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Outdoors

A few tricks to nabbing speckled trout

By ED WALKER
Published February 24, 2007

Though speckled trout are closed to harvest in most of the Nature Coast area until March 1, catch-and-release fishing for them has been excellent recently.

The biggest fish have been found in shallow water, often less than 2 feet deep. In these places big trout follow similar patterns as their red drum, or redfish, cousins. They move toward the shoreline with the rising tide then retreat toward deeper water when it goes out.

We have been having the best luck by casting soft plastic jerkbaits, rigged weedless and weightless. The lack of added weight affords the lure a slow, subtle action and slight negative buoyancy. Most anglers twitch the lure two or three times to make it dance, pause to let it sink a little, then twitch again. This unobtrusive movement is just enough to coax a strike without scaring the fish.

When a trout takes the jerkbait there is seldom a strong strike. Usually the line simply feels heavier, as if caught in the grass. I tell most of the fishermen new to this style of fishing to set the hook even if they are unsure if it is a bite of the bottom.

After a while, most develop a feel for which is which. Setting the hook should be done by sweeping the rod tip with the same motion used to work the lure, usually to the side. Since the big specks often run toward the boat soon after grabbing the bait, taking a few quick cranks on the reel handle after you set the hook to "catch up" with your fish may be required.

Many times the fish is actually hooked but since the line goes slack, the angler does not realize he or she is still connected. More than once I have seen a gator trout swim by, trailing the line of an angler on the other end of the boat who does not realize he has a fish.

Another tricky aspect of jerkbait fishing is the problem of "wind knots," those dreaded piles of line that fall off the reel in a tangled clump. Nearly all are caused when loose line, even just a few feet, ends up on the spool. Most of the time, this happens in between twitches of the rod tip used to impart action to the lure.

There are two parts to solving this problem. The first is to hold the rod tip close to the water, which allows the surface tension to provide just enough drag to wrap line on the spool properly. The other is to pay close attention to the way you give the lure its action.

Most people have a tendency to move the rod tip backward as they twitch it, reel as they move the rod tip forward, and twitch it back again. The problem is that as you reel up line while returning the rod tip to the start of another series of twitches, there is inadequate tension. This hard-to-recognize trouble spot is the cause of most wind knots as well as a great deal of frustration for fishermen, particularly those who use braided lines.

The solution is to keep your rod tip at the same general angle and slowly turn the reel handle with each twitch. This keeps the line tension nearly constant, eliminating the troublesome slack. Your rod tip should not move more than a few degrees while working the lure. Breezy conditions and oncoming currents or rapid drifts can make knots more of a problem but as long as you realize where the trouble is coming from, it can usually be overcome.

[Last modified February 24, 2007, 07:34:00]