Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
January 16, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 1/15/2005 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Not a lot to talk about this week. I was down with an intestinal virus for most of it, and had to cancel a trip. I got out once, thinking I was over it, with my old friend John Franck, of Sarasota, but it was a short day.

John "Wolfgang" von Franck and I go back a long way. John was there as a good friend and customer in the early days of my guiding career. He's a nut, and I can't think of many people who have more fun fishing than John. We were overdue for a day of fishing together and catching up on things.

John showed up Monday morning bearing gifts. He knows I love old fishing stuff, and blessed me with two beautiful, nearly perfect antique fishing lures! How cool. We got the Talon ready and splashed her. It was a beautiful, warm morning, and the day of the new moon. I expected a great trout bite for John.

But, once we arrived at my chosen area and staged on the first pothole, it became apparent the fish had other ideas. It took a while to get the first hit, and it was John with a nice little "puppy" drum. That seemed to break the ice, and we got into trout action, albeit not the hot action I was expecting.

We didn't leave the dock until after nine o'clock, and by noon, my stomach was really acting up. Although we hadn't experienced a "hot" bite, John and I had caught some 35 - 40 speckled trout and his redfish, and had our limit of 8 keepers swimming around in the Talon's aquarium. The fish had been smaller on average than in the previous several weeks, but we'd had a great time fishing, and a great time cutting up all morning.

January is generally a slow month for me, but it seems unusually so this year. This coming week is dead, with only one trip as of now, but I'll end the month on a busy note if the weather doesn't interfere. I am booking for spring, but even that seems unusually slow this year. Folks, we're open and ready for business, and ready to take you fishing. Please don't let concerns about hurricane damage keep you from visiting this wonderful place we call southwest Florida.

Until next week; Tight Lines!

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 1/08/2005 by Capt. Butch Rickey

There's no better way to bring in the new year than fishing with my good friend Dr. John Hitt. John had been chomping at the bit for trout season to open, and this was the day. We've been catching plenty of trout on our earlier winter trips, but today we'd be after the bigger boys, and inviting a few of them home for dinner.

I met John at his dock at 9:30 AM. We were soon on the way down the river, and agreed that we'd try to get it done with artificials. If we couldn't catch the bigger trout with lures today, we'd try catching bait the next day and try again with that.

We headed to an area on the west side I haven't fished since last winter in the general area of Buck Key. As we approached the area, I took the helm, to take us in to the very shallow flats to our chosen spots. I trimmed the Coastal for the shallows, I thought. But, as I approached the skinny water I soon lost the bite, and we were aground.

The boat was touching, and the water was going to be falling for another three hours. We had to work fast if we weren't going to spend hours right there. We were able to push the big Coastal a short distance, and then it would hang on little bars that were shallower. We really had to work to get her pushed across those little shallow spots, but finally got her to where she was just barely floating. We made it, but what a workout. We moved on to another spot on the trolling motor.

Our first hour or so of fishing was fruitless. What with losing time getting the boat off the flat the morning was nearly half gone. I kept moving us toward shallower water with potholes all around. I knew we'd eventually find fish that would eat. Sure enough, on the last part of the falling tide, the fish turned on, and we were in the right spot at the right time.

John was tossing a white curly-tail jig, and I a Baby Bass colored Exude. John struck first blood with the first couple of fish, and then all of a sudden we were in beautiful trout biting on every cast. Once we found them we put our limit of 4 trout each in the well on the first 8 or 9 casts. For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, John and I caught trout after trout, all except for 4 or 5 in the slot and running 17 to 20 inches. At the point that John decided we needed to head in, we had a good 60 speckled trout in the boat, and they were all quality fish.

We were both fishing light tackle, John with his Sustain 2000 on a very light rod, and me with my Stella 2500 on a light action St. Croix Legend Tournament rod. Those fat trout put up a pretty good fight on the light gear, and make it even more fun. Some were heavy enough to pull the drag while trying to lift them with the rod. Anyway, what began as a slow day turned into an awesome day of fishing. We were smiling!

Monday morning, John and I were back at it again. After doing so well on Sunday, John and I weren't about to stop to catch bait. The jigs were all we needed. The wind was down some from the day before, and we decided we'd do some topwater popping once we found the fish.

We headed back to the same general area, as there were still plenty of holes and depressions we hadn't fished the day before. I chose a different route into the shallow area, and thought I had the Coastal trimmed well, and enough speed, but darned if I didn't stick her, again. It wasn't as bad as on Sunday, as we were still floating, and able to move on with the trolling motor. John and I decided that since we've both take the boat into shallower waters than I'd been getting stuck in, we must be getting in trouble because the trim gauge is not functioning. Seems is a lot harder to do by eye than it is to know where the motor is with the gauge.

