FISHING HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER AROUND DUNEDIN!
Boy, what a year it’s been! FWC’s fish harvest ban kept many of us off the water, since we couldn’t keep any fish. Covid 19 intruded on our otherwise peaceful lives; closing businesses, keeping our kids out of school and tourists away from our state, and the beaches on Honeymoon Island were too rocky for fishing or playing.
Then the vaccines came out and eased Covid concerns, the fish harvest ban ended on June 1st, and Honeymoon Island beaches were restored to their former glory. Everything was looking up and people started getting out to enjoy the great outdoors and some fine fishing again, when another Red Tide outbreak started killing fish again in Mid-June. At that same time, Delta variant raised its ugly head in Florida, filling our hospitals with sick people again, and FWC extended the fish harvest ban to October 11th. It seems we just can’t catch a break from all this tragedy.
Well, here’s some good news! Hurricane Elsa swept the Red Tide away from the waters around Barracuda Bob’s over the 4th of July weekend, Red Tide in south Pinellas pushed tons of fish up to our area, the fish harvest ban ends October 11th and, if you believe news reports, Delta variant has peaked in Florida and will soon work its way out of our lives.
The beaches on Honeymoon Island are fully restored, offering wide expanses of sugar white sand to play on, and fishing around here has never been better. Our customers are reporting record catches of speckled trout, red fish, snook, flounder and mangrove snapper, and they are landing big tarpon right around the Causeway bridges. One of our regulars caught two nice tarpon off the little bridge the other day and showed us the video to prove it.
Outdoor and water temperatures are cooling, the sun is shining, red fish are schooling and there’s never been a better time to get out and beat the “stuck indoors blues.”
Gather up your rods and reels, load the family into your car and head on over to Barracuda Bob’s for the best in bait, tackle and beach gear. And, get out there on the water and enjoy yourselves. We’ll even tell you where the fish are biting. We live in paradise. Let’s start acting like it again!
See y’all out there,
Capt. Joe
Photos courtesy of Rosemary White