How to catch spotted sea trout fishing Florida (The Complete Guide)
The best way to catch a speckled trout is with a popping cork and a live shrimp or white bait at least 18 inches under the cork. If you want to use lures instead of live bait then a Berkeley Gulp shrimp or swimming mullet under the same popping cork is your best bet for catching sea trout.
If you want to catch your personal best sized speckled trout then you will want to use a top water walk the dog lure like a white Zara Super Spook or a 5 inch paddle tail swimming shad with a 1/8 or 1/4 ounce jig head during the first hour of light in the morning.
Spotted sea trout a.k.a. speckled trout are one of the most sought after inshore fish in Florida. They are plentiful from the Panhandle of Florida down to the Everglades. They like to be near grass flats and are very good to eat.
So you want to learn how to catch more spotted sea trout when you are fishing in Florida or anywhere else that spotted sea trout live.
Spotted sea trout are actually members of the drum family which includes red drum and black drum. The larger speckled trout (gators) are excellent fighters and typically will come to the surface shaking their heads vigorously in an attempt to dislodge the hooks from their mouths.
I am an INSHORE FISHING GUIDE on the Treasure Coast of Florida and have been fishing the grass flats and mangroves for spotted sea trout for over 40 years. The article below will tell you everything that you need to know about how to catch speckled trout in Florida.
Okay. Let's get started with my simple tips and techniques to help you catch more spotted sea trout.
Watch the video below and learn how to catch more spotted sea trout.
The best way to catch a speckled trout is with a popping cork and a live shrimp or white bait at least 18 inches under the cork. If you want to use lures instead of live bait then a Berkeley Gulp shrimp or swimming mullet under the same popping cork is your best bet for catching sea trout.
If you want to catch your personal best sized speckled trout then you will want to use a top water walk the dog lure like a white Zara Super Spook or a 5 inch paddle tail swimming shad with a 1/8 or 1/4 ounce jig head during the first hour of light in the morning.
Spotted sea trout a.k.a. speckled trout are one of the most sought after inshore fish in Florida. They are plentiful from the Panhandle of Florida down to the Everglades. They like to be near grass flats and are very good to eat.
So you want to learn how to catch more spotted sea trout when you are fishing in Florida or anywhere else that spotted sea trout live.
Spotted sea trout are actually members of the drum family which includes red drum and black drum. The larger speckled trout (gators) are excellent fighters and typically will come to the surface shaking their heads vigorously in an attempt to dislodge the hooks from their mouths.
I am an INSHORE FISHING GUIDE on the Treasure Coast of Florida and have been fishing the grass flats and mangroves for spotted sea trout for over 40 years. The article below will tell you everything that you need to know about how to catch speckled trout in Florida.
Okay. Let's get started with my simple tips and techniques to help you catch more spotted sea trout.
Watch the video below and learn how to catch more spotted sea trout.
Learn how to and where to fish for and catch spotted sea trout!
The spotted sea trout can be found anywhere that there are grass flats nearby. These fish inhabit the saltwater estuaries from the top of Florida to the Florida Keys. The can be found on mudflats and oyster bars; under docks; in creek mouths and turning basins; under mangroves at higher tides BUT the number one place to find a speckled trout is on a grass flat.
The Perfect Tackle Combo (Speckled Trout a.k.a. Spotted Sea Trout)
In my opinion, the perfect rod and reel combo for catching speckled trout is a 2500 series reel and a 7 foot medium or medium/light strength, fast action rod.
Fill the spool with 10 pound braid and have a 15 pound leader. That is the perfect tackle for speckled trout regardless of where you are targeting them.
I have had many different rods and reels over the last 40 years of inshore fishing around Florida. The include brands like Diawa, Shimano, and Penn.
My favorite line of reels to date is the Penn Spinfisher series of reels. They are extremely smooth, made of tough corrosion resistant metals, haves great drag systems and best of all they have a sealed body so sand and water won't get inside the reel.
