Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida
Capt. Butch Rickey
March 24, 2007
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 3/17/07
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/17/07
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
ANOTHER LATE SEASON FRONT?
The tides this week were generally poor for most of the week. I always tell my
prospective customers about how the tide affects the fishing, and how I see the catching prospects for their chosen day. That often costs me business, but it’s the only way I can do business. It also pretty much weeds out the pure meat fishermen! There are very few of us left here who endorse meat fishing. Under current Florida fishing regulations it’s very difficult to do serious meat fishing, anyway. So, if the prospective customer is looking to fill a cooler with fish, or to just catch, catch, catch, this policy discourages them.
So, after juggling a couple of days around that had been booked, I wound up with my
only trip on Friday, with my long-time friend and customer, Bob McGuire. Bob and I
have been fishing together for ten years, and as we rode to Tarpon Bay chatting I told Bob that I couldn’t recall one day that was a stinker. He assured me that we hadn’t had one.
We were in the second day of pre-front conditions. The wind had turned out of the south on Thursday, and oddly the reports at the dock were mixed. A few had put together good days, but most had struggled. I would have expected everyone to bang ‘em, but there has been no such thing as a sure thing with the fishing. I warned Bob that if the fish had gorged Thursday and were full, we could be in for a tough bite. Bob didn’t care. He was just happy to be on the water after having not been for most of the previous year because of shoulder surgery.
With the south wind already up, we caught great bait at Tarpon Bay. And, it didn’t take very long. We were the last in and one of the first gone. We were ready to find out which way it would be.
It started off pretty well. We didn’t get the big bite that we normally see on a big south wind, but we had a bite. And, at the first stop Bob caught several snook and a redfish. But, the wind was strong, as well as the tide, and the fish were soon out of there headed for shallower haunts.
We moved on. We couldn’t buy a bite at the next stop, although the place is loaded with snook and other fish. After giving it a reasonable time, we moved on. We stopped along the way to see if the grouper would play, and they did. If memory serves me, those fish were all 19 and 20 inches. Great light tackle grouper action, for sure.
We turned out attention back to snook and redfish. Our next stop gave us a goose egg! Oh, the fish were there, but weren’t interested. We made a change of neighborhoods. And, after a little poking around at some different spots, we found fish that would eat in a couple of places. Bob had a great time catching snook. I forgot to count, as did Bob, but he caught quite a few before we were done.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
We’d had the first band of showers come through early that morning, and just missed
them. I could see another band of weather on the radar that I calculated would be on us by early afternoon. As Bob and I fished that last spot, we could see the weather deteriorating. I had one more thing to do on the way home, and we wanted to have lunch at the Waterfront, anyway. I met an old customer of mine, Art Lewis, whom I hadn’t seen in some time, and delivered a beautiful Stella 2500FA/St.Croix Legend Tournament combo to him. I know he will love fishing with that. By the time Bob and I had lunch and got back to the ramp the weather was about on us. I cleaned the boat in the rain.
It had been great to spend a day with Bob, again. He’s one of my all-time favorites. He’s easy going, fun, and just loves to fish. And, I love putting him on them!
I’ve got a full week next week, but by the time this front gets through here I expect it will wreck the already difficult fishing for a few days, at least. We’ll soon see.
Be sure to check out my new eBay Store BarHopp'R Fishing Finds!
And, be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!
REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 3/24/07
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 3/24/07
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
THE BIG EASTY
Through Sunday night into Monday morning, my wind chimes woke me up repeatedly, as they danced to the song of a hard northeast wind. The wind came on the back side of a late season cold front that passed through over the weekend. Instinctively, I knew it would be a tough day on the water for me and my customer Gary Conover, of Morris Plains, New Jersey. We had already canceled once a few weeks earlier as our day fell on one of the worst days of this winter. We were down to the nitty-gritty, as neither Gary nor I had an alternate date.
Even though I wasn’t to meet Gary until 7 AM, I was at the dock by 6 AM, just to insure myself a place to park! Bad situation. But, it gives us guides a chance to chat and compare notes. Reports on the weekend fishing and bait situation weren’t good, and our wind was forecast to gust to 25 MPH.
Gary arrived right on time, and we were soon headed off under the causeway and out to Tarpon Bay to catch bait. Hopefully! Once at Tarpon Bay we anchored not far from the rest of the fleet, and began preparing for bait. I explained to Gary the finer points of chumming for bait, how to read the current and wind, where to throw the chum, etc. Soon he took over the chumming, and I the net. The first several throws came up empty, save for a few pinfish. I had Gary make an adjustment with the distance on the chum, and before you know it we had our first net full of shiners. After a half dozen more throws, we were ready to fish.
