Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida

Capt. Butch Rickey
October 29, 2006
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 10/28/06 by Capt. Butck Rickey

This will go down as one of the toughest weeks of fishing I can remember. It didn’t start off too badly, but the fishing deteriorated with each passing day. It’s beginning to look like we’ve had a major trout kill with this last episode of red tide. Trout are scarce as hens’ teeth! I didn’t realize how scarce they are in our waters right now until I spent a day targeting them this week. Things aren’t looking much better for snook. There are very few keeper snook being caught.

We also had the first big cold front pass through on Tuesday, leaving behind record cold temps for a couple of days. So, when you put together all the factors; freshwater intrusion, red tides, big cold front, and poor tides, you have a recipe for great fishing, perhaps, but slow catching.

The first of my four trips was on Monday with my old friend Dr. Ron Kolata. I haven’t seen Ron in a while. He was treated for prostate cancer about two years ago, and has suffered from complications of that treatment ever since. He’s finally getting back to some semblance of normalcy, and his top priority was three days of fishing with me. I couldn’t wait to see him, again. Ron is very laid back, loves the water, loves fishing, and is funnier than hell. We always have a blast together, on and off the water.

It was a beautiful morning as we rode through the dark with the sun just trying to tint the eastern sky with a light stroke of orange. But, we knew we had a cold front coming. I hoped the fish would be hungry.

We arrived at the bait grounds at the second causeway span, only to find after several moves that the bait had completely disappeared from the area. I headed out to the beach on Sanibel to see if we could find some bait there. I knew it was out there, but also knew it was much smaller than we’d been catching inside.

By the time we arrived on the beach it was getting light enough to see, and with two or three casts of the net, we had enough bait for a morning of fishing. In addition, we had about 10 big shiners that my Capt. Cullen Sanders gave me because they were too big for his planned fishing.

Actually, we found our first action before we were more than an earshot away from the beach. As we got going we noticed a lot of activity on the water. It was fish crashing bait, and of course, birds trying to take advantage of the free meals. We pulled within casting range and Ron tossed a shiner into the fray. It was immediately devoured by what turned out to be a nice spanish mackeral. We missed one other, and then they were gone.

We headed on to our first stop for the morning, but as we cleared the lighthouse point of Sanibel we found another huge area of fish working bait on the surface, and bird enjoying the feast. They turned out to be ladyfish. We caught a few and put four in the well to serve as another bait alternative in case we happened upon some stubborn redfish.

Ron loves the pull of jack crevalle, as do I. So, I decided to try to put him on some big jacks right off the bat. We headed to one of my favorite haunts in Matlacha Pass. But, for the first time this year, I got skunked at the spot. We couldn’t draw a strike. We moved on.

We were very near the dead low for the morning, which was probably why we couldn’t draw fire at that first hole. I stopped next at a nice pothole up in the Sound that’s usually good for nice trout and snook in spring and fall. The trout weren’t there, but Ron did get one nice snook out of the deal before we moved on once more.

We went straight to another pothole of mine, especially when the tide first kicks off the low. But, the results were the same. Ron got one more snook, and that was it.

Ron was interested in taking home some trout. It’s one of his favorite local fish on the table. So, we spent some time working some other potholes with live bait. To my amazement there wasn’t a trout to be found. I was a bit befuddled.

Finally, as the tide began to fill the Sound we turned out attention to redfish and snook. But, the results were much the same. It was just tough all over in the Sound. Ron managed one more snook and a nice redfish to finish off the morning, and put some meat on the table.

It had been a fun, but tough morning of fishing. The approach of the front didn’t seem to make any difference to the fish. The front pushed on through that night bringing record cold temperatures for the next day. Ron and I decided to sit the cold and big north winds that would surely benchmark Tuesday, in favor of moving the day to Thursday. I moved a doctor’s appointment to accommodate the change, leaving us to worry about the cold on Wednesday.

Passage of cold fronts always wrecks the fishing for at least two days, but the fishing was already so slow, I couldn’t tell the difference for the rest of the week. Ron and I were out there Thursday morning targeting trout. We decided to work the now shallower potholes with my favorite trout baits, Exude RT slugs. We were all over Hell’s Half Acre trying to catch keeper trout, and couldn’t even find trout that were shorts. There was no bite.

While we were hitting the potholes for trout, we found lots of redfish laid up in some potholes. There were enough reds to turn the potholes dark where they were. Still, the redfish were as lockjawed as they could be. They’d swim right around our jigs. We never got a hit.

But, we were having fun beating the water to a froth with out baits, and were determined to catch a trout. To this point the only hot bite we’d had was on lizard fish. They were everywhere, and the only thing eating our jigs. If they had been our target species, we’d have been slaying them.

But, they weren’t. We wanted trout, and persistence eventually paid off. We picked up a trout here, and a trout there, and eventually had four nice top of the slot trout in the well. At least we succeeded in our objective, but we really worked for those trout. That’s probably as hard as I’ve ever worked as a guide to put four trout into the boat!

