Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
May 23, 2004
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 5/22/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a week of renewing old friendships and making great new ones. So, with that, how can the fishing have been anything but great? Also, two days running, I put three of the largest snook in the boat, ever to see the inside of a flats boat. Wait until you read the story and see the pictures of these big snook!

The week began on Sunday with my old friends Roland and Shannon Hartich, who are the owners of Villa Adele shown on the bottom of this report page. They're great folks, and this time Roland brought along his dad, Mike, who speaks only German.

We headed out to Picnic Island for bait, but as I approached I could see that the whole fleet was anchored there chumming. I opted to head straight to Chino Island, instead, and that was a good call. There was only one other boat in the whole area, and when I brought the Talon off plane and shut her down, bait rose up all around us for as far as we could see. I only used a little chum I already had prepared to get them ganged up tight, and after a couple of throws we left with an overpopulated baitwell.

Roland and Shannon told me they wanted to take some fish home for the table. Since snook season is closed and redfish small enough to keep have been hard to come by, I elected to first take them trout fishing to get dinner caught. We stopped at a good trout/snook pothole, and the fish were thick as thieves. The Hartichs caught too many trout to count, and we kept 8 for their dinner.

As the trout action slowed we moved to another spot in search of redfish. I began my chumming routine with live and cut baits, and soon we had some action. Although it didn't last as long as we would have liked, my friends did put 5 nice redfish into the Talon, and missed a few before they slowed. Once it did, we moved on to a snook hole where we had lots of action, but only managed to boat 3 snook, or so.

All in all it was a great day with lots of action, some nice fish, and great company. And, Mike did great in spite of the language barrier.

I was on the water at first light Monday morning with my First Mate, headed to Picnic Island for bait before taking off to North Captiva to pick up my friend Tom Ashby. Tom and I fished several days back in January, and it seemed we were destined to become friends. Tom is about my age, and we share many interests. And, he's a hell of a guy and lots of fun. I was looking forward to seeing him, again.

A lot had been happening with him since we last met in January. He and his wife Dixie had fallen in love with North Captiva, and decided to buy a vacation/rental home there. They were here cleaning the house and getting it ready for living, and had found it to be a much bigger chore than they had bargained for. So, Tom was definitely ready for a day away from working on the house, and a day on the water was just the ticket.

Bait came easily, and I was soon pulling up to the beach in front of the runway on North Captiva. Tom had a big smile on his face, and looked great. We were off. We had an ugly east wind that made for an bumpy ride to North Captiva, even in the Talon. I decided it would be a great day to go outside and see if the snook on the beach would bite. The water would be calm, and we would be out of the wind.

I headed to a section of beach with lots of "Sticks" hoping to find hungry trout and snook. But, there wasn't much going on, and we only managed to catch a couple of snook. We took off south to check out another spot, but as we approached Redfish Pass we realized the wind had shifted southeast, and the water was getting rough. I knew it would be rougher south of Blind Pass, so we came back inside.

It seemed a good idea to show Tom some spots to fish in his new back yard, so I headed to a great redfish flat, nearby. Although I didn't make eyeball contact with any fish as I quietly moved across the flat, I knew the fish were there, and found them in a large pothole. A little chumming, and a couple of cut shiners placed into the hole soon had the reds biting. They were great fish, and the first Tom had caught, and he was like a kid in a candy store. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat that swallowed the rat, and having a ball with those big reds. Tom boated 6 of the bronze beauties, and 6 big reds can wear you out.

Once the action slowed, I took him to another area not far away that usually has snook, and often redfish. The snook were there, but they were just hitting and killing our baits, as they so often do when they don't want to eat. He did catch one, though, before the tide came to a stop for the day. We headed back to North Captiva knowing we had made the best of a tough day. We would meet again on Wednesday.

Tuesday was a day I'll not likely forget. My guests were Steve O'Rourke, and his lovely wife Liz, of Hornchurch, England. Steve is a firefighter who also owns a tackle shop back home, and shares my love for fine fishing tackle. In fact, he said the fact that I use Stellas exclusively was one of the deciding factors in hiring me.

