It’s that time of the year when many people come to Southwest Florida to go to the beach, but those beaches smell pretty bad from all the Red Tide and dead fish. WINK News talked with people at Fort Myers Beach on Tuesday who said Red Tide would not stop them from hitting the beach. Despite people still going to the beach, Red Tide is still an issue for businesses trying to rebound from Hurricane Ian. When Red Tide is as bad as it is on Tuesday, it can be deadly for fish and costly to businesses. The people who run Wahoo Willie’s and La Ola told WINK News the hurricane and Red Tide is an ugly one-two punch. “It has definitely slowed us down over the last week when there’s nowhere to stay on the island right now. So people are up in town, and they watch the news in the morning. It says it’s bad. I mean, you’re not going to drive to the beach to go smell that,” Wahoo Willies general manager Bill Ingnatti said. Ingnatti is optimistic a shift in the wind will blow Red Tide away. While La Ola’s manager Isabel Garcia, already sees the difference. “It was bad a couple of days. People were not coming down on the beach, a lot of people out there, but now that it’s done, it’s getting better. You can see actually that people are coming out,” Garcia said. Red Tide works like that. While it is bad in one place, it’s not so bad a few hundred yards down the beach. That’s why people don’t mind taking the risk and going to the beach anyway. On Tuesday, that risk paid off. “We’re glad to be back. We love sitting around, listening to music, having a couple beers…it’s just wonderful,” Fort Myers Beach local Sharon Pelletier said. “Compared to Cleveland winters, you know, I’ll take a smelly day over that. Anytime,” beachgoer Ken Simon said. Many are remaining hopeful that Red Tide does not hit the area as hard after Hurricane Ian as it did after Hurricane Irma.