Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
May 29, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 5/28/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a great week full of old friends and great people, marred only by a couple of days of big wind and a schedule screwup.

First up on Monday were Bill Hudson, his son Mike, and his grandson Mike, of Port Charlotte and Crystal River, respectively. These boys were all Florida born and bread, like myself, and fishing the salt isn't new to them. Although I had talked to Bill on the phone and email in the past, this was our first time to finally fish together. Our southwest Florida style of fishing is different than what the boys are used to doing, as they don't have snook up in Crystal River. So, this was to be an instructional trip for the boys.

We headed over to Picnic Island for bait, and with some expert chumming were loaded up with great shiners, threadfins, and pinfish in less than an hour. We were ready to begin our trip, with the emphasis on learning, and off of catching. I made a few stops at places along the way where I figured we wouldn't catch fish, but I was interested in showing the boys what kind of stuff to look for while the water was down, and things were uncovered. I told them what I tell anyone who takes an instructional trip with me: If you will get in your boat and go out on a good low tide like we typically have during the winter, and leave your rods behind so that you're not tempted to fish, and study the topography around the mangroves keys, islands, docks, oyster bars, potholes, or whatever is in the area you want to fish, make mental or paper notes as to what's there so that you know what's under the water when it's much higher and things are covered, you WILL have big leg up on 90% of the fishermen out there! So, in that vein, I was showing them the kinds of things to look for that make a spot potentially good.

I wanted the boys to catch some fish, too. So, we headed north in the Sound a did some more looking and a bit of fishing, and hit some snook and a redfish on a small key I like to fish when I'm in that area. It seems to get its share of pressure from anglers, yet I always seem to catch when I go there. I think lots of folks are there at the wrong time, and so much of tidal inshore fishing is simply about being in the right place at the right time.

With some snook out of the way we headed to an area that I love to fish for reds. Some of the other areas I love to fish have been plagued by big blacktip sharks raiding our redfish schools, since they figured out it was easy pickins! The fishing eventually dried up on those spots because of the sharks, I believe. I had yet to see any sharks here. After setting up, I loaded the chum slinger with loads of live and sliced and diced shiners, threads, and pins, and began the process of trying to start a bite. It didn't take too long before we had our first action. We had a good time with the redfish, and of course there were the usual swings and misses, but the boys boated nine or ten of the bronze beauties before it was over. It had been a great, fun day with folks I felt like I'd known for years. I look forward to fishing with them, again.

I kept waking up Monday night to the sound of my windchimes raising cane outside. Anytime that's happpening, it's bad news for the fishing that day. My Tuesday was to be spend with an old friend that I hadn't seen in nearly five years, but who I remain in touch with. It's my old friend "Texas Wader" Ron Hunter, but Bradenton. We've been friends since the first time we met, and he's still talking about that trip as the best fishing he's ever done. On this Tuesday he was bringing his lovely ladyfiend, Pat, and old friend Jack, and the trip was pretty much for Jack. But, the windchimes were telling a story of conspiracy against our fishing. We had a mean 25 knot wind out of the northwest, and a full moon. I knew going in this would be a tough one. The wind was a surprise we weren't expecting, but there it was. We'd just have to make the best of it.

We again headed over to Picnic Island, where bait has been great. I wondered as we got set up if it would be that easy today. Pat wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and was right there with me putting out the chum. She did a great job of putting it where it needed to be, and we were loaded up and ready to fish in less than an hour. I figured the best strategy on such a wind was to go with spots I recently fished and knew had plenty of fish, so at least there would be no guessing. And, with the chop on the water there would be no sighting of fish as Bill, Mike, and Mikie had done the day before.

