INSHORE FISHING: Fishing will be much tougher, but if you work at it, you can have some great trips. Fish deeper water, working docks in the bayous and sounds in early mornings, late afternoons and at night.
The most crucial part of catching fish inshore, is bait. You’ll need a good cast net and a good live well to keep your bait alive. You can find bait in bayous and around bridges; just look for the bait schooling up at the top of the water. Many big redfish will be mixed in with schools of bait fish. If you find an area where there’s a bunch of menhaden schools, start right there. Start off by working a few of the schools of bait with soft and hard plastic artificial lures. Fish them deeper, underneath the schools. Once you find them try to stick with that particular bait school. If you aren’t having any luck doing that, ease off into about 5-8ft of water off of a grass bed or shoal and post up and pitch a few free-line menhaden behind the boat. Throw out handfuls of live menhaden; doing this will attract all kinds of fish. Once the sun comes up, fish nearby bridges or deep water docks with soft plastics. Use a heavy headed jig so you can work the bottom. If you get a few bites around the docks or bridge pilings doing this, you can setup again and start chumming like mentioned earlier. The main thing this month is to follow the bait.
NEARSHORE/OFFSHORE: King Mackerel should really start to kick off good this month. All the inshore wrecks less than 100ft of water will hold plenty of mackerel. Some of the best fishing is right out front within a mile of the pass. The large bait schools gathered on top of the water will have plenty of kings around them. Pitch a couple live baits out and slow troll around the schools and you’ll get some. They’ve been a little sporadic at times this year, so move around to find the bite.
Amberjack are in season and are one of the best fighting fish in the gulf. There’s nothing a jack likes more than a live hardtail/blue runner. You might have to run further out offshore (90- to 200-ft.) to catch the bigger jacks. Big steel wrecks usually hold plenty of AJs. Use heavier tackle around the wrecks. I like a 10- to 14-oz lead with a long 80- to 100-lb leader, with a 10/0 to 12/0 circle hook. Fish the wrecks higher up in the water, usually about half way down. If you catch a bluefish or two while bait fishing, keep it; you’ll get one hell of a bite dropping him down to a jack.
August is shaping up to be a great month, so get your gear together and plan a fishing trip. If you have any questions about fishing, feel free to stop by the shop or give us a call at the Ships Chandler in Destin, FL, 850-837-9306, or visit us at www.theshipschandler.com.
CAPT. PETER WRIGHT, JR.
The Ships Chandler
646 E. Hwy 98
Destin, FL 32541
850-837-9306
www.theshipschandler.com
