Speck-tacular Trout

The Charleston Harbor area holds plenty of spotted seatrout, and the fishing really kicks off after Memorial Day.

Biologists with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources’ marine division have predicted a tremendous season on spotted seatrout up and down the coast.Mild winters for the past half-dozen or so years have served to fill South Carolina’s inshore waters with specks of all sizes — and lots of them.

That leaves Jeff Yates shaking his head just a little bit.

“Last year was so good, it’s hard to believe that this year will be even better,” said Yates, who operates Tyjo Knot Charters out of Mount Pleasant. “I can’t wait.”

Neither can James LaVanway, another Charleston-area fisherman who runs Reel Fish Finder Charters.

“I’ve seen the biggest trout so far this year that I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Neither will have to wait much longer to see just how good the fishing will be, with June marking the unofficial beginning of what should be a phenomenal summer for spotted seatrout. Baitfish have returned to the inshore waters — mud minnows, finger mullet and menhaden. Maybe more important, shrimp have also showed up, and there’s hardly a speckled trout around that will turn up its nose at a wriggling, pink meal.

“By Memorial Day, the trout will be here in good numbers,” said LaVanway (843-697-2081). “You can catch all the trout you want.”

Yates (843-270-8956) said that roe-laden female trout will be all over Charleston-area waters, but the immediate area of the harbor and the mouths of its tributary rivers — the Stono, Ashley, Cooper and Wando — will hold the most fish.

“You’ll have a lot of fish on the beaches and close to the beaches,” Yates said. “There aren’t a lot of trout in the backs of the rivers in June. When I was growing up, we always did real well in the (Intracoastal) Waterway, around Deweese, Capers and Price Inlets. There will be larger numbers of trout in the harbor and around the mouth of the rivers than anywhere else.”

The key is finding transition areas where deep and shallow waters are in close proximity. Trout will rarely be found in the extremely shallow water that is home to redfish and flounder. They’re more likely to be found in ditches and cuts than up on the banks.

Points are perfect examples of prime locations for June trout. They’re shallow on top with deeper water on the sides, and they often serve as current breaks; they are great ambush points.

“Some points hold more fish than others,” LaVanway said. “If you find a point where a flat comes off a bank a good ways, if you get on a place like that in the morning, you can get a limit pretty quick.

“And little drains where a ditch dumps into a main river or creek, that sets up two corners. You can work those corners as the tide falls. The trout pull out of the ditches and set up there to catch mullet that are coming out of the ditches.”

Yates and LaVanway agree that three fishing techniques dominate the June trout scene: topwater lures, live bait fished under popping corks and soft-plastic artificial baits.

Both guides love fishing topwater baits for big trout.

“I’d rather catch two or three on top than 10 on shrimp,” Yates said. “By late May and into June, you’ll have some really good topwater fishing early in the morning. If you get a cloudy or rainy day, you can fish topwater all day. On sunny days, you fish topwater until you can feel the sun on your back — unless you’re quiet and you don’t have any boats go past you too close. And you’ll know when to stop. When you go 15 or 20 minutes without a bite, it’s time to switch.”

Not only is topwater action exciting — for almost any species, but especially trout — but a big topwater plug will generally draw strikes from better quality fish.

Dr. Charles Wenner, an SCDNR biologist who specializes in inshore species, conducted a study on speckled trout that showed conclusively that the diet of big trout tends toward fish flesh — mullet, menhaden, spot, small croaker, mud minnows — whereas smaller trout will have a more mixed diet, with a much larger percentage of shrimp.

And most topwater baits that trout fishermen use mimic baitfish.

“I like to fish a Zara Spook or Puppy Spook or a Chug Bug,” Yates said. “I like to fish points that have edges that are deep and steep, and I like to fish shallow edges where the flat runs out about 100 yards, then drops off into deeper water.

“I remember one tournament I fished one June. I got in this creek where nobody else was, and I just went up and down this one bank all day with a topwater bait. I think I wound up with four that were over 3-1/2 pounds.”

Another thing Yates likes to do is have a rod rigged with a jerkbait like a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow. If he can’t get a topwater bite, he’ll throw the jerkbait, fishing it a foot or so below the surface and twitching it along slowly.

