3 Speckled Trout Fishing Tips That Work
If the pinfish is too big, you can cut a filet off the side, trim it up, and drift it along under a float or free-lined. You also butterfly a medium-sized pinfish and fish this bait the same way. If you’re in an area with a clean surface, then topwater baits can work well to draw surface strikes. Since speckled trout are often found in calmer areas, anything on the surface is liable to get noticed. This is when a noisy topwater bait can get a lot of attention.
The best way to catch a speckled trout is with a popping cork and a live shrimp or white bait at least 18 inches under the cork. If you want to use lures instead of live bait then a Berkeley Gulp shrimp or swimming mullet under the same popping cork is your best bet for catching sea trout. The classic place to fish for speckled or spotted sea trout is a backwater creek or bay with lots of shallow, grassy areas and deep holes. This area is best for kayak fishing with lures, like in the photo of Ed at the top of this post.
In winter months trout migrate to deeper waters, and will make occasional forays onto grass flats on warmer days. Seatrout can be found in a number of locations, including bays, inlets, tidal creeks and rivers, grass flats, around piers, and in the surf. To find a lot of seatrout, it’s best to understand a little about their feeding habits. They lie in wait for prey to swim nearby, then they attack. You’ll often find trout in shallow water near deeper water, and in calm water near swift water. If you’re surf fishing or trout fishing from a pier, study the beach at low tide.
They will school up by size in fairly large numbers over these deeper flats. Anglers seeking numbers of fish and good action will do well casting artificial lures and live bait over these areas. As trout grow, they gradually switch their diet from shrimp and crustaceans to large bait Fishing Boat Charters Bradenton Florida fish. Ever the opportunist, large trout will rarely turn down a nice juicy shrimp. However, larger bait fish such as grunts, mullet, croakers, and pin fish become more important parts of their diet. Larger trout will have to feed less often if they can find more substantial meals.
Plugs are not only effective, they are a lot of fun to fish. They tend to entice larger fish than do jigs and other lures. Shallow diving plugs have an erratic action and are excellent for casting to oyster bars and shorelines. Suspending twitch plugs are deadly when fished over the deeper grass flats.
To better target these gator trout and cull out the ankle-biters, I asked 10 fishing guides and top anglers to give us some tips on how to catch speckled trout. Jig Heads Hooking a live shrimp on a jig head gives you the option of longer casts and more control over your bait. When you want your bait close to the bottom in deeper water, jig heads can make the difference. Hook the shrimp through the tail vertically, so that the jig head brings it through the water backward and in an upright position. You also have the ability with a jig head to move the bait in a vertical “jigging” motion, up and down.