We headed out to Picnic Island for bait, and quickly had the console baitwell on the Talon full of shiners and pinfish. We were off to the first stop of the day in search of snook. We found trout. We had some snook hits, but they weren't eating, and were impossible to hook. After some nice trout, we moved to a nearby hole where I've been catching very big redfish. I began chumming with live and cut bait, and put out both cut pinfish and live shiners under popping corks. Steve and Liz caught several nice redfish to 7 pounds, and were thrilled with the fight.

We moved on in search of snook, and the West Coast Slam. At the next stop I did a similar chumming routine, and soon we had snook biting. Some we caught on cut baits, some on freelined live shiners, and some on shiners under popping corks. It's funny! I know more than one local guide who will tell you it's not possible to catch snook using a popping cork! Wrong! Steve and Liz caught at least a dozen nice snook, as well as two large speckled trout, to complete their Slam.

It had been a great day with a great couple, that I will long remember.

Wednesday, my First Mate and I were again on the water at first light chumming at Picnic Island for bait. Again, it came pretty quickly. I had decided to do our second trip in the Maverick, and give the Talon a day off, and we were at North Captiva to pick up Tom Ashy, and his lovely wife, Dixie, by 7:40. Again, the wind had kicked from the east, and it seemed a good day to check out the Stickbeach.

We made the long ride down for the first time this year. There were no other boats there. Because the storms rearrange the wood every year, the good often change from year to year. So, I decided the best strategy would be to move slowly along on the trolling motor and pitch shiners to the wood until we found some action, then anchor up and fish the spot hard. Problem was, the fish weren't eating. In the hour or so that followed half dozen boats showed up, cutting short my plans for exploring the beach. We saw one other snook caught, and it was a very nice female. But, having caught only 3 snook, we opted to look for better action elsewhere.

Back inside the snook action wasn't any better, and our first few spots only yielded 3 more snook. But, we were having fun. Tom has done many things in his life, including guiding in Canada, racing cars, and building a very successful company. He understands that fishing is first and foremost about sharing the experience with a fellow angler, and just enjoying nature and wonder of the outdoors. The slow snook fishing wasn't an issue.

We moved on, changing our attention to redfish, which I knew from the day before, Tom would enjoy, if I could only find some fish that would eat. I first put out two cut baits and one shiner under a float. Then I spread some chum. It wasn't long before we had our first strike. For an hour or so we had hits every few minutes, on both live and cut baits. We caught smaller slot fish on the live baits, and the bigger red on the dead-sticked cut baits. And then, as if by turning a switch, it was over. We were happy to have ended the day with some nice redfish on a pretty good bite. It had been a great day with good company and good conversation.

OK! Now for the big snook story. This trip was on the books for a long time, and I was really looking forward to it. I put the Talon in the water Thursday morning in great anticipation of putting some of the biggest snook ever seen in her. Around 7 AM, it happened. I looked up and saw three huge snook walking down the dock! They were Sid, Nick, and Barry Snook. Yes! The Snook brothers, and they were here to catch their first snook. They had tried before with no luck.

Sid had organized this trip as a brothers' reunion. The Snooks are in their late 50's to early 60's, and are beginning to feel their mortality, and Sid deemed a snook fishing trip of a couple of days the perfect way to get the boys together and get to know his brothers, again. It was a great idea, and I was honored to be a part of it.

Well, before we were even underway, I knew it was going to be a crazy, fun two days. These guys were all funny as hell, each in his own way, and immediately were telling stories on each other. We headed to Picnic Island for bait, and Nick was elected to do the chumming. Bait didn't come easily, for some reason, but we got plenty for a day of fishing with three guys. We were off.

I elected to visit one of my favorite snook areas this time of year. The snook were there, but not in a real eating mood. The first action all went to Barry, with two snook and two nice trout, and of course, Sid and Nick were going on about that!

We moved about a mile to another great area, and began again. We still had lots of hits from snook that were only killing the bait; not eating it. But, another move to a spot not too far away proved the charm. The snook turned on, and were blasting baits for the rest of the morning. Of course, there were many misses and some fish lost after they were hooked, but the Snook brothers were having a great time doing battle with their long lost relatives, the Snook family fish! The fish had totally put down their guard, and were actually following many of the baits right to the boat, and the Snook boys could see them. I explained that this was very unusual behavior for snook, and theorized that perhaps the snook fish had decided to come and get a first hand look at the big Snook brothers.

