Fishing Report for Pine Island Sound to Sarasota Bay, Florida
Capt. Butch Rickey
October 22, 2007
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fort Myers Weather Forecast, FL (33908)
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FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 10/20/07
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
Although I didn't like the tides, the fishing continued to be great for the two trips I had this week.
First up on Wednesday was my good friend Dr. John Hitt, who has been so busy with his UCF duties this year he's had a hard time getting free to come down for R and R. John was way ready for a day out.
We met at his dock at 6:30, and headed down the river into a beautiful morning. The plan was to get bait at the B Span, then try to get on a redfish or two before the water left the flats. Then, we'd move on to snook fishing.
Well, the bait was awesome at B Span. I threw three times, but the last two throws were overkill. We had more bait that we could possibly use. We cleaned up and headed for the east side of the Sound.
We decided a ladyfish or two would be a good thing to have in the boat, and stopped at a spot that has been thick with ladyfish, jacks, trout, mackerel, and even snapper and grouper. From the first cast we caught trout on every cast. John went to his trusted white curlytail jig, and I tossed live shiners. We both caught trout on every cast. Well, John loves trout fishing, and we wound up staying too long. By the time we pulled ourselves away and got on up to our first redfish spot, the water was getting skinny, and the fish weren't interested. Actually, I think they had already left the flats. We hit several spots including some potholes, with no luck.
It was time to switch gears to snook fishing. We headed off toward Redfish Pass in hopes the snook would eat our great bait. Once there and on our hole, we had a great snook bite, and had a blast hooking snook on virtually every cast until things finally slowed down. Of course, we only landed about half of what we hooked, but that was still a dozen or more snook. Boy, they sure get a lot of extra horsepower when you're catching them in a really swift current.
We were still thinking about our trout that we'd left biting. We decided we'd caught enough snook, and would go back to see if the trout were still biting. We quickly found they weren't! We gave them a while, but there wasn't much happening. So, we moved across the Sound to a flat that usually has fish, and were back in them. We caught trout and some jacks and ladyfish until we were ready to call it a day. And, it was quite a day.
Thursday was a great day with my friend Capt. Cholly Baker, of Pirate Adventures, Inc., and his great wife Karen and teenage son Peter. Cholly told me via email that he really wanted to try to get Karen on a good bite of something, because she just loves to catch. He wasn't too concerned about what kind of fish we caught.
I asked Cholly if he'd like to try to get Karen on a redfish or two while we still had a shot at it. He was agreeable, knowing that even one redfish would be a blast for her. So, after catching great bait back at B Span, we headed up to the redfish grounds with only a very short diversion to see if we could grab a ladyfish.
Once at our first spot, Cholly caught a beautiful trout as we fished our way in. In fact, Cholly, Karen, and Peter all caught some nice trout there. Karen did catch one nice redfish, and Cholly lost a beautiful, big snook almost at the boat. He was not happy with himself, but at least he did get to see her make a full jump, and got her almost to the boat before she jumped and shook the hook loose. I think there were several other snook that didn't make it to the boat, but I believe Peter did get one in.
FALL FISHING HEATS UP!
Once our action was over, it was time to try to get Karen on a big bite from something. As we rode along toward our next spot, I saw a couple of pops on top of the water not far away. I circled back around to check it out. I figured it was a school of ladyfish. Well, it turned out to be a bonanza of ladyfish, with some mackerel, trout, and sharks mixed in. In fact, the first two lines in the water were broken off! Soon, we realized we had several four to five foot sharks trying to work our hooked fish. My gang had a blast catching fish after fish, and Peter did manage to get one smaller shark into the boat. Once things finally slowed down, we moved on in search of another big bite, but were hoping to find trout.
And, we did. The Bakers caught trout and trout after mackerel until we were done and ready for lunch. Karen had a big thrill when her rod went off and began quickly loosing line. Whatever it was, was big. It just kept going. At first, I thought it was a big stingray. But, it never settled into the mud and quit pulling like they always do. It just kept stripping line. I though perhaps she had a big cobia. Finally, after much excitement and ado, we caught up to the critter, and it was indeed a stingray with a wingspan of about four feet. What a fight it gave Karen.
With the bite slowing and appetites growing, we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant. It was the first time for the Bakers, and as I knew they would, they loved it. It had been a great day with some great folks.
And, from the customer reports department we have a few pictures this week. First is my old friend Capt. Bill Meyer, with a great looking red grouper caught on a recent offshore trip.
FALL FISHING HEATS UP!
I also heard from Bob Lassonde, of Pawling, New Jersey, with a great bluefish report as follows.
Hey Cap'n. Myself and Larry Nemeth chartered with you about 5 years ago when we were down visiting his grandmother, have kept up with your website ever since. The very next time he invites me to go and visit his grandmother with him,you can be sure that we'll give you a call and ask you to put us into the reds and snook like you did last time.
Thought you'd be interested to see what came out of the water up here in NJ. This pic was taken Sunday the 14th, a couple miles off of the beach on Long beach Island aboard Larry's Maritime Skiff, "The Bloody Maritime". A dozen blues boated, all 10 to 16 lbs.
Thanks for all the work you do to keep sending your weekly updates out, it's great especially for those of us mired up north in winter.
Bob Lassonde
FROM MY FRIENDS!
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!
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