One of Yates’ keys are the areas he fishes. He likes to fish places where redfish can be found at low tide — only he wants to fish them at high tide. A point or marsh edge with 18 inches of water on it at low tide — which would draw redfish like a magnet, especially if littered with oyster shells — is a totally different place at high tide under four or five feet of water. That makes it a trout hot spot.

LaVanway tends toward chugging or popping plugs, with his favorite being the Rebel Pop-R, a lure extremely popular with bass fishermen.

“You find a good point where the trout are feeding on baitfish, and on an outgoing tide, you can wear ’em out,” he said. “The other way is to find a (feeder) creek with deep edges and ease in there and fish a Pop-R along the edges.”

Fishing live bait under a popping cork is probably the most-productive way to fill a cooler. “It’s the easiest way to catch trout,” LaVanway said. “You use shrimp or mud minnows or even a DOA shrimp, and you can catch all the trout you want. It’s the best way.

“I like to fish around oyster rakes that are close to docks and piers. You can run those places around the mouth of the rivers, and if you’ve got a little flat area coming off the bank that drops off, that’s where you’ll catch ’em,” he said.

“I like to fish a high, outgoing tide. They’ll get up on those places, on the edges. If you know where a bunch of fish are on that kind of place, you use a popping cork and you really catch ’em.”

Some of the best places to find trout in good numbers are around the docks and piers close to the Navy yard upstream in the Cooper River. LaVanway said oyster rakes and good, sharp drops are common, and the piers provide even more ambush points for trout, especially on a high tide that’s dropping out. The only problem is, fishermen are often shoo’d away from those spots; apparently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security takes a dim view of fishermen getting too close to Navy property.

Several of his other favorite areas are Yellowhouse Creek and Clouter Creek up the Cooper River and Beresford Creek up the Wando River. LaVanway likes to fish either end of Yellow Knife and Clouter, which loop off the river. Because redfish are often around, he makes sure his tackle is heavy enough to handle the occasional bronze battler. “Ten-pound test won’t hold them, so I usually go with 14-pound,” he said.

Yates sticks with live shrimp when he’s fishing a popping cork, because nothing will entice strikes out of speckled trout like shrimp.

“As soon as the shrimp get here, I’ll use ’em,” said Yates, whose family is full of fishing guides. His father, David Yates Sr., runs Setay Charters; his brother, David Yates Jr., runs Yates Sea Charters.

“I can catch shrimp up the Wando the first couple of weeks of May, but they’re spotty. The good numbers of shrimp will come in the third and fourth weeks of May,” Yates said.

Yates uses a DOA popping cork in orange — “Traffic cone orange,” he said. He starts with a 3-1/2- to 4-foot leader, which should keep his shrimp just off the bottom, in the perfect trout strike zone.

“I’ll start the leader at 3-1/2 feet, and I’ll retie twice, using about six inches each time, but if it gets shorter than 2-1/2 feet, I’ll tie on a new leader,” he said. “I’ll pitch the cork up toward the edge of the grass where it’s three to five feet deep, and just let it sit. I won’t pop it until it drifts off the bank over deep water. When it gets about even with the boat, you’ll be over deeper water, and when you pop it then, they’ll come up out of deep water to see what it is.”

Fishing soft-plastic artificials is more of a way for both guides to find trout when they’re out prospecting — or if they’ve got parties that would rather trick specks with plastics than feed them live bait.

“I’ll throw curlytail grubs or (plastic) shrimp in smoke or electric chicken (colors),” LaVanway said. “I really like to throw a smoke-colored Gotcha curlytail grub.

Yates sticks pretty much with a pre-rigged DOA Shrimp, a proven trout killer.

“It’s real simple to fish. You just throw it out and let it swing in the current,” he said. “I’ll fish a double-leader of 8- to 10-pound fish, about four feet of it

“It’s really more of a spring and fall kind of deal. I use them a lot before the shrimp show up. In fact, when the shrimp show up, the preparation time I’ve got for a trip goes way up. When they’re biting a DOA, I just rig four or five rods and I’m ready to go. When the shrimp show up, I’ve got another hour or two every day in preparation catching shrimp.”