August is an amazing month to fish the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon. The weather is hot but the fishing will be too. With almost every morning starting with the surface as smooth as glass at sunrise, you can spot finning redfish, feeding trout, and rolling tarpon from a long distance. The edge of most any flat will have activity along it. Wading, fishing from a dock, bridge or pier, paddling, and boating will all get you to the fish – producing bites in August is easy.
On the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoons, sea trout and redfish are the primary targets of anglers on the flats. Anglers should focus their efforts in areas of mullet schools, throwing top water plugs in the early morning and late afternoon hours, or at night. Once the day gets hot and the top water bite slows, switch your tactics to live bait (pigfish) or DOA CAL Shad Tail Jigs fished on the deeper edges of the flats, and don’t overlook the large ladyfish schools shadowing glass minnows out in the deeper water.
As long as the water stays warm (above 80 degrees) along the near-shore coast, look for pods of baitfish to move in close to the beach. These bait pods, Atlantic menhaden (pogies), thread fin herring (greenies), and bay anchovies (glass minnows) will all be shadowed by predator species like large tarpon, smoker kings, blacktip and spinner sharks, jack crevalle, bonito and redfish. As we approach the end of the month and the beginning of the fall mullet run, look for snook fishing in the surf to improve as they move into the surf break to feed. Remember snook season is closed in August, so please handle and release them with extreme care.
