Oct. 7, 2018- Great news! It appears the red tide is finally gong away, east winds most probably blowing it out to sea, and fishing has NEVER been better. The fish have been starved since the beginning of the bloom and now they’ve returned with HUGE appetites. Bait fish are returning but the fish are feeding on the shrimp. People have been going through a dozen shrimp in half an hour. Catches consist of Snook, snapper, black drum, redfish, trout, and jack crevalle. Snook and Redfish are illegal to keep so it’s catch and release with them. I’d like to remind everyone about the Adopt-A-Snook program that CCA, ASA, and Mote are promoting. It’s a great program and will help ensure the recovery of our Snook population.
Sept 16, 2018- We are back from vacation and sad to report, the red tide is still with us. Fishing is still good in varying areas with Snook, Redfish, Snapper, and trout the main catches. As for the red tide, nothing has changed since my previous post-you can read that after this post.
August 15, 2018- I’ve been a bit negligent with these reports. We’ve had red tide for the last few weeks and many people have not been fishing-partly because of the red tide and partly because of the misinformation and inaccurate reporting not only from many local media outlets, but from the clueless outside media.
For those unfamiliar with red tide, red tide is a algae bloom that uses huge amount of oxygen to survive and grow, which causes fish to suffocate. There is a large loss of marine life as a result of suffocation. It is not a disease. The airborne part of the bloom can cause respiratory irritation resulting in coughing or other symptoms which often mimic allergic reactions. It can affect people with respiratory issues more severely.
Just to answer the most frequently asked question people call me with. No, everything is not dead in the Gulf of Mexico. Fishing has actually been very good but uncomfortable at times. The red tide is not everywhere as the media would want us to believe. It moves with wind and currents. I have people calling to ask if they should come here for vacation at the end of the month, end of next month, end of the year because of red tide. My answer to that is- I don’t know. The red tide could be gone tomorrow. As of today, it looks to be clearing up somewhat. The best place to get an answer to your questions is Mote Marine. I receive daily updates from them and they seem to be the most accurate and up to date.
What I am trying to say is do not change your future vacation plans because of this. It may be gone before your vacation and we here in paradise would love seeing you.