The big north wind had blown the water right out of the Sound, and made our +0.4 ft. low tide more like a -0.5 ft., and there was land showing everywhere. Our first problem would be getting to a place to fish. Our second problem would be the naturally occurring lockjaw after a cold front.
We settled into a beautiful place back in the mangroves and out of the wind. It’s full of snook! We were in the last phase of the outgoing tide, but the big north wind was extending the time, as well as the level of the tide. In fact, the tide was almost two hours late turning to the incoming! Amazing how the wind can move
the water.
I wanted to stay right there until the tide turned. If we didn’t catch after the tide turned, it would be time to move on. We were on lots of fish. The question would simply be; would they eat? Well, we managed to catch one beautiful speckled trout while we were waiting. But, that was it. And, once the tide finally began
to come in, the snook began to frustrate us with their “hit and run” kill strikes, most of which you can’t feel. You just bring your bait in to discover it has been scaled by a snook, as only a snook can do. Makes you crazy!
WINTER FISHING FUN!
About a half hour into the new tide, we moved on. It was obvious the fish weren’t going to eat. Our second stop was equally beautiful, and yielded nearly equal results. We managed a small snook, another big trout, and a big flounder. We worked the hole very hard, and after giving it more than enough time, moved on.
The next stop yielded more of the same: lots of scaled shiners and one more big trout. The trout and the Snook were there, but just weren’t interested in eating. We hit several other nearby holes, with the same results.
Our next moved was to the grouper grounds, to hopefully let Gary get a tasted of inshore grouper fishing on light tackle. Even the grouper didn’t want to eat, but we did manage to catch four of them. I caught the first one, a 20 inch fish, and Gary was amazed to see how I was all over that fish! But, that bite was slow as well, and we elected to move on.
A good distance on up from our grouper spot we found gin clear waters and tons of snook. We witnessed several pods of several dozen snook each moving around the area we were fishing. But, guess what. It was more of the same. Scaled shiners!
Though it was a slow, lockjawed day, Gary and I had been having a blast, mostly with each other, and the day just flew past us. Suddenly it was almost 2 PM. Where in the world had the time gone? Gary called his wife to arrange a pickup an hour later. We decided we’d beat feet to a spot in Matlacha to see if we could score a snook or big jack. But predictably, it was more of the same. We actually got the first hits of the day on our chum, and I got a good take from a snook and missed it. Basically, it was more of the same, though. Finally, the clock forced us to head in.
Once again, Gary and I proved that you don’t have to catch 40 fish to have a great day. We’d caught about 10, but had shared a great day of fun and laughs, and beautiful surroundings together. Gary vowed to be back next year for a repeat performance. Now, if we can just catch some pre-front weather then, we’ll wear
‘em out.
I came to the ramp Tuesday morning optimistic that there would be a better bite for my first-time customers Dr. Bob Bilsbury and his good friend Harry. The wind forecast was down from 30 MPH the day before to around 20 MPH. We had a good tide. It should be about time for the fish to eat! But, when I arrived at 6 AM the wind was already blowing pretty hard.
Bob and Harry were right on time, and after some chat we were ready to head to the bait grounds. The A span of the causeway was closed for construction, so we were forced to run up the river to Miserable Mile, and back to Tarpon Bay, where we would try to catch bait.
There were probably a dozen boats already there chumming when we arrived. Bait had been relatively easy my last couple of times there, and I anticipated catching bait quickly and heading out to the fishing grounds. But, easy wasn’t in the vocabulary this morning.
I got things set up and began chumming. After a while, I volunteered Bob to take over the chumming so I could throw the net. The wind was pretty strong over our stern, and the current from the outgoing tide was in our face. We had a heck of a time keeping the boat facing downwind, as the wind and current seemed to be fighting each other for possession of the Talon. Bait was hard! I threw the net probably 20 times, and sometimes there would be baits in it, and sometime there was nothing. Eventually, we reached the point where there was no bait in the net. By that time I was exhausted, not yet back into the grove of working every day. After catching enough bait to fish with, but not enough to do any chumming, we decided it was
time to go fishing. The bait had disappeared on us, and we were catching nothing.
We headed up into the Sound to our first spot of the day. We had a couple of hours of the last of the outgoing tide to fish before the tide would turn. I really didn’t expect much in the way of action before then. But, once settled into our spot it became clear there would be no action, and it began looking like a repeat of the day before. But, the spot we were fishing is full of snook, and I was not going to leave it until the tide turned. If we had no bite then, we’d be off.
And, we left without as much as a hit. Oh, we had plenty of scaled baits once again. But the fish just wouldn’t eat. My hopes of a better bite than on the day before were quickly evaporating.
