Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
November 22, 2001
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 11/17/2001 by Capt. Butch Rickey

There were four trips on the books for the week, but a cancellation left me with only three to talk about. After getting a clean bill of health from my dermatologist on Monday, I was ready to face the elements on Tuesday.

My victims for Tuesday were my long time friend and good customer, Tom Ross, and his friend Bob, of Tampa. Tom is another friend that is right up near the top of my long list of favorite folks to fish with. We always have a good time. We'd had to cancel our last several attempts to fish together, both he with me here, and me with he there, and I think we were both pretty wired about our trip.

We took off at 6 AM and headed up to the flats off the mail run cut looking for bait. We had to make one move, but found plenty. We were quickly loaded with nice whitebait, threadfins, and pinfish, and were off to the first hole. We all agreed to target snook on this trip. We didn't find any fast action anywhere this day, but caught a couple here, and a couple there. I have to confess that I forgot to note my records with the details of our catch, but I'm pretty sure Tom and Bob managed around a dozen snook, a couple of nice flounder, and a ladyfish. There may have been others. We had a good, fun day though, which we capped off with lunch at the Waterfront. It's always good to see old friends.

Wednesday, I had my first trip with Henry Schoolfield, recently of Clearwater, Florida, with whom I've corresponded via email for quite some time. Henry is a veteran of many redfish encounters on the Cape of North Carolina, and was interested in targeting snook. That was fine with me. I headed back to the Mail Run flats thinking we'd be able to load up on bait quickly, but guess what? The bait was gone. Not the first shiner! So, we headed back to Tarpon Bay where we found my friend Capt. Maxie Stanford just finishing up. He had the shiners chummed up, and all we had to do was move in, toss a little chum to hold them, and throw the net. We were loaded in 3 or 4 throws.

We fished quite a few spots in the Sound, and caught a fish here and a fish there, but never got a good bite going. Bob caught a small barracuda, a few snook, several reds around an oyster bar, and a 4 pound flounder before I decided to head up the river. Once I was anchored on the Power Pole, Henry's first cast produced a nice snook. It was a perfect cast right up in the mangrove roots, and was eaten immediately. As we worked the shoreline from there, we had a descent bite. We were getting lots of hits on our chum, too. Henry finished with a dozen or so nice snook to 30 inches. Just as we were about to head for the dock, a school of huge jack crevalle came right to the boat. When I first spotted the water pushing, I thought it was a school of big reds, but it turned out to be some of the biggest jacks I've seen in a long time. We quickly pitched our baits into the school and were both hooked up. My God, what fun! These fish were a good 30 inches or more, and absolutely fierce. We hit them twice, and the third time they came close I was able to put a Top Pup in the middle of them. It was brutally smashed immediately, and I was shocked at the pull of this fish because I had the drag on my Stella 4000 screwed down so tight I could barely pull the 30# Power Pro off the reel in anticipation of big snook in the bushes. Yet, here was this huge jack just smoking line off my reel. She took over 150 yards of Power Pro, as she got into the mono backing I had underneath. That was one hell of a jack crevalle, and I'm betting it was 25 to 30 pounds. I'll never know, though, as she finally straightened the hook on the Mirrolure Top Pup, and the excitement was over for the day. We had a great time.

What became the last trip of the week was with my good friend Bobby Dumont, of Sebring, Florida, who himself has aspirations of becoming a guide. Regular readers may remember Bobby as the customer who very generously offered me the use of his Backcountry 20 ProGuide for several months after I broke both of my hulls. He kept me in business for several months, and I owe him a great debt of gratitude. He's a hell of a guy, and a damned good fisherman. This trip was partial payment for his generosity.

When we got to the ramp Thursday morning, the wind was howling out of the northwest. We wondered if trying to fish was a good idea, and several of the guides at the ramp had already canceled their trips. We decided we'd go ahead and launch and at least go for a boat ride, as Bobby was dying to get a ride in the new Talon. He is very interested in owning one himself.

Well, hell! Once we were out there riding around, we decided we might as well wet a line. We quickly caught plenty of bait, and headed north in the Sound. I figured I'd introduce Bobby to pothole fishing, BarHopp'R style on the low water. We caught probably a dozen big trout to 4 pounds, and I think Bobby was surprised at the quality of trout in the potholes. We also got the first nice snook out of a pothole I'd told him holds lots of snook. It was a blast on my Stella 2500/St. Croix Legend Elite combination.

We hit some other low tide holes, and as the tide began to rise hit some nice spots in the north end of the Sound. We caught a number of snook including two nice keepers. We headed back toward the river, and stopped at the Waterfront for a great lunch. After some warm drinks and a great lunch, we were ready to head up river in search of snook. I did lots of chumming, and we got lots of hits on the chum, but it was very difficult to get the fish to eat. It was almost as if they knew which baits had hooks in them. But, Bobby got a nice redfish, and we finished with at least a dozen snook to go along with the dozen big trout we'd caught, and congratulated ourselves on a pretty good day, on what was a nasty weather day. We also got the Slam!

And that's how the week went. Still a lot of windy days. I have a full week next week. So, there should be plenty to tell you about come next weekend.

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