Capt. George Tunison

With damaged homes, sunken or lost boats, local waters still containing boat and engine-damaging debris and to the north of us in Charlotte County, shorelines and bays coated with untold numbers of red tide killed fish, it’s often hard to be optimistic. That said, for now let’s hope the remainder of hurricane season spares us more challenges and the fall red tide outbreaks don’t find a home in Lee County.

The FWC red tide testing map shows no concentrations of red tide issues in Lee County but fish kills have moved all the way down to Boca Grande Pass and could continue south depending on wind and currents. Offshore of our slice of Southwest Florida, you may encounter some random patches but thankfully no heavy concentrations have been reported.

With the bad news out of the way, those able to get on local waters, wisely taking their time moving from spot to spot to avoid boat damage from obvious floating lumber as well as underwater gremlins, will find good fishing both in, near, as well as offshore. With good weather ahead, offshore crews will enjoy a red snapper harvest weekend and also be treated to a variety of grouper, big mangrove and lane snapper fishing and delicious dinners.

Hurricane winds and currents may have moved some of your offshore structures around a bit so you may have to adjust your bottom search. Current weekend forecasts call for upper 80s, low rain chances and winds from 10-15 mph. But as any savvy angler knows, that could change at any time so get updated weather info just before your trip to keep yourself and your crew out of harm’s way.

With lots of Spanish mackerel, available baitfish and cooling waters, the dinner bell is ringing and kingfish should be moving into our area to take advantage of the bounty. Live baits behind the boat while anchored to trolling, these are fun fish to catch and range in size from “snakes” of 30 inches, up to huge razor-toothed, high-speed killing machines, like the current Florida state record 90-pound tank. One of my all favorite lite tackle fish, the bonito, have arrived with more on the way and will show up anywhere from outside the passes, nearshore reefs, to far offshore. This past week we encountered them close to the coast along with tons of Spanish macs under flocks of diving birds giving away their locations.

Lots of mixed-sized cobia reports around nearshore numbers so a rod pre-rigged with a colorful bucktail or black plastic eel or worm is good to have on hand. I’ve gotten several reports of big jacks and like last season, bigger than normal bluefish also in the area. When unhooking a bluefish, be cautious as Mr. Blue is definitely playing possum and watching you carefully hoping to slice fingers and hands with it’s mouthful of razors and bad attitude. Local fall flats anglers are often treated to a bluefish attack around shallow oyster bars. These demons will gladly attack a top-water plug, jump like crazy and fly through the water at amazing drag peeling speeds. Here in Southwest Florida we don’t get the 15 to 20-pounder wolf packs I grew up fighting in the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays but in skinny water and on a lite rod, a 5-pounder is pure angling fun. Last fall local anglers encountered the biggest bluefish seen in these parts in several years.

Tripletail are definitely under stone crab floats not far offshore waiting for your well-presented live or artificial shrimp while cooling waters make our local seatrout hungry. Diehard tarpon fans will put in time with Charlotte Harbor currently still the best place to try. Snook are moving inland and hungry with many relocating to warmer Cape canals and Caloosahatchee River structures.

If red tides stay away, this should be a gorgeous and fishy weekend.

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.