Plugging for speckled trout

The author said anyone can catch speckled trout on hard plastic lures with the proper swing.

Catch more specks with hard plastic lures

Capt. Lee Parsons is a speckled trout fishing fanatic. Catching them with MirrOlures is his specialty. But any angler can get into the swing of catching them.

“I teach MirrOlure school,” Parsons (Gottafly Guide Service, (910-540-2464) said. “It is an evening of classroom instruction and 2 days of fishing.”

He concentrates his speck efforts near Wrightsville Beach. Inlets are his favorite places in August.

“I fish Rich, Masonboro, and Carolina Beach inlets,” he said. “After the hot summer weather, the first cold front moves mullet, glass minnows and other baitfish to shore. And the trout follow them. The first places they arrive are inlets, where a rising tide brings baitfish to the bank. Trout rush in, eat them and go deep again. As the tide level increases, I cast to points and inside eddies on the ICW side.”

Parsons looks for hard bottoms with oysters or other structure including Masonboro Inlet’s jetties. However, while the jetties attract fish, they also present challenges.

Anchor down

“The problem is getting anchored properly,” he said. “The jetties have only a few spots where trout feed. A self-anchoring trolling motor is not good for trout fishing because the motor noise makes trout wary. It is better to use a Power Pole or physical anchor in shallower water. If you drop an anchor, the trout come back because they are there for food, or at a staging point to get food.”

Parsons often drifts along, activating his trolling motor just often enough to maintain casting distance to the bank. The farther away he can maintain boat position and hit the strike zone, the better.

“Once your lure gets bit, circle back and put out the anchor, make more casts and see what happens,” he said. “I use TT, 52M and Catch 2000 series MirrOlures. The original finishes work great and the best colors are mud minnow patterns such as green back/white side. The BG finish (Broken Glass) is better because its reflective shine imitates baitfish better.”

This speck nearly swallowed this hard plastic lure, showing how effective plugs are for skilled anglers.

Each model has a different profile, which is important for the sink-swim factor of lipless crankbaits that only use body shape and the angler’s hands on the rod to impart fish-like action. The TT series sinks faster in slower currents because it is wider than the 52M, while the 52M sinks faster in stronger currents. Both run up to 9 feet deep. The Catch 2000 is a shallow-runner.

“The Catch 2000 is a lure I use in a multitude of conditions,” he said. “When the mullets are running along the surface, it really shines because the other lures sink below the baitfish too fast. Its cigar shape also lets you use it like a topwater plug, walking-the-dog just underwater. I cast it to the bank, let the current pull it off and make it look like a hurt mullet by using a tap-tap-pause retrieve. Trout usually hit it when it is sitting still or floating naturally. When you are doing nothing is when a trout will eat it. I call it an old man’s plug because old men have more patience. When you think you are reeling it too slow, you’re probably reeling it too fast. The trout tell you when your retrieve is slow enough.”

The swing

Keys to catching trout with MirrOlures include boat position relative to the bank, and how the angler casts and retrieves the lures. With the boat anchored, bow into the current, and the bow facing left at 12 o’clock, the angler casts to 1 o’clock. The lure is retrieved fast enough to keep slack out of the line in the event of a strike. The lure passes perpendicular to the bank at 3 o’clock, then the lure swings through 4, 5 and stops swinging at 6 o’clock.

“That’s the strike zone,” he said. “Most of the time, a trout is going to strike on the swing from 4 to 6 o’clock when the lure’s action is best, aided by the current.”

Capt. Lee Parsons said boat placement is crucial for giving anglers the proper swing when retrieving their lures.

Landing a trout in current is tricky. A smooth reel drag is essential. Parsons uses a spinning rig with a stiff tip and a drag loose enough that the spool slips when a fish strikes. He uses 15-pound test braid and 8- to 20-pound test fluorocarbon leader and doesn’t set the hook at a strike.

