Well, lots of hoo-ha about Red tide here on the West coast, so I just want to cover a couple of points about that. Please no Catch & release fishing in areas with Red Tide. If you go into an area with light or trace amounts of Red tide, look for small bait size fish struggling at or near the surface, This means that even though the larger fish like Snook, Red fish and Trout, are not dying from it, they are having a hard time breathing. Red tide “Pollen” paralyzes the gills of fish. So hooking and fighting a fish exhausts them to a point it is hard to recover, lots of dead loss. The whole point behind C&R is for the fish to live.
On the other hand, it is OK to catch the fish for dinner. But once you have enough for the table, leave. Red tide will not harm the meat, it is not a poison.
Fishing is fantastic from 15 miles out. Tuna, Mahi, Snappers, Groupers, Bonita, Kings, Spanish, It is happening now. Trolling or bottom fishing,
Up in Charlotte Harbor we do not get Red tide. So the fishing here is good, Spanish, Jacks, Red Snook, all doing good right now, Even good reports of Flounder, up here by the 41 bridges.
Last point Red tide is not fixed. It may be bad almost choking you, then all of a sudden it is gone. Or everything is great, then it drifts in. Watch for the dates on the Red tide reports. Things can change fast.
Last of all do not let a fear of the great boogie man “Red tide” scare you from going out to enjoy yourself. As I said it might be there or it might not. If it is, just go a little ways one way or the other chances are it will be all good.
Have fun out there be safe, but not scared.
“Fishin” Frank.