Beating the wind for Cape Romain specks

Finding speckled trout in the huge expanse of Bulls Bay and Cape Romain is not that difficult – there are enough of them around.

But find them in the face of a 20-mph northeast wind – that’s another problem altogether. It took him a little while, but Capt. Tom Siwarski at Carolina Aero Marina Adventures finally found the solution this past Wednesday.

There was a nice keeper trout on his fishing party’s first cast, then a couple of redfish and a smaller trout. That was it until about noon, when Siwarski put everything together. In the next two hours, a good three-dozen specks had come over the gunwales of his boat.

“East winds are tough winds here, especially a northeast, because it muddies up the bay so much,” said Siwarski (843-327-3434), who lives in Goose Creek. “You fish the upper end, the Cape Romain end, on a north wind, because it’s in the lee.

“You have to hide from the wind and find the cleanest water possible – which won’t be crystal clear. You have to adapt your clarity standards. But you fish your spots that will be in as much of the lee as possible. You try to find places where the tide is fighting the wind; that makes it easier to control your boat.”

Siwarski said that specks will bite in dirty water, a statement with which some fishermen might disagree. But they’ve got to feed, he said, and you have to do a little more than usual to get them to strike.

Fishing a DOA shrimp on a 2-foot leader of 15-pound fluorocarbon under a Bayside Paradise Popper float, Siwarski said it’s especially important to really make a disturbance on the to get the trout’s attention. He’ll jerk the float with his rod tip once or twice in succession, moving it up to a foot each time, then letting it sit until the little imitation shrimp flutters back to the bottom.

“You pop the cork harder and make more commotion,” he said.

If one is attracted to and hits the bait – “glow” is Siwarski’s favorite color – he’s ready to drop the hammer. With 10-pound Power Pro braid, he’s not worried about a fish getting tangled in the marsh grass.

Siwarski expects specks to remain in the bay and cape in good numbers well into November. He said he caught them last year as late as Thanksgiving.