Shore fishing red tide??

[wiscojigpitch]

Hello gentleman/ladies! My wife and I are staying in tarpon springs this week and all I hear about is the RED tide. I understand it is contributing to a dreaded fish kill and can be troublesome to those with respiratory issues. My question is how much will it affect shore fishing? My last trip I fished the Dunedin causeway, fort desoto piers and the skyway. Is there areas I should avoid because it’s currently a lost cause? Are the fish safe to eat with the red tide? Does anyone have any general tips they could offer? We are rigged with a plethora of docs goofy jigs and teasers as well as white swim baits. A Sibiki rig to catch white bait/panfish. I have some corks with 2.0 circle hooks to soak shrimp under floats. This is only my second time fishing saltwater from shore but would love to put my wife on some fish! We are looking for any and all recommendations on locations, baits, times/tides without coming off as leeches of your time or info. We will post of any success with reports and pictures!! Thank you very much. Jo

[seabird]

I would google...fwc red tide. You get directed to the FWC pages dealing with the red tide. I use the fwc red tide sample map...it shows points with names...i.e. pier 60. The points or dots are color coded..red is bad, orange is moderate. Grey is best..no red tide.
The places I fish indicate moderate levels of red tide...the skyway piers and desoto. Anclote key and pier are north of the red tide. I don't fish most of my spots given that tide.

[carlf]

Here is the Red Tide Prediction and Tracking for the Tampa Bay Region page: ocgweb.marine.usf.edu/tbm/hab/
Tides and Currents: tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/map/index.html?type=TidePredictions®ion=
Daily Sampling Map: myfwc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=87162eec3eb846218cec711d16462a72&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=campaign

Overall, its looks pretty bad everywhere along the beaches and lower Tampa Bay.

[silverspoon]

Try fishing grass flats at Howard Park Beach, extensive grass along causeway leading out to beach. I'd fish Tarpon Springs and north of there to avoid red tide as it typically does not reach too far north of Tampa Bay area.