FISHING REPORT FOR PINE ISLAND SOUND FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/19/00 by Capt. Butch Rickey I closed my report last week with the bad news of my wife's cancer. I want to open the report this week with a sincere thank you to all of you who have taken the time to include Jean in your prayers, and taken the time to sit down and send your best wishes to us via email. I was overwhelmed with hundreds of emails from my friends and customers around the globe. Such an outpouring of support and prayers has made me realize that the world hasn't really gone to hell in a hand basket, just yet. It is still full of wonderfully kind and caring people like you. I managed to get out on Sunday for a couple of hours with my good friend Butch Boteler. Jean and I drove down to Butch and Arlene's in St. James City to visit and just get out of the house, and of course, we had to go wet a line together for a little while in his Go-Devil. We stopped a few houses down the canal and picked up his neighbor Gene, and with a full load for the little Go-Devil, were off. As we rode Gene noticed that my two reels were sealed in black vinyl cases. He asked me why. I told him that when he saw what was inside he'd understand. Well, of course, that peaked his curiosity, and he had to see. Under one cover was a new Shimano Sustain 4000 mated to a Shimano 7 ft. "V" rod. On the other, a Shimano Stella 2500 mated to another "V" rod with a little lighter action. Gene went on for a while about how the Stella should be in a case on display somewhere, not mounted on a rod ready to [actually] fish with. We rode to a nearby flat and chummed up a few pinfish, and were off to a snook hole. The snook predictably weren't eating, especially pins, but we did catch four big trout up to 6 pounds. Darkness forced us to retreat back to the house. We drove down to the Waterfront Restaurant and had a great dinner. It was a short but sweet visit. I scheduled Monday, Valentines Day off, and as it worked out that was the day Jean and I had to meet with her doctors to discuss her situation and come up with a plan of attack. Tuesday I was forced to spend straightening out errors made on BarHopp'R I by Waddington Vintage Marine. When he removed the front deck to gain access to the fuel tank, and added stiffening to the deck, he removed all the hardware like cleats, lights, etc. Well, when I picked the boat up from Smith Marine, who did a beautiful job of rigging the boat, I realized that he had made some boneheaded mistakes. First, he had to remove the forward pole holder. He had plugged off the hole and never put it back!! Dittos for the Acon pop-up bow cleat. He filled in the hole and failed to put the cleat back! He also left the poling platform mounted rod holder off. Probably even worse, he apparently changed the fit of my forward bait well lid, and I can't even get the well open to use it! Of the two pop-up pole holders he DID put back on the boat, one was reversed. Smith told me that during sea trial they found that Waddington had incorrectly plumbed the front well and had glassed over part of the system. They had to go in through the starboard side front locker and straighten that out. It's only two hoses. You'd think that he would have labeled them knowing that it was a long term project. There could be other things I haven't run across, yet. I'm not sure what this tells me about Charles Waddington. He does beautiful paint work. But things like these, and several other situations that I am aware of with other boats, lead me to believe that he either doesn't get the overall picture of how boats work, or he's careless and doesn't think before he acts. Likely it's the latter. Pretty paint work won't keep him in business if he's screwing up every boat he works on. Well, I was so upset with him at this point that I just picked up my missing parts and took them to Smith Marine, where Danny Fowler, who did a beautiful, conscientious job rigging the boat, quickly got things installed. I removed the reversed pole holder, and a sheet of AWL-Grip 2 inches square came up with it. That sends up red flags that the surface may not have been properly prepped. Charles had glued down a part that by design, allows water into the bilge. Why would you put sealant on anything other that the mounting screws? I don't understand. The last thing I had to do was install cooler chauks, and BarHopp'R I was ready for her maiden voyage on Wednesday with Dr. Bob Rose. First time out, Bob Rose rose (is that a double something?) to the top of my favorites list with many other of you. He loves to fish, and his enthusiasm is contagious. He's also a heck of a nice guy, and a lot of fun. Today, he had along his good friend, Fred. I knew Bob had Fred all hyped up telling him about our previous trip before all the cold fronts. I knew that even though we'd had a few days of warm weather, the water temperature still had a little ways to go before the fishing would bust loose. I hoped for the best for them, but feared mediocrity. We headed to the second span of the causeway, and Bob put his Captain's hat on. I had crowned BarHopp'R I with a very expensive aluminum steering wheel adorned with a suicide knob (that's what we used to call