I decided to do a little pothole fishing for speckled trout while the tide was still low. We hopped from hole to hole on some of the very best potholes in the Sound. At the last hole Harry managed to catch three trout. Two were nice keepers, but the boys weren’t interested in keeping any. It was time to again change gears and move on.
At this point I just wanted to give Bob and Harry something to pull on their lines, and the inshore grouper are usually willing to play. But, on this day they weren’t in much of a mood to play. We managed to catch four gag grouper, and one of them gave Bob a real challenge.
Bob got a subtle hit. He didn’t think there was a fish there, but when he began to reel in, the fish took off straight into his rocky home. Once there, the grouper dive into a rocky hole and flare their gills, and dare you to pull them out. So, there Bob was with his fish stuck in the rocks.
I explained to Bob that if he’d take all the tension off the fish and wait a while, the fish might think the emergency was over and swim free of the rocks. It’s an old offshore grouper fishing trick. After waiting a few minutes with bail open and pressure off the fish, you slam the bail shut and reel home on the fish as fast
as you can, hopefully catching him by surprise as you do. Bob executed the tactic perfectly, and after some struggling, the fish came free. Bob won the battle!
Having gotten a taste of inshore grouper fishing, we decided to turn our attention back to snook and/or redfish. I headed north into the Sound to territory I hadn’t fished since last year. The first spot, normally lousy with snook and redfish by this time of year, was a dud. After not catching anything, we eased through
the area on the trolling motor. We didn’t see the first snook, but did spot a dozen or so redfish along the shore. Mental note!
It was getting late on the tide, and we still didn’t have much to show for our efforts, other than a lot of laughs and a great time. We WERE having fun, in spite of the poor fishing. And, true to form, we’d had snook scaling and leaving our baits for dead at nearly every stop.
Near the end of the tide, we finally had enough water to fish one of my favorite spots in the north end. I hadn’t been there in a long time, but knew from experience there would be plenty of fish there. The question would be whether they would eat or not.
I’ve never been so happy to finally find fish that would eat as I was on this day. It didn’t take long to get our answer. We were fishing our shiners under popping corks so that we could stay off the fish and still get our baits to them in the shallow, clear water. I knew we couldn’t get close enough to them to catch them
with the small baits we had without blowing them out.
Suddenly, we had action. Bob and Harry were both catching fish. And, although they didn’t get any keepers, which is now a minimum of 28 inches, Bob did catch 26 and 27 inch fish. They put up one heck of a battle on light tackle, and it takes real skill to keep them from cutting you off in the mangroves. In all the excitement that ensued, I lost count, but Bob and Harry caught 6 to 8 snook, and as quickly as the bite had begun, it ended. The tide was done, and so was the bite. But, the bite at that hole had bailed out the day, and we made the long ride home as happy campers.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
It had been a tough, windy day trying to catch some very persnickety fish. Once again we had proven that you don’t have to kill ‘em to have a great day. I’d had a blast with a couple of great guys, and Bob and Harry assured me that they had as well. Still, next year, if we can draw a good tide AND good weather, I want to show the boys what spring fishing in Pine Island Sound can be like.
I didn’t expect things to be much different on Wednesday for my first trip with John Blongewicz, and his sixteen year old son A.J., of Leawood, Kansas. Because of the parking situation at the ramp with all the bridge construction, most of us guides are there an hour or more early just to get a place to park. So, we have lots of time to hang around a chat, and compare notes. And, the consensus is that fishing is great, but catching anything right now is very tough. Most catches for those fishing our glamour species; snook, redfish, trout, are in single digits. For those whose customers are OK with going out off Sanibel to catch ladyfish, mackerel, bluefish, etc. the catches are better. But, nearly all my folks come here to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and plentiful nature of the backcountry.
We headed to Tarpon Bay flats again for bait. I had hopes it would come more quickly than it had the day before. I got things going and once I figured there had been time enough for bait to begin showing up, turned the chumming duties over to A.J.
Man, it was tough. The wind was already howling out of the east/northeast, and the current was running straight at it. Even with the Power Pole we bounced around on the wind, and the tide seemed unsure of which direction to travel. I threw the castnet until I thought I’d drop, getting a few baits at a time. Finally A.J. and I got it figured out, and the last couple of throws were good ones with plenty of bait. At last, we were ready to go fishing.
We headed to a beautiful spot that’s always full of snook and big winter trout, and often small reds, flounder, grouper, snapper, and sheephead. I had already verified there were plenty of snook there. But, although there were plenty there, it was more of the same. They would just lip the baits and knock the scales off them, and you couldn’t feel it happen. We stayed with it there until the change of the tide. Even once the tide began coming in, the result was the same. John and A.J. managed to catch two trout, and that was it. It was time to move on.
