FIND THE BAIT, FIND THE FISH

Tim Barefoot

August is a pre-transition month, when we’re at the end of summer, and just before the true transition months of September and October. e shing can be hot as a recracker if you pay attention to the bait. is is a pre-staging month for the bait and the bottom sh, as well. Huge schools of cigar minnows and sardines will start their annual migration toward inshore waters for spawning, waiting for the fall and winter.

When o shore bottom shing, I’m looking for large stacks of beeliners as well as cigs and sardines. is is where you nd the sh. Period. Many years ago when I was commercial shing, we would stay for days at a time looking for grouper and snapper. We concentrated on the bait as much as the structure. If you found these two together (bait on a ledge), so much the better, but we o en found sh on slick, at, sand bottom on stacks of bait. We’d anchor on these big stacks of bait and go to work. If the bait school moved, so did the sh… and so did we! We’d y the anchor and move around until we found them again. It was just like magic, with instant bites on the bottom. is is the reason I keep saying, nd the bait, nd the sh. It doesn’t matter where these big stacks of bait go, the sh will follow.

With late summer water temperatures, pelagics like the tunas, wahoo and dolphin are scattered all over the nearshore waters due to the hot water. e water temperatures on the beach will be close to the water temps in the Gulf Stream by now, and the sh will follow bait wherever it goes. In August and September, some unsuspecting king mackerel sherman always catches a stud wahoo trolling live bait on some nearshore stack of bait. I remember wrestling a yellow n for more than an hour on lightweight king mackerel tackle just 10 miles o the beach. We were bottom shing and had a live cigar minnow out on the light line. Eventually, I lost the ght due to a swivel that couldn’t take it anymore. Ha! Neither could I.

Keep a good eye on the recorder and any surface activity around structure. You know the areas that hold the big schools of cigs and sardines. Keep going back to these places now and into September. is is where you’ll nd what you’re looking for.

I’ve always been a bait freak. Now that I’ve seen more than just a few cycles of what happens through the seasons, I’m better able to see the big picture. Bait moves around for speci c reasons during di erent seasons. Whatever you are shing for requires food to keep them in a place. So… nd the bait, nd the sh.

For more from Capt. Tim Barefoot, check out Barefootcatsandtackle.com.