Nasty brown algae water has spread to much of the lagoon system except a few select areas of central/southern Brevard unfortunately. This further lowers dissolved oxygen, which makes the trout and redfish seek out any sort of moving water or clearer water. Even then, the fishing for both species is really tough. Snook and tarpon are thick of all sizes right now. The smaller fish should be willing to eat small artificials like a DOA TerrorEyz as well as any small live baits such as shrimp, mud minnows, or especially baby mullet if you can find that.

The other factor for tough fishing at this time is the fact that we just had a full moon. The bite can be really tough from 3-7 days after a full moon. That includes everything from yesterday, August 6th to Monday, August 10th. It seemed quite evident yesterday when I found big tarpon and big snook that would not eat any artificial or live bait; not even a live mullet.

We were fortunate to avoid any damage from Isaias, but the swell dirtied the water for sure. It looks brown on the beach and turbid further out. This probably has made bait scarce nearshore, which also makes tarpon and kingfish leave. Snook and redfish are more likely to stick around, but there’s no guarantee there either.

I noticed the sargassum on the beach was insane, which would create a lot of work for every type of fishing except bottom fishing. Even then, the swell will make the water dirty at least out to 150 ft or so. If the current allows you to, the amberjack should be chewing on some of the deeper structures. Vertical jigs and live bait both will catch when they are hungry. Speaking of hunger, there are plenty of sandbar sharks out there. It is a game of reel as fast as you can, but some days the sharks will win. Our fishery management sure has created an imbalance with sandbar sharks and red snapper taking over everything.

If you get lucky and find a weedline or color change, things get interesting. It is likely there would be mahi in clean blue water or cobia in dirty water. Once again, this is a big if. Do not count on it. Go out with low expectations and take what you can get, but do not skip work or anything else to go fishing. Save that for something crazy in the fall or spring.