Well, needless to say, even though Barry sat out much of the action because the heat was getting to him, we had a blast, and I heard it all on that day. Sid told me Friday morning they had spent the rest of the day and into the night recounting all the fun of that trip.

Friday morning, the boys were wired and ready to go, and still going on about the snook fishing. It was obvious the Snooks were having a ball being schooled up, again. I suggested that we turn our attention to redfish, which they also had not caught. Everyone was in agreement, and we were off to catch reds. We began once again at Picnic Island, for bait. Shiners are thick at Chino Island, but pinfish seem to be non-existent there, and they are a staple for catching reds. So, Picnic was our spot. Bait was tough, but we did catch plenty to fish with, and it included a lot of filletable pinfish.

Our first stop was on the east side of the Sound. A beautiful spot in its own right with lots of wildlife. There are almost always redfish in the area on the right part of the tide. It's just a question of whether or not they will eat.

Once again I deployed two cut pinfish baits dead-sticked in the bow rod holders, and a shiner under a Cajun float. Well, we didn't have long to wait before we had our first red. It was a perfect keeper of around 20 inches, and since the boys had never known the culinary joy of a well prepared redfish, they decided to keep enough to feed them, if they could catch enough. The problem I've encountered in the last month or two on the east side of the Sound is that the redfish have all be outsized, and much too large to keep. Well, luck was with us, and the first few reds were nice slot fish, and their limit of three went into the well. They caught some bigger ones as well before the bite was over, and we moved on.

The next (and last) spot was a beautiful, clear water shallow grass flat that often has schools of reds prowling about. We sneaked quietly onto the flat with the MinnKota, and as if by an act of magic, suddenly the reds were all over the place in front of us. I knew they would be spooky from all the pressure they get these days, and had everyone assume a low profile in the boat. I hoped to get baits and chum in front of them and get them to eating, instead of spooking them. There were hundreds of them! And, they were very cautious. They didn't actually blow out, but every time I pitched a bait to them the sound of the bait hitting the water would push them away.

They finally settled down along the inside edge of a long sandbar. You could see them moving around and flashing their big bronze sides in the sunlight. What a sight. I made another approach on the fish and presented baits. Again, they moved away. We did manage to pick up the first one there, and it appeared to be a straggler that was hungry.

There was a nice pothole behind the fish about 50 yards, about 40 ft. in diameter. I felt certain, and told the Snooks, that if we could get the fish pushed into the pothole, we could catch them. Why? They would feel safer there in the deeper water. I wanted to get pictures of Snook catching redfish in the worst way, and kept pushing them gently toward the hole. Finally, I knew that at least some of them had settled in, and took up position on what was left of our breeze to put cut baits into the hole.

Bam! It was Redfish Live! We finally had some of them cornered. Although the Snooks only caught 6 or 7 redfish, they were the biggest fish Sid had caught, and I think for the others, too. They caught fish of 10, 11, and 12 pounds, as I recall. They noted the differences in the way snook and redfish fight.

By now it was pushing the noon hour, and breeze gone, we were suddenly roasting. The redfish seemed to notice, too, and had quit biting suddenly. Of course, the tide had also come full high and stopped moving. It was over, and the Snooks had handily beaten the redfish. We were ready to fire up the Yamaha powered air conditioner hanging on the stern of the Talon, and cool our way home. Along the way, Sid told me that although the reds were great fun, the snook fishing was "funner", because their whole thing was for Snook to catch snook. They had a great two days of fun, what with Nick's corny but hilarious jokes, Barry's dry wit and need to show his affection once in a while, and Sid's crazy nature, kept me laughing the whole time.

The real payday back at the dock was big hugs from, and to all the Snook boys, and all the smiles and happy faces. Sid assured me that the time on the water with his brothers had been a very special and wonderful thing, and that he thinks it's the perfect way for them to continue to stay close. I agree, and hope to continue to be a part of the Snook snook fishing legacy.

Well, as Daffy Duck used to say, "That's all folks!" What a great week. I have to be the luckiest guide on these waters to have such great people to fish with day after day.

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