Speckled trout eat heartily throughout April
Capt. Wayne Crisco (Last Resort Fishing Charters, 910-465-0611) eyed yet another marina. Full of floating docks, walkways, ramps, pilings, seawalls and of course, boats, the area was exquisitely tantalizing to a speckled trout angler. But, where would he make the first cast?
“It’s a tough choice,” he said. “I have been fishing for trout at marinas for decades and it’s always like solving a puzzle. You know where you caught a big speckled trout in the past, but there’s a boat sitting in that slip. A fish may be in the slip right beside it or in another slip that may be open now, but always had a boat sitting in it before. You’ve never been able to make a cast there before, so why not give it a try?”
Despite the background creaking of dock line pulleys and floating-ramp hinges, he said it was important to be careful with boat noises. As he approached an area he wanted to fish, he shut off the motor and drifted closer. Dropping an anchor gently, he tied it off to the bow cleat.
Keep bait fresh
“Trout are spooky,” he said. “They seem comfortable with everyday marina sounds, but not the sounds or vibrations of trolling motors and outboard engines. They are also not going to be very far away when you are fishing docks. And propwash can move water beneath the docks to alarm the fish.”
He impaled a live shrimp on the treble hook of a Billy Bay slip float rig with a No. 4 treble hook, 80-pound swivel and 18 inches of 15-pound monofilament leader, and a ½-ounce slip sinker. His rod was a 7-foot medium-heavy Penn Battalion with a Penn Battle II spinning reel filled with 15-pound Spiderwire braided line. After making several casts, he changed baits.
“Shrimp are delicate,” he said. “Bait stealers are abundant and they start chewing off the feet and tails. Then they start picking off the shell and making it look ragged. Also, just casting a shrimp wears it out. You should change them when they stop moving.”
A big speck struck. He handed the rod to Christina Asbury and she landed it as he coached her into keeping the line tight by reeling slowly and keeping a bend in the rod until the fish was close enough for Crisco to gather it up in the landing net. It weighed 7.8 pounds and was 28 inches long.
Bait stealers were abundant, but no other big speckled trout would bite. A croaker struck a live shrimp, destroying its value as bait. However, he said it was a good thing because the croaker snagged itself on the treble hook.
“A live croaker is one of the best baits for trophy trout,” Crisco said. “I will put it on the float rig and give it a try. Big speckled trout are loners. I usually don’t catch more than one big trout in the same spot. That’s why I keep moving and casting, trying different baits like croakers if I have them, and fishing different places. It’s a slow style of fishing, so you can’t even fish every spot that looks good in one marina in one day. And there are lots of marinas to try. The big trout may stick around most of the year, but winter through spring, until the water gets hot, usually have the best fishing.”
In North Carolina, NCDMF-jurisdiction Coastal Waters are closed to speckled trout fishing until June 15 by proclamation. NCWRC-jurisdiction Inland and Joint waters may be closed to speckled trout fishing May 1 – June 15, but that had not been confirmed at the time this article went to press. Anglers must consult the fishing regulations before keeping speckled trout.
No closure in SC
Buddy Love (Captain Smiley Fishing Charters, phone 843-361-7445) is also a fan of float rigs baited with live shrimp for catching big speckled trout. Like Crisco, he said they may bite all year round, although most anglers think they are fish of the fall and winter.
“You can run across a big speckled trout anytime of year,” Love said. “But the really big females arrive around April. You aren’t going to catch a lot of them, but they will be somewhere.”
Love fishes with 7-foot medium Fenwick rods paired with Penn Battle 2500-series reels. The reel spools are filled with 20-pound test braided line. Like Crisco, he fishes with Billy Bay float rigs, tying 18 inches of 15-pound fluorocarbon leader to the hook and 12 feet of 20-pound fluorocarbon for the float to slide up and down upon. A half-once sinker above the hook keeps the line taut and the bait down in the current.
“With the slip float rig, we can fish any depth from a foot right on down to 10 or 12 feet, he said. “That’s important in the Little River area. We might be fishing the Little River Inlet Jetties, where there is a great variation in the depth due to the tide range. We might be fishing in the tidal creeks from the North Carolina/South Carolina state line, then head southward along the ICW and slip into the backwater flats and bays in a matter of a few minutes. In those places, you can fish a deep channel followed by a shallow flat right beside it. If they aren’t biting where you are fishing, you have to head somewhere else to find them. You don’t want to be constantly retying rigs to accommodate all of the different water depths.”
Watch for bluefish
He also prefers using live shrimp for bait and catches them in a cast net or buys them at a bait and tackle shop. Bluefish present a big problem when fishing live shrimp, especially at the jetties because the rocks attract so many of them. If bluefish are biting off the treble hooks, he switches to a heavier, 20-pound test leader.
“Trout can be leader shy, so I use the lightest leader I can that will keep them biting,” he said. “If bluefish are biting, it’s a good sign because it means trout are in the same area, feeding on the same baitfish that the bluefish are eating. But you can’t let the bluefish eat all of your live shrimp or go through all of your hooks. If they are really bad, all you can do is move to another spot if you only have live shrimp for bait.”
As backup, he switches from live shrimp to artificial shrimp. He prefers Vudu Shrimp, which are made with a tough weave for durability. He also uses Marker 54 Shrimp.
When fishing the jetties, he keeps the bait about 2 feet off the bottom for starters. If the water is 6 feet deep, he adjusts the float rig to dangle the bait 4 feet deep. However, if bait stealers are bad, he may move the float higher to avoid them. If the current is strong enough to create an angle in the leader, he may have to fish with a longer leader to keep the bait close enough to the bottom to draw strikes.
In the backwaters, he uses the float rig to probe oyster beds, docks, grass bed edges and the mouths of creeks when the tide is falling out of them. He may also cast floating, suspending and topwater MirrOlures, especially if he sees birds working baitfish schools. Hard plastic lures are also good choices when bluefish are feeding in the baitfish schools.
“When you see mullet, they are worth checking out,” he said. “You should also be on the lookout for diving cormorants because they show you the locations of baitfish schools where trout may be feeding.”
He said there is no such thing as a typical day of trout fishing. An angler might catch one or two big fish and/or lots of smaller fish. The catch may result in a limit of keepers or nothing to keep at all.
“One of the great things about April is that the big females are going to show up then. And the smaller fish are still going to be concentrated before the water gets warm enough to scatter them. You might catch them better if a little spell of colder weather fires them off. And they seem to bite better right before the full moon. You never know until you go because trout fishing is always a gamble,” he said.
Be the first to comment