Red Tide Report - Good News, Bad News

[big bend gyrene]

Shark Man and I went out of the Econfina this morning thinking we would try some offshore action. Headed to Marker 24 and from about five miles out until we reached the marker 24 area we saw tons of dead fish (tons might not be an execration). The sheer volume was unbelievable... during most of the trip it seemed like dead fish were spaced about 10 feet apart as far as the eye could see, when we reached the marker 24 area they were about 3 feet apart and the odor of decay was evident. Pinfish, grunts, eels, puffers, toadfish, flounder, and groupers everywhere... big and small.

Now for the good news - noticed many of today's inshore reports mention no red tide and decent action. Same thing for our inshore part of our trip back in. From about five miles and in the baitfish were pretty darn active... spooky - like there was a weird line between dead waters and active inshore action. Thanks to some helpful gulls, we got into an awesome school of jacks (hundreds of them schooled together) that were in a SERIOUS frenzy. We had double after double on topwater plugs and successfully chased the school for about an hour! After such a dreadful morning, we counted our blessings for the fun and called it a day!

Imagine I will see it again sometime in the future, but it sure wouldn't hurt my feelings if I never see the results of a red tide again... anybody have any idea how long it takes an area to recover? May be posting more inshore reports for a while...

[tin can]

I sure don't like the sound of the offshore conditions. Probably just a matter of time before it moves inshore.

Glad you salvaged the day with some fast action.