August will be hot, in the air and in the water. Leaving early will be your best bet for some great trout fishing. If you are able to hit it right with moving water at first light, break out the topwater baits for some incredible action (zara spooks, skitter walks and top dogs).
When you start feeling the heat, the trout will too, so fish deeper water. In the Louisiana Marsh, this means going from 1-to-4 feet to water that is 6-to-10 feet or more. A few degrees cooler water can stack up big trout. Oil Rigs, small channels and oyster reefs is where you need to start looking.
Live bait (shrimp, croakers, mullet and pogies) will get it done on the carolina rigs. The school trout will keep you busy fishing under diving birds. I highly recommend spinning reels spooled with braided lines for long casts. The Okuma (Trios, Helios, RTX, and V) spinning reels will cast a country mile. Not running into the middle of the diving birds will keep the school together. A weighted popping cork (Boat Monkey, Cajun Thunder and Old Bay Side) will get you the distance you need, especially on windy days.
Triple Tail fishing along the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast will be off the charts in August. The Mississippi Sound and Lake Borgne area is where we will be. Look for anything on the surface to have a triple tail underneath it (logs, buoys, dead fish and grass). A live shrimp, drug near this hard fighting delicious fish will get hit almost every single time.
Then there is August shark fishing. The big bulls and black tips have been showing up in big numbers and size. The really big boys will be around all August long. Cat island or the Isle Au Pitre area in the Louisiana Marsh have had plenty of big sharks cruising around for weeks. They are not picky, so big pieces of cut bait or big live fish will get bit. Just be careful with these fish, some are well over the 100 pound mark!
Those looking to make a quick day, try the reefs along the beaches of Hancock County. They should have plenty of specks, whites, ground mullet, red fish and black drum on all of them. Fish the points and breaks with either live shrimp or soft plastics. Drink plenty of water, and please be courteous to other boaters.
As always, have fun and be safe – Captain Sonny Schindler of Shore Thing Fishing Charters