Some of our guests who have recently been wading amongst a good amount of mud and grass, and sand and shell, have had some tremendous results. With the higher temperatures we are experiencing right now, we’re finding that anglers seem to be doing better in the back country areas over mud and grass on those days which present us with higher tide levels, and not on days of lower tides. These back bays require a certain level of water in order to be attractive to the fish, especially in real skinny shallows, and especially during the summertime heat.

However, when you do look for fish in these secluded areas you should begin your search over a hard-sand bottom with a mixture of occasional shell. A lot of folks will catch their fair share of trout over shell in August and September as a result of their focus upon many of the larger, open-bay shell reefs while tossing live bait. Another favorite preference for many this month will be to do whatever possible in order to maintain concealment from the masses while throwing nothing but artificial baits.

Top water lures should be your first go-to bait this month, and you should be throwing them into the darkness of the very early light hours just prior to sunrise, and then again during the hours of the day just adjacent to sunset. Experiment if you will, but you should probably also be downsizing your surface baits this month to the smaller-sized lures, especially in instances of very slight wind conditions and little wave action across the surface of the water.

If you’re looking for alternative wading options, you might also like to try concentrating a few wading sessions this month along the leeward shorelines of Espiritu Santo Bay and San Antonio Bay while keying in on sand guts with intermittent grass patches. Anglers will be doing this a lot in August, and they’ll generally be looking for structure in a neighboring area that shows signs of depressions and pockets running parallel to skinny water along the shorelines. The top water bite generally doesn’t last much past sunrise, so be ready to switch to plastics while heading out to deeper water as the morning progresses. Good luck, and keep grindin’!