Trout

I’ve had a good bit of success catching and releasing the smaller trout, 10-14” the last couple of trips. For the life of me I can’t find anything larger than 14”.

Mostly in 4-8 feet of moving water around creek mouths with slim swimz.

Do the bigger trout hang near the smaller ones?

A lot of people say that the bigger ones are loaners… I tend to agree with that, the largest trout I ever caught, I wrangled in while spottail fishing and didn’t catch another trout that day!

http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=174259#1301221

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

quote:
Originally posted by kgearhart

Do the bigger trout hang near the smaller ones?


A 24" Speck would have no problem eating a 10’-12’ Speck…just saying. So I would agree to a point on the size of the fish, Small Trout hang with small/ larger with larger. Maybe try some bigger baits 5"-7"? Sinking stick bait/ broke back, bigger soft plastic. I really like the 5" & 6" WildEye Swin Shad in Mullet color. Very tuff with good tail action, strong VMC hook.

I’ve found that with trout, the old adage “big bait=big fish” holds very true. Granted, big trout will eat little bait too but as I understand it, when a trout reaches a certain size, their diet is predominantly other fish/bait fish. I’ve changed my approach when it comes to big trout. That approach doesn’t get a lot of bites but the bites I get are typically good ones.

“You don’t always know where you stand till you know that you won’t run away.” ~Slipknot

It’s not talking crap if you can back it up…and nothing can back it up better than facts.

My biggest trout have come on suspending lures. Big sow trout are cannibalistic. So, there won’t tend to be smaller trout near big ones. The big ones are fewer in numbers and tend to be loners. And female. Like bangstick said, with suspending plugs you will get few bites but the ones you get will typically be heavy.


1966 13’ Boston Whaler “Flatty”
2018 Sportsman Masters 207
www.eyestrikefishing.com #predatorsstriketheeye

Totally agree with Optiker. Trout aren’t like stripers or largemouth. Stripers and largemouth tend to school up by size. Not to say never, but rarely will you be in a school of 18" stripers and then catch a 30" striper. Same for largemouth…you rarely catch a 8lb’er in a school of 2lb’ers. As mentioned, big trout rarely travel in large schools. Granted, we’ve caught 3 and 4 20"+ trout in a small area but that’s hardly a school and far from the norm. Usually it’s one big trout here and then one big trout there. My favorite big trout bait is a big (relatively speaking) swimbait. I like a big profile (not skinny or slim) 4.5" to 5" hollow belly swimbait. That has produced most of my larger trout.

“You don’t always know where you stand till you know that you won’t run away.” ~Slipknot

It’s not talking crap if you can back it up…and nothing can back it up better than facts.

Hardly anyone fishes big swimbaits for inshore fish. A while back I became convinced that a 6" swimmerZ would work (its about the same size as a larger topwater plug). Put it on one of our striper eye jigs and bam, caught a 21" trout. IDK why, but I haven’t done it much recently. Now is the time of year to do it though…


1966 13’ Boston Whaler “Flatty”
2018 Sportsman Masters 207
www.eyestrikefishing.com #predatorsstriketheeye

quote:
Originally posted by Optiker

Hardly anyone fishes big swimbaits for inshore fish. A while back I became convinced that a 6" swimmerZ would work (its about the same size as a larger topwater plug). Put it on one of our striper eye jigs and bam, caught a 21" trout. IDK why, but I haven’t done it much recently. Now is the time of year to do it though…


1966 13’ Boston Whaler “Flatty”
2018 Sportsman Masters 207
www.eyestrikefishing.com #predatorsstriketheeye


You got that right! :wink:

“You don’t always know where you stand till you know that you won’t run away.” ~Slipknot

It’s not talking crap if you can back it up…and nothing can back it up better than facts.