Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
December 3, 2005
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

RERPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 12/3/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey

The week began with the biggest cold front of the year on our doorstep. The wind came around from the south on Sunday, and I heard reports of a good bite from the guys who were out there. But, by Monday I think they had eaten about all the wanted, as the bite was pretty tough for me and my customer Rob Getz. Rob has been in Cape Coral for ten years, and said the only boat he’d ever been in was his own. He’s a bait fisherman. He’d been reading my fishing reports, and thought there might be some things he could learn from me. So, although it was a teaching trip of sorts, it was more by observation than by direct instruction. Rob insisted that I fish with him, and refused to take any hand-offs. He wanted to catch his own fish. Of course, since there is nothing around but tiny little threadfins and pinfish, and the water is approaching typical winter temps, I elected not to waste time catching bait. We fished plastic all the way.

The tide was already well on it’s way in by the time we got out there. We began fishing cuts and holes while the water was low, but the fish weren’t very interested in our offerings. We were throwing Rattletraps and TerrorEyez. I think I remember a Jewfish, a snook, and a small red, and that was it.

Rob was interested in how and where I catch those gag grouper and Jewfish, so that was the next stop. They weren’t very hungry, either, but we did catch a few including one very feisty gag that gave Rob a great fight on light tackle. After an hour or so of that, I showed Rob some nearby holes for snook and flounder.

The southerly wind had the tide coming in much higher and sooner than the NOAA prediction. I had a hunch the reds and snook would use that opportunity to make a trip into the shallows hunting for food, even though most of the grass has already died off since the first couple of fronts. My hunch proved correct. Over the next several hours we caught redfish and snook in several spots on those trusty Exude RT Slugs. It seemed odd that we couldn’t get those reds to eat the old standard gold spoon.

By the time we were done we had boated 10 redfish including several keepers, several snook including a keeper that got away and a couple that went around 9 pounds, and the several gags and Jewfish from earlier. All in all, not a bad day on plastics. And, Rob had gotten a fishing lesson. In his defense, he’s not used to fishing artificials, but for winter inshore fishing in southwest Florida it’s hard to beat them. He did say that he would have been disappointed if he had outfished his guide. He was a good sport, and fun to spend the day with.

By Monday night it was obvious that Tuesday would be a wet one. The radar was covered with large cells of rain, and it was headed our way. I was to fish with my favorite fishing buddy, John Hitt, but I told him that if it was ugly when I got up I’d just let him sleep. When I checked the radar at five o’clock Tuesday morning, it was very ugly. It was all red and orange, and just on our doorstep. I knew it would be storming before we could get any fishing in.

So, I let John sleep, and got dressed and drove down to the ramp to see who might show up ready to take a chance on the weather. There were several guides who showed up ready to brave the weather, but lightning in the approaching frontal line convinced most to leave their boats on the trailers and go home. As it turned out, it rained nearly all day.

Wednesday morning it was cloudy, windy, and cool, but the colder weather would arrive over night. I met John at his dock at 7 AM and we headed down the river armed with every kind of lure known to man. We were ready for action, but knew that it would be hard to find, if at all.

Our first stop was at my favorite place to be on a super low winter tide with a big north wind blowing. It rarely disappoints, but it did on this day. John began with a topwater popper, which got the first snook bite, but it escaped before John could land it. We fished hard using Rattletraps and TerrorEyez, but the fish weren’t interested. John’s MinnKota trolling motor wasn’t interested in cooperating, either. It began making the most awful noises I’ve ever heard. It sounded like some kind of wild animal screeching in pain, or something. But, it was still running properly. We had no options, so we kept on using it. It wasn’t long before it almost threw me out of the boat when it came on full throttle. I smelled that tell-tale electrical burning smell, and noticed that the head was quite warm. We had cooked a circuit board, at the minimum. We would be at full throttle for the rest of the day.

We moved on. John loves to fish trout, especially if the glamour fish aren’t biting. He’s not one for beating the water all day long waiting on that one big fish. He’d rather be catching something, and so would I. We paid a visit to a winter hole that almost always gives up big trout, if it gives up any at all. The trout were there, but they were hard to fish, as the strong north wind was making it very hard for us to make a proper presentation of our baits in the part of the hole where the fish stack. Also, the wind was making it very hard to feel the hit, because we were forced to throw across it. The wind then put a big bow of slack in the line and was actually strong enough to lift and move the jigs. But, we caught some beautiful speckled trout to 4 pounds. We just didn’t catch a ton of them as we often do there.

Once the action slowed, John agreed that catching small trout would be just as fun. I moved us to another hole that is a kind of winter “Ace in the” hole for trout action when nothing else wants to bite. It didn’t disappoint. We caught trout just as fast as we could fish for the rest of our outing. Every grown man has a little boy inside that just loves to catch!

Thursday morning it was considerably colder with the overnight low around 50. It wasn’t blowing as badly as John and I had expected. Of course, I fully expected that the wind would kick during the day. We had decided to fish a large area of potholes on the west side of the Sound that are usually full of big trout by this time of year. Once they’re in, you can catch them all morning long, and have a blast.

When we arrived at our destination we realized that it would be a while before we could even get in to the potholes. Our -0.6 ft. low tide was more like a -1.0 with the north wind, and there was all kinds of new real estate exposed to the cool air. We knew it would be the same no matter where we went, so we decided to drift along the barrier bar with the wind and see what we could scare up.

John was soon hooked up to his first ladyfish. They seemed to be thick, but we were drifting so fast on the now brisk wind that it was hard to keep up with the line. We decided to use the power pole to slow us down, if not stop us so that we could fish an area. We caught ladyfish, and maybe 8 trout on two passes using jigs with Bass Assassins and curly-tail grubs. Finally, it looked like we had enough water to get in to the potholes, which were surrounded by mere inches of water.

I took the boat in, getting her trimmed for half a foot of water before making the approach. We touched a couple of times, but only slightly, and glided to a stop at the end of the first hole. We were operating with a trolling motor that would only run full blast. I think it might have been a factor to our lack of success, too, as it’s impossible to be quiet at full blast. Long story short, we didn’t catch the first trout! Neither of us could believe it. They were totally lockjawed. For a time I thought perhaps the fish just weren’t there, but after fishing the first series of holes we moved to another series of very productive holes where I actually saw several monster trout laid up on the edge of the holes. They wouldn’t even spook until we were almost on top of them. They were just laid up sunning themselves, and not a bit interested in eating.

Our fish of the day finally came just as we were about to call it a day. A nice snook blasted an Exude RT Slug at the edge of our hole and took off like a shot. It was a good time to call it a day. We still had to take the trolling motor off the boat and get it ready to go to the shop. We headed home hoping we could avoid getting wet along the way. We had managed to get in two of our three scheduled days; one pretty good, one pretty tough.

That’s how it went. A typical week of winter fishing that usually includes a good day or two of fishing before the front, a day or two lost to weather as the front passes, and a couple of days of lockjaw after the front. It’s Mother Nature’s way!

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