Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
January 28, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 1-26-2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I did three trips this week, and the pothole fishing for big trout was just fantastic.

The first trip was with Brenda Alfrey, of San Carlos Park. It was her first BarHopp'R trip, and her first time to fish the flats. I took her up the river through thick fog to catch ladyfish first, to allow her to get used to the open face spinning gear, have some fun catching fish, and keep a few for bait in case we decided to chase redfish. Brenda caught on quickly, as most of the gals do, and was soon casting and jigging the Terroreyez quite well, and catching ladyfish. She agreed they were a lot of fun.

Once she had the ladyfish mastered it was time to go trout fishing. From the time we stopped at the first spot until we decided to call it quits, we were on great trout action in the potholes. Most of the fish were keepers (slot fish), with many over the slot. Once we'd had enough we went to the Waterfront Restaurant for a great lunch.

Wednesday I fished with my two best friends, Lee Dugger of Patrick Springs, Virginia, and Capt. Butch Boteler, of St. James City. We've been fishing together for some fifteen years, and always have fun. I picked the boys up at Butch's place in St. James, and they were shocked and amazed that I was able to navigate my way there because of the heavy fog. It was so thick I couldn't see my bow light. Visibility was near zero. I did go astray once, but managed to get back on track and feel my way there. I suppose I should buy another hand held compass. We had a very early tide, and were getting a late start because of the fog, and would be fishing barely moving water. I expected a slow bite.

Instead of a slow bite, we had a fast trout bite for a long while that covered several holes, but the fist were mostly small. The bigger fish just didn't seem to be eating, so we just had fun with the smaller ones catching them on every cast of our Saltwater Assassins. We did wind of with plenty of keepers, though, before it was over, and we finished our day with a great lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, and rum and cokes at Butch's. Made for a very nice day out with good friends.

Friday was my first trip with Debbie Hubbard of Cape Gerardeau, Missouri. Debbie's Yahoo handle is "fishingal". Does that tell you something? Yes, she's a good fishergal! It was Debbie's first time on the flats, too, so I thought a great trout fishing day would be the place to start her off. We were treated to an immediate and intense trout bite, and caught them on nearly every cast for hours. We caught plenty of big fish, and kept a few for dinner. As the water flooded the flats, I moved to a spot in search of tailing redfish. We didn't find any fish tailing, and only had one follow on our topwater plugs. Deb and I both saw the redfish wake up on her Top Pup, but she got excited by the visual and struck before the fish did! Easy to do. We were treated to some great topwater trout action, which I didn't expect this early in such shallow water. Debbie landed both five and six pound trout that were just gorgeous fish. She was thrilled.

We took a break for lunch at the Waterfront, and afterward went to North Captiva to allow here to do some shelling. My back was bothering me, so I stayed with the boat anchored just along the shore. I laid down across the seat cushion behind the console. The wind shifted and turned around giving us a seabreeze, and the Gulf began to get roly-poly. I was rudely awakened when a wave crashed over the stern and soaked me and everything on the rear deck including her purse. When I sat up, I realized that we had been enveloped in a dense seafog that had rolled in with the wind. I could barely see the trees in front of me at that point and called for Debbie. We headed for the dock.

With the warming water has come great trout action. Next week, I'll probably check out the redfish and snook action. The snook should be getting active again with the continued warming.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 1-19-2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

There were five trips to talk about this week, and the warming weather has served to get the fish coming out of the closet.

Sunday and Monday were spent with my friend Marc Denton, of Little Silver, New Jersey, and different groups of his long time fishing friends. Sunday it was Sandy and Marty. It was a pretty, but chilly day, with light easterly breeze and cold water that keeps the air cold. I showed up armed with plenty of hand picked shrimp from Danny's Bait House, and a tacklebag full of lures.

We first went up the river to catch ladyfish, both for fun, and for redfish bait. The tide was moving so hard that we would drift through the schools very quickly, and kept having to take the boat around for another pass. After having some fun catching the ladys on rootbeer Terroreyez, we headed up into the Sound to look for redfish. There was a boat sitting very near the small area I wanted to fish, and it was not possible for me to get in there without interfering with his fishing, so I decided to see if we had trout, which are usually plentiful where we were, and wait for them to leave. The guy didn't leave, and the trout weren't eating, so we finally took off for other parts.

We fished a deep winter snook and redfish hole with shrimp on Trollrite jigs, and had little success at that, either. So, I decided to hit some of the best trout spots in the Sound. We finally got into fish that would eat, and were catching them on the same rigs. But, there weren't a lot of keepers in this spot which usually gives up plenty of big winter trout. They did have enough for dinner though.

