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Hot august temps make for long hot days surf fishing. Pompano are a possibility for early morning hours either on sand fleas, fresh peeled shrimp or fish bites. One or the most productive activities will be catching ladyfish using spoons, bubble rigs or pompano jigs. There are some whiting this month bottom fishing and some blues to be caught at night on cigar minnows or menhaden. Sharks are still in abundance and are easiest to pursue at night using chunks of ladyfish or bonito for bait. The sharks range in size for several feet in the 20-30lb range up to ones in excess of 10ft weighing up to several hundred pounds. The sand sharks, bulls and black tips are excellent table fare also. Black snapper are one of the prime species for the savvy jetty angler. Drifting either a small piece of cut cigar minnow, menhaden or live shrimp when available along the rocks is a great way to find some snapper for dinner. Fishing to far from the rocks only gets you trash fish so real, real close to the rocks for the best chances at snapper. The reds will be active on the outgoing tide, spoons or live baits are the best for them. Blues and ladyfish are around most afternoons and can be caught on cut baits, jigs or spoons. The bonito will be around on some mornings and drifting a live cigar minnow or tossing a bubble rigs will entice the most activity.

These are truly the dog days at the Okaloosa Island Pier. The summer kill of Lys has begun and this can be considered by many beach goers as a bad thing as they wash ashore and smell. To the pier fisherman this can mean the thoughts of catching a real smoker king. Overall kings will be slow this month with only a few caught each day but the larger kings get lazy in the heat and all the dieing Ly make easy pickings for them. Drift one along with the other dead ones and chances are good at picking up a nice smoker one afternoon. There should be a few tarpon still and some bonito. The ladyfish and hardtails will be abundant if you have the need to entertain some kids for a morning or afternoon. They should get the occasional pompano or whiting but only in small numbers.

Kings can be difficult when the want to be in August as the hot dog days keep them fairly inactive some days. To be the most productive at catching them you must fish very early if you are going to surface troll for them. Once the sun gets going the kings move to deep water drop offs and edges looking for a cooler place to spend the day foraging for minnows. A planner or better yet a downrigger is the key to a successful day on the water. The downrigger unlike a planner allows the angler to fish relatively deep but still use very light tackle. The lighter tackle is more fun to fish with and the lighter the terminal tackle the more bites you normally get. The Braid Runners and Yozuri plugs can be effective when live baits are hard to come by. Make sure to run your Yozuri plugs with a trolling lead from 4-12oz’s so you can get deep enough to reach the cooler water temps and you will do much better.

Opportunities abound here as the heat really only bothers the fisherman here. All the offshore species are well equipped to handle the heat. The wahoo hang on the deep edges looking for food. The dolphin prefer to roam weed lines and rips and the tuna like the mouth of the canyon, the rigs and hanging around the large offshore shrimpers looking for the royal reds. When the shrimpers are culling there catches the tuna find easy meals and they get careless running around the boat looking for food and this is the time to take advantage of them chunking with menhaden. As for the marlin they are likely to be anywhere you find the dolphin and tuna.

Snapper can be found near the beach still in August but you have to be savvier to get them. Try real light leaders and smaller hooks with live baits. Fishing man made structure like chicken coops will provide the best action. Even though live bait is best for the snapper you should still be able to do well butterfly jigging. Remember snapper close in Federal waters on August 5th 2008

This month for bottom fisherman, the weather is hot, live bait can be tough and fish have moved off shore looking for cooler feeding grounds and the current can be very bad. With that said there is still plenty of action if you are willing to work a little. Going to a much lighter fluorocarbon leader, lighter lead, smaller hook and lighter rod/reel you can still be productive. Fish see to like natural bottom better than wrecks when the temps are hotter. Live bait will help a lot but sometimes they can be hard to come by. If you are bait fishing and having trouble getting bites even though you see plenty of bait try out one of the new fluorocarbon bait rigs, there are more money but can save a trip.

Reds are the main focus here, look for them especially the larger bulls on the outgoing tide in the pass near the Destin Bridge and jetties. Some tarpon near the shipwreck between the mid bay and 331 bridge. Trout will favor the area around Mack and Horseshoe Bayou's. Floundering in the Bayous around Niceville will be good for now through mid to late November when the move to the gulf on the first cold fronts. Jack Cravelle can be found in the Santa Rosa Sound and in Cinco and Poquito Bayou's. If you fish Mid Bay bridge with live shrimp and LY’s you can have a good day much of the time fishing for black snapper. Lastly there will be good runs of mullet around the bridges and bayous.

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