ShellSanibel
Read the beach.
Beaches · Saturday, August 22
Redfish Pass
North end of Captiva · West facing at a tidal pass
Here, today
Promising
- The daylight low drops to 0.3 ft, which uncovers about as much bar as this coast gets.
- Wind is 12 mph onshore from the WSW — helping, though not strong enough to suggest a major new deposit.
- Work the wet wash and the edge of the wrack line rather than expecting a pile.
Best walk window here
3:39 PM–6:39 PM
Low water 0.3 ft at 5:09 PM.
Before you go
Strong current through the pass. Same rule as Blind Pass.
Today’s tides here
| Tide | Time | Height |
|---|---|---|
| High | 8:21 AM | 2.1 ft |
| Low | 5:09 PM | 0.3 ft |
These times are the published Redfish Pass tide-table offsets, applied to NOAA’s St. Petersburg predictions — -55 minutes on the high, -74 on the low, heights scaled by 0.91.
The beach
The pass at Captiva’s north end. Boat access effectively — the shore approach is long — but the tide behaves the same way it does at Blind Pass.
- Access
- North end of Captiva; practical access is by boat.
- Parking
- None to speak of.
- Orientation
- West facing at a tidal pass
- What to look for
- Rubble either side of the pass on a dropping tide.
Access and parking change with the season and after storms. Check the City of Sanibel or Lee County before you rely on them.
Taking live shells is prohibited in Lee County
That includes anything with the animal still in it, and sand dollars, sea stars and urchins whether or not they look alive. If it moves, if it closes, if it is anchored to the sand — put it back where you found it, the right way up.
A shell with an animal in it is not a souvenir that has been left out. It is the animal’s house, and the beach is not producing spares.