minnow. He did, and it wasn't long before he had his first redfish. I caught a third before the tide was done and the bite, such as it was, was over.

You never saw two anglers so proud of four fish in your life. We had finally figured them out! John's Maverick was an incredibly dry, smooth ride for such a small skiff in such nasty conditions. Although we had only managed to catch four fish, we'd had a great time and were proud of ourselves.

Wednesday night at around nine, my good friend Russ Hubbard arrived from Royal Palm Beach, Florida, to spend the night and fish the next day with a couple of his friends, Ron and Art. Russ and I have been fishing together for five years or so, and have become quite close friends. We share each other's problems, etc. He warned me that Ron and Art didn't have a lot of fishing experience.

Finally, it seemed that the wind was down. It was light and variable. Once again, we got great bait at Tarpon Bay, and were soon off to the first stop of the day. We fished hard for most of the morning without much going on. We caught one snook! I would have thought that the fish would be ready to eat on the first descent weather day in two weeks, but not so.

We struggled! Finally, Russ and I decided to go to our favorite redfish flat, and see if we could get something going. The fish were there, and I could see them moving and pushing. It took a while to get on them, but we finally did. We had lots of hits and lots of confusion before it was over, but our new fishermen managed to boat 4 redfish and one snook before the wind flipped 180 degrees, and blew us off our fish. Very frustrating!

We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant, and as we approached the entrance along the new, ridiculous manatee zone buoys, I noticed a cobia laying right next to one of the buoys. I swung the boat around as Russ got a rig baited. We knew the cobia would eat anything thrown in front of it, and it did. But, the first time Russ struck him too early and the hook pulled out of it's mouth. We went back around and threw another bait at the cobia, and she ate again. This time Russ hooked her solidly and passed the rod to our new angler Art. The fish didn't fight in typical cobia brawling style, but gave Art a good tussle. She was eight pounds and about 30 inches. I'm going to have to pay a bit more attention to the buoys from now on. We finished the day with a great meal and conversation at the Waterfront. The guys took home plenty of big fillets.

Friday was my first trip with my friend Kevin Shimp, in some time. Kevin is a local boy, and a darned good fisherman, and probably knows as much about catching our fish as I do. He brought along his good friend, Andy. Like most of us, Kevin is disgusted with the manatee zones issue to the point that he just bought a Contender 25 offshore boat.

We loaded the boat with bait in three or four throws, and were off. Kevin has spent very little time fishing the Sound north of Regla Island, so I decided to take him up north where the water is clear and there are few manatee zones for the moment. We first stopped at a flat along the way that has been holding good redfish, but they weren't to be found. We headed on north and turned out attentions to snook. We fished several spots, and had pretty good action at most of them. Most of the fish were on the small side, but Kev and Andy did catch one fish that was an iffy 26 inches, and several that were just a bit shorter.

We decided to go for reds again on the last hour or so of the tide, but didn't find but one, which I missed. We did catch more snook, though, and ended the day with at least a couple dozen snook. On the way home Kevin was nice enough to share a beautiful spot that I had never fished back in Ding Darling Sanctuary. It's mangrove fishing, which I try to avoid most of the time with customers because of the inherent problems it presents. I'll file it away for fun fishing, though. We managed to catch a jack and a catfish there on the slack water. It was great to see Kevin again, and to meet Andy for the first time.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 19, 2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The week was to begin with a fun trip with Capt. Norm Weston, but Norm let me off the hook at the last minute so I could try to make arrangements to have an estimate done on Barhopp'R I, and begin putting out feelers for a possible replacement. I got a lot done, but was not able to make contact with Will Borden, the best glass man in this area, to see if he would even look at my boat.

Tuesday, I had my first trip with Bruce Reid and his 7 year-old son, Bruce Jr, of West Newbury, Mass. Bruce Jr. was just as cute as a kid can be. Bruce is just kinda getting back into fishing after a long absence from the sport. We left the dock at first light, and were off to catch bait at Tarpon Bay. We had the Jacuzzi sized well in BarHopp'R II full in three or four throws and were off to the first stop of the day. The wind was from the south at 15 to 20 knots, and I knew that would have the tide higher than predicted. So, I headed straight to a shallow flat to see if we could chum up some redfish. The reds were there, and came to the chum, but I had to move several times to stay in them. We didn't have a spectacular bite, but it was good. Dad and son missed quite a few very good hits, which pulled our count down, but still managed to boat 10 to 12 nice reds once they got the hang of it, and had a lot of fun doing it. Once the tide was over, we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to enjoy a fantastic lunch.

