Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
June 22, 2003
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 6/21/03 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The weather once again seems to be the big factor around here. We have had lots of storms and rain still building up just offshore and then coming onshore. I was able to get in three trips.

The first trip of the week was Monday with my old friend Roy Hobbs, president of H & L Builders, in Kissimmee, Florida. Roy and I go way back before my guiding career to when I was still in the tax business. He hadn't been over to fish in a couple of years.

We had weather brewing just offshore, but it appeared according to the radar loop that is would stay there. We headed to Kiesel's flat for bait. After watching the bait at Kiesel's get scarce during the last couple days of last week, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the bait was back. It wasn't as easy as it had been, but we got plenty.

I wanted to get out and fish the beaches, but wasn't sure the weather would let us. We headed to Redfish Pass to check things out. It was bouncy, but seemed doable. Once we got to where we would fish, the rollers made it difficult to stand up, and it took a while for Roy and me to get our sealegs.

We were in the snook pretty well. The bite wasn't as intense as it can be, but it was good, and Roy was catching snook after snook. I kept watching a storm brewing just behind us, as did Roy. At around 10:00 AM it began spitting lightning, and thundering. We both knew it was already close enough to be a problem. I had forgotten the story that Roy had once told me about being struck by lightning twice in the same day, but he felt it was time to remind me. We both agreed that it was time to move to safer territory, and took off. Best we could figure, we had about 35 to 40 snook in the boat.

We decided to head to the Waterfront Restaurant for an early lunch, and got there not long after opening. Once we were done the weather still looked threatening, and I think Roy was exhausted from just trying to stand up and fish earlier, I know I was! We called it a day.

Tuesday morning it looked light it may be more of the same for my first trip with Kevin Kenneny, of Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Fortunately, the weather stayed at bay long enough for us to get our trip in, and what a trip it was!

We headed to Kiesel's flat once again, and bait was somewhat easier than it had been on Monday. I was again concerned about getting outside to where all the snook are, as the wind was already around to the southeast, and that means it's coming right up the shoreline. We headed to the pass and accessed the situation, and decided to go for it. We were the only boat outside when we arrived.

From the moment the first bait hit the water, it was madness and mayhem! The snook were there by the zillions, and the bite was ferocious. I think Kevin was in shock at the number of fish. They were eating freelined shiners, shiners on jigheads, and pinfish rigged on jigheads. Actually, they were eating the pinfish better than the shiners.

I always try to keep count, but sometimes it's just not possible. But if one just does a little math, it is easy to be certain of a minimum catch number. It takes about 3 minutes from the cast to have another snook at the boat. If you calculate that out it's 20 fish per hour, and we fished for 5 hours. I also fished for part of the time, and kept Kevin as busy as I possibly could. I knew we were on pace for a 100 snook day with just one angler, and I don't think I've ever done that with just one angler. Anyway, we fished until every bait was gone, which was right around noon, and with what I caught I figure we put a good 130 snook in the boat. If I looked at the number of baits that we had the figure would be higher. We had several hundred baits, and virtually every one of them was hit. Even if we allowed that Kevin missed half the hits, which he didn't, the number would be greater. Suffice it to say it was an incredible morning of snook action. It was certainly the best single day of fishing Kevin had ever experienced.

After a couple of days off the water, which were not very good weather days anyway, I was back out on Friday with my old friends Bob Brockway and Bob Wallace, of Pompano Beach, Florida. I'd had a couple of my guide friends call me the night before wanting to know where I'd gotten bait the day before, and saying they'd had a terrible time finding ANY bait. Friday morning at the ramp it was the same story. I was concerned about what I would find at Kiesel's. In addition, the weather was unstable and the wind was up from the southeast early. I knew we wouldn't be able to get outside, and we had a horrible tide to be trying to fish inside. No, the fish on the outside don't seem to be nearly as affected by tides as the fish in the flats do.

Well, we got to Kiesel's flat and began chumming in the typical depth I normally would, and never saw a shiner. I kept a big load of pinfish, but knew they would do me no good fishing inside. I moved shallower, and managed to catch maybe a dozen or two at most. I saw my friend Capt. Max Stanford, and he was having the same luck, and soon left for parts unknown. About the same time, my best friend Capt. Butch Boteler showed up with his sister and brother-in-law, Bobbi-Jewel and Mickey. I told him how it was going, and he wasn't happy with the report. He decided to get in Max's chum line and try to take advantage of his efforts, and it wasn't long before he shouted over to me that he had plenty of beautiful shiners all over the place. Go figure! So, we joined him, and soon had a well full of nice bait. Capt. Butch saved the day.

For the rest of the morning Bob and Bob fished hard. We covered a lot of ground, and I went farther north in search of a bite than I normally have to go. The reward of our efforts was 9 snook and several trout. It was a very tough day, mainly because of a do-nothing tide. I guess it was around one o'clock when we saw a big rain system moving onshore, and I suggested it was time to go. We got back to the Punta Rassa ramp just before the rain began.

And, it's now Sunday afternoon, and it's been raining off and on, mostly on, ever since. This system has really socked us in, and as I conclude this report a big storm is approaching with a lot of noise. Time to go.

Stayed tuned, and tight lines.

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