SALTWATER FISHING - SPECKLED TROUT

{ This article appeared first in the PORT ISABEL PRESS and the SAN BENITO NEWS}

SPECKLED SEA TROUT – A TROPHY
By Jim Foster

The water felt cool as I stepped in and felt the pressure push my neoprene waders closer against my legs. Adjusting my vest and gear, I shuffled a few yards away from the boat before making my first of many casts.

It was in this very spot three years ago my lifetime best trout gave me a morning to remember. The early March weather was overcast with a very light wind from the southeast. The sun rose behind the clouds and cast its defused light.

Wading out from the bank slowly I closed in on the grass flat dotted with sand “pot holes” where trout like to hang out waiting for a tasty morsel to swim by. The grass flats were the playing field - the trout and I were the key players.

Several keeper trout were fooled by my big topwater lure. They were quickly released as I moved slowly ahead. The quest - a big sow trout that would push the scales over the 14-pound mark. A long chance it was, but a goal well worth spending the time in order to accomplish.

As the morning wore on, I looked over my shoulder and found I had covered less than one hundred yards. I was thinking about the walk back as I made one more cast.

The silver lure with red vanished under in a washtub-sized boil.

I don’t know who was more surprised the trout or me. All the big female had wanted was breakfast; this was certainly not what she had in mind. As for me, I was surprised to say the least, but my surprise was of the pleasant variety.

The trout put a good bend in my rod. The old Quantum 1310 was working hard but doing nicely with the smooth drag system. The fish gathered herself together and took to the air in a series of head shaking jumps worthy of a tarpon.

It was several minutes before I saw the fish. When I did, I caught my breath and ran a mental checklist of what might go wrong. Having been in the situation a few times before didn’t do much to ease the tension.

The fish was closer and surprised me with another jump. This time the fish came half out of the water and shook its head trying to lose lure. That not working, she tried a last hard run before being reeled closer and steered gently to my side. She lay still.

Gently lifting the big trout and I did a rough measurement on my rod ruler. About 34 inches form lip to tail. Fumbling around I found my Berkley digital scale and secured it to her lip. The numbers danced on the display and finely settled on 12 pounds 11 ounces. No record here, but what an exceptional fish.

I slipped the big fish back into the water. Holding her, I swam her gently back and forth until she started to regain her strength. A few minutes later she swam a short distance away. Stopped for a long minute and then powered out of sight with a splash of her tail.

Most large spotted seatrout caught are females and commonly live to be nine or 10 years of age. Anglers long ago recognized that very large trout were usually female and appropriately called them "sow" trout.
Spotted seatrout are generally nonmigratory with little inter-bay movement, and most movement seems to be in response to water temperature and spawning.

They are most common in the shallow bays during spring and summer. As water temperatures decline during fall, fish move into deeper bay waters and the Gulf of Mexico. The number of fish entering the Gulf varies from year to year depending on the severity of the winter.

As water temperatures warm in the spring the fish move back into the shallows of the primary and secondary bays.
Spotted seatrout are opportunistic carnivores whose feeding habits vary with size. Small trout feed primarily on small crustaceans. Medium-size trout feed on shrimp and small fish. Large fish feed almost exclusively on other fish such as mullet, pinfish, pigfish and menhaden.

Baffin Bay on the Texas Coast has been the location where the last two state record speckled sea trout were caught. Baffin may well be the bay where the next record is caught but there are other coastal that have the potential to produce trophy trout.

Now that these large fish are protected by a restricted limit we may see a new record in our own back yard, the shallows of the Lower Laguna Madre.

Some of the places that have repeatedly produced big trout over 25 inches are the Laguna Vista Cove, Holly Beach, Stover Point, the Long Bar, the Laguna Atascosa shoreline, and the cove near the old Texas and Parks and Wildlife boat ramp.
Favorite artificial lures have been Storm Lure’s Big Bug and Chug Bug, the Ghost, Top Dog, Top Dog, Jr. and other topwater lures worked slowly over grassy pot holes.

Although drift fishing from a boat can work, anglers with wet feet have caught all the last record breakers.

If you have comments or news for Jim Foster please e-mail him at: jim@jimfosteroutdoors.com