Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
July 26, 2004
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 7/24/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Weather again dominated the local scene this week. We'd already had onshore winds for the past week, but a large infusion of moisture set off heavy rains and storms both Monday and Tuesday forcing everyone to reschedule their trips where possible. Monday, we actually had winds to 40 MPH coming ashore, and the gulf was very angry looking, indeed. In addition, we had a week of slow, falling tides, which I personally hate to fish. Most of the guides I know do, too. I wound up running three days, and it was a very unusual week in that all of my customers were new to me.

My first trip on Wednesday was with Dave Gulich and his brother-in-law Roland, of St. Louis, Missouri. Knowing that we had an awful tide, and a major dump of fresh water, I knew before leaving the dock the fishing would be tough. I gave Dave and Roland a chance to opt out of the trip if they wanted to, but they were ready to go and enjoy the day. Dave said fish would be a bonus.

We began at Picnic Island for bait, and caught plenty of mixed pinfish, and plenty of small shiners with some larger ones mixed in. I wasn't really sure the bait would still be there after two days of rain, but it was plentiful. We were off to the first hole.

I wanted to put some redfish in the boat before the tide ran out too much, but at one of my favorite spots we couldn't get a nibble. We moved on to another spot where it is not uncommon to catch a wide variety of species, and although we didn't catch lots of fish, Dave and Roland got the Slam with a two or three snook, two trout, and redfish. The boys also missed several good hits that would have meant more reds in the boat. We spent quite a while there, as it was as good a place to be as any on a falling tide in the Sound.

Once we were sure the action was over there, we turned our attention back to redfish and fished several areas, but could only draw catfish with our chum. It was the same MO for snook. Nothing. It was over. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to cool down, rehydrate, and enjoy a great lunch. We'd had a great time, and even thought the catching was tough, the fishing was great!

Thursday, my customer was Jeff Petersen, also of St. Louis, Missouri. He had already been rescheduled by my friend Capt. Hank VanKesteren, three days in a row, and was chomping at the bit to go fishing. Between the time I talked to Jeff and actually got to fish with him, I forgot that he had asked me to pick him up at Sanibel Harbor, around the corner from the ramp. So, come 6 o'clock I was wondering where Jeff was. Come 6:30, still haft asleep, I was thinking I was being stood up. I was standing at the dock talking with my customers from Wednesday, Dave Gulich, when Jeff walked up and asked if I was Butch. My God! Was I embarrassed. I had totally forgotten I was to pick him up. He had been trying to reach me, but I didn't have the cell phone out and on the console, yet. At that point, Jeff and I were both glad each other were there, and we were ready to go fish. I gave Jeff the same option of canceling, but he was ready to fish.

We headed to Picnic Island, where we found plenty of bait. The shiners are getting bigger, and there are now a lot of intermediate sized ones, and we had a couple of dozen large ones, as well as a variety of pinfish. We were off to the first stop of the day. I decided to fish cuts and creeks; places where there would be at least some current flow on this slow crawling outgoing tide. The first stop gave Jeff a nice flounder, which went into the baitwell, a couple of nice speckled trout, and a nice redfish. Jeff missed at least four more redfish hits, and brought back baits that had been crushed and skinned up by old leatherlips' mouths.

I decided to fish the Wall, which is the deep water adjacent to the rocks and seawall along the southeastern side of Redfish Pass in front of the old South Seas Plantation. It was as good a place as any to be fishing for a snook on the tide we had. The passes are usually best on falling tides. Jeff did miss a couple of snook on the big shiners, but did drag up a couple of real scrappy gag grouper. There wasn't much of a bite, at all.

We moved on to a spot in Ding Darling, that is usually good for snook, trout, snapper, and grouper. The water was moving in this narrow place, but barely. We finally found a section of shoreline that gave Jeff three very nice mangrove snapper. It's amazing how scrappy those fish are! By this time it was 1:30, the tide was done, and it was hotter than hell! We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to recuperate.

On the way home Jeff told me he was scheduled to fish with Capt. Hank, once again. I told Jeff that he would probably do very well offshore with Hank, explaining that offshore fishing wasn't tidal like inshore fishing. I learned Thursday evening that I was right, and that Jeff had some great grouper and jewfish action with Hank.

Friday, it was the Jim and Jimmy father and son show. It was James Owens and his father James Owens, of Apopka (Orlando), Florida. Jim is about my age, and Jimmy is in his late thirties, I think. They were at the dock early, and we were on Picnic flats before 6 AM. Bait was great! It began a little slowly, with not many pinfish showing up, but after one move and some time passing, we not only got plenty of pinfish, but Jimmy got the big shiners chummed up, and we loaded the boat with them. I had not expected that!

We headed up into the Sound, on the east side. The first stop was a snook spot, and we were there just as the tide began to move out. It was as high as it would be all morning. Jimmy got the smell of the skunk out of the boat with the first snook. The next few stops yielded nothing. I decided to take another shot at the Wall. I had been staying away from the beaches for the first two days because we had large amounts of seaweed blown in on the strong wind, clogging things up, and the water was very dirty, as well. I figured that the beach might be an option by this time.

At the wall things were shut down. We didn't boat a fish. I could see through the pass that the gulf was laid down very well, and decided to give the Sticks a shot. There were gentle swells that the Talon just seemed to love to ride as we sped along. As I approached the beach I could see there were five boats spread out along the area. My friend Capt. Mark Westra was one of them, and told me that things were very slow. In fact, he said, the bite seemed to begin about the time we arrived. I picked out a patch of beach I hadn't fished before, as others were in my favorite area. It began slowly, and we only saw a couple of fish caught in the first half hour, but slowly the fish began to feed.

We never had a bite, as we're accustomed to, but we did have a bite. Jim and Jimmy caught about 14 snook, and 1 redfish. Jimmy got the best snook at seven pounds, and lost a monster on what we later found was a stickup that kept claiming their rigs. In terms of production, it was the best day of the week, and we had a great time. We stayed well past the witching hour until we were sure it was over, and the boys were treated to the sight of snook raiding and crashing bait along the sticks. It's quite a cool thing to see, snook thrashing bait and spinning somersaults and spraying bait all over the place. However, they weren't very interested in eating our baits, and ignored most of what we threw right in the middle of them.

Once we'd had enough heat and were sure the bite was over, we headed back inside to the Waterfront Restaurant to enjoy a great lunch, and recap our day. It had been a fun day with a couple of great guys. In fact, it had been a great week with some great folks. My thanks to all of you who made it so much fun to be a fishing guide.

And, that's how it went. This coming week the tides are better, but not great. That's usual for this time of year. Great high tides without much movement. Looks like there will again be three trips to report on come week's end.

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