Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
July 21, 2003
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 7/19/03 by Capt. Butch Rickey

This will go down as the worst week of my guiding career. Oh, the fishing was good, but for a variety of reasons including black, fresh water, poor tides, bright nights on the full moon, the catching really was poor. Unfortunately, most everyone I talked to was having the same poor fishing. I booked three trips for the week. The tides for Thursday and Friday were so poor, and so late in the afternoon, that it made no sense to be out there. Also, three days in this intense July heat is about all I can handle, anyway.

Monday I ran a trip for my good friend Russ Hubbard, of Dixie Plywood, in Royal Palm Beach. Russ couldn't make it so I was fishing with two of his co-workers, Steve Wrains and Dewey Evans. I had fished with Steve a couple of years ago, and it was a great trip. What a different day this would be.

We headed to Kiesel's flat for bait, and loaded up with pinfish and small shiners without much problem. But, that was the end of our catching for the day. We fished hard! We went outside to the Sticks, and fished great spots on both sides of the Sound, and never had a real bite. Late in the morning as we neared the noon hour, we finally got a couple of half hearted nibbles that may have signaled something was about to break loose, but the weather also began to bust loose, and we elected to get closer to home. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to rehydrate our wilted bodies and lick our open wounds. Not a bite! I cannot remember a day in my 15 year career that I didn't have a bite.

I drove to the ramp Tuesday morning to meet David Entler and his lovely wife Cathy with great apprehension. Could we possibly have two such days in a row? Was there something I could do differently? Was it me? Was this happening to our other guides? Dave and I have been talking via email for a year, now, about boats and fishing. He recently earned his Captain's license, and hopes to someday operate a tourboat operation. I really wanted to show him a great trip.

Dave was down from his home in Clermont (Orlando area)with his 22 ft. Florida Skiff, and has been vacationing here for about four years. He was very interested in learning as much as I could teach him about how and where to fish for reds and snook. So, the logical thing to do was to catch bait at Kiesel's, and spend the dead part of the tide riding, looking, and teaching. We worked our way north up the east side of the Sound, and then down the west side. We saw loads of redfish everywhere we went. Virtually every flat we visited had lots of fish on it. The lack of catching activity certainly isn't for the lack of fish.

We finally settled in an area to try for snook, and managed to miss one nice one, and boat two. We moved a quarter mile or so to another spot to work on the redfish, and got a bite going late in the tide. It wasn't a great bite, but the Entlers caught 5 nice reds, and missed one before they quit. We were about overheated and ready to quit, too, and headed for my favorite watering hole! Dave said he was happy with what he had learned, and with the catch. The Entlers were a great couple to spend the day with, and I look forward to our next outing.

I teamed up with Capt. Rey Rodriguez to take my old friend Tom Terranova, his son Tom Jr., Rob, and the rest of the gang on a two boat trip with six anglers. Tom has been out with me several times, and has seen how good it can be, and has seen it slow. But, not this slow! I told Tom on the phone how bad the fishing had been, but this is a fishing family, and they understand that it's not always about catching. I had hopes of that between Rey and myself, we could find some good redfish or snook action.

After catching bait at Kiesel's we moved a bit farther north to where large schools of ladyfish and trout were working the surface in about 6 feet of water. The action wasn't what you would have expected with so many fish busting on top, but we wanted some ladyfish to use for redfish bait later, and wanted some easy action. The boys did manage to put a couple of ladyfish in the boat, as well as some speckled trout, a big Spanish mackeral, and a couple of catfish.

Hindsight is always 20/20! We should have stayed there and caught ladyfish and trout, but we were anxious to get on to redfish and snook. We fished snook first for about an hour, and didn't catch a fish. I went to where I had caught the fish the day before, knowing they would be there again. I began the chumming routine, and just as Rey arrived from a trip to the Redfish Pass for snook which was also fruitless, Rob got hammered by the first red. Rob was out of practice, so I had fun busting his chops while he was fighting the red. I figured the bite was about to begin, and we did get three or four other hits shortly afterward, but that was it. The one redfish and mackeral were the big fish of the day!

By one o'clock we were chasing several small schools of redfish up at Fosters Point, and dying in the heat. The water was so trashy you couldn't present a clean bait, and the fish were spooky as hell. We tossed in the towel and headed to the oasis that is the Waterfront Restaurant. Ah, what sweet relief when that Talon got the air conditioner going. We finished the day with the eight of us at the round table enjoying a great lunch and great camaraderie. Yes, it was a tough day, but good people make it a good day.

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