Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
December 19, 2004
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 12/18/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Not much happening this week other than cool weather. But, by Thursday the weather was moderating nicely for Bob McGuire and me. I hadn't been out in a while and figured bait would be non-existent except for maybe around the causeway. So, I suggested to Bob that we just get down to fishing with lures, and forego the bait. He was in agreement, as he loves to fish lures and is a very good caster.

We were on the water at 9 AM, and the tide was so low already we couldn't get over it. It still had three hours left to fall out. The real challenge would be finding a place to fish! I decided to head to a canal in St. James that gets good current flow on a descent tide. I wanted to fish it running against the current and casting up-current, for a natural presentation, but the falling tide was so strong I opted instead to ride with the current from the opposite end.

On the first cast I got smacked, and missed it. I was tossing a blue and chrome 3/8 oz. Rattle Trap. I had Bob tossing a red and white TerrorEyez. I had several hits without a hookup, and then boated a redfish. I missed another large one, that Bob and I both saw roll when it hit the lure. I tied a gold/black back Rattle Trap on Bob's rig, and soon we were both getting hits. It seemed the fish were having a hard time getting the baits in their mouths, as we missed many, many strikes, but over the course of a couple of hours we caught 9 or 10 redfish on those lures, along with a couple of very nice trout.

The wind was blowing at 20 out of the northeast, and seemed to be causing the falling tide to run longer. We headed out of that place on the dead low, and I told Bob I honestly didn't know if we'd make it, or not. I trimmed the Talon for super-skinny ops, and put her on step. As we left the canal we ran into water not more than 6 inches deep. But, the Talon was ready, and we never touched anything.

We headed to an area of potholes up near Demere Key where last year Bob and I caught hundreds of trout one morning. We didn't have a strike! We headed to one of my old standby potholes that's always full of trout, and again never had the first strike. I was befuddled! At this point it was getting late, and I needed a sure thing to finish up the day, and headed into Long Cut. We ran along slowly on the trolling motor pitching Bass Assassin lure toward the shoreline, and soon we were into the trout. Some of them were very nice. We caught trout on our light rigs until Bob said he'd had enough, and headed home.

Back at the dock I cleaned the one redfish we had kept, and was amazed to see what was in its stomach. It was a 22 inch redfish, and it was full of large pinfish. I noted when Bob caught it that it's stomach was hard and almost looked distended. It was full of pinfish and still eating. They really can be pigs at times.

That was it for the week. The forecast is for a major cold front to arrive Sunday. I have a full week on the calendar next week, but have the feeling the cold weather may alter that somewhat.

This is probably the last report before Christmas arrives. I doubt my schedule will allow me to get a report out on Christmas weekend. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have fished with me, given me your friendship, and offered me your support through difficult times. I've always been thankful for the many wonderful people I've met and friends I've made in this business. It's the best part of this business. But, I was overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and friendship from all of you after the passing of hurricane Charley. I was amazed at how many people cared about whether I was still here fishing in the future. Thank you all so very much. I hope that all of you have the most wonderful of Christmas Holidays, and I look forward to seeing many of you in the New Year.

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