Wednesday was my first trip with Dr. Stephen Nedd, his good friend Dr. Paul Finucan, and their mutual friend Ed Maroti, of Naples. Stephen was interested in learning as well as catching. The wind had moved around more to the west at about 15. WE headed back to Tarpon Bay, and had a well full of great bait in pretty short order. I headed right back to the flat where we had found the reds the day before, knowing they would almost surely be right back there on the same stage of the tide. The tides hadn't been good at all, and I felt fortunate to have been catching the reds on such slow tides.

I chummed the flat for quite a while without the first hit. I told the boys we had to be patient and have faith. I was pretty sure that once the water was right, we'd get a bite. I moved a couple of times, repeating the chumming. Finally, the bite came. Just like that, the fish began eating. I teased the guys quite a bit as they missed good solid strikes. I'm pretty sure they each missed 3 or 4 hits before they got into the groove, but once they did, they managed to boat about 10 beautiful redfish. Our count should have been twice that, but they had a good time, and Stephen said he learned a lot. Once the tide quit moving, the bite stopped just like that. We pointed the boat toward the Waterfront Restaurant once again, and finished the day with a great lunch. At the ramp, I cleaned four nice reds.

I had a tarpon trip scheduled for Thursday with my good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez, and John Stockman and his friends. But, the sinking of BarHopp'R I put the skids on me participating in that trip, as BarHopp'R II is not equipped with trolling motors. It's push pole powered, only! That won't work well for chasing tarpon, so Rey got Capt. Mark Westra to take my place. I used the time off the water to get my boat out to Will Borden for an estimate. I decided to go ahead and have him fix her up good as new. I just can't bring myself to put her in the scrapheap!!

Friday was a beautiful day full of action for my good friend John Hitt, who was on his third and last trip of his vacation. We had decided the night before we'd do something different, so we were going snook fishing. John also wanted me to give him a course on throwing the castnet.

We headed to Tarpon Bay, and in two throws we had the BarHopp'R loaded with beautiful bait. We then switched roles, and I gave John a refresher course in folding and throwing the net, using his new 8 ft. Caloosa net. By John's fourth and fifth throw, he was opening the net pretty nicely. It was time to go fishing!

Snook fishing often, if not usually, means mangrove fishing. We headed to a beautiful mangrove shoreline, and from the first bait that went into the water after tossing some chum, we had great action. We broke off and outright missed quite a few nice fish, and I had one snook jump out of the water into the mangroves and hang there. I couldn't get her out, and didn't want to ruin the hole, so I broke her off. Once the bite slowed at that hole, we moved a short distance to another hole, and then another hole, finding some action at each. By the time we left the area, we had boated a good 8 snook, 4 nice jack crevalle to 7 pounds, 2 snappers to 14 inches, and 2 19 inch gag grouper.

From there we headed across the Sound to one of my favorite places, and boated a couple more snook, including the first keeper, and a speckled trout of just under 5 pounds. It was a beautiful fish. Once we were sure the bite was over on the slowing tide, we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for a great lunch.

Saturday! Can you believe I worked Saturday? A couple of night earlier, I received one of the funniest emails I've ever gotten from my old friend Bob Woodward. The subject line read: EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY! In the body he was begging, and trying to shame me into taking he and his lovely daughter Maura fishing on Saturday. Well, Bob and Maura are right at the top of my favorite friends list, and I just couldn't resist, so I sent him back an email I hoped would be equally entertaining to Bob, agreeing to fish Saturday. I knew the weekend fishing would be tough, but man, I wasn't prepared for how tough.

Sadly, the first thing Bob and Maura told me when the arrived at the dock was that Bob's Dad had died the night before. If memory serves me correctly, I think Bob said he was 92!! He said that his Dad would have wanted him to stay and fish, so stay they did. We headed straight to Tarpon Bay for bait, and with Maura chumming, we were loaded up in no time.

The ramp was a zoo, even early, and I figured our best shot at fishing water that hadn't been run over already, and staying away from other boats was back in Ding Darling. The tide was running well, but the breeze was all over the place, and was for the whole morning. It wouldn't lay down in one direction. It made our style of fishing very tough. Beautiful holes that normally would have been full of snook, and no doubt were, wouldn't produce. The fish wouldn't eat. We caught two small snook and one gag grouper during the course of hitting several spots. Since the deep backcountry wasn't working, I elected to head way north in the Sound, again hoping to avoid traffic, and fish a snook hole that had been just full of fish. Well, guess what. We didn't catch the first fish out of that hole, or the next two, for that matter. Damn! Frustration was setting in!