They are perfect for surf fishing, wade fishing and kayak fishing. (Any fishing technique that makes it likely for water or sand to get in them)
You can expect to pay $150 plus for these reels. BUT they are worth it.
My second favorite non-sealed reels are the Diawa BG reels.
They are the reels that I use on my flats boat because I know that they are unlikely to get dunked in the water or to get beach sand in them.
You can expect to pay $100 plus for these reels. They are a great bargain in my opinion.
PRO TIP--Most of the trout that I have caught on a mudflat have been near an oyster bar of some sort. They like to roll into the many mud flat and oyster bar ecosystems with the incoming tide to feed as a school. They get up into the shallow water and feed on small bait fish, shrimp and other crustaceans.
My favorite set up to look for is a deep cut (4 to 5 feet deep) between an oyster bar on one side and a mud flat on the other. This funnels the fish into a very confined space which makes them very easy to target. It is not uncommon to catch a trout every minute or two as the school makes its way through. HOWEVER, quite often they will move through within 10 minutes and you will have to go try to find out where the moved off to if you want to keep catching them.
My favorite set up to look for is a deep cut (4 to 5 feet deep) between an oyster bar on one side and a mud flat on the other. This funnels the fish into a very confined space which makes them very easy to target. It is not uncommon to catch a trout every minute or two as the school makes its way through. HOWEVER, quite often they will move through within 10 minutes and you will have to go try to find out where the moved off to if you want to keep catching them.
Boat docks are another great place to find spotted sea trout. There are many places on both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean side where the grass flats are disappearing at an alarming rate. The run off from Lake Okeechobee is polluting both sides of the state causing the destruction of the grass flats.
This habitat loss is causing many grass flat specialists like a trout to alter their behaviors to survive. Concentrating their predatory activities around docks as the grass disappear is one adaptation that I have noticed.
Typically the docks were the place to target a snook, red fish or a flounder BUT recently the bigger trout have been in the dock pilings. As fishermen we have to adapt as well if we want to keep targeting trout. The trout are feeding on the glass minnows and shrimp that try to find sanctuary within the dock pilings.
This habitat loss is causing many grass flat specialists like a trout to alter their behaviors to survive. Concentrating their predatory activities around docks as the grass disappear is one adaptation that I have noticed.
Typically the docks were the place to target a snook, red fish or a flounder BUT recently the bigger trout have been in the dock pilings. As fishermen we have to adapt as well if we want to keep targeting trout. The trout are feeding on the glass minnows and shrimp that try to find sanctuary within the dock pilings.
The video above covers how to catch a spotted sea trout with live shrimp.
Creek mouths and turning basins are another great place to find spotted sea trout to catch. Creek mouths tend to concentrate bait schools. They like to move into and out of the various creeks to feed and hide from predators. Of course the predators know this too and follow them in and out of the creeks. That's why they are a great place to target trout.
Tarpon, snook, red fish and trout love to use tidal creeks as hunting grounds and you should too. In the southern parts of the state these tidal creeks will almost always be lined with red mangroves. These are the ones with the roots that look like insect legs going every which way.
During low tides these legs don't have much action around them but when the tide comes in the predators get a shot at those crabs, shrimp and little bait fish that they couldn't reach on the lower tides.
Speckled Trout love to hunt within those roots during the higher tides. Some sort of weed less lure will work great to pull a trout out of those roots. I like to use a weed less gold spoon the catch them in this circumstance or a white 3 or 4 inch paddle tail rigged weed less.
The plastic white shad rigged with a weed less weighted hook can be deadly. They can often be caught as they slam the schools of small glass minnows and other juvenile fish taking refuge in and around the mangroves.
IF you want to learn more about the best lure for speckled trout in more detail, then you should read this article that I wrote here. Speckled trout fishing with lures.
Tarpon, snook, red fish and trout love to use tidal creeks as hunting grounds and you should too. In the southern parts of the state these tidal creeks will almost always be lined with red mangroves. These are the ones with the roots that look like insect legs going every which way.
