August fishing remains hot across Alabama’s coastal waters. Mornings are starting with higher-than-normal tides, giving anglers more shallow-water opportunities along beaches, sandbars, and flooded marsh lines. Water clarity is improving offshore, with clean green-to-blue water showing southeast of Orange Beach. Bait is thick—pogies, finger mullet, and shrimp are all plentiful—keeping predators spread out but active. Early morning and late evening remain the best feeding windows, especially for speckled trout, bull reds, and tuna offshore. Water temps have fluctuated between 81–88°F, a bit cooler than recent years, creating steady but sometimes unpredictable bite patterns.
Captain Patrick of Ugly Fishing reports a “fun summer” with action across multiple species—speckled trout, redfish, flounder, ladyfish, Spanish mackerel, and jack crevalle. His strategy has been opportunistic: starting early in shallow water with topwater lures, soft plastics, or popping corks, then moving to deeper structure as the day progresses. Customers have enjoyed variety trips, with kids especially loving fast action on ladyfish and bluefish under birds.
Patrick stresses the value of search baits like topwaters to locate fish. Even blow-ups without hookups show where predators are feeding, allowing anglers to switch to live shrimp, pogies, or finger mullet. Deeper structure around reefs and rigs is holding a mix of trout, drum, snapper, jacks, and sharks, making it possible to catch 8–10 species without moving the boat.
Gear Tip: Bring a cast net for easy live pogies and finger mullet near the dock. Pair live bait with a slip cork or Carolina rig to cover different depths around current-driven structure.
Chris has been trolling southeast of Orange Beach near the Nipple and 131 Hole. Clean green-blue water, massive bait schools, and plenty of billfish and dolphin were present. Though white marlin were finicky and tough to keep hooked, dolphin up to 30 pounds provided steady action. Chris emphasized the value of teasers and circle-hook pitch baits for higher hookup rates on white marlin compared to lure strikes.
Closer to shore, Chris reports good beach fishing around Fort Morgan with trout, bull reds, Spanish, sharks, and jacks. Sight-casting from the sand has produced big speckled trout in the 28” class, along with intense jack crevalle blitzes at dawn. He stresses using heavy tackle for jacks (40–50 lb braid, 80 lb leader) to land them quickly and ensure survival on release.
Gear Tip: For surf and jetty fishing, medium-heavy surf rods paired with 6000–8000 size spinning reels provide casting distance and stopping power for trout, reds, and jacks. Don’t forget Fishbites baits for pompano and whiting on set rigs.
Reporting live from the Lady Ann, Captain King shared that tuna fishing has been feast-or-famine. Thousands of baby hardtails have filled livewells easily, but yellowfin and blackfin are keying on tiny bait, making bites tough except at sunrise and sunset. Trolling around rigs at daylight has produced the best chances, though many tunas are ignoring live baits in favor of microscopic forage.
Snapper fishing has been surprisingly better with cut bait (pogie or bonito chunks) than live baits this season. King noted that while live hardtails can tempt giants, chunking has been far more productive for steady charter action.
Gear Tip: Bring both livewell baits and cut bait for snapper. For tuna, a 30-class conventional reel with 500+ yards of braid and mono topshot is ideal, giving you a shot at both white marlin and a 300 lb blue marlin if one shows up.
Two notable events are on deck. The Saltwater Finnadicts Tournament runs this weekend with categories for speckled trout, redfish, flounder, and tripletail. It also includes a “trash can slam” with jacks and sailcats, plus flounder collection for hatchery research. Registration is available on Fishing Chaos.
Looking ahead, Captain Patrick’s Doormat Classic kicks off October 4–5 with both a two-day event and a month-long virtual division beginning September 1. Anglers can sign up at Fishing Chaos for their chance to weigh in trophy-class flounder.
Conditions Recap
Inshore & Nearshore Report with Captain Patrick Garmison
Orange Beach Offshore & Inshore with Captain Chris Vecsey
Offshore Tuna & Snapper with Captain King
Tournament Talk
Featured Sponsors
Sign up for our email newsletter
Hunting and fishing tips, fishing reports, product reviews and more for the Southern sportsman.
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