We went from great spot to great spot, all full of fish, and all giving us the same treatment; scaling our baits to let us know they were there. They were just taunting us. Our forecast wind was 30 MPH, and it seemed to be every bit of that. But, it makes fishing very difficult to say the least, even when they are biting. But, when the fish are just gumming your bait and not moving it, even the best rods and most sensitive line are not enough to give you an edge.
The boys finally caught a couple of snook at the last stop of the day. Again, it came right before the top of the tide, and didn’t last long. But, at least they’d gotten a couple, and the smell of the skunk was behind us, and we’d actually had a lot of fun trying.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
John seemed to really enjoy the rides on the rougher water, and I was afraid the ride home was going to be a really tough one. I tried to time our last stop north in the Sound so that we’d round the corner at York Island and into the blistering wind on the slack tide. Then, at least, there wouldn’t be four foot waves we’d have to negotiate. If four footers don’t seem much to some of you
consider this. The period, which is the time/distance between crests, is about eight feet in the shallow water. So, when you have that kind of wind against the current, and get that kind of wicked chop, it’s very hard to negotiate in a shallow water boat. Thankfully, the Talon skips over a pretty wicked chop like a rock, the ride softened by the air trapped in the tunnel. Big, 6 ft. 6 inch John was obviously enjoying what must seem like a Disney ride on the way home.
It had been a very tough day to be out there with so much wind. It’s hard for experienced anglers who do this all the time in that much wind. It’s asking a lot for a couple of guys who’ve never done this fishing before to come be successful under such conditions. The important thing is that we made the best of it and
had a great time.
We all came to the ramp on Thursday morning knowing it would be more of the same for my first trip with Richard Paget, of Jersey City, New Jersey, and his life-long friend Mike Cobb, of Shaker Heights, Ohio. It was going to blow hard out of the east! But, as it had been all week, as soon as I met Rich and Mike, I knew we were going to have a great time regardless of the bite.
We headed off as the sun was trying to break the horizon. It was already blowing, but beautiful. Once at the bait grounds, I got things started and then turned the chumming over to Rich. He did a great job of chumming, and it took us one container of chum, instead of the usual two, to get plenty of bait. My back was happy about that!
Although it was already windy, I knew it would be much more so as the day progressed. I wanted to try a spot or two on the Sanibel side, in Ding Darling, but didn’t want to have to fight back across a 30 MPH wind to do so. I decided to make a quick stop at a beautiful spot that’s always full of snook and big trout this time of year, to see if they felt any different about eating than the fish on the Pine Island side.
We were there less than an hour, and I believe we got one trout, if memory serves. I noticed the wind was beginning to build, and opted to get out of there while the getting was good. We headed to the Pine Island side and settled on a beautiful snook hole. Rich and Mike fished hard, and struggled with the wind. We had some line problems, but that’s to be expected. Amazingly, the boys caught 3 snook and 1 trout at that stop. But, we were hard pressed to get anything else to bite, and once the tide changed, moved on.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
After a few fruitless stops, I decided it was time to try the grouper. I not only wanted a pull on their lines, but wanted a hard pull. It’s just amazing how hard a 16 inch grouper can pull. But, the grouper weren’t in a mood to eat, either, and the boys only managed two.
Our day was passing quickly, and we only had about an hour of moving water left. I also wanted to time our return trip across the front of St. James City on the slack tide. I knew there were plenty of snook in my little honey hole up north, and today I had plenty of bait to chum those buggers with. We headed north!
For some time after we arrived we couldn’t buy a bite. I was beginning to wonder if the fish were going to eat at all. I kept throwing live shiners on them hoping to eventually turn on a bite. And, all of a sudden that magic moment came! The fish began to eat, and we were there for it. Rich and Mike put another 7 snook
in the boat, with most of them going to Rich. We had bailed out the day and put our snook total at 10. It was time to head in. We caught the slack tide perfectly, and the ride home wasn’t bad at all. It had been one of the better days of the week for snook, and I’d had a blast with Rich and Mike.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
I was supposed to fish with my friend Dale Grantman again on Friday. But, knowing that Dale and I had another trip in April before he returns home, and knowing it would be another very hard day, I called Dale and asked him if he’d like to sit it out. I told him we were both too old to go out and get beaten up. After a quick synopsis of the week, Dale agreed, and noted that we’d fish our April date no matter what was going
on.
It was an unusual week in that it was a full week of all new customers. And, to a man, they were all great! People who really love to fish learn to take the good days and the bad days and enjoy every one of them. We guides put way more pressure on ourselves to perform miracles than our customers ever do. It’s the nature of the beast, I guess.
I have another full week coming up next week. For the first three days, at least, the tides are tough. It will be interesting to see if the fishing busts loose this coming week. Stay tuned.
Be sure to check out my new eBay Store BarHopp'R Fishing Finds!
And, be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!
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