Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
August 15, 2002
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 8/10/2002 by Capt. Butch Rickey

With six trips on the books it was a busy week in the heat. The fishing was great, but the catching was slow for much of the week. Three of my parties this week were folks from Texas where they have plenty of trout and redfish. Naturally, they wanted to target snook, and found out just how stubborn snook can be.

First up on Sunday was Leonard Pattillo, of Houston. Lenny is a pretty avid fisherman, and does a lot of his fishing with Corky Lures, which are made out there in Texas. He was nice enough to give me some samples, which I’m going to try out as soon as I get a chance to go fun fishing.

We got bait easily at Chino Island and were off to find some snook that would eat. The high was to be 93, but thanks to some weather coming onshore we had a nice breeze to help keep us cooled down. We had just caught the first several snook when a storm blew up and came onshore. It looked like it had the potential to be nasty, so we ran for cover. Sure enough it began to throw big lightning not long after we took off. We waited for about an hour before we could get back out and fish.

Unfortunately, the storm robbed us of the best part of the tide that morning, but Lenny still managed a dozen or more snook before the tide was done. Of course, as always, there were quite a few fish that were missed, too. But, that’s part of snook fishing.

Lenny was a good fisherman, interesting to talk to about fishing, and a lot of fun. I look forward to his return.

Monday is was Dr. John Harper, his son Dr. David Harper, and David’s son Andy, of Dallas ready to take a shot at our snook. The tide was almost identical to Sunday’s tide, just slightly later. The weather was about the same, and bait was great at Chino.

The first two fish in the boat were jack crevalle, which I believe the boys caught on topwater plugs while I was catching bait. The Harpers also got a big redfish early on. But, the snook proved tough. Although the boys had quite a few strikes, the lost several and only managed to boat 3 snook. They also caught 3 speckled trout for the West Coast Slam.

We didn’t set the world on fire, but the Harper’s are fishermen, and know how fishing can be. They were great sports, and a lot of fun, too.

Tuesday it was Harry Simms, and his son Danny, from Yukon, Oklahoma, to take their turn at our snook. Conditions were about the same, but the tide was much better. Bait was great at Chino.

Out on the flats the fishing wasn’t bad for the hottest part of the summer. Through the course of the morning, Harry and Danny missed one nice redfish, a number of snook, and boated a dozen or more snook. Harry learned a tough lesson, though. I tell the story of this part of the trip, not to embarrass Harry, but to help all you folks out there who may have thought I was making a big deal about how to handle a graphite rod, understand.

Harry had brought any number of fish to the boat, and after reeling them close to the rod tip, had no choice but to grab the rod in the bend to try to land his fish. I told Harry several times that he would break a rod doing that, and showed him the proper way to land the fish, leaving it out the length of the rod away from the tip of the rod, raising the rod, and grabbing the leader, fish, or whatever.

But, in the excitement of the moment, Harry grabbed the rod in the bend, on a fish that Danny was landing, I think, and it broke like a matchstick in his hand, just as I had predicted. I knew Harry felt awful, no only for breaking the rod, but knowing that I had told him that he would have to pay for a rod if he broke it.

Harry was a good sport about it, though. His goal was to get plenty of pictures of his son Danny with fish, and that we did. We even got one with the broken rod. Harry learned his lesson well, too, it seems. On the next fish, he admitted that he almost grabbed the rod the same way, but caught himself!! I’m sure glad he did.

We had a great time. While I coached Danny on how to fight the fish, Harry gave him plenty of positive reinforcement. I think we were a good team for his son.

Wednesday, my old friend Russ Hubbard was over for a day of fishing with his son David, who is fast becoming a fine looking young man. Russ began the day by reminding me of how David plotted my death on the ride home on the very first day Russ brought David over to fish some years ago. Seems he took exception to my coaching. Thank goodness he outgrew it!

We had a good new moon tide, and bait came easy. I was hopeful that we could be able to fine some redfish that would eat. But, through the course of the morning we managed to catch only two reds. We also caught several snook, but could never get a good bite going. We fished flats, oyster bars, holes, cuts, and bushes. Finally, knowing now how much Russ loves to catch the mighty sea trout, we headed to a great trout flat and caught about half dozen nice trout to end the day. We’d gotten our Slam, but hadn’t set the world on fire. We ended the day with a great lunch at the Waterfront.

I had the good fortune to spend Thursday with another of my favorite people, Dick Witherow, of Upper Arlington, Ohio. Like most of my favorite fishing friends, Dick just has a serious love of fishing.

We had our second day of north wind after a passing front, which is rare for this time of year. We headed up to Chino for bait, and found a big school of jacks crashing bait. We put catching bait on hold to chase the jacks. They’re just too much fun to catch, because they fight like hell. We took off on the trolling motor pitching Mirrolure Top Pups at them. We caught four jacks to five pounds before turning our attention back to catching bait. Little did we know that might well be the highlight of the day. We did manage to load the well with shiners with one throw of the net, though.

We fished hard, and I even resorted to fishing some spots I hadn’t fished in some time. We just couldn’t get anything going. Dick missed several redfish, and boated 3 snook, and that was about all we could muster. Very tough, but Dick is always upbeat and positive, and seemed happy with what we’d caught. A true fisherman.

The last trip of the week was the first with Howard Knight and his eighteen year old son Chance, of Sugar Land, Texas. We started the day with a good breeze from the east that managed to keep the 90 degree temp from feeling so hot for most of the day. We headed back to Chino to catch bait, and hopefully run into the school of jacks again. Sure enough, they showed a couple of times, but the boys only managed to catch one of them. They did, however, catch several speckled trout on the topwater lures, and that’s the most fun way to catch trout.

Since we finally had an east wind and I knew the Gulf would be fairly calm, I decided to take the Knights out to the Stickbeach, expecting some intense action. I was shocked to find no action as we trolled along casting shiners to the wood. We caught one snook! I don’t know what’s up with that.

Back inside on the flats, we caught one more snook, but the boys did miss quite a few that should have been fish. It was just a tough day of catching! Howard and Chance were great guys, though, and we had a good time. We finished up with a great lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, where much to my amazement, Chance actually consumed a whole steakburger in no time! It is such a big burger, I can’t finish one.

Well, that’s how it went. I talked with one friend who got into some good redfish action way up in the north end of the Sound, but those fishing in the southern half seem to be having similar results. I think it’s got a lot to do with water quality.

Later this month, I expect the redfishing to bust loose on the flats all over. It usually does in late August. Here’s hoping.

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