Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

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

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/23/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

We had a week of pretty good tides, good weather, and good fishing, and I managed to get in three days. Here's how they went.

On Monday, I had my first trip with Mike Lucas, and his nine year old son, Andrew, of St. Anthony, Minnesota. We had a cool northeast breeze at about 15, and the high only got to the low 70's. I thought we might try some redfishing on the flats on the late afternoon high tide, so we first headed up the river to catch ladyfish. It didn't take long to put several in the well, and we were headed to Picnic Island to catch shiners.

Once baited up, we began with trout fishing. We didn't find much of a bite, but did managed to catch a few nice ones to 3 pounds. As the water moved in we turned our attention to snook fishing. We did find some pretty good action, and Mark and Andrew did boat 6 or so of the many that hit their baits. The largest was a beautiful 34 inch, 11 pound snook. Good enough for fish of the week honors.

To round out our day, we headed to a shallow flat and chummed with steaked ladyfish to see if we could get some hot redfish action going, but the fish if there, didn't want to play. It was OK, as we had some beautiful fish in the well.

Tuesday was my first trip with Rick Zibbel, and his friend Joe, of Toledo, Ohio. We were treated to winds averaging 10, but gusting to 24, according to WeatherBug, swinging southeast with the approach of the next front. We gathered great bait at Picnic Island, and were off in pursuit of a keeper snook for Rick. He had asked me to tie him one up in the mangroves somewhere and have it waiting for him.

We began with trout fishing since he wanted some meat to take home. We found some great action on the flats and Rick and friend caught plenty. Before the day was over, the had trout to 6 pounds out of our snook spots. They also had about 5 flounder on the line, but managed to let them all get away. But, most importantly, Rick did get his snook, even though they only boated two fish to 26 inches.

Once the snook, trout, and flounder quit hitting in our snook spots, we headed to one of my favorite south wind redfish holes. I cut some pinfish, and chummed with them and shiners. We put out sliced pins right on the mangroves and immediately caught what I though would be the first of many redfish. I guess we were there too late on the tide, as we never got another hit. But, the red did give us the Slam, and gave them a chance to taste how good they are. It was a good day.

The last trip of the week on Friday, was with Joe Sander and his friend, from Jersey, I believe. We had a nice day, but a long, slow, crawling tide that covered twelve hours. I wasn't sure what to expect with the fishing, but we caught huge shiners at Picnic; the kind I love to throw at big snook. There was a good mix of all sized baits, though.

We began with snook fishing in cuts and troughs, and found the action slow. I moved to a trout area where we found great trout action, and Joe and his friend caught plenty of slot fish. Once the trout action slowed, we again turned our attention to snook. We found some action, and Joe managed to get one keeper into the boat. I don't remember how many they caught. We ended the day with one keeper redfish in the boat for the Slam. A picture of Joe is used as the background on the website this week.

So, the fishing was great this past week. Good trout and snook action, with plenty of keepers hitting our baits, but not so many hitting the boat! Once again I have a full week on the books for next week, and we have good tides. If the weather will let me run all those trips, there should be a lot to report on. Stay tuned.

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