Capt. George Tunison

The water was so hot this past Wednesday afternoon that we had to put on a new soft plastic grub every third or fourth cast as they kept melting off the jighead!

Well, not really and anyway in this heat, I’m strictly on the night shift which makes it almost tolerable. If you must fish the inshore day shift, pick a moving tide period and fishing west of the Intracoastal Waterway might produce better results.

One thing for sure, beach snooking is at its summer peak and is a good pick for your next day or night trip by boat or on foot.

Tarpon are definitely on the night prowl for chow as well and hunting the Sanibel Causeway and Cape bridges is always a good bet this time of year, although you might be distracted by “by-catch” like the fat and just a hair under 40-inch snook I wrestled to the boat this past week night tarpon fishing using a black Hogy eel. Although Boca Grande numbers have thinned considerably, tarpon are still there with many now using it to move between the harbor holes, the coastline and Gulf, but being there fishing at night on a moving tide will still pay off.

Another at night or early morning option would be to find the clearly marked deep water spots in the middle of Charlotte Harbor (check the FWC website for GPS numbers) and hang a live ladyfish under a balloon off the transom while casting jigs and soft plastic swimbaits ahead as you correct course with the electric motor. If you have up-to-date electronics like side scan, finding them can become easier. Coastal anglers will wait or slowly motor along looking for signs of moving or rolling fish sometimes right off the beach to several miles out.

Speaking of side scan and other modern tech marvels, I stumbled on a big bass tournament clip showing Scott Martin, son of famed angler Roland Martin, in his bass boat which looked like a four screen, drive-in theatre with two huge screens at the driver position, and two at the electric motor station up front. Maybe in another year or so the technology will improve to the point that you’ll be able to scan the area, spot all the fish, the machine will determine the species, sex, length and weight, with all the info fed back to you on the screen. Simply choose your target, hit the button and a harmless stun ray will reach out and immobilize the fish causing it to float to the surface for easy pick-up and photo ops.

It’s getting ridiculous. Guess I’m old school and sorry in advance to bass tournament anglers, but I’d like to see all big buck, bass tournament boats equipped with the exact same, very basic depth finder and temperature readout machine, with anglers instead relying on their knowledge of the species, habits and seasonal movements and locations to find their targets. Maybe it’s just me.

If you don’t desire a beach snook encounter, you’ve put away your tarpon gear and it’s way too hot to fight a big shark, then you’re probably looking forward to fall red fishing. Actually on both sides of Charlotte Harbor, it’s already started with under, slot and over-slot fish being caught along shady shorelines and docks spots, with cut bait or frozen/live shrimp attracting fish to the hook.

Mostly gone are the huge schools of reds I first encountered after relocating here in 1999. Every October massive schools would show up in front of Burnt Store Marina and for the next three years I would often be the only boat in sight catching one after another as the sun woke up. As the word got out it, of course, quickly changed.

Our area still offers good redfish angling but unfortunately continued water pollution from multiple sources and ever increasing angler pressure continues to take a toll.

Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at 239-282-9434 or via email at captgeorget3@aol.com.