August fishing hotspots

Are you kidding? Hotspots in August? Heck, anywhere you fish it’s going to be hot this month, but as we all know, when the fish are biting the heat is easier to endure.

And Mississippi has some great summer fishing despite its torrid dog days.

And, oh yeah, about those hotspots:

1. Pickwick Lake: August is a great time for everything you’d want to target at this massive border lake in Northeast Mississippi.

Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, striped bass, crappie and catfish are all ripe for the taking, although it takes some deep tactics to find them.

The hottest action and the coolest technique is jugging for big blue cats in the river channel, either during the day or, even better, at night.

2. Sardis Lake: Trolling for crappie is a summer staple on this big Corps of Engineers flood-control project in North Mississippi, but an often overlooked sport this lake offers is white bass schooling on the surface on main lake points.

They’re easy to spot and easy to catch, and there’s no limit.

3. Jeff Davis Lake: The original stocking of largemouth bass in his MDWFP state lake just south of Prentiss continue to grow and wreak havoc on fishing gear.

Biologists have worked hard to reduce some of the cover in the lake — there was that much.

The fish have responded, and some big ones are being caught.

4. Barrier islands: In the Gulf of Mexico just south of the Mississippi Sound, redfish stack up on the outside beaches and cuts formed between the barrier islands.

From brutish bull reds to the targeted slot fish that are legal to capture and cook on the grill, the waters often turn red with all the fish.

If you can’t spot the fish with your eyes, then look for boats. Chances are you’ll find others chasing the big schools.

5. Mississippi River: OK, OK, so you see this on nearly every list of summertime hotspots in Mississippi. But, the hotter it gets in the summer and the lower the flow, the better the jug fishing and the rod-and-reel fishing gets for catfish on the Big Muddy.

The perfect pattern: Set up a float line for jugs that carries them across a shallow inside bend in the river, and then go downstream on the lower end of the sandbar and cast for fish until the jugs arrive.

Some of the jugs won’t make it that far, which means there’s fish somewhere back up the float line.