Massive schools of juvenile spanish sardines  and cigar minnows are migrating towards us from offshore. This is a normal occurrence  during the months of August and September. This is truly a prelude to our fall migration of certain species of larger fish. Lil tunny (often referred to as as bonita)  are the first  feed on these 2 inch minnows. They can bee seen  daily ravaging  these massive schools with a fury.  Their table fare is not desirable to humans, but a large shark or goliath grouper will gladly gobble them up when used as bait.  Expect to see more surface action from these pelagic fish in the next few weeks, especially in the depths of 60 plus feet of water.You will also  find small groups of 4 to 5 foot sharks corralling these minnows into tight balls.
 It can be quite a sight to  drive up on a school  that has been forced to the surface, then tightly balled up. The water will turn black in color as the sardines get squeezed together.  We have literally drove up to the tightly bound schools, then dipped our  nets, by simply leaning over the gunnel and scooping them up with a bait net.   Its quite a unusual but productive way to load your livewells. It is also an immediate hook up  within seconds if you toss a  line out.  A few  large kingfish can also be found loitering around this activity, especially if blue runners are also feeding on the minnows.  They are normally larger female kingsfish that are full of roe.  
As these schools slowly migrate east, many will settle over a small ledges in 40 to 50 feet of water. they often remain there for a long period of time. These are normally the first spots to produce our early migrations of gag grouper during the late summer and early fall months.  Hopefully this is the case, since  numbers of grouper are not up to par this season.   The bottom line: It’s always good to see new migrations of bait fish moving east. It means  bigger fish could be in their wake.

ntaylor
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