Nothing seemed to be working, and there was just about enough of the tide left to catch a redfish or two if I hurried, so we were off to one of my favorite flats. As I approached the flat I could see boats all over it, so I elected to try a great redfish hole in the mangroves not too far away. The wind was driving me nuts, constantly changing, but after getting the boat in position and chumming with some cut threadfins, we had hits on the first several baits that went into the mangroves. Unfortunately, the were missed, and Bob let a really good fish cut him off in the mangrove hangdowns. I thought he knew the drill on the trees, but was mistaken. No one had taught him that in past trips with other guides, and it was the first time Bob and I had fished the trees! After half dozen good take downs, I couldn't get the fish to eat any more, so I headed out. The boats were gone from the flat now, and I knew the fish were there. The question would be could I get some to eat on the top of the tide after being pressured and run over all morning.

The answer was "yes". I did manage to get a few fish to eat, but we only caught two reds and a big stingray. Bob caught the first red, which was about 20 inches. Maura caught the second one which was a beautiful fish of around 8 pounds. And, that was pretty much it for the action. Bob suggested that we head in, instead of doing the customary Waterfront lunch, so that he could be with his wife.

At the ramp I apologized for the slow day as Bob, Maura, and I exchanged hugs. It was our first slow day out of half dozen trips together. I think I heard Bob say as he walked away that he would never call my cellphone again. And, that's what makes Bob so much fun. He loves to rag me and keep me guessing. And, I love it.

We've got a week of great tides, and probably great weather ahead of us next week, so stay tuned. I'm expecting some pretty good fishing ahead.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 26, 2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a full work week this week, and it was with some of my best anglers and friends. There were so nice fish caught, too, so read on.

Monday and Tuesday were spent with my good friend Mike Schwartz, from Denver. He's the friend I had planned to fish stripers on Lake Powell with this July until BarHopp'R I sank! I've had to cancel that trip for this year. But, Mike, along with my friend Russ Hubbard, who was up for Wednesday, are my best anglers. These guys can fish!

Mike and I left the dock at 7 AM Monday morning, headed for the mouth of Tarpon Bay for bait. Bait was plentiful, and we were soon loaded and off to do some mangrove fishing. Mike and I hadn't done a lot of that together, and I thought he might enjoy it. We had a good new moon tide, and I anticipated a good bite. It wasn't forthcoming, though. Mike caught a couple of nice mangrove snappers, a jack crevalle, and several snook. The highlight of the mangrove fishing was a beautiful 6 pound, 24" gag grouper that just gave him fits under the trees. I'd dare say that very few people would have had a shot at landing that fish on such light gear, but Mike was all over that fish and never let it get the upper hand on him, as hard as it tried. That gag would be our dinner the next evening.

We fished a number of other places, both flats and bushes, but never really found the bite I was looking for. By day's end Mike had Slammed with 2 redfish, about 8 snook, 3 or 4 nice trout, the 2 snapper, the gag grouper, and jack. That wasn't a bad day, you understand, it just wasn't the great bite I thought would materialize. We had lost about half our bait through the course of the morning, and I couldn't figure out why. BarHopp'R II has a giant, Jacuzzi sized well in her, and I'd never lost bait in it before.

Tuesday turned out to be a very tough day for Mike and me. We got plenty of beautiful bait, had a great looking tide, and good weather, but the fish just didn't want to play. Oh, we had plenty of hits, but they were those non-committal hits that finicky snook are famous for. It's like they're killing the bait, but not eating it. It can be frustrating. I took Mike up into the north end of the Sound, again for something new, and to avoid the manatee zones in the south. I'd been on good snook up there, but they just didn't want to hang on. We later fished the flats, and couldn't get anything going there, either. We ended the morning with 1 nice redfish, 1 snook, 2 trout, and 1 ladyfish. It was enough for the Slam, but certainly a tough day of fishing! Mike is a fisherman's fisherman, though, and took it all in stride.

Tuesday evening Mike came over to the camp and we relived the days as well as other old times as I cooked the grouper and snapper he'd caught the day before. Not long after we were eating, my good friend Russ Hubbard showed up with his party for Wednesday. I was glad Mike and Russ got to meet each other since they are both very important people to me, and such great fishermen.

What a difference a day can make. Wednesday morning I met Russ, his boss Raul, and fellow employee, XXXX at 7:30, and we were off to catch bait. It was once again great, and we were soon fishing. I was loosing the bait again, though, and just couldn't figure out why. Before it was over we lost half of it. Worse, I had decided to start the boys out fishing the bushes, and that wasn't working either. In the first hour or so we were only able to muster a couple of small snook, a couple of big mangrove snappers, and an undersized gag grouper.

