Prime Time for Sight-Fishing

August is one of the best months for sight-casting redfish. There can be many variables to this month, from tropical weather to the first very weak fronts of the year. One thing is for sure, though, August has potential to bring us the most days of light wind and sunny skies. During late spring and early summer, there are days here and there, but now we are getting into a month where I have seen highly-favorable conditions for as many as five and six days in a row.

We also start to see a lot of redfish schooling activity becoming a prominent pattern this time of year. During early summer we are typically chasing smaller pods. These can be as few as three or four and sometimes as many ten to fifteen; on rare occasions we might encounter a school of fifty or more. Now, in August, these schools often include as many as two hundred or more reds. Some of these larger schools can be a lot of fun with beginner anglers because depending on the attitude of the school you can keep easing up on them for multiple hookups.

One of my most memorable sight-casting trips occurred in late August when we came upon a school of maybe three to four hundred fish, and there was not another boat in sight all day. We were able to sit on a shoreline with the Power Pole down for a stretch that lasted more than five hours. The school would move within casting range, we would manage a double or triple hookup, and then they would move away about a hundred yards or so. Then, after the commotion of landing them quieted down, within a few minutes; here they came again. We caught fish from 22-34 inches long that day, and it was my client’s first ever sight-casting trip.

I know the bay systems along the coast are aligned differently as regards wind, but, here on the middle coast I absolutely love the August days with light northerly breezes. The main reason is it allows us to fish different areas of our bay that we couldn’t successfully fish the last couple months, or didn’t get to spend much time on before the water began to lose clarity. I think about it like this...these areas that we can only fish under certain conditions hold some of the best numbers of the biggest fish.

But you know, these areas probably wouldn’t hold this caliber of fish if you could fish them every day. It’s kind of like that big whitetail ranch, every ranch has that one pasture or corner that doesn’t get hunted often, or maybe even never. But, you know what? That is where some of the biggest bucks live, and you can catch them traveling in or out of that area every now and then. If our bays didn’t have similar areas I believe our bay system wouldn’t be as strong as it is, when it comes to fish populations.

I have said for a long time now there are no more “secret spots.” The one thing we have left for those who do our homework before each outing is the timing of when to focus on certain areas. Knowing when to go and what makes these areas turn on – whether it’s a wind shift, tide level, water temperatures, or migration patterns – these are the prime indicators that tell us when to focus on specific areas. Even if most of the year we must drive by it day after day, we understand and look forward to the time we can get out there fish it because experience or the knowledge of our bay tells us that it is going to be good.

Captain Nathan Beabout - USCG/TPWD Licensed - Full time guide since 2007
Seadrift, Port O’Connor, & Port Mansfield, TX
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