Clean moving water — and shrimp — key to Wadmalaw Sound specks

The equation is fairly simple: clear water, plus shrimp, plus current, equals speckled trout.

There’s no calculator in the world that could figure that one out, but Capt. Rawling Pratt-Thomas of Charleston Inshore Charters can, and did, a number of times this past week.

“The speckled trout are thick, in big schools, eating shrimp,” said Pratt-Thomas (843-834-1061). “Nothing can beat a shrimp meal for a speckled trout.”

So Pratt-Thomas fed them all week, under a popping cork, in Bohicket Creek, the Stono River, the Wadmalaw River and the Wadmalaw Sound. One of his parties had 60 by 10:30 one morning; a day later, two fishermen put about 40 in the boat in three hours. Generally, half the trout that have come over the gunwales of his flats boat have been keepers.

“You need clean, moving water; that’s the key,” said Pratt-Thomas. “As long as the current is moving, it doesn’t matter which direction. The high end of the tide has been better, but getting moving water is all that matters.”

Most of his fish have been coming out of five to six feet of water. “When the tide is low, some of the bottom structure is too shallow and you can’t use a float,” he said.

Pratt-Thomas ties on an 18-inch leader to a Cajun Thunder or Paradise Popper. The business end is a No. 2 Eagle Claw No. 42 Kahle-style hook, which goes in just behind the shrimp’s “horn.”

When the tide is rolling and the current is really moving, most of the bites are from speckled trout. When the tide peaks – high or low – pinfish become more of a problem, but that problem should disappear in the next few weeks as the water cools and the bait-stealers disappear.