The bushes weren't working and we were fast loosing our bait. I decided to try to find some redfish on the open flats. I thought I was going to meet with more failure at first, as I couldn't get a strike at the first stop, even after some serious chumming. I picked up and moved less than a hundred yards, and that was the trick. With a little chumming, we had the fish going crazy. For the rest of the morning the four of us just had a ball catching beautiful redfish. We had many double hookups, and several triple hookups, and we all had a blast. We fished ourselves out of live bait, and switched to cut dead shiners and pinfish, and the bite continued. When it was finally over, we had racked up 30 to 35 redfish by our best count. It was a morning to remember, and I was so glad we'd been able to pull it off for Russ' friends. Russ has since sent me a beautiful letter, which will be posted in the testimonials, and says his friends are still talking about that trip!

Although Thursday was my first trip with Wes and Marilyn Bentrude, I felt like I knew them, since I had talked to them via email for a couple of years, and had referred them to one of my friends last year. They had fished the Stickbeach, which is now all but gone, and caught plenty of snook. They seemed more interested in snook fishing, so after catching bait, I headed to a snook hole that has been very good lately. To my surprise, we soon lost any hit of air moving, and the tide was pretty weak, too. Between the two, there wasn't enough influence to keep us tight on the anchor rope from any particular direction. We did find the snook eating, but I doubted we'd be able to catch the reds on the flats without a good breeze. We did catch some nice snook, but nothing big enough to keep at that first stop.

From there we went to check out the redfishing opportunities, but the seabreeze I had hoped would materialize, never did. Why is the breeze important? Well, when you're trying to catch redfish in the shallow of the flats, you must be able to cast your livebait a long distance. You can only get those spooky redfish to come in so close to your boat. The bigger your boat, the truer that is. Also, with no breeze to put a wrinkle on the water's surface, you are much more visible to the fish, and I'd dare say easier for them to hear. Anyway, I'd venture to say that a 10 knot or better breeze will double the distance a good caster can toss a live shiner on 8 or 10 pound test.

I poled onto the flat from a long ways off, and there were redfish everywhere. Damn! But, our shiners would just catch air and die in mid-cast, and fall short of where the fish were. I kept trying, but could not get close enough to the reds to get a bait to them, and they wouldn't come to chum close to the boat. They just weren't buying. I tried a big Texas float, but think that only served to spook the fish on such a calm day.

With the tide almost done, I asked the Bentrudes if they wanted to turn their attention back to snook, and they agreed. We headed to a nearby haunt, and were greeted with a few more snook, but the big surprise came when Marilyn hooked a beauty that immediately jumped and showed us her stuff. I went into the coaching mode, and Marilyn followed my lead, and in a few minutes, she had a beautiful 32 inch, 9 pound snook at boatside. It was her biggest snook ever. Wes was quick to remind her that he had gotten a 34 incher! We also got one nice trout somewhere along the way, there. It was a good, fun day of snooking, and I know if we could have mustered some wind, we could have spanked the reds like we'd done the day before.

Friday, already! It's time for my first trip with Paul Smutz, and his wife Beth, and father, John. I hoped as we left the dock to catch bait that the breeze wouldn't completely die on us again, today. Bait was great, and suspecting that I may simply be overloading my big well, I decided to catch less of it. I had already adjusted the sprayhead volume, and done everything else I could think of. Problem is, that well looks nearly empty with 300 baits in it!

With considerably less bait than I had been catching, we headed to the northern end of the Sound for snook. Although the tide chart indicated a good tide for the day, the water was hardly moving at all up there, and the bite was correspondingly bad. I hit a couple of other spots along the way with the same results.

Frustrated, I headed to the flats for redfish, hoping we'd have some breeze blowing to help the situation. Turned out Mother Nature mustered a southwest breeze of from 5 to 10, and it was enough to help our cause. I wasn't able to get the fish to go nuts, but we did get a bite going, and managed to catch 10 to 12 nice redfish. Toward the end of the tide, with still enough time to catch a few snook, I asked the Smutz gang if they wanted to leave the reds and try for snook. They were all in agreement so we took off. They managed to catch a half dozen or more snook before the tide stopped and the bite died along with it.

So, it had turned into a pretty good day with about 20 reds and snook caught. And, it had been a pretty darned good week with only one day that was really tough. Well now, if I knew how to spank those fish each and every day, what would I be doing now?

We're fast heading into summer, and the summer afternoon thunderstorms can't be too far away. That will mean early morning trips beginning at first light no matter what the tides are doing. It's the way of summer fishing here, though. By noon, it's so blazing hot that everything quits biting and just wants to lay down and take a nap. By the time you might be able to consider fishing again, here come the afternoon storms. It's definitely an early morning game for a while, now.

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