Capt. George Tunison

Hot water and retrieving your lure too fast might not get you on the scoreboard this week as you dodge unpredictable morning and afternoon rains. Who wants to chase anything in this heat? We sure don’t and overheated fish often feel the same way.

Suspending lures, twitch baits, like MirrOdine’s, allow fish to dine without having to chase down a higher speed lure like a spoon. Skip casting a DOA Shrimp under a shady ICW dock and letting it fall could produce a whopper snook, so be a keen line watcher as the lure falls towards bottom. Any line movement, the slightest tick, set the hook.

Still not getting much play? Let the tide come up and skip those ladyfish chunks under the mangrove edges and wait out a lazy red or jumbo snook. Don’t rush it; let the scent get out, then move after 15-20 minutes.

A live pinfish hooked with a quarter ounce jig head so it struggles, flipping and flopping on the bottom, creating noise and stirring the bottom is a real attention-getter, an easy meal for an overheated fish, and deadly for mangrove-based redfish and snook.

Lastly, if you’re inshore fishing east of the ICW, move your game west of it and fish cooler more oxygenated coastal waters. Try Bull and Turtle bays where redfish are already schooling.

Covering water is the name of the game when looking to pick a fight with a local tarpon. Top three choices to begin your hunt would include early morning exploring Charlotte Harbor looking for bait schools, birds and feeding fish. Seems the rest of the fish are scattered along the coast and close to shore and here today, gone tomorrow. Again, cover water and also sharing info with other tarpon hunters helps narrow the search.

My third choice would be take a heat break and fish our local bridges at night. The Sanibel Causeway has been my go-to tarpon spot this month and also have caught some quality snook there, as by-catch. Top lure choices would include DOA Baitbusters, Hogy paddle tail eels and Z-MAN Herculez Swimbaits. This 5-inch ZMAN soft plastic realistically shaped swimbait is rapidly becoming a favorite. Built tough with a molded in 7/0 Mustad super sharp hook.

Often there is a feeding window right at dusk, then a calm period as big eyes get adjusted to the dark, before any night feeding activity. Pick a moving tide night. Have a strong trolling motor to maneuver while casting up-tide.

Tarpon aren’t often impressed by erratic lure retrieves. Try medium speed, straight and steady retrieves for best results.

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Winner winner chicken dinner! Over 80 respondents to the recent Name That Lure contest with several correct answers but Tom Dawson, formally of Cape Coral now residing in the 1000 Islands area of New York, got it first and will receive the lure and tackle package prize.

DF stands for Dying Flutter a discontinued lure from Heddon, which is the oldest U.S. lure company in continuous production, since 1898.

This front and rear prop, thin bodied surface plug is still a winner in both fresh and saltwater, catching large and smallmouth bass as well as being a great choice for larger seatrout, schooling redfish and snook. Although the Flutter is lure history, fans of double prop surface baits still can get a Heddon Wounded Zara Spook to show local fish something different from the typical walk the dog action Skitter Walk and regular Zara Spook, so commonly used in Southwest Florida.

One mistake top-water snook hunters make is to only use the walk the dog retrieve. If this retrieve isn’t getting any looks, break up the monotony and start a random, jerking, skidding, jumping, presentation, which really gets a hungry snook or reds interest.

Catch them up early near shore or a 100 feet on out, returning early before the afternoon sparks fly.

Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at 239-282-9434 or captgeorget3@aol.com.