A Super Speck Investigation Begins

WHEN I WAS JUST a pup in the outdoor business, I wrote an article entitled “Age of the Super Trout” for Texas Fish & Game.

It detailed a big trout encounter that inspired me to ask, if we can produce super-sized bass in freshwater hatcheries, why not speckled trout?

Why couldn’t scientists isolate the growth genes in speckled trout and create a supreme subspecies to release into our bay systems?

The first step of my quest was to define exactly what a super trout would be. Make no mistake, a super trout would have to be a gargantuan fish. I’m talking about a fish that would command serious respect in a bay system, making schools of foot-long mullet really nervous.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials have labeled bass weighing 13 pounds or more as “lunkers,” so I think a speckled trout weighing more than 10 pounds would qualify as a genuine “super trout.”

However, size isn’t the only qualification. We have many questions about the health of our oceans, so this fish would have to be designed for the future.

The super trout would have to be more pollution resistant than red tide-resistant species such as the speckled sea trout we have now. This fish would have to tolerate the worst polluted areas, such as the Houston Ship Channel as well as red tide-prone areas such as the Laguna Madre.

PWD fisheries managers have made great strides in genetic coding of speckled trout populations. They’ve determined that trout from the Lower Laguna Madre should not be stocked in Trinity Bay and vice-versa, owing to slight genetic differences.

They’ve also made great strides in research methods that have helped to determine these differences. TPWD coastal fisheries officials now insert barcode-like tags into the skulls of fish instead of the bulky gill-plate tags they used to use. These tags stay with the fish and help the biologists keep track of population dynamics via electronic technology.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Port Aransas have learned how to stimulate growth hormones in the ovaries of trout. A team of Louisiana State University scientists have developed methods for preserving trout sperm so they can perfect trophy-targeted artificial insemination of the species. That was done nearly 20 years ago.

But since then not much has been done about producing big trout in the hatcheries. In fact, we have not had a state record broken in Texas since 2002. Looking back at this old story has inspired me to dig deeper into trophy trout in 2021.

Why have developments stalled? What is going on with the Texas trout fishery and other trout fisheries along the Gulf Coast?

Beginning January 5, we will have a series on the future of super trout and a special series of Higher Calling Saltwater podcasts on it as well.

Make sure and check out the Fish and Game Report e-newsletter for updates.

 

—story by CHESTER MOORE

 

 

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