Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
February 5, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/2/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I had a couple of great trips at the end of the week. There is plenty of bait, snook, and trout to catch.

On Thursday, Diane Bogenrieder was back to try her hand at snook fishing. She'd never seen or caught one before. We headed to Picnic Island to see about bait, and were loaded with beautiful shiners in two or three throws. I'll bet we had 500 baits in the Talons big well.

There was no water in the Sound, so the problem would be where oh where to fish. I decided to begin in a canal, and we were rewarded with lots of snook action, including several keeper size fish. But, we had to wait until midnight for the season to reopen. When the action subsided there, we headed to a deep hole not far away, and were again rewarded with great snook action. I'd say we boated a couple dozen snook, and missed and lost plenty, too. It was a great day of snooking, and Diane did great and had a lot of fun.

I met Jeff Wall, and his dad Mark, and friend Mike, down from Virginia, at around ten o'clock on Friday morning. This trip was in celebration of Mark's 58th birthday. I expected easy bait and great snooking as on the day before. But, at Picnic the current was moving so fast we had trouble catching bait for a while. I could see the bait flipping quite a ways from the boat in our chum line, but couldn't get it to come close enough to get a net over it. So, I had Jeff go to the rear of the boat and throw the chum further back, and we increased the dosage. That did it! The bait came swarming, and we loaded up quickly then.

I went right back to the canal where we'd caught all the snook the day before. The fish were there, but not in a real eating mood. I would see pops on my chum far away from us as it was swept away on the current. So, I decided to troll slowly and cast the bank, and stopped every time we hit a fish. Jeff, Mike, and Mark, all missed lots of fish, and some nice ones, and caught a good dozen, but never got a keeper in the boat. They also got a couple of flounder and a jack crevalle. Knowing they wanted meat to take home for dinner, I suggested we switch our attention to trout for a while and went to a deep hole that is usually full of trout during the winter. The fish were there, but didn't show themselves until after I had thrown a couple handfuls of chum. Once they began to bite, we had a great time catching trout, all in and above the slot. The prize of the day came from yet another hole, and ate a pinfish. She was a beautiful 5 pound speckled trout. The boys were thrilled, as they'd never seen or caught trout like ours. Although they didn't bring home a snook, they had plenty of trout and flounder to eat, and had a great time.

So, the prognosis for the immediate future looks good if the weather will continue to stay warm.

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Butch Rickey
• Pine Island Sound Fishing Reports
• Southwest Florida (Cape Sable to Boca Grande) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports