Speckled Sea Trout: The Bread-and-Butter Brawler of Tampa Bay

If you want glamour, go chase tarpon. If you want heartbreak, go chase snook in a cold front.

But if you want steady action, bent rods and a cooler that does not go home empty…. You chase seatrout here in Tampa Bay.

I’ve been running charters long enough to know- trout are the fish that save the day more times than anything else swimming in this bay.

Where They Live

Speckled seatrout are creatures of habit. You will find them laud up over grass flats like retirees at a pickleball court.

They Like:

• Healthy seagrass
• Moving water
• Depth changes-potholes, edges and drop offs

If you fish these areas consistently you will certainly run into them

Best Time to Catch Seatrout

• Trout don’t need a perfect day- in fact they prefer it a little rough.
• Early morning: topwater strikes that are better than a cup of coffee.
• Cloudy Days: They stay active longer and feed harder.
• Incoming tide: brings bait and trout follow.
• Flat calm, blazing sun, no tide?

You can still catch them but you will earn each and every one.

What do Seatrout eat and what you should present to them

If the bait you thrown at them swims, wiggles, or flashes they will undoubtedly be interested.

My GO to Baits are as follows:

• Live Shrimp
• White bait (shiners or pilchers)
• Soft plastics on a. jig head (paddle tails are the top pick)
• Top water plugs will work sometimes also when you see them feeding in the morning.
• Trout are ambush hunters.

If they are not biting, slow your bait down.

The Strike

• Sometimes they bite soft
• Sometimes they blow- up and make you jump.

Trout have soft mouths and I am an advocate of circle hooks. They will not swallow circle hooks and a hook set is not necessary with a circle hook. This preserves the resource.

Why we Love Specks

They may not be the toughest fight in the bay, but they:

• Hit hard
• Fight good
• Are smart fish and show up in schools

If you want dinner there will be plenty to go around.

From the Helm of Five O’clock Charlie tours and Charters

Out here on my boat, trout are the quiet hunters of the grass flats.

• They keep rods bent.
• They keep kids reeling and laughing.
• They keep captains like me from having to explain why nothing showed up to bite.

If you come out with me, I will show you where these and other game fish live and how to present the bait to them. Soon enough we will yell “Fish On”.

When you get that fish on you will understand why we never complain about a day chasing seatrout.

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