During low tides these legs don't have much action around them but when the tide comes in the predators get a shot at those crabs, shrimp and little bait fish that they couldn't reach on the lower tides.
Speckled Trout love to hunt within those roots during the higher tides. Some sort of weed less lure will work great to pull a trout out of those roots. I like to use a weed less gold spoon the catch them in this circumstance or a white 3 or 4 inch paddle tail rigged weed less.
The plastic white shad rigged with a weed less weighted hook can be deadly. They can often be caught as they slam the schools of small glass minnows and other juvenile fish taking refuge in and around the mangroves.
IF you want to learn more about the best lure for speckled trout in more detail, then you should read this article that I wrote here. Speckled trout fishing with lures.
Okay. I saved the best spotted sea trout place for last. This is of course the grass flats around Florida. Seat trout are born and die on the grass flats. In other words, there are some fish that use the estuaries as a nursery and then grow up and live at sea for the rest of their lives but the sea trout lives its whole life around the grass flats.
A healthy grass flat will have two abundant species for you to notice. The spotted sea trout and the lowly pin fish. I mention the pin fish because it is a gator trout delicacy when presented under a popping cork drifted over a grass flat. If you see a lot of pin fish on the flats then you can bet that there are a lot of trout around too.
My favorite place to target on an expansive grass flat is the sandy pot holes. Many predators use them as an ambush point and trout do too. They will usually be facing into the current hiding in the grass just outside of the sandy pot hole. Trout will readily eat a shrimp, pin fish, small white bait or anything else that will fit in their mouths. Drifting a grass flat is, in my opinion, the best way to catch a ton of trout.
Spotted sea trout tend to hang out in schools. When you find a school of the right sized trout stay put until the bite stops. If you are in a school of undersized trout (15 inches or less) move until you find the keeper sized ones. It's great to catch trout all day but if you want to fillet and release to the grease keep moving until you find the big ones.
Fun fact: The spotted sea trout babies will often feed on shark poop that falls to the sea grass flats in the first years of their lives. This shark poop contains a parasitic worm that can often be found in the tail meat of a sea trout filet when they get to legal size.
You can read the article that I wrote called, "Why do speckled trout have worms?" here.
To complete its life cycle the parasitic worm will have to get itself back into the digestive system of another shark. Sharks like to eat trout. When the sharks feed on a spotted sea trout the cycle starts over again. I know that is kind of gross but that is where those white worms come from that you have to pick out of the trout fillets. Now you know where they come from. YUCK!
The video below teaches you how to catch more speckled trout with soft plastics.
WANT TO CATCH SPECKLED TROUT? BOOK YOUR FISHING CHARTER TODAY!
Learn how to choose the best spotted sea trout fishing baits and lures:
The best live baits for sea trout is a highly contentious subject to say the least. Everyone has their go to baits that they are most comfortable using. I think a live shrimp under a popping cork is a no brainer.
Sure, you might catch a lot of other unwanted species like pin fish, lady fish and jacks but everything wants to eat a shrimp. Learn more about getting the right tackle to maximize your seatrout fishing fun.
Shrimp are the basis of the entire inshore food chain. Trout, tarpon, snook, red fish, black drum, flounder, mangrove snapper..... and many more will all readily take a properly presented live shrimp.
The best way is under a popping cork with about 18 inches of very light leader (15 pound maximum). Pop the cork every 20 or 30 seconds and reel in the trout when the cork goes under. It is that simple.
For bigger gator trout repeat the process with a finger mullet, pin fish or a 3 inch plus white bait and you will get similar results. You can free line the finger mullets and the white baits as you are drifting.
Make sure to hook them in the lips for a more natural presentation in the water. You have to put the pin fish under a cork or they will swim straight down into the grass.
