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Red Tide


flatsdoctor

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In September the ban on the use o certain fertilizers was lifted. Prompting immediate use of them to get SW Florida ready for the "winter migration" of people from the North, specially Golf courses.

Within a week I believe, Red Tide was reported to increase and some fish killing was also mentioned.

Last time we went to Bonita, 3 weeks ago, there was no dead fish, but  my wife was getting her usual reaction with cough, burning of the eyes and sneezing. Specially when the wind turned to the SW

Any recent reports or experience in the area. Colder weather should help.

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By the looks of the maps we are in trouble.And  It's not even warm any more !!

Anecdotally, 1st hand experience, is that we are now East of Estero Bay by Coconut point, and Patty is having a significant airway reaction to it.

Despite not bringing the boat or going to the beach or bay restaurants

It really affects my serenity knowing that someone else's interests can interfere with my right to enjoy beauty.

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Red tide was prevalent from Bull Bay to Stump Pass this weekend. Patchy, but prevalent

 

observed mostly mullet and baitfish dead, caught almost nothing Saturday, 40 redfish on Sunday and all seemed healthy

 

FYI——

 spoke to a commercial mullet fisherman at Eldreds that told me that FWC was saying that all inshore species from the area that were caught alive and been examined,  had parasites that could not be killed with cooking..........

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I am also very upset with having to deal with Red Tide yet again.  Doing some research on the subject leaves me  more confused that no one knows what causes this event. Red tides start off shore,many miles off shore and doesn't seem to correlate with man made pollutants like Blue /green algae and fertilizer.  It seems to be a natural forming event un related to water temps as we can see right now with water temps having become temperate.

It is messing up everyone on the coast and more importantly the fish and mammals who live in it.

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Oh man, this Red Tide is just killing me. We endured 17 months of this stuff in 2018 & 2019. I didn't catch a Redfish in almost 20 months because of this stuff. Suddenly in Oct. this year the Redfish showed up again and we had a blast catching them as well as some big Snook around 40". It was like the good old days were back again. Now we have more Red Tide, don't know how much Englewood can take.

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On 11/22/2019 at 11:24 AM, polliwog said:

I am also very upset with having to deal with Red Tide yet again.  Doing some research on the subject leaves me  more confused that no one knows what causes this event. Red tides start off shore,many miles off shore and doesn't seem to correlate with man made pollutants like Blue /green algae and fertilizer.  It seems to be a natural forming event un related to water temps as we can see right now with water temps having become temperate.

It is messing up everyone on the coast and more importantly the fish and mammals who live in it.

I agree, It is very upsetting!!

Red Tide is natural occurring . It's been happening for ever I guess, but I haven't heard of it lasting as long as this has. 

We Are doing something that is altering the normal balance. Maybe we are "chumming" it in from offshore 😊

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How much has it affected the fish population and how wide spread? The info available is vague, most likely to protect the tourism. Several fishing report sites I visit have very few current reports, one can kind of assume this is bad news? The testing results sort of looks like it might be starting to dissipate,  at least hope so

Full disclosure, going to Charlotte Harbor (which looks like ground zero) for a good bit of Jan, so have a personal interest.

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  • 4 weeks later...
2 hours ago, SCFD rtrd. said:

Just spent 3 weeks in Englewood. Caught Redfish almost every day. After the last cold front,  started catching Pompano. This is really good news as it relates to water quality. Pompano move around a lot and they are not about to stay anywhere near the Red Tide.

Good to hear, the map shows that the levels are way down now. But did see a report of a significant fish kill around Burnt Store Marina, just do not know how wide spread or how bad. Anybody know?

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  • 1 month later...

Late report from Englewood. Was there about 3 weeks in January. Had lots of projects and some meetings, then lots of wind. But got to fish about 4 days and caught lots of Pompano. Mostly shorts but managed some keepers. It's only going to get better as the water temps drop.

NCTribute, how was your fishing trip to Charlotte Harbor in January?

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On 2/8/2020 at 5:04 PM, SCFD rtrd. said:

Late report from Englewood. Was there about 3 weeks in January. Had lots of projects and some meetings, then lots of wind. But got to fish about 4 days and caught lots of Pompano. Mostly shorts but managed some keepers. It's only going to get better as the water temps drop.

NCTribute, how was your fishing trip to Charlotte Harbor in January?

Not too good, have not fished there before in the winter with the negative tides, so was a little baffled on how to approach. The tide was really low most of the daylight hours, with not much flow except for first thing in the morning. From other reports looks like most of the action was further south, which some of that might be due the red tide a few weeks earlier affecting the Charlotte Harbor area. Saw a decent amount of redfish, since we were fly fishing only, they were tough to get close to and even tougher to get any interest. Did not see many snook at all. Only got out about 5 times, but was still good to be out and just got my BT so good to get to know the boat.

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