By Thursday morning we were back into the middle 60’s, and decided to work with livebait, again. There’s probably not much sense in boring you with all the details of another very tough day of catching, except to tell you that by this point I think Ron and I had resolved ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going to catch much, and to have fun doing it. We probably actually had more fun and laughs than we’d had the previous two days. Out catch consisted of one unfortunate seagull, 2 snook, and 1 redfish. The fish just wouldn’t eat.

In spite of the tough catching, the fishing and being on the water had been just what the doctor ordered for Ron. There’s no better therapy in the world for a fisherman, than a day on the water, and we’d had three great days of fun together doing out best to trick some mighty persnickety fish.

Friday was the Coup de grace. Our weather was now under the influence of yet another big cold front pushing it’s way south. It was schedule to arrive sometime between Friday midnight to mid-day Saturday. The wind was already up. I knew before the day was over it would be a howler. I just hoped against hope that it would turn the fish on while we were out there.

My customer was Stan McDonald, and his long-time friend and fishing buddy, Kent. This would be my first trip with Stan and Kent, and Stan told me I had come highly recommended by a fellow geologist friend of his, Mark Brown, whom I’d fished with several years ago. The way things had gone lately, I was concerned that before it was all over Mark would regret referring me to the boys, and Stan and Kent would regret coming here to fish. After all, they have world class redfish and trout fishing back on the southern Texas coast, where they are from. Stan told me they are even seeing snook come back.

We headed out Friday morning just as the sun splashed its first hues on the horizon over Fort Myers Beach. The tide was racing out of the river against a still southeast breeze, and the water was all chopped up. It was a bumpy ride the several miles out to the Sanibel beach. And, once there, it didn’t take me long to decide to come back inside and take my chances with bait. It was so rough that I was sure I’d wind up falling and breaking sometime trying to throw the net in the waves cresting on the sandbar. I decided to try the second span of the causeway where bait had been so good until the first front came through.

We were pleased to find beautiful bait back on the flat, and surprised at the absence of boats. Once the sun was up for a while the bait disappeared, but by then we had plenty to fish with. My hope for a descent day was restored by nice bait. We would target snook since Stan and Kent have plenty of redfish and trout back home.

But, alas! It was not to be. We fished mangroves, creeks in Ding Darling, potholes, cuts; you name it. Nothing! But, there was one big difference from the rest of the week. Everywhere we went snook were scaling our baits. It’s the classic behavior they exhibit when they’re not interested in eating. They will strike your bait and knock the scales off it in one or more places, leaving the shiner scaled at the contact point. Yet, even with expensive hi-tech rods and Power Pro super braid line, you can’t feel it happen. But, when you reel in your bait and check it, it is signed as only a snook can sign it; scales removed and not a break in the skin.

Well, if we’d caught all the snook that scaled our baits and laughed at us in our efforts, we’d have had an awesome day of snooking. They just weren’t about to eat, though. But, we stuck with it under increasingly windy conditions, knowing it was going to be a wild ride home no matter what you were in.

Eventually, our efforts were somewhat rewarded. We found some snook that would eat. Of course, at that point circle hooks and anxiety got in the way of getting them hooked. I think the guys caught a couple in a canal we were fishing, and then later lost a couple more, and boated a couple more in a nearby pothole. Of course, there were some lizard fish and catfish, but those score negative points, so we don’t talk about them in fishing reports.

By the time we realized it was time to get off the water I believe we were in positive points territory, and were thankful for what we’d caught. Now, it was time to take the wild ride home. We were OK until we had to make the turn east at York Island. With a wind now gusting to 30 coming over our right side, and waves about six feet apart, there was no good way to negotiate the waters without getting wet. And, we ALL got wet. And, with such a wild chop, it was an exciting ride. But, by the time we reached the ramp, we were already we on the way to drying out.

I really felt awful about Stan and Kent coming all this way to find our fishing so “off”. But, as Stan had told me the night before, “This won’t be the first time I’ve traveled 800 miles for no fish!” Well, at least we’d caught a few, and as for me, had a blast. Stan and Kent were great in the boat and kept me laughing all day. They were also great fishermen, and their only adaptation was to our light baits, spinning reels, and circle hooks. They fish mostly artificials with baitcast reels back home, so it was quite different from what they’re used to. But, they did great under some adverse conditions, and we had fun. And, they assured me they would return to try it again, but probably in the spring when the snooking is at its peak.

Actually, we left the option open to fish Saturday, but with the front now on top of us, I wasn’t hopeful that it would happen. I figured that if it didn’t arrive until noon on Saturday we might be able to pull off another day. But, as things played out, the front accelerated, and the storms began around 3:00 AM. When Stan called me at 6:00 AM it was still raining, and we succumbed to the inevitable. We tossed in the towel for fishing that day. And, as it turned out it was the right call, for sure. We had several more rounds of heavy rain throughout the morning, and the wind was howling out of the northwest. We’d have paid a high price and gotten no reward.

Things slow back down next week, and after this week I’m not sure I mind. Hopefully, things will improve, but I’m not so sure at this point that we haven’t lost most of our trout to the red tide, just as Sarasota Bay did last year. Time will tell.

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