Dead bait works great for trout too. The biggest trout that I ever caught was on a big chunk of mullet up against a mangrove sitting on the sandy bottom. That bait was supposed to catch a big snook or a red fish but the trout obviously wanted it more. The problem with this trout fishing technique is a lot of unwanted bi catch like catfish.
Learn how to choose the best fishing lures for catching sea trout:
Sea trout love small scented jigs. A scented imitation shrimp or paddle tail shad will catch tons of trout. You can fish this the same way that you did with a live bait under a popping cork. It's a lot cheaper too because you can catch 5 or 6 fish with the same jig before they get too chewed up to use. I use the white Berkely Gulps with a 1/8 ounce red jig head with the most success. That set up catches just about every other predator on the flats as well.
A white or natural color combination of the 3 inch DOA CAL is another great lure choice for catching tons of sea trout. I like the white body with a 1/8 ounce red jig head the best.
A gold spoon will catch a lot of trout as well. The weedless ones are great but you have to set the hook really well or you will miss more fish than you would using the spoons with the treble hooks. The problem with treble hooks is the mortality of the fish.
Trout are extremely fragile. They die very easily after being caught so I don't use treble hooks when targeting them. I like to replace the trebles with single hooks to increase the chances of the fishing living once released.
Watch the video below and see the DOA CAL lures catching tons of spotted sea trout.
It is also a good idea not to handle them with dry hands. I like to wet my hands before grabbing them to take the hooks out of their mouths. Their mouths tear very easily and their jaws will break very easily as well. A trout with a broken jaw will not live very long.
If a treble hook goes into the throat sphincter then it is usually all over for the trout. Trout, like most fish, have a protective layer of slime on them to keep them from getting sick so I try not to touch them too much when I land them.
This leads me to the last best fishing lure for trout. It is any lure that looks like the on in the photo above. What I mean by that is the finger mullet imitation. That one above is a Mirrolure and they work great. Zara spook is another one of my favorites. They both come in lots of different sizes and colors.
I like the white ones and the natural looking ones best but just about any of them will work with the proper presentation. Many fishermen swear by bright orange, yellow or pink walk the dog type of lures for trout but I think a light one and a darker one is all that you need.
Learn how to choose the best gear for spotted sea trout fishing:
If you are going to be fishing for speckled trout all day you will definitely need to protect your eyes and skin from the sun's harmful rays. Polarized sunglasses are a must for spotted sea trout fishing.
A high end pair of sunglasses will run about $250 and a lower end pair will run you about $25 with glass lenses. You can find them with plastic lenses for about $5 at Walmart.
Whatever price range you decide to go with you must wear polarized sunglasses or you can not sight fish for trout on the flats. The polarized lenses eliminate the glare on the surface of the water so that you can see under the surface.
The bottom line is that the expensive sunglasses have very sturdy frames and scratch resistant glass lenses. The cheap ones break easily and the lenses are usually plastic. The expensive ones are definitely better for seeing into the water but they are not 10 times better like their price suggests.
Sight fishing a huge gator speckled trout on the grass flats is a bucket list item. You can't do it without the right polarized glasses.
The best color lenses for inshore and dirtier water scenarios are amber, rose and copper. If you are fishing super clean and clear water or you are fishing offshore a blue or a gray lens is best.
You will also want to stock up on UV performance fishing shirts to protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays. These shirts have built in sunscreen and are moisture wicking which means they evaporate your perspiration more efficiently keeping you cool on those hot days on the water.
My company has a big selection of sun protection performance fishing shirts that you might like. You can see our selection by clicking on the visit our store link below.
Learn how to find the best water temperatures for sea trout fishing:
What is the best water temperature for catching speckled trout? You can fish all that you want for a fish but if the water temperatures where they are aren't right, you ain't catchin'.
You have to remember that trout are cold blooded just like a snake or an alligator. They cannot regulate their body temperatures by themselves. They have to use the surrounding waters to heat up or cool down. If they get too hot or too cold they will die.
Sea trout are very tolerant when it comes to water temperatures. They have a wide range from too cold to too hot. Your job is to figure out the water temperature where the trout are.
