August is the last full month of “SweatFest 2015,” the one festival no one likes to celebrate. It also brings some tough conditions for fly fishing, with a few exceptions.
One such exception is pelagics. Cobia, king mackeral, mangrove snapper and little tunny are active until the first cool front in October. Realize it might require some chumming to get these species to eat a fly. Any large baitfish pattern with heavily weighted eyes seems to work better, as the vertical motion seems to annoy fast predators.
Along beaches and inside waters like Lake Pontchartrain and Borgne, schools of jack crevalle will be crashing pogies. Again, a large baitfish pattern is the key.
Tackle requirements include a 10-weight rod or higher, a disc drag reel holding at least 200 yards of backing and either an intermediate or full sinking fly line. Use a bite tippet of wire, or one chomp and it’s over.
For Spanish mackerel, lighter tackle such as 8-weight and floating line will suffice. Clouser Minnows are their favorite fly. Look to buy or tie ones made with Superhair or other synthetics, as they survive more bites than bucktail.
Another species available to flycasters in late summer is tripletail. These wary denizens hang off crab traps and buoys, and are particularly common in Lake Borgne and Breton Sound. Shrimp patterns like the Cinco Shrimp or Crystal Shrimp are most effective.
Schools of sand (aka white) trout are common this month. Small in size, but strong in fight, a sandie in the 11- to 14-inch range on 6-weight rod is as much fun as the law allows. You only need one fly — a sparsely-dressed, size 2 white Clouser Minnow. Fish it off the bottom in areas with tidal movement.
Freshwater-wise, black foam spiders will take bluegills in the early morning hours. If the Atchafalaya Basin water levels come down, bream action should be good in dead-end canals using popping bugs and jitterbees under a VOSI.
