August On The Water

By Capt. Bill Russell

Fishing or boating in Southwest Florida in August means dealing with hot days and thunderstorms. Fishing can be good, and often without much competition, if you plan your day to take advantage of conditions. If you just want to have fun and a little fishing while relaxing, then the beaches are a good choice, especially if you are fishing with the family. Good numbers of snook are roaming the surf throughout the summer and are a sight fishermen’s dream. Most snook are running 22- to 26-six inches, but there are much bigger ones. Free lined pilchards, small pinfish, shrimp, white bucktail jigs, and a variety of small white flies or lures are top baits.

Look for the fish right off the edge of the beach in the surf or near any submerged structure. Remember snook are catch and release only. Trout, mangrove snapper, whiting, founder, pompano, mackerel, and tarpon are a few of the other species you may hook into along the beach. Fish a little; swim a little, not a bad way to spend the day. Summer gives us days with flat calm seas from early morning to midafternoon, perfect for offshore fishing.

Our coastline is dotted with artificial reefs, many well within sight of land and GPS coordinates available to the public. If you are an inshore angler, it’s a nice change of pace to make a short run offshore, especially during the heat of summer when the inshore water temperatures are so high.

A cool aspect when fishing around the reefs is you never know what you might hook into. Everything from a small snapper to 500-pound goliath grouper calls them home. To get the most out of the day you want an assortment of tackle that can manage the fish you target. Obviously with snapper you do not need super heavy tackle, the lighter the better for the best action. But, if you want to attempt to pull a big goliath grouper from his home you will need a rig extra heavy, were talking 200- to 500-pound line. And many times, that’s not heavy enough. In between snapper and goliaths there’s the possibility to hook Spanish and king mackerel, cobia, permit, barracuda, snook, sharks of all sizes, plus other species. Many anglers fish several different line class rods at a time targeting more than one species.

Armed with a variety of baits is the best way to catch multiple species. Small baits like shrimp, pilchards, and little pinfish are great for snapper and other bottom fish, larger live bait is often the ticket for a big barracuda, snook, or cobia. Big bait, dead or alive is the choice for goliaths. If you want to hook a permit you need small live crabs, this is often the best bait for cobia as well. Anchoring up current of the structure with a quality block of chum is the best way to bring the action behind the boat. Inshore, sea trout fishing is steady through the summer.

Look for larger trout over areas of open water where shallow sand bars transition to deeper grass flats from three to six feet deep with good water movement. Schools of small baitfish concentrate in these areas. Trout, plus Spanish mackerel, bluefish, ladyfish, and sharks are located around the bait. Diving pelicans, terns and gulls often give up the location of schooling bait. Speaking of sharks, they are abundant throughout the inshore waters. Size can range from a couple of feet to well over 10 feet. Fresh chunks of mullet or ladyfish and large live pinfish are top bait choices. Some days we do better fishing baits on bottom and other days suspending baits under a float does the trick.

It’s just fishing, don’t be afraid to experiment to see what works for you. Over higher tides target redfish and mangrove snapper under mangrove overhangs and other structure. You can catch a big redfish on a small bait but seldom hook a snapper on a large bait. Mangrove snapper are one of are tastier fish, if you want to catch some, small baits and hooks with a light leader are key. It’s a good idea to use the weather and tides to your advantage, especially over the hot days of August. Water temperature can change quickly, give us three or four days with bright sunny skies and the inshore waters quickly gets hot, often slowing the bite. A couple rainy days with limited sunshine and water temperature will drop several degrees; this can trigger good fishing. If conditions allow, get an early start to the day for plenty of time on the water and back to a safe place ahead of afternoon storms.

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