If they are 10 feet down in the water column, your boat thermometer is not going to give you the right temperature. It will only tell you the temperature in the top layer of the water column.
The way to figure out what the water temperatures are at the various parts of the water column is to get a waterproof thermometer. You will then want to tie it to a long string with a float on one end. Now you can know what the water temperatures are in different parts of the water column.
The float is there just in case you drop your thermometer. I fish mostly from a kayak and if you drop something in a kayak it had better float or be tied to the kayak or it is gone forever.
The video below will teach you exactly what temperatures are best for speckled trout fishing.
Learn how to use smell to fish for and catch more spotted sea trout.
I believe that the amazing sense of smell that spotted sea trout have is often overlooked by fishermen. Trout have excellent senses of smell. That is why the Berkely GULPS work so well to catch them.
Imagine that there is a delicious pin fish hiding in the grass on the bottom of some dark and murky tidal creek. It is not moving so the trout cannot use its lateral line to feel/hear it. It is covered in grass so the trout can't see it. BUT the trout swoops in and slams the hapless pin fish anyways.
How did the trout find the pin fish? It used its sense of smell of course.
The biggest trout that I ever caught was with a chunk up mullet cast up to the mangroves on a sand bar in 2 feet of water. The closest grass flat was 50 feet away. That trout smelled that bait and left its grass flat to gobble up that bait. I was fishing for snook and redfish but I will take a gator trout instead.
My point is add smell to your lures and you will catch more trout. Let's say that your favorite trout lure is a suspending mullet imitation and you are fishing a dark and murky creek somewhere.
The trout can only feel/hear the vibrations of your lure. They probably can't see it very well and they certainly can't smell it so you are only using one of the trout's senses to attract a hit.
Why not add smell to the equation? There is a product called Pro Cure that is a sticky liquid that you can add to your lures to make them smell delicious to a spotted sea trout. There are many smells but the shrimp and mullet will probably work the best for you.
I am not sponsored by Pro Cure or GULP or ZARA SPOOK or any other companies whose products I am recommending to you. Those products work or I wouldn't mention them by name.
Watch the video below and learn how to catch more spotted sea trout by using smell.
Watch the video below and catch even more trout.
Conclusion:
The spotted sea trout (speckled trout) is one of the most sought after inshore species of fish in Florida. They are getting harder to find because our grass flats are dying off at an alarming rate. BUT if you can find healthy grass flats then you can find healthy populations of sea trout.
There are honey holes that I was able to catch 20 or 30 seatrout in 5 or 6 years ago that only produce 3 or 4 seatrout today. The grass flats are now mud flats in many areas near me.
The FWC (Florida Wildlife Commission) in 2019 changed the rules for keeping spotted sea trout. They made it so charter fishing guides could not keep any fish because the populations have been dwindling so quickly in recent years. There were other changes to the rules for spotted sea trout so make sure to check the rules before keeping any trout.
This is a west coast of Florida rule but the east coast will see more limitations coming very soon to help the sea trout populations rebound. This should be a good thing and in a few years there might be lots more trout around for us to catch.
All that you need to catch sea trout is a rod and reel and a DOA CAL or a Berkeley Gulp shrimp. That's it. Just find grass and start casting. You will catch a trout if they are around.
If you are ever down in the Treasure Coast of Florida, then book a flats boat charter with me. Our most popular target species are spotted sea trout, snook, tarpon and redfish. Sea trout can be caught year round in my area.
I hope that this article helps you catch more spotted sea trout or at the very least have more fun trying. Let's get some lines wet Florida.
About the author: The author of this article insists upon being referred to as the Big Daddy Trout Terror of the Planet Earth. But nobody ever listens to him and we just call him Mike, the co-owner of FYAO Saltwater Media Group, Inc.
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Bonus Video: Catch and Release Ethics and Techniques
Watch the video below and catch more speckled trout with live bait.