Monday, with Marc, and again Marty, with their friend Enloe Baumert, we saw southerly breezes to 15, and a wind chilled forecast for the mid 70's. We skipped the ladyfish, as I had saved several on ice. Marc requested that I take them hunting, looking for tailing redfish. Although this kind of fishing is hard to do with more than one angler in the boat, I agreed. It is great fun, even when you don't manage to get that perfect cast, or the fish don't eat. It's the classic thrill of the hunt, and seeing the fish tailing that are so exciting.

I headed to a flat where the redfish almost always tail on the incoming tide. It was a dreary, wet, drizzly morning with an approaching front. When we first got to the flat, there wasn't enough water to float the Talon loaded with close to 900 pounds of guys. We had to wait a bit. I also didn't want to get trapped on the shallow flat with no way to get off if the weather really got nasty. But, as the tide began to rise and float the boat, the weather seemed to settle, and we poled onto the flat armed with Texas rigged shrimp.

We had plenty of redfish tailing almost immediately. But, catching them was another story. In order to have a shot at catching tailing fish the angler MUST be able to cast far, quickly, and accurately. If the bait lands too close to the fish, it will likely spook it. To short, and..... The bait must be casted beyond and just in front of the fish a couple of feet, then quietly moved up close to the fish and allowed to settle. If properly done, the fish will almost always eat the bait, if he is indeed eating.

But, my guys were having a hard time with the casting and couldn't get the baits to the fish. Also, the fish were not sitting still for very long. They were in a stop, grab a quick bite, then move again mode. They were hard to keep up with. We decided to tie on topwater plugs, which would give the guys more distance, but they have their own set of problems. They must be properly worked to be effective. This was all new fishing for Marc and the guys, and they had a hard time grasping the concept of walking the dog. We never did catch a redfish on that flat, but had a lot of fun trying, and teasing and badgering each other in the process. Enloe did have one on briefly, and the guys did boat 2 big trout and lose another on the topwater plugs. That's the most satisfying way to catch a speckled trout.

We spent a lot of time on that flat, several hours, and by the time we left, we didn't have a lot of tide left on which to try to find some action. We tried some pothole trout, but they had already left on the tide. We hit a couple of good redfish spots with no luck except catfish. Finally, I headed to one of my favorite south wind redfish holes, which I couldn't get at earlier because of the water depth. I chummed the shoreline with diced ladyfish and we put three baits into the mangroves. Very quickly we had 2 nice redfish in the boat to keep the 2 big trout company. And, it was over as soon as it had started. I chummed more, but the bite was over with the tide. We called it a day, and with the four big fish we had, Marc and the boys had plenty of fish to divide up.

Wednesday morning, my best friend Capt. Butch Boteler and I decided to go and take on those redfish on that flat. Surely we, a couple of professionals, could catch a couple of them. I stopped and bought a few dozen shrimp, but we wanted to have some fresh ladyfish, and headed up the river for them. We had our bait in a couple of minutes and decided to throw some lures for snook. We got into some nice jack crevalle, but didn't get a snook to eat. As the falling tide began to slow, we headed up into the Sound to take on the tailers.

We got Butch's Pro Sports up on the flat, but he doesn't have a push pole, which is a serious handicap when trying to catch tailing fish. We were not able to move the boat except with the trolling motor. We elected to chase the fish on foot. We loaded our pockets with shrimp and ladyfish, and I took two rods and spare hooks, and were off. The tide was running very hard, and the fish were running with it. They were tailing, but not stopping to root in any one spot for more than a minute or so. We literally couldn't keep up on foot. The fish outran us. We scored a big goose egg. As the water forced the tails down, we walked back to the boat and headed way back into the backcountry to see if we could find them. We did see an occasional fish, but never found any aggregation of them. To our surprise, we did happen upon a four foot long snook in the shallows. I didn't expect to see that big female out there in that cold water.

Friday, I took Diane Bogenrieder out on her first southwest Florida flats fishing trip. She had only fished off a head boat, where there is no casting involved. So, she was your basic neophyte. That's a good thing, though, because she brought no bad habits with her. It was a beautiful day with light breezes and a forecasted high of around 80. I was hopeful that the warming trend would finally have the fish in an eating mood.

I took Diane up the river to break her in on ladyfish, and let her get comfortable with the spinning gear that was all new to her. In typical female fashion, she caught on quite quickly, and was soon showing progress with every cast. Soon she was catching her own fish. She probably had more trouble with the concept of "pump and reel" than anything else, but eventually got the hang of it.

