Unusual Tips For Trophy Speckled Trout

Did you know the speckled trout you catch that make a croaking noise are males?

If you catch a bunch of males in an area from now into mid summer, there’s a good chance you have a spawning aggregation where they are gathering to lure in females with their sounds. Start fishing this area with big swimbaits or other big fish-specific lures for females. If you don’t find success try returning their in the evening because research shows late evening into night is peak time for this phenomenon.

We’re in a great time for trophy trout fishing, so we thought we would share some unusual facts and strategies this week.

Also, if you have caught big trout in an area several times, there is a good chance they will still be hanging around.  Of the 477 spotted seatrout tagged in a migration study in Alabama, 58 returns were received, and 53 percent exhibited no movement. If you missed a big sow in a particular spot , chances are she is still very nearby.

The largest  trout  eat the largest  prey. Researchers in Texas and Mississippi have found  mullet to be the preferred  food of the biggest trout. Frequently the mullet is half or two-thirds the size of the trout.

Fishing a large, mullet (or croaker) imitating lure is a great way to find big trout. You will get fewer overall bites but the chances of one of those bites being the elusive 30 inches goes up greatly.

Sight and sound combined in a lure can make a huge difference in catching big trout. Trout have a layer of tissue that allows them to see in low light conditions  and be superior night feeders. Fishing the pre-dawn hours and using lures or baits with a glowing quality or that create a stark sillohuette can  help you exploit this quality and score on big trout. Sagittae are the sound receptors in fish and trout have  large ones. They are  very keen to sounds made by humans and other fish. of sound in fish.  Throwing lures delicately and  working lures and popping corks in a  fashion mimicking natural sounds can go a long way to helping anglers catch more big, wary trout. Considering adding tiny rattles to large soft plastics to tap into both the visual and audio workings of trout.

And finally, big trout eat small trout. When choosing topwater or other hard plastic lures consider ones that closely mimic the patterns of a speckled trout. Consider that big trout are attracted to small trout feeding not just to eat on what they are eating but to eat on them. A trout colored topwater which is rarely fished on the Texas coast could help you score on monster specks. The popping action mimics the sounds of smaller trout feeding which in turn brings in larger trout.

TF&G Staff