August Fishing Report – 2025

Fishing in August 2025 was a great month to be on the water on the west coast of Florida. Water temps creeped into the upper 80s and even low 90s in some places. However, that did not stop fish from doing their thing from Tampa Bay up through the Nature Coast. Fishing in the summer can be a ton of fun on calculated tide and weather windows.

Tampa Bay

Sight Fishing in August in Tampa Bay had to be focused on lower tides. Once the fish had less room in the bushes fishing was on fire for the entirety of your sight window. Lots of smaller snook have pushed into mangrove zones all across the bay. This is a sight for sore eyes as the snook fishing earlier in the year was largely done by targeting just a few, big fish. Juveniles not only provide good shots through the day, but eat flies readily, and turn into big fish later down the road. I have an unproven theory that our area is largely missing a class of fish from the red tide event that hung off the beach a few years ago. I’m not a biologist, so it’s merely an observation, but smaller fish have been few and far between in my zone. It’s good to see that changing.

Redfishing the Nature Coast

Redfishing has been absolutely insane for August. Fish have been abundant, happy, and visual. We’ve seen a few crawlers, tailers, and lots of cruising fish when you hit areas on the right tides. Fish are readily taking small crab presentations on sandy bottom and size 2 and 4 shrimp patterns over grass and mixed bottom. The right presentation is key to getting these fish to bite. Higher water levels on the Nature Coast allow for fish to cruise points, high spots around creeks, and mangrove edges. These are all great places to ambush predatory fish.

Night time Opportunities

Night time fishing in August has still been very good around the docks and bridges. Hitting tide windows that give you the best chance to put your fly in front of fish has been the key to getting good shots on tarpon, snook, redfish, and speckled trout in zones that hold each.

PS. I know of another sawfish that was reported and relocated by Tampa Bay Water Keeper inside of Tampa Bay. I saw this Juvenile out front in St. Joseph’s sound around the same time. This is the second I’ve seen in this area and the first I was able to take a picture of. Cool sight