# Big Bend Fishing Report August/September



## Ridin' the Tide (Jul 20, 2017)

Hey guys! Been a while since I've posted, got pretty busy with my tarpon season and forgot to post. 

After tarpon season here in the big bend I start to really focus on a bunch of different things throughout my day as there are TON of different species of fish around. The redfish and snook are still here and still able to be sight fished with fly and light tackle as normal. The redfish seem to school up more in late August through September, which makes things really fun. I try to target areas where I know not as many people are going. Areas with more rocks, a little bit dirtier water, too shallow, etc. I fish a lot of shrimp patterns and baitfish patterns this time of year when sight fishing. And they're generally bigger patterns than most people throw. Big bait = big fish! We have had a ton of rain lately, so I'm seeing the bigger schools of reds and snook on the outside points more so than I am way in the back country. Taking a white jerk bait rigged weedless and working some of the main outside points and secondary points is a very strong gameplan this time of year. The tough part for me this time of year is the tide gets really high, so I try to get creative when the snook and redfish go under the mangroves. 

Right around the middle of August we start to see a huge influx of bait. Glass minnows, threadfins, mullet, and all those good things. With that bait, comes a ton of other fish such as spanish mackeral, bonito, sharks, big jacks, and cobia to name a few. One of my favorite things to do this time of year is run just a few miles offshore and find the bait pods and go to town. I normally bring 3 rods with me to do this. An 8 weight with a sink tip and 30lb knottable wire for the bite, throwing a good ole chartreuse and white clouser. A 10 weight with a floating line for throwing big poppers to jacks and sharks, and a 12 weight ready to go with a big meaty fly for sharks if they pop up around the schools of bait. It's not uncommon however to have the sharks come up and eat your poppers. I normally only throw 30-40lb mono bite with those poppers are they will sink if there's any weight in the leader I have found. In any case, this is the most fun you can have with a fly rod in my opinion. There's more fish than you can catch out there around these bait pods and they pull! I have never seen my hatch reels get into the backing faster on a fish. I would almost go as far as saying those bonito will take you into the backing faster than a tarpon will. With the weather being pretty consistent this time of year, I don't think it's unreasonable to run a skiff out that far. I do it constantly, even though I have a pathfinder to use out there as well. I like having the versatility of being able to go run back in and sight fish if I want to. As the summer comes to an end and fall starts to happen through September, these bait pods will hang around and generally get bigger as more and more fish show up. 

On top of all the bait offshore, the trout are starting to come in closer as well. As water temps start to come down, the trout will be much more easily accessible by all. A buddy called me and told me he ran over a good school of them a few days ago in about 2 feet of water. This was the first time I had caught a trout that shallow in a few months, and gave me hope for yet another fun thing to do this time of year!

I'll attach some pictures to this post from the last few weeks or so. Thanks for reading and tight lines guys!


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## Ridin' the Tide (Jul 20, 2017)

Also, if you guys have some time, one of my buddies edited a video of one of our trips from a few weeks ago, give it a look and enjoy! Thanks!


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## messier69 (Nov 9, 2009)

Great report Capt.


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