We just kept at it and fished hard trying to make something happen, and we did. We never got a hot bite going anywhere, but we did catch some fish. Most of them came from only a couple of places we fished. We got most of our snook at the first of the two spots, along with one redfish and a trout, and we got the rest of the redfish, another snook, and a trout and the last stop. We finished the day with 6 redfish, 7 snook, and 2 trout. While not the numbers I'm accustomed to producing, there were plenty of fish for the gang to take home for dinner, and more importantly, we had just had a ball. Pat and Jack were both fun, and Ron is always a great fishing mate. Ron has since sent me one of the nicest emails a guide could ever hope to receive, which I will likely post in the testimonials section this week, as well. Thanks, Ron, Pat, and Jack for your patience with the weather and conditions, and making it a great day.

The windchimes danced more wildly throughout the night and into Wednesday morning. I knew my Wednesday trip was in trouble. It had been murder out there the day before, and the wind was even worse. But, the worst of this day was yet to come when I arrived at the ramp. I'm not going to bore you with a long story about a schedule screwup, as this is a fishing report, but as I pulled in I had Bill Palda waiting on me to take him fishing, but it wasn't who I was expecting. My life has been very stressful lately, but I thought I was dealing with it. Guess not. I didn't know quite what to tell Bill, but assured him that it was too nasty to fish, and that I would cancel the trip I thought I was doing, as well. Bill told me he was already sore from getting bounced around the day before on a tarpon trip. But, he had joined the 200+ club for his efforts. So, Bill said we'd fish another day, and took off, and I waited on my "party". But, part of the problem was that I had been on the wrong month of my Captain Log, and my guys never showed because it was in fact, Bill's day to fish! Geez! I will try to make up the inconvenience to Bill by giving him 50% off if he'll still fish with me.

It was the right call, though. When I see boats coming from the ramp at 6:30 in the morning, I know some of them have already been out there and tried it, and have cancelled. I passed several on their way home that morning. And, it absolutely howled all day long, and never let up until after dark.

I feared it would be more of the same for Thursday, and my trip with Jeff Kaulbars, and his brother Travis. I hadn't seen Jeff since 2003. He'd bought a boat after that trip and had a lot of bad experiences with it, and abandoned fishing for golf for a while. But, he missed the relaxation and beauty of the water, and wanted to take his brother along. But, the wind was down, and it looked like we would be blessed with a beautiful day. Now, would the fish eat?

We headed to Picnic Island for bait. Travis being the rookie, got to do the chumming. The water was moving along pretty well, and we had to really watch where the chum was going. But, Travis kept it in the right place and we were soon loaded to the gills and ready to fish.

Our tide was typical of full moon tides this time of year, beginning from about a half-high position, and crawling in. It winds up being a good high tide, but it doesn't have much strength. We had those tides all week. By the time we got bait, and got to my chosen area, the water was just beginning to move.

It didn't take too long after arriving at our first stop to get the first action. Jeff and Travis had been doing some side betting and trash talking, and it started again as soon as the first fish was on. They had a lot of fun with each other, and I had a lot of fun being a part of it. That first stop gave the boys 6 snook and a trout, but Travis got the best snook of the morning at 9 pounds. That fish sparked a whole new round of trash talking, but Jeff reminded Travis that the bet was on most fish of the day. Not the biggest.

We made a move to chase redfish as the water got higher. I began my chumming routine, as the conditions for sighting them were tough. We chummed and fished our way across the flat until we got to the area where I had last caught them, and the fish were right there. I guess they liked the food in that patch of grass so well they wouldn't travel the short distance to eat my chum offerings. It took a little while to find them, but once I did, the bite was on. Jeff and Travis had a blast catching those redfish and talking trash back and forth. Travis even got the biggest red, as well. But, at the end of the bite it was Jeff who had the most fish in the boat, and was the winner of their wager. We ended the day with 6 snook, 23 redfish, and 1 trout for the Slam. It was a great day with a couple of great brothers. We capped off the day with a great lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, which Travis had never had the pleasure of experiencing. He agreed it was great!

Friday was yet another great day with Renee Snowden, and her beautiful daughters Emily and Katie, down from Merridian, Mississippi. It was, of course, the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, and I knew the ramp would be a zoo. Problem was that the water didn't start moving until after 9 AM. Renee called me late Thursday night saying that they had been delayed, and had just arrived. I thought they might like some extra rest, so I told her to meet me at the ramp at 9 AM, and that I would catch bait and be ready to fish at 9.