Once she gained some confidence with the gear and techniques, we headed up into the Sound for trout. Not only are they the most plentiful, typically, but they're also a bit easier to deal with than big reds or snook. At our first stop the action was fast and furious. Diane and I caught trout on nearly every cast of green plastic bodies on white jigheads. She was having a blast, and so was I. When the action slowed at the first spot, we moved a short distance to another, and were right back into the action. As that action slowed we switched to shrimp on Trollrites, and Diane got the biggest trout of the morning, a 4 pounder.

Finally, I was about to starve, and we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant where I consumed one of their huge burgers. It has to be one of the world's biggest and best. We were both so sleepy after eating a big lunch that I decided to stop at Picnic Island for a nap. There's nothing like a nap on a boat that is gently rocking to the sound of water lapping against the hull. But, the silence was soon interrupted by the sound of my buddy Butch Boteler who had arrived to let his black labs run. We chatted for a while, then headed in.

Saturday, my good fishing buddy and customer Dr. John Hitt was eager to go and catch some of those trout Diane and I had been in the day before. John loves to fish, and especially enjoys trout fishing with his Sustain 2000 on a 7 1/2 ft. light action Reddington rod.

We headed up the river to kill some time on the falling tide warming up with ladyfish, and saving a couple for bait. I staked the boat in the middle of the school, and we caught them two at a time for about an hour. We headed up into the Sound, and I thought John might enjoy killing some time casting to tailers on the tail of the falling tide, but they weren't there. We didn't see the first fish. So, I found a small pothole to corkscrew out of, and we headed to the trout holes. We stopped and had a sandwich while waiting on a boat to clear the area, and for the tide to kick. Soon, both had happened, and we made our approach on to the flat. I had to make a few minor adjustments at the first stop, but we finally got the action going. Once we did, we caught trout after trout on jigs of all varieties.

When the action slowed on the first stop, we moved to another nearby, and got right back into the action. But, the trout were bigger. We began culling trout, and the baitwell of my Talon reminded me of a "pay to fish" trout pond I had fished in North Carolina some thirty years earlier. It was brimming with big, beautiful speckled trout. We also caught a couple of nice flounder. As on the day before, when the action slowed we switched from jigs to shrimp on Trollrites, and got our biggest fish. We had a blast, and finished the day at the Waterfront with a great lunch.

Back at the ramp where the Talon always draws plenty of attention, our big trout also drew plenty of attention. Oddly, there were no anglers cleaning fish, although there were plenty of flats boats coming in. I'm not sure what that meant, but I did hear that some had success with redfish.

So, if the weather will continue to warm, and we can keep the cold fronts away, we should see continued good fishing.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 1-12-2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I only had two trips during the week. The weather was cold and miserable, and the fishing was very tough.

The first trip was Wednesday with Chuck Clayton, and his buddies Mike Williams and Jim Madsen, of Huron, South Dakota. Chuck had called me the night before for last minute details, and I warned him to layer up and dress appropriately for the Florida cold. We were expecting to see a low of around 36 with the wind howling out of the north. Chuck reminded me that they were from South Dakota, and I reminded Chuck that they were not used to the wet Florida cold that can cut you right through to your soul. At the ramp the next morning the boys told me how surprised they were that it was actually colder here than it was when they left home. Although they all had on jackets, they quickly found that they had not dressed warmly enough for our damp cold, and I think they were cold for most of the day.

To add insult to injury, the only game in town was ladyfish up the river. There were plenty of those, and they provided some fun. But once we left them, we couldn't get a fish to eat anywhere. In fact, I poled up on redfish and trout that refused to move until I was nearly on top of them with the boat. You're not going to get those fish to eat. We fished hard, but only managed to catch one redfish for the rest of the trip. I asked the boys to please not judge our fishing here based upon that cold day.

A cold couple of days later, I had a trip with Charlie Shelton and his wife Cathy. He is here vacationing for a while with his 24 ft. boat, and was worried about how to get around on the super low winter tides. So, a big part of what he wanted to do was learn, and maybe learn something about how to fish here, as well.

I began with showing him where he could catch enough ladyfish to entertain himself and friends for hours on end. But, from the ladyfish it was a straight drop downhill, as the fish just wouldn't eat in the super cold water. We did manage two big speckled trout that morning, and that was it. We were thankful for those two fish, too!

We desperately need to see an extended period of warm weather, which will allow our water, now below 60 degrees, to begin to warm. Once it does, the fishing should begin to bust loose. Until then, it will be slow

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