“When a trout hits the lure, I let him run and wallow so he gets the treble hooks in his face,” he said. “Then I use a rubber landing net so the hooks don’t get tangled. If you try to lift a trout by the leader, you can get the hooks in you when the lure flies free.”

Most of the year, a cold front will shut down trout. However, in August, storms anglers call “northeasters” cool the water to temperatures trout prefer while, at the same time, blowing baitfish schools inshore. Hurricanes passing offshore also force them inshore.

The right time

The best time to fish is first light, because the fish are more active and less spooky. The best time of month is the new moon, because trout don’t feed heavily on dark nights.

“If you are into the trout and they stop biting, they just moved a little,” he said. “The fish may be staged inside a tiny oyster point and suddenly move to the outside. I try a different rip or eddy nearby, because these holding areas constantly change with the direction and flow intensity of the tide. Trout are not going to come to your lure. You have to work it in their face. They strike it as the line straightens out at the end of the swing.”

Capt. Patrick Kelly needed a big net to land this speckled trout.

Capt. Patrick Kelly, formerly of Capt. Smiley Fishing Charters in North Myrtle Beach, recently moved to Beaufort, South Carolina and operates Boogie Man Fishing Charters (843-962-3503). He fishes for specks out of St. Helena Island’s Station Creek Boat Landing.

“Topwater plugs are where it’s at,” Kelly said. “I fish Zara Spooks and Top Pups at creek mouths and over mud flats near them on incoming tides.”

Kelly looks for oyster beds that are trout-holding areas. He anchors the boat and uses live bait rigs to locate active fish.

“I search with live shrimp fished on a slip float rig or popping cork rig,” he said. “I find an oyster point or other anomaly where I think the fish are hanging out and allow the bait to drift over or beside it on the current. When I get a strike, I start working the area with a topwater lure.”

He also looks for schools of mullet working the bank. Mullet that are swimming in tight formations and showering when speckled trout rush them offer a dead giveaway.

“You will see hundreds of finger mullet,” he said. “As the tide rises, they move from the creek mouths onto the big flats to feed and get away from predators. Eventually, the tide rises enough to flood the grass. And trout will continue to patrol the edges of the grass after the mullet go into the grass to hide. That’s when a silver Zara Spook or Top Pup in silver belly/green back cast along the edge shines.”

Kelly and Parsons use similar tackle. They share the same tips, including keeping the line tight and interjecting pauses into the retrieve. Both of them also switch factory hooks with Gamakastu or VMC hooks because they are sharper and stronger.

“When a trout hits the lure as it’s motionless, a sharp treble can make the difference in getting a hookup,” Kelly said. “If he misses, keep the lure coming. It doesn’t matter if you were working it fast or slow, just keep that same rhythm and he may follow it to the boat before hitting it again. I have seen speckled trout leap as high out of the water with a topwater lure in its mouth as a king mackerel skying on a live bait.”

Color selection matters to speckled trout, which are often finicky.

Swing shift color selection

Specks are notoriously finicky. Their peculiarities include having to match the size of the lure to the size of the baitfish they are feeding on as well as keying on colors that resemble those baitfish. That can depend on what the water color and clarity may be and the amount of daylight, or lack of it.

Mirrolure colors such as Nightstalker (black) and Purple Demon (purple) were deviously devised to outwit speckled trout feeding in low-light conditions such as at night or in deep or turbid water.

On the other hand, light colors like silver, white and yellow are sure trout attractors when the sun is winking over the horizon. In broad daylight, chartreuse, hot pink, gold and red and other bold colors will entice any trout to strike.

Color matters less with topwater lures than with subsurface lures. Ask any guide and you will hear named off brighter colors for the topsides as the best of the best, yet all of the favorite lures will have a light-colored belly, which is really the only part of the topwater lure a trout truly sees. The fluorescent colors, such as bright oranges and dayglow greens, are actually easier for the angler to see, which of course, makes it easier to make sure it is working properly during the walk-the-dog retrieve. Any color that makes a topwater lure easier for the angler to see under the conditions at that time is going to make it a better trout taker.