Although spring weather often is variable in North Carolina, ranging from sunny to wet, cold and windy, it doesn’t seem to affect the speckled trout bite at the New River.
“Speckled trout don’t seem to pay much attention, as far the bite goes, to the weather,” said guide Ricky Kellum of Jacksonville (910-330-2745, www.speckledspecialist.com).
Kellum said the only thing that affects trout in the New River is changing water temperatures. And falling or rising temps don’t stop the bite; they just move specks from the feeder creeks to cooler areas in the river during summer.
The speckled trout bite for big fish, some weighing as much as 8 pounds, is hot this spring at the New’s creeks. The river’s tributaries hold some of the largest speckled trout at the N.C. coast. These “gators,” although not common, can rival the huge trout found in Florida waters. But as summer and warmer temperatures arrive, the main population moves toward Sneads Ferry, Kellum said, and he follows them.
“But it seems like some specks are in the creeks all the time now,” Kellum said. “I really like to fish the river during summer,” Kellum said. “That’s some of the best fishing of all.”
During spring, he uses a collection of topwater lures such as MirrOlures, Rapala X-Raps and soft-plastic lures, including the Storm Shrimp and Billy Bay Halo Shrimp. He adds a lead dot to some of his MirrOlures to make them drop a little quicker and reach the specks’ strike zone.
“The key technique with these baits is to just ‘pop’ the rod tip 6 inches, then let the lure fall,” Kellum said. “The specks invariably hit these lures as they’re falling.”
He fishes topwater MirrOlures or X-Traps at daylight and in the evening, which seem to be the two best times for those lures. But with good conditions (overcast skies), he sometimes encounters day-long topwater bites.
Kellum’s clients recently caught trout weighing as much as 9 pounds. A few weeks ago, one of his anglers landed an 8-pounder and several 6-pounders.
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