em when I had my 49 Mercury), and Bob thought it was pretty cool. It makes maneuvering around bridges, docks, and other tight spaces a snap. It took a little work, but we soon had the rear well full of beautiful shiners. We were off to start the day out trout fishing. We went straight to a hole that usually has lots of keeper sized trout as well as ladyfish in it. I was interested in the trout for Bob and Fred, and the ladies for chunked redfish bait. I wanted to see if we could find some reds and get them to eat later in the day. Well, the hole was predictably full of trout and ladies, but the trout were running small. We boated 20 or more trout, and 3 ladyfish, enough to entice some reds if they were enticable. As the trout bite slowed a couple of hours in to the tide, we turned our love and affection to reds. Although we did see several large reds and two large snook swim within feet of the boat, we had only two redfish hits, and both we half-hearted, and missed. I was encouraged by the fact that we had also seen two really big snook cruising the flats near a deep drop. We spent the last part of the trip looking for snook. Snooking was encouraging, but not great. Bob and Fred had quite a few hits, missed a few, lost 3, and boated 2 snook to 7 pounds. That certainly was better than it had been through all the cold weather. I had a feeling the snook fishing was about to bust loose any time. Once the incoming tide was done, we took our appetites to the Waterfront for a fabulous lunch to cap off the day. Although it hadn't been one of those high intensity days you love to read about, it had been a good day, and we walked away with a couple of nice snook. (They were released) Bob, Fred, and I are fishing again next Monday, and I believe that if the weather holds, it will be fantastic. And, so went the maiden voyage. The only problem encountered on the water, was that after we caught bait, every time I moved to another hole and stopped the boat, the baitwell would airlock. It drove me nuts, because the only cure was to stand on my head and reach down into the bilge and pull the pump body from the housing, allowing water to flow in. Then it would be fine until the next move. After our trip, I stopped by Smith Marine, where Danny put an elbow in the line to lower it some, thinking that might be the culprit. Turned out, he was right! Thursday, the weather continued to improve for George Lehman, now of Ft. Myers, his son Ken, and their friend Ron. We all had a good laugh at the dock while introducing each other, and that set the tempo for the day. These were fun guys, but because Ken was the only one with any saltwater experience, or open face spinning reel experience, I knew it would be a day of teaching and learning, trial and error. The place to start would be with trout. With Ken perched behind the new wheel it didn't take too long to get beautiful bait. I believe we were done in three or four throws. Each one netting some shiner/threadfin herring mix. We were off to the trout hole. George and Ron were used to the closed face Zebco 202 type reels, but with a little instruction and practice, they were soon flipping their jigs out a pretty good distance, and catching some small trout. They boated about 20 trout and one ladyfish before we decided we were ready to take on some snook. The snook fishing in the mangroves with 12 pound tackle proved to be a real challenge for the boys. The snook were big, fierce, and willing to eat. All the guys had several big fish on, and some good runs. I can recall that George had a big one on and almost won the battle, but the big snook found something on the bottom to cut him off with. The only snook landed was a small one just under the keeping limit of 26 inches. While the boys were trying to whip one of those snook, I threw a shiner in the bushes on one of the 8 pound rigs, knowing that if anything other than a small snook or a large trout ate it, it would be instant disaster. It was hammered immediately, and cut me off before I could even blink! I asked the boys if they would like to turn their attention to redfish and big trout to see if we could get them some dinner in the boat, and they were all for that. We headed to a flat where redfish often congregate. The air was still, the water clear, slick, and very shallow, and you could see pods of redfish moving almost everywhere. The flat was covered with redfish, and man, were they spooky. I anchored as close as I thought I could get and began cutting up chum. I hoped I'd be able to chum the fish close enough for us to catch. I was counting on our one ladyfish to give us an extra edge, because I can cast a 1/2 inch thick ladyfish steak about 150 ft. on 8 pound test. The plan worked, sort of. We hooked the first red, but the ensuing battle blew the school out away from us. We had to move and start over. This is real light line, long cast fishing, and it's hard to get the hang of the first time around. The boys all missed several hits a piece, and George had several actually on the line and lost them, but we finally did get a second big red to the boat. George finished the day off with a beautiful 5 pound trout that made his day and gave him a good fight. The boys finished the day with 