Fishing Report for Week Ending 9/6/97
by Capt. Butch Rickey
First to fish this week was my number one fishin' buddy, Kevin Grover, of Associated Network Solutions, Inc. in Clearwater. He's long wanted to get his five year old son, Taylor out for a day of fishing for snook and redfish, but wanted to do it on Sarasota Bay, so it wouldn't be such an early morning and long ride for him. Kevin brought along his good friend Tim, of GTE in Tampa.
Last week Sarasota Bay was pretty stingy about giving up her redfish, and this week she wasn't in a much more generous mood. Actually, the morning started out great, with the young Taylor and Kevin catching 4 nice redfish up to 28", and a couple of snook that were just short of keeper size. Now you gotta know, Taylor is a big five year old, and didn't need much help from dad, except with the big redfish. He probably could have handled it himself, but we (read I) was worried about my Shimano Stradic/Scabbard combo going into the drink. I hate when that happens.
As if someone had thrown a switch, the bite quit, and we didn't see another fish that morning. But, Taylor had already had the time of his life, and was starting to run short on hang time. We went home early.
The next morning I met David Colflesh and his fifteen year old son, Josh, of Tarkio, Missouri, at the 10th Street ramp, anticipating an improving redfish condition. But, alas, it was not to be. I worked my butt off all morning, hitting many of my tried, proven, and favorite redfish spots, but we only boated two reds all morning. Josh got both!
Wednesday morning, I met John Keeney, of League City, Texas, who was here on vacation and wanting to catch some snook. John had been doing some fishing on his own, but had only been able to catch jacks and ladyfish. He was ready for snook.
But it was not to be on this morning. John pulled in as I was putting the boat in the water. The steering broke as I moored the boat at the dock. I knew we were done, so I immediately put the boat back on the trailer, pulled her out of the water, and began unloading the equipment. About that time, John walked up with a puzzled look on his face, and said, "This doesn't look too good." I explained the predicament, and we made plans to get the boat fixed, and fish the following day.
I went straight to Smith Marine Enterprises to see Craig about replacing the whole inner and outer cable. The boat has steered hard since the day it was new, and I've just always sort of lived with it. After Craig took a look, he asked why I didn't put hydraulic steering on the boat, and be done with steering problems. I explained that I had spent a fortune on refurbishing the boat, and a new Boatmaster trailer in the last couple of months, and was about tapped out. He made me an offer I couldn't turn down, and ordered the steering. The boat was ready for business by day's end.
Thursday morning, John was at the dock with bells on, ready for some snook fishing. Now, anyone who's been reading my reports for very long knows I don't usually have a problem putting my customers on snook. But, today Pine Island Sound was greedy with her snook. We hit hole after hole all morning without hardly a hit. We did catch a tiny little juvenile snook around Regla Island, but that was it.
As the tide covered the bars, I switched gears and tactics. John got only one 22 inch snook the rest of the day. The redfish did show up on the adjacent flat, right on schedule. We caught 8 nice reds, a trout, and a ladyfish, before John requested we once again target snook. He said he catches plenty of reds back home in Texas, and wanted to spend his time fishing for snook. We didn't catch any more snook before I was forced to head in.
The new hydraulic steering was not working correctly, and I had to get it to Smith Marine before they closed. The steering worked fine turning left, but to run straight down the water I had to keep turning the wheel to the right, and the steering wheel would make a complete revolution about every 30 seconds underway. To turn right, I had to really turn the wheel a lot. It was kind of weird to pilot. After some diagnosis, Craig ordered a new helm, and scheduled me in for Saturday morning. I took off for Sarasota.
Friday morning, I was back on Sarasota Bay with my long time friend Dr. Richard Georgiades, his younger brother Wayne, and Wayne's future son-in-law, Greg, who were down for the weekend from Tennessee.
It was an ugly morning. The wind was roaring out of the northeast at 20 - 25 knots, and seemed to get worse as the morning slipped by. I slipped "the BarHopp'R" into the real skinny water of Buttonwood to fish the potholes for redfish on a falling tide made lower by the northeast wind. It didn't pay off. We only got one red from the holes.
I decided to slip back outside and fish the edges and drops for the rest of the low tide, and it paid off. The wind made fishing difficult, but we got another nice red, a nice snook, a flounder, 2 ladyfish, 2 jacks, and 25 to 30 trout. We probably could have caught trout the rest of the day in that spot, but by noon the boys had had enough. I knew it was going to be a long, possibly wet ride home, as Sarasota Bay was just a big white foaming mess. The boys took 2 redfish and 8 nice trout back to Tennessee.
Saturday morning I was back in Ft. Myers at Smith Marine to have the defective helm replaced, and a few other things done while I was there. Anyone living within striking distance of Ft. Myers would do well to acquaint themselves with the gang at Smith Marine. They're a great bunch of folks who really bend over backward for their customers. You know, knowing you've got good people working on your boat, gives you a lot more confidence about taking to the water.
I'm not sure how to forecast the coming week. I think that once this wind associated with the passing front clears out, things will get back to normal.
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