Hot, and calm, with the chance of afternoon thunderstorms should pretty much sum up the weather forecast for this August and that makes for great run and gun styles of fishing. Here’s a list of fish to target and things that might help you increase your odds a little.
This time of year, live bait is a great option to utilize. The better your bait is, the better your chance of getting a bit. Hooker Electric has come out with the best DC live well pump on the market. Silent, dependable and best of yet, they can feed multiple wells with variable speed and outflow up to 6500 gallons per hour. This is a huge benefit for when your carrying different types of bait depending on what your targeting, and especially when you decide to black out the well for chumming on those hot summer days. Right outside the inlet you should be able to find various types of bait. Grab a Homeport Chart #36 for bait and bottom spots. We use R&R Tackle Sabiki rigs to catch our hook live baits. They have a lighter main line, better flash, and more hooks per rig so you catch more at a time and are done with bait and moving on to the real game faster. Also. be sure to use a dehooker when unhooking your baits. It’s better for them and your fingers. I think “Sabiki” translates into flash magnet.
This time a year, when the water is clean, one of my favorite things to do is sight fishing the beach. Cobia, tarpon, snook, jacks, permit, and even sailfish are just a few of the species you can encounter within a few hundred years of the beach. A good pair of polarized sunglasses is a must, not only for this style of fishing, but for the protection of your eyes as well. Especially this time of year. Costa Del Mar’s 580 lenses are crystal clear, cut the glare, and seem to exaggerate the differences in colors so fish stand out better. This is a huge advantage since most fish you’ll see are actually deeper down in the water column and not right on the surface.
Live threadfin herring, sardines, pilchards and crabs are all great go-to baits for any of these opportunities. From an artificial standpoint, I prefer the D.O.A. Bait Busters, TerrorEyz, or shrimp, which leads us to the next great thing to do in the summer months, looking for schools of mahi.
It’s no secret that mahi like food and things that float. When pulling up to anything holding dolphin, my bait of choice again are the D.O.A.’s. You can have them ready on multiple rods and they are durable enough to catch multiple fish. The hooks on the BaitBbuster are stouter, so if you see some larger fish in there, those are what I would recommend. For smaller fish? You’d be surprised how fast a mahi will attack a shrimp when you’re around sargassum weed.
Over the last decade it’s incredible how far technology has come. I can’t say enough good about our Garmin XHD2 radar with “Bird Mode”. It is so precise, we can easily mark one or two birds from over four miles away on a calm day. We use it to mark weed lines, current edges, and even pieces of debris as small as a submerged milk crate. So often, when you come across something like that way offshore it will change the whole day. The advantage this gives a fisherman is priceless. We have had numerous great days of mahi and tuna fishing already using this amazing technology from Garmin and it has totally changed how I fish around here.
Sirius weather, which I have talked about before is also a huge safety advantage and peace of mind. Especially if you’re heading so far offshore your phone apps won’t work. Speaking of that, Garmin also has In Reach. A great way to keep in touch with friends and family via text while you’re out of cell range. This is great for when we’re on the swordfish grounds or traveling to or around the Bahamas. Both, also great things to do in August.
Whatever it is you decide to do this August, I hope it’s Off The Chain. Looking forward to fishing with you soon.
FORECAST BY: Capt. Scott Fawcett
Off the Chain Fishing Charters
Phone: (772) 285-1055
Email: fishscottyf@bellsouth.net
www.offthechainfishing.com