Of course, I was up with the chickens, and at the ramp very early. I had no problem getting a parking place. As luck would have it, getting bait by myself it still took me less than an hour to load the Talon's well. So, I had some time to kill. I had a fisherman's breakfast which consisted of a couple of bananas and a breakfast bar followed by water. I had already consumed enough coffee to choke a camel! I headed back toward the ramp at around 8 AM, and as I neared the causeway I saw two small tarpon of around 50 pounds roll right in front of the boat. Well, I had nothing better to do, so I doubled back around a pitched a big threadfin into the water. It wasn't long before it was clobbered, but whatever it was had a mouth full of very sharp teeth, and took my hook without even getting tight. The second bait caught a huge gafftop sail catfish. I went on into the ramp to wait and chat with whoever might be around.

Finally, Renee came strolling down the dock accompanied by her husband Gregg, and her daughters, Katie and Emily. Gregg said he wasn't going because he was bad luck and they never caught anything when he went along. I told him I could break his spell of bad luck, but he was happy to stay behind and let his girls have fun. And, have fun we did.

I went right to the scene of the previous day's redfish fun with Jeff and Travis, and went quietly in onto the flat with the trolling motor very slowly, watching the glass-slick water for signs of the school as I went. Within minutes, I thought I had spotted the school. They were just barely causing ripples and small pushes in the water, and I could tell it was not mullet. They were pretty tightly schooled, and the pod probably wasn't more than 50 feet around. Believe it, or not! They were in almost the exact place I had left them and fed them the leftover bait the day before. It was almost as if they were waiting on me to come feed them, again.

And, feed them we did! Right from the start, we had a triple hookup. And, we had doubles and triples galore. We were trying to get lots of pictures and some video, and the girls could have caught more than they did if we hadn't waited on each other as much as we did. But, they still caught a ton of fish. They were just thrilled, and having a blast. They'd never experienced anything like this before. I was worried that in spending too much time with pictures, etc., I would let the fish get away from us, but they stayed right there until, you guessed it, a big blacktip shark came on the flat and raided my school. The sharks had found us, again, in a different place. We caught another fish or two afterward, but the shark pretty much blew out the school.

I asked if the girls would like to go and try to catch a snook, even though I knew snook this late on a slow moving tide would be a tall order. We moved to another area that's always full of snook, but Katie hooked the only one and lost it in her excitement. It was a very nice fish.

We decided that we were all starved, and headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for lunch. It was fabulous, and we had a good time recounting the morning's action and laughs. Katie had caught one particular redfish that had a leader hanging out of it! When I gently pulled on the leader the hook came out of its anus. Katie remarked that it was odd the a leader would be hanging out of the fish's side. I said, "Katie, that's the fish's butt!" Whereupon, the rest of us cracked up at her reaction. The funny thing is that it was one of my rigs, which is easily identifiable by the Owner Muto Light circle hook, and my super-clean grip knots. I'd guess it had been in that fish for several days, maybe longer. The fish swam away happy, and we had a good laugh over it.

AFter lunch, we headed to the 19th hole. I had mentioned that we might stop at my 19th hole for one last shot at a snook. I could tell that Katie, at least, wanted to stop because she mentioned it during lunch. So, off we went to see if we could get the girls each a snook before we were supposed to return to the dock to meet Greg. It only took a few minutes before Katie had the first snook on. It was a whole different fight than the redfish. She was excited. The fish spit the hook right at boatside as I grabbed at the leader. We counted it as a catch for her. Then, Renee got a snook, and then Katie another before we had to pull anchor and head to the barn. It was the perfect way to end their day, and the week. My three girls had been just great, and I had a blast right along with them. They assured me that I'd be seeing them again.

And, that was it. And, I'm ready for some rest and the holiday weekend off. Actually, I don't have much going on next week, as it stands right now. Just worked out that way. The last couple of days of this week were quite warm. Looks like summer is hear, just like that!

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