The month of August can provide some great fishing action in our area. While this year has been a little off, with cooler temperatures and a lot of rain, there are still some patterns that hold normal for this time of year. One of my favorite types of fishing this time of year is wading for redfish, trout and flounder. The estuaries are full of bait right now and these fish know where to go to find a quick meal.
While high tide wading for tailing fish is certainly popular and a lot of fun, don’t discount the opportunity to wade shallow areas at low tide as well. We see and catch plenty of flounder while wading at low tide and several of my personal best large trout have been caught while wading at low tide as well.
The trick is to find the right spot and to learn how the water flows once you find your area. We typically will look for a shallow area with a sand bottom that is bordered by shallow creeks or a sandbar with creeks that run in behind it. We will generally set up at dead low tide and work the areas where the water flows in. Working these areas with a grub head and the grub of your choice will normally produce results. We’ve also free-lined a live mudminnow through these inlets and have had good results. If you really want to have some fun, try throwing a spinner bait and bump it along the bottom. Redfish and flounder cannot leave a spinner bait alone for long.
Another advantage to this type of fishing is that time of day is not as crucial. Most of the time when we hit the really hot part of the summer the fishing is good very early in the morning and very late in the afternoon as the sun is going down. On the shallow water flats as the cooler water flows in from the deeper parts of the river surrounding the bar, the inflow of cooler water actually seems to energize the fish and makes them more aggressive. These can also be great places to teach a young angler how to cast without having to worry about them hooking someone else in the boat or having to cast accurately to a pa