Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
September 10, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEKS ENDING 9/1 AND 9/8/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

With business way off from past years, there's not much to report. September is shaping up to be a disaster, just as August was.

I did get out on Monday of the first week with my old friend John Hitt, who was over for the weekend at his new condo. Because I had been doing very well with artificials, and John loves to fish artificials, we decided to go with them for this trip, in particular the Yozuri Magnum Walk the Dog. The tide was high first thing in the morning, which meant it was falling for the duration of our trip. The waters were full of floating seaweed everywhere we went, which made it nearly impossible to use any lure other than a spoon. The topwater plugs would be heavily weeded after only a few twitches, so if it didn't happen early, it wasn't going to happen. John and I worked our plugs and spoons hard, and missed several fish, but only managed to boat one red and one snook. We had a good time, though, doing what we love best, and John is always fun to fish with. Once we were done, we headed up the river to see if we could find his condo and access is from the water. Mission accomplished.

I went on a fishing trip of my own over the Labor Day weekend, down where phones and radios don't work. I left Friday morning, and didn't return until late Tuesday night. The next morning I headed up to Talon to pick up Gary Armington's personal F-16 to use on my trip with my old friend Bob McGuire the next day. IT would be my first trip in a Talon. I had invited my long time friend Capt. Mark Bess, who has retired from guiding, and who has also fished with Bob a few times over the years. We agreed to try our luck with artificials again, but had hopes of catching some ladyfish as a backup for the redfish, in case we couldn't lure them. We only managed to boat one ladyfish, although we had some that were in and out again. We also caught a few trout, and Mark had the hot rod there.

On the flats early in the tide there were redfish pushing all over, but they were spooky, and we didn't do the best job of presenting our lures to them. We only had two redfish hits on the lures all morning. Eventually, we put out frozen sardines and cut ladyfish, but the redfish just had lockjaw. They weren't interested in the least in eating. I suspect the water temperature had something to do with that, as putting my hand in the baitwell, was like putting it into a pot of water warming on a stove. The well has a 1,000 gallon per hour fresh water pickup, so the water is coming straight out of the flats, but it was easily in the 90's.

I think Bob, Mark, and I were all blown away at the performance and pure fishing comfort of the Talon. It really is an amazing boat. The three of us had so much room to fish and maneuver that I couldn't get over it. The Talon has such a soft ride in the rough stuff, that you think you're in a boat twice it's length. On the way home we were running into quite a stiff chop that came with a brisk afternoon easterly wind, and I'd guess we had waves to two feet. The Talon just seems to run over them effortlessly, quietly, and comfortably, and never got us wet. The boat exceeded my every expectation on the water, which is really saying something. The only thing this boat doesn't have fitted is a trolling motor, which I use a lot, but that wasn't a big deal, as the boat poles like a dream, and goes where you point it.

I have posted 12 new thumbnailed pictures on the Talon page of my website, for those interested in seeing how one of these jewels goes together. I'm hopeful that completion date will be about a week from this writing.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 8/25/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a slow week with good fishing. I only got out twice.

I fished Monday with Greg Fort, and ex-UCF line backer, now of Cape Coral. This was our first trip together. We had a mid-day tide, so we started at 8 AM, and went straight to Picnic Island for bait. There were tons of threadfins, along with plenty of shiners and nice pinfish, and an occasional skipjack, just to keep me on my toes.

I decided to spend the first couple of hours of the incoming in the sanctuary while waiting on fishable water on the flats. The fish there had other ideas, though, and Greg caught one redfish, missed one, and lost a snook. Not pleased with the slow action, we headed to the flats a little early, and I began the first of the chumming with cut baits. It wasn't too long before we had our first action, and after losing the first couple of fish, Greg got the hang of it, and boated a dozen or so nice redfish.

But we had practically no air moving to give us any evaporative cooling, and we were both overheating. Greg wasn't feeling very well, and we decided it would be wise to seek shade and cooler environs at the Waterfront Restaurant. So, we left them biting. I mentioned to Greg that we had a steady bite, but not a hot one, and he said he was thankful it wasn't a hot bite. It was a different kind of fishing than Greg had done on our waters before, but he sure seemed to enjoy it.

I fished Wednesday afternoon with my good friend, and long time fishing buddy, Butch Boteler, who is now a permanent resident of St. James City, on Pine Island. The first time I ever brought him to Pine Island Sound to fish, he swore he'd someday own a home here, and now he does.

Butch had been doing well with the redfish on Yozuri Magnum Walk-the-Dog lures, both in places I've shown him, and other places. I was eager to do some topwater fishing. We headed out into the Sound in his Go-Devil at around 5 PM to fish the first of the outgoing tide around Mckeever Keys.

As soon as the water began moving, we had our first action. I struck the first couple of fish, and they were really blasting that Yozuri Magnum! I was pleased that I had not lost my touch for fishing reds on topwater plugs, and didn't miss a single red. I caught 4 reds, a snook, and a trout, for the Slam, and Butch caught 2 reds, a snook, and a trout, I believe. We were back at his place by 8 PM, pleased with ourselves. That sure is fun!

It appears that my new Talon will be delayed at least a week. Seems that while other boat manufactures have slowed down production, Talon is taking orders for the F-16 at a good pace. I had an F-25 in front of me. Looks now like it will be the first week of September. It doesn't make me happy, but I know this boat will be worth the wait. Can't wait!

