In his weekly fishing reports, one of the best native florida fishing guides, capt. butch rickey reveals secrets of backcountry fishing and flats fishing in the waters of pine island sound around sanibel island, captiva island, and pine island. in his weekly florida fishing reports he tells all about snook fishing, redfish fishing, tarpon fishing, and trout fishing. the secrets are free! a guided fishing trip is a bargain!

Fishing Report for Weeks Ending 6/2/2001

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

My work week was shortened to three days by the Memorial Day holiday, and a no-show. The first day back at work was a very tough one.
Tom McFadden, and his four year old son Jake, and fourteen year old son Nick, over from Orlando, were first up on Tuesday. We had an absolutely horrible tide all day long, but I decided that the afternoon part of it was marginally better than the morning half. So, we left the dock at noon. We ran into real problems trying to get bait, what with the water not moving to carry our chum away, and the sun being directly overhead. We finally did get enough to fish with, and were off.
The fishing was tougher than the bait gathering! The fish just wouldn't eat no matter where we went or how much live chum I threw at them. The McFadden boys did manage to catch 3 snook to just under 26 inches, but that was it for the afternoon. It doesn't get much tougher than that, and I'm sure that a factor I haven't yet mentioned was the constant pounding the fish got over the long holiday weekend.
Wednesday, I was scheduled to fish with Ken Kingon, of Bonita Springs, for the first time. Our meeting time came and went, and no Ken. I had no way to reach him from the ramp. I waited for an hour before tossing in the towel. Later that day I sent Ken an email inquiring why he had not kept our date, and he responded with an embarrassing "I forgot". It's too bad there aren't more Ken Kingons in the world, because he assumed full responsibility for his forgetfulness, and sent me a check for the full amount of the trip. Now, folks! That's an honorable man! Thanks to you, Ken.
Thursday was a great day for Pete Lersner and his ten year old son Alex, and me. It was hot with light breezes from the east/southeast, and the tide was much improved from previous days. We gathered bait at Tarpon Bay without too much ado, and were off fishing.
The choice of where to fish was a good one, as Pete and Alex managed to catch a jack crevalle, a gag grouper, 2 nice snapper, and a good 25 snook. They missed many more snook during the bite. One that action was over we went to a different area to try to redfish, but only managed to get one to eat, along with a trout for the West Coast Slam. Pete and Alex caught on quickly and we had a great time.
Friday, the first day of June, I had a three boat trip with my long time friend and fishing buddy Ted Sparling, of Sarasota. Ted is a very successful builder in Sarasota, and was rewarding his crew for a job well done on a recent project. What began as a trip for nine guys, wound up being six by fishing day, so my other two guides Captains Rey Rodriguez and Norm Weston, had two anglers each. Ted's main man, John, accompanied him. Of course, for this trip we had a little friendly competition.

FISH OF THE WEEK!

Ted Sparling, at left, with crew and fish for the box!
With these damned Manatee zones everywhere now, we are having to change the way we fish. Now, we are forced to pick an area and hope like hell it works, because the days of hopping from spot to spot in search of eating fish are all but gone, at least for now. We made a good choice, and by the time we were ready to meet the other boats back at the Waterfront Restaurant just after noon, we had boated a 5 pound jack, a grouper, 2 nice snapper, 3 nice trout to nearly 5 pounds, a good 25 snook, and 3 nice redfish to about 7 pounds. Oh, yes! We smoked the other guys! We all had a good time recapping the days events with the other anglers, and enjoyed a great lunch. Unfortunately, Rey was having motor problems, and had to get back in to have things checked out, and couldn't join us.
Well, that's how it went. The good tides nearly always bring better fishing, and that was certainly the case for this week. The fishing should remain pretty good through next week, I think.
IMPORTANT

If you want to be able to continue to fish Florida waters please follow this link, "Manatee Zones: How You Can Help" and please take the time to become involved, even if you don't live in Florida. Let the politicians know WHY you come to Florida on vacation!

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