2 big reds, and several big trout in the cooler for several good diners. I was delighted to have found so many big redfish in the middle of February. Redfish are quite the home bodies, and I knew there was probably a 90% chance they would be right back in the same area the next day on the same tide. Friday morning dawned with a 15 knot wind blowing from the southeast giving the first signals of an approaching cold front. I knew that if the wind came on around south during the day the fishing would be good. My trip was a long awaited one with Matt McMillen, of Gurnee, Illinois, and his brother Chris, and uncle Mark. They're all young guys and were definitely ready for a good time. Matt had tried to book me a year earlier, but I was already booked way in advance, and couldn't fish with him, so he used his usual guide out of Burnt Store. We had been emailing back and forth for a year, and I was really looking forward to fishing with him. To make things more interesting, Matt had another party of three friends staying with him that went with his guide out of Burnt Store. So, we had a tournament of sorts, to see who could boat the first, the most, the biggest, and bring home dinner for a bunch of hungry young anglers. It was Charlotte Harbor pitted against Pine Island Sound. I hoped me, Matt and the boys could give them a fishing lesson. With Matt on the suicide knob, we fished the second span of the causeway for bait. The tide was running hard on the first hour of the incoming. There was plenty of bait, but it was very elusive. There were a number of other boats all throwing around the pilings, but I wasn't seeing any bait caught. We stayed out off the bridge throwing where we saw bait flick, or in the tide lines, or where we saw birds dive. Slowly we filled the well. I was close to being ready to fish but wanted a few more baits for chumming those redfish later in the day. I threw once more in the tide rip, and could hardly lift the net. We scrambled to pick out the baits we needed to top off our supply, and I waved in a couple of guys in a yellow Action Craft and gave them the rest. I think it was enough to send them fishing, and they were very appreciative, as they weren't having any luck. Starting off with trout fishing gives everyone a chance to get checked out on the equipment, casting, etc., so that's what we did. Besides, I was hopeful that we could find some ladyfish mixed in with the trout so we'd have an extra edge with the reds later. Well, the ladies weren't there, but the trout were, and we fished long enough to catch 20 or so before made a move to the snook. Boy, were the big snook happy to see us. They gave Matt, Chris, and Mark fits. I think we counted 15 snook on, but they only managed to pull 4 out of the heavy cover. The biggest boated was nearly 29 inches. The really big fish in places like that have a decided advantage over an inexperienced snooker with 12 pound tackle. The boys also pulled some of those monster trout up to 5 pounds out of the snook hole. We left the snook still biting to go in search of redfish. As we rode to the next stop, Matt called his buddies up in Charlotte Harbor to compare notes. They had four keeper snook in the boat, but no trout and no redfish. We had already boated nearly 30 fish. We were happy, and I was sure I could find them some reds. I went back to where I'd left the reds the day before. I chummed with no results. Puzzled, I moved, and chummed again. No results. Hum! I moved again, chummed again. We got one pickup, but missed the fish. I just knew the fish had to be on that flat, and I was willing to bet they were close. It was just too windy to see them move. I got out the pushpole and got on the platform. I eased along and watched. Visibility was limited. Finally, I saw a large flash in the water 40 yards in front of the boat. It looked pretty silver, so I though it was a big mullet. I should have stopped and worked it, but I didn't. As I eased closer, I couldn't believe my eyes. Suddenly, we were in the middle of a big school of hundreds of redfish, and they were scooting everywhere. I barked at Matt to get the anchor out and throw a handful of shiners to try to hold them all from spooking. Matt handed the anchor rope to me, and I tied us off, and went to cutting bait. We got the lines out, mostly cut shiners and threadfins. It only took a minute before we had our first fish on. The bite was on. We had spooked a huge school of reds, but had managed to hold some of them in front of us with the chum. The boys missed their share of fish, but still managed to boat 10 or more of the bronze beauties. Mark got the fish of the day at 13 pounds. Matt and I had a beautiful synchronized strike for a double hookup, just like we had been practicing the routine. We had a blast, and had our limit of reds. We headed toward home at around 3 PM. Matt called his buddies again for a report. They were still without trout or redfish, and we had beaten them hands down. It was all in fun. So, that's the way the first week back in BarHopp'R I went down. The fishing is definitely busting loose, and I think it will continue good on good tide days as long as we don't get any more serious cold fronts in here. Tight lines until next week.