Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
January 15, 2006
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 1/14/06 by Capt. Butch Rickey

Although I had no trips booked this week, I was on the water for a couple of days in Sarasota. Slow is the operative word in January; fishing, business, metabolism. Everything is slow in January. It's one of our coldest months.

My friend Capt. Tom Stephens, father of my old friend Capt. Tommy Stephens, moved down to Sarasota about a year ago from Tallahassee, where he was an offshore charter Captain. He has a different boat now, and is learning the waters as fast as he can. I thought it would be fun to go out with Tom and see if I could remember enough of the places I used to fish to be helpful to him, and add to his inventory. Tom was happy to have a reason to be on the water.

We headed north from the 10th Street ramp, stopping along the way to show Tom spots. It was fun to be back in the area after so long away from it. We were mostly riding and looking, but did some fishing along the way. We were just tossing artificials. But, the combination of cold fronts knocking the water temperature down into the low 60's, a full moon, and a hangover from a year of red tides, had the fish turned completely off.

We did find a school of reds in an area that I used to love to fish north of Long Bar. I couldn't believe they were right where I used to catch them all the time. But, these fish weren't the least bit interested in eating anything, especially something make-believe! We looked at flats, potholes, cuts, and canals, and never caught a fish. But it didn't matter a bit, as I was just enjoying the ride, the beauty of it all, and Tom's great company. And, we were going to fish Wednesday, as well. I figured we'd get more serious, then.

Wednesday morning Tom ran us around to Hart's Landing where we bought a couple dozen hand-picked shrimp. We figured we could catch something on those if we couldn't get anything to eat the lures. Actually, we planned to target pompano, as there had been some around for several days. We spent a lot of time in three spots that had been full of pompano just a few days earlier, but the fish were either gone, or lock-jawed.

Again, we spent a lot of time looking at places I hadn't see or fished in years, mostly under docks in the canals. We saw lots of sheephead on nearly every dock we looked at. Tom finally popped a beautiful redfish under a dock, and missed another. I missed two good hits. Guess I'm not used to fishing live shrimp on a jighead. When I waited until I felt sure the fish was on, I got cleaned. When I tried to set on the fish right as it bit, I got cleaned.

Eventually, we made our way down toward the Stickney Point bridge, and managed a bluefish and a couple of ladyfish while trolling the area with a Rattletrap and a lipped swimbait. It was very hard fishing, but we knew from listening to the Marine VHF that everyone else was struggling, too. It mattered not, though, as the greatest joy of fishing is just being out there on the water with friends. Everything else is a bonus.

I did have a trip scheduled for Saturday with my good friend John Hitt. But, we had one wicked cold front push into southwest Florida Friday night and into Saturday morning, and we canceled. Good thing we did, as we had wind of nearly 40 MPH! It blew like a tropical storm all day long and well into Saturday night. I knew the fishing would be tough for John and me on Sunday, but that's a story for next week.

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