In this heat, protect yourself -- and the fish

With this heat, slow your lure presentations, seek shade and depth during the day, and fish at night when the big fish come out to play. Be sure to give the fish a break and don’t play them till exhaustion, especially big fish like tarpon The heat plus the fight can kill any fish, so don’t under-tackle and take the time to thoroughly revive your catch before release or unnecessarily feed the sharks with a 25-year old beautiful gamefish

The tarpon report remains pretty much the same this week with the main body of tarpon still seeming to prefer Boca Grande Pass over the harbor and coastline possibly due to relatively cooler and more oxygenated Gulf waters in the pass

Crabs up top or threadfins are always good choices with bigger and catchable threadfins reported over and around the 20-foot holes in the harbor Remember that lots of bait with insufficient aeration and room coupled with Southwest Florida heat equals dead, wasted bait, and time

Lots of little tarpon in the Cape and PGI canals if you want to drive yourself crazy, trying to get one to bite Just keep telling yourself they have to get hungry sometime

If you want to start collecting your own bait, you don’t need a net as Sabiki rigs work well but the process is often time consuming If you go the Sabiki route, it’s a good plan to buy a dedicated Sabiki rod outfit that houses all those tiny hooks internally preventing a tangled mess and wasted time

Buying expensive bait locally from shop holding tanks often gives less than desirable results as typically it’s already weakened from the capture and storage process Learning to throw the cast net is much more productive

Choosing the net mesh size and diameter will depend on the size baits you intended to collect A general rule might be a 1 inch mesh or larger for big baits like mullet for tarpon and big snook down to 3/8 inch mesh for general duty, then down to 1/4 i n c h f o r m i n n o w s a n d s m a l l s h i n e r s Seasoned pros throw 12-footers, but the typical inshore guide or causal collector can do just fine with an all-purpose 8-footer Good nets open well and sink fast not allowing bait to escape so buy the best net that you can afford and take care of it and it will pay for itself.

There are Lots of small snook and some redfish hanging around shady mangrove shorelines on both sides of Charlotte Harbor Beach front or night bridge fishing puts you in bigger to trophy-sized snook territory Spanish macs are in the harbor, around the passes to almost anywhere offshore and don’t be surprised if my favorite light tackle fish, the bonito, occasionally moves in to feed with the mackerel

Make sure you check the FWC website before heading out to the 150-foot depths and beyond as seasonal closures for popular species like red snapper and red grouper are in effect. Red grouper re-opens Jan. 1 and red snapper re-opens again in October and November for 3day harvest weekends

Grey or mangrove snapper are open year-round with a 10-inch total length in state waters, 12-inch total length in federal

If you want to deeply bend a rod and your back, amberjack opened this past Tuesday but ends quickly on