Once we were fishing we got into the fish quicker than we had on Sunday. They were eating on the falling tide, and the fish were bigger! We weren't catching the numbers as on Sunday, but the fish were beautiful. Instead of a fish on every cast, it was maybe every three casts on average. But, we hardly saw a fish below 18 inches, and had several trophies over the top at 22 inches. A great average size. I did get out a topwater rig, and managed two nice fish on that, but it was far too bright in the middle of the day for much success with that.

We needed to quit a little earlier, but by the time we headed in we still had boated some 35 to 40 big trout, and again quickly had our limit of four fish each. We were happy with the slower bite and larger fish, and it had been two days of awesome trout fishing in the holes.

The next trip was on Thursday, and the first with Jack Schoenholtz, and his son-in-law Misha, from State College, Pennsylvania. We had a really tough tide for a first trip, but beautiful weather. One of the main things Jack and Misha wanted was fish enough for 7 people for dinner. I figured even on a tough day that wouldn't be too hard with speckled trout.

We headed back to the same general area that I had fish earlier in the week. The tide was very early, already coming in, and with the conditions I couldn't see the holes I wanted to fish. We floundered around sort of hit and miss on the holes and caught a few fish, but I just couldn't see. The sun was too low and the water too high.

I opted to move a short way to another area where I thought visibility might be better, simply because the water was shallower. There we managed to get into some descent fish. In fact, we caught the boys' two limits in short order.

We decided to move to another area, and as I left the area we were in, I decided to run a flat and look for redfish. I didn't really expect to see any there at this time of year on such low water, but darned if there weren't redfish everywhere. Of course, we had to spend some time chasing them! I tied on spoons and a redfish jig and the boys went at it. They had a couple of good hits, but didn't connect. We moved to another area not too far away, and again had some hits, but didn't convert. Finally, the tide was done, and I decided to move to the other side of the Sound, where I figured I could buy another hour of moving water.

At the new spot we found lots of fish, including lots of big snook. Jack had a redfish on and lost it, and Misha boated one on the spoon. The snook weren't in an eating mood, probably because the water temp is still below 70. We fished well past our official trip time because I really wanted to get the boys on some more fish. I knew, though, that the chances were nil after the water quit moving, and we tossed in the towel at around 2:30. The boys had met their goal of feeding everyone, and had a great time, even though I wasn't happy with the numbers. Hey! It ain't all about numbers!

The last trip was Saturday with my long-time friend Russ Hubbard. Russ and I have fished together for years, taking his friends and customers from Dixie Plywood fishing. We long ago left the guide/customer relationship behind, and have been close friends. He is one of my very favorite fishing buddies. Because of budget cutbacks and a job change, Russ and I haven't been able to fish together very much at all. I thought a trip for us was in order while I am slow over the holidays. Well, it turned out the January 8, is Russ' birthday, and a great day it was!

We had a super-low tide of -1.0 at around 7 AM. We hit the water at around 8 AM, and headed to my favorite area. Upon arriving, we found a boat already on the flat poling an angler. He was right on the spots that I fish there, and I conjectured that perhaps he'd seen me in there a time or two and decided to investigate. But, there are plenty of holes in the area, and I chose to take Russ to another series of great holes about a mile away. We probably went an hour without a hit, but we kept moving on the holes and finally we were in fish. Lots of fish! For the rest of the morning Russ and I caught trout after trout, limiting out almost immediately with all our fish in the 20 inch range. After that, it was just for fun. At the point we hit 81 trout, Russ and I decided to stop to eat. Russ had bought a bushel box of beautiful large oysters the night before, and we had brought them with us. The were brain-freeze cold and waiting on us to partake. So, to celebrate our 81 trout we endeavored to eat at least 81 oysters, and they were fabulous. We had packed hot sauce, plenty of lemons, oyster knives, crackers, and a potholder to protect our hands, and the oysters were big, plump, salty, and wonderfully delicious. Folks, I have to tell ya there's not much better than sitting on the boat shucking oysters while sitting on a great fishing hole, and chunking your empty shells at passing snook that won't eat! It was the perfect end to a perfect day. We decided that since the tide was done we'd head in and beat the crowd of weekend boaters coming back to the ramp.

It was a great week of winter trout fishing, that barely felt like winter with temperatures in the low 80's nearly all week. We've had two weeks of great weather, that warmed our water from around 57 back to 65, but I'm sure a big winter front that will undo it all looms in our future.

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