During Augut, as hot as it was, I was limiting my trips to the first few hours of the morning and the last few hours of the day and into night. Right on schedule the redfish have begun schooling up and were very aggressive all through the month of August. Some evenings it was not uncommon to find schools of with hudreds of fish tailing at once! During the full moon periods, I was able to target fish during the night using the light of the full moon to help me locate the fish - the fish were so aggressive that you could get within feet of the school after dark and almost effortlessly hookup... as simple as getting a bait in the water. Most of the fish were of the over slot variety with the biggest of the month topping out at 36".
The trick for me to targetting these fish was avoiding the mid day heat when they were sluggish. Evenings when I was able to catch a low tide around sunset were the most productive, and I also noticed a major correlation between the rising moon and the more aggressive feeding behavior of the fish. The most important factor though was undoubtably the incoming tide. While fish were caught on out going tides... as soon as the incomer began the schools of fish would seemingly bum rush the flats waving their tails like flags, giving away their exact location.
Here's some pics of the redfish action:
The faithful Little Jon always gets it done
My buddy Ryan with his, at the time, biggest redfish ever.. I think we had doubles in a row that this fish was a part of. He would later catch bigger fish than the one pictured, but when the action is that good who cares about a picture.
Here's my big dog of the month at 36" and on topwater!
Here's my girlfriend with a big over slot
Since September began things have begun to noticeably change. Snook have invaded the flats, flounder are beginning to show up and larger trout are making an appearance on the flats as well. Without a doubt though, the snook fishing has been the highlight of this month for me, particularly in the previous couple weeks. Since the most recent front pushed through our area, the snook have been absolutely on fire! Without even intentionally targetting them they have become almost a nuisance while redfishing. While the redfishing continues to stay good, the snook have become difficult to ignore. I've been catching most of my snook on plugs both surface and subsurface. Particularly the MirrOdine XL and mini as well as the She-Pup/Dog. The outgoing tide has definitely been the most productive time for me, finding most of my fish around oyster bars, shallow docks and on the flats where I would normally target trout and reds. During one recent evening trip, I caught 9 snook in an hour and half with three of them being over 30" and the largest topping out at just shy of 35".. That's a good snook bite! As fun as they are to catch, I cannot stress enough to importance of handling them with care. The snook population is at a delicate juncture and it is up to us to be respectful of that. For those of you that choose not to target them entirely, my hats off to you. Unfortunately for me, they've become almost impossible to ignore.
Here's the boys from a recent charter with an overslot fish, there's a reason why I call myself 'seeinred' - they are without a doubt my favorite species to target on the flats year round.
Cyrus with a big trout from the same trip
On a recent morning trip I got this gator trout on the Little Jon right about 27"
The first snook from the evening I got 9 of them
Here's the big girl of the evening and the last cast of the day
This fish came while redfishing and helped me complete a pretty big slam for the day at 84"
And one last shot... so long Mr. Snooky
Stone crab season starts Oct 5 (my birthday) with mullet roe season starting the following month. This will be my first winter season full time commercial fishing so my time in the yaks will be limited... again, but hope to see some of you on the water. Also, I'm giving a seminar Oct 18th at West Marine in Tampa.. I hope some of y'all can make it!
My dad worked through school..went to Brown for a Masters in Microbiology. Commercial Lobster in Mass, Giant tuna around the US from coast to coast. Grouper fished for 30 years in the GOM and at one time had a small stone crab operation. 
