Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
November 26, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 11/26/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

I only had one trip on the books for the week because of the Thanksgiving Holidays. I was to fish with my old friend Mike May on Tuesday, but a cold front passed on Monday wrecking the weather for several days. We wound up delaying until Friday, the worst tide of the week.

The trip was really for his friends Tom and Cathy, who were down from Jersey. Mike had taken them out on Wednesday, but it was windy , cold, and nasty and the fish didn’t bite. Tom and Cathy were left wondering about our great Florida weather.

I left the ramp Friday morning at 7 AM, and the cars and trailers were streaming in like ants on a hill. I had forgotten that Friday after Thanksgiving is a very busy boating holiday. I knew it would be a zoo on the water. I knew it would be a tough day of catching what with the poor tide and heavy traffic, but I also knew that Mike was a great guy to be out with on such a day. He has a great sense of humor, and a smile that is just contagious. And, he loves to fish!

Bait has all but dried up, and we had a high tide at around 8 AM. The tide would be slowing falling until around 2 PM. It was a very weak tide, that was actually much weaker than forecasted once we were actually out there. The movement of the water over 6 hours was all but imperceptible. Anyway, Mike and I decided that fishing plastics would be the best strategy, rather than wasting a couple hours trying to catch bait that probably wouldn’t materialize.

So, we headed to our first stop of the morning, hoping to find some willing snook and maybe a redfish or two once the tide began to move. But, something happened that no one could have expected. The wind had finally laid down; completely! There wasn’t a whisper of air moving and the water was glass slick. And, the no-seeums were AWFUL! The place I wanted to fish was back in the mangroves, but the no-seeums were so bad that we couldn’t’ stay there. It may have been our best shot at a keeping snook, but we couldn’t’ stand it! Even once we’d moved out of that area but were still in proximity to mangroves, the bugs continued to chew on us, albeit not as badly.

I had restocked on Rattletraps over the holidays and had Tom and Cathy throwing them, and Mike throwing a topwater popping plug. Mike drew first blood with a topwater snook. It was small, but we’d gotten our first snook. Mike and Tom caught another snook or two, a Jewfish, and a couple of gag grouper before the water all but quit moving. It seemed that we had a kick of water movement on the change of the tide, and thereafter it just laid down and died.

We moved to a grouper hole where we tossed Rattletraps, jigs, and DOA TerrorEyez, and managed a few small gag grouper and a puppy drum. But, the bite was definitely slow. We moved on. At the next stop there was nothing doing. Mike finally scored a hardhead catfish on a jig. No easy feat!

I wanted action of some kind, and lacking any gatherings of birds indicating schooling ladyfish, that meant trout. I showed Mike a couple of great trout holes for winter fishing, but because of the tide and water height, there were no takers. Finally, on a large hole that gives up lots of winter trout, although not the large trout that most of my holes do, we found fish that would eat. It’s a hole that will almost always provide action, and it came through. We caught lots of speckled trout on Bass Assassin, TerrorEyez, and Exudes, and Cathy finally caught her first fish all by herself.

Once that bite quit we headed into Long Cut to see if we could find more trout action. It’s usually full of trout this time of year, but not on this day. We couldn’t draw so much as a hit. So, we decided it was time for some lunch at the Waterfront, back where I’d picked up. But, as we entered the canal, I realized that we’d be forever getting served, if we could find a place to park. The docks were full, and boats were waiting, so we decided to just say good-bye and call it a day.

It had been a great day of fishing, a textbook Florida day, and tough catching, although we did manage to catch some fish and get our Slam! Considering the conditions I’d say it was “Mission Accomplished”.

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