Taking a Sci-Fly Approach to Speckled Trout Fishing

Feature Story by CHESTER MOORE

LISTEN: (2 minutes, 42 seconds)

hile launching our kayaks into a small lake last spring to flyfish for largemouths, my friend Mike Williams said he was going to name his kayak “Bass Hunter.”

“I always seem to be after bass, so I think that’s a good fit. Chester, you should name yours,” he said.

After going through a few names like “Vader” and “Hulk,” the words “Sci-Fly” came to mind.

It’s now not only the name of my kayak, but it’s also an ideology I have developed for fishing in general. It’s taken root since seriously pursuing flyfishing for the last five years, mainly in freshwater, but the idea behind it is deeply involved in my saltwater fishing as well.

Sci-Fly Fishing is all about going to the “outer limits of shore, stream, flats and flyfishing.”

Whether it’s with a popping cork rigged with Gulp! or hopper/midge combo for rainbows, the idea is trying new things for various species.

Speckled trout are particularly fascinating because there is so much tradition based in how we pursue them 

in Texas. Typically, it’s a big bait for big fish thing and it lines up with how they are wired as trout 20 inches or larger typically go after larger finfish.

But I have seen some evidence of some really tiny stuff working for big trout as well, so here’s what I will be trying this year.

On the flyfishing front I’m going to rig a small bone-colored popper with a fluorocarbon trailer rigged with a black/sliver bead head this winter. That bead head is the size of some of these tiny menhaden and other baitfish and if the popper can get the trout’s attention, I have a feeling I can get hits on the trailer.

We actually profile something similar done with a large topwater and plastic in another feature in this issue but I think this one will work. And it’s something that might get the job done on days when you have high barometric pressure, and the fish are a little more lethargic. Maybe, the flash of the tiny bead head will get it done.

On the side of shore fishing for specks in general, something I am going to target more is manmade canals that drop into ship channels. These areas are rarely targeted for specks, and I have caught some there while winter flounder fishing.

You have moving water, a prevalence of baitfish and the ability to get into deeper, more stabilized water when fronts hit.

This is the kind of thing I think about when I’m out on the water.

Let me know your thoughts on this. I’d love to hear some of your “Sci-Fly Fishing” strategies.

Email cmoore@fishgame.com

—story by AUTHOR

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