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 8/18/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

As I predicted last week, this was a busy and a productive week. The operative word is "reds". They're everywhere. I you can't catch a redfish in Pine Island Sound right now, something is wrong! I was on big schools every day last week.

My old friend Bill Alexander along with his neighbor Doug Farran, of Orlando, and I, started the week off with a high tide first thing in the morning, and falling for the time we were fishing. Not a scenario I like, as the fish have been eating on the full incoming tide, and with full bellies, can be hard to convince. Kinda like fishing the mornings of the full moon. But, Bill didn't have a lot of options with fishing dates, so we were going to try to make the best of it.

We caught shiners and pinfish on the Picnic flats, and as we headed north, Bill spotted some bird action on the water that promised to be either schooling ladyfish, jacks, or trout. It turned out to be ladyfish, and we put four into the well to round out our choices of baits to present to the redfish.

Once on the flats and anchored, we had a large school of redfish rise immediately behind the boat. I launched a ladyfish cannonball and hooked the first redfish almost immediately. There were lots of reds on that flat, but they didn't want to settle down and eat. They were quite mobile. Bill and Doug hooked six, and boated two 27 inch fish, along with a snook and a trout. We fished until the heat got the best of us, and headed in. Boy! Is it hot!

Tuesday was like a different day for Frank Juge, his daughter Susan, and her friend Anka, of Orlando, also. Frank was sent to me by my good friend and customer John Hitt, of UCF.

We caught bait, mostly pinfish, at Picnic Island, again, but didn't run across any ladyfish schools working. We headed to a flat in search of reds. Did we find them! Redfish were everywhere again, but with the tide slightly better than the day before, they seemed quite willing to eat. Frank and the girls had a big time catching redfish, with many multi-hookups. We didn't get an exact count, but we all agreed that we must have boated 15 to 20 redfish and one very nice trout. The amazing thing is that by their own admission, the gang missed as many fish as they hooked!!

With everyone beat up from the sun and catching those hard pulling reds, we agreed to an early return to the dock, and were back well before noon. We'd all had enough!

After taking Wednesday off, and with the tide getting better daily, I expected big things for my old friend David Bernot and his eleven year old son, Chris, on Thursday. David, Chris, and I have been fishing together for years, and we always have fun no matter how it goes.

We caught great looking shiners and pinfish at Picnic Island, and headed to the flats in search of redfish schools. The first shiner Dave pitched into the water died almost instantly, and then I realized that all our bait was dying very quickly. There was no way to save it. Every critter save for maybe a half dozen pinfish expired!

It took a little while to find the first pod of redfish, and they were upwind from us, and I had a trolling motor on my borrowed BC that had decided not to work at all. I was on the pole. I couldn't get the fish to come to my chum, although I could plainly see them milling and feeding a short distance away. I made a small move with the boat, and threw some more chum, followed by baits. Boom! Boom! Boom! Almost instantly, we had a triple hookup, and a Chinese fire drill!

Although the triple was cool, it was probably our curse. When you're trying to chum up redfish you must keep baits in the water to hold the fish. We had three fish and a bunch of commotion going on, no baits to deploy, and the result was that our fish left us. Although we did catch one more, and there were plenty of reds still around, we never were able to get on a school that would eat, again. I think the midday heat was affecting them, as it was us. We decided to quit early and head for the Waterfront Restaurant for cool down and lunch. We spent a couple of great hours there before heading home.

Friday was another great day for my old friend Bob Brockway, over from Pompano Beach. He had asked if we could fish lures instead of live/cut baits, and that was sure OK with me. First, I love to fish lures, and since it was just Bob and me, I would get to fish. Second, I wouldn't have to throw that castnet and be soaking wet before eight o'clock.

Bob and I headed up the river to see if the ladyfish had reappeared around the Shell Point area. They're fun to play with, and we figured we could keep a few for backup in case we were striking out with artificials. Bob hooked a couple of ladys, and got one into the boat, but it flipped it's way right back out, again. I caught four big speckled trout on the TerrorEyez. Boy, those river trout are about the color of redfish! Just beautiful.

As the tide came to a crawl, we headed up the Sound onto the flats in search of redfish. The plan was to move quietly on the trolling motor and search for redfish, then anchor when hooked up. It wasn't long before we found our first action. I had a whole bunch of fish rise up behind my spoon and follow it. I jerked the spoon one time and let it fall to get the weeds off it, and a red slammed it. I directed Bob to quickly cast to where my fish was. He did and was instantly hooked up. A double right off the bat!

It went like that for the rest of the morning. We threw to pods of reds we could see moving, and would catch several each time. Finally, we anchored in an area where we could see lots of fish working and caught quite a few. I sight cast to two or three passing fish and caught each one. Really cool! By the time we were done, Bob and I had caught easily 15 big reds on gold and silver Johnson Silver Minnows, and a few on the Bass Assassin Crystal Flash, plus the 4 trout. But, as Bob said, the number of fish wasn't important. He just knew he'd had a ball and wanted to come and do it again. We finished the day at the Waterfront.

I had a trip scheduled for Saturday with a local customer of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect his integrity. Seems he got a finger caught in a coffee grinder he was trying to repair on Friday, and had a finger that was ground up about right for drip! I have a hunch he missed out on some great redfishing Saturday morning, and hope his finger is healing well.

So, there you have it. There are lots of reds around, but you can't always make them eat. Sure is fun trying, though.

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