What is the Best Way Technique for Sea Trout Fishing at Night?
The best way to catch speckled sea trout at night is to target them by dock lights and bridge lights. Use a live shrimp or small white bait fished with very light leader of 8 pounds or less and a 3/0 circle hook. Cast your bait to the edge of the light where the trout will be hiding in the shadows.
The spotted sea trout a.k.a. speckled trout is one of the most sought after fish in Florida. They are very abundant anywhere near grass flats. They can also be found around docks, bridges, oyster bars and mangroves.
Despite their name the spotted sea trout is actually a member of the drum family. Their cousins are the red drum (redfish), the black drum and croakers.
Sea trout fishing at night can be some hot and heavy action if you can find a dock or a bridge whose lights have attracted all of the trout. It is all about finding the feeding fish around the lights.
The great thing about speckled trout is they will readily eat lures, live bait and dead bait. In other words, they are pretty easy to catch if they are around. They are not the best fighters in the world but the bigger ones like in the photo above do okay.
They are also great to eat. Fillet and release into the grease!
I am an INSHORE FISHING GUIDE on the Treasure Coast of Florida and have been fishing the flats, oyster bars and mangroves around the state for over 40 years. I have been stalking speckled trout from one end of the state to the other.
In this article, I will tell you everything that I know about spotted sea trout fishing at night. We will cover what the best baits and lures are as well as where to find the fish. So let's get started.
Watch the video below to learn the technique to catch speckled trout with paddle tails.
The best way to catch speckled sea trout at night is to target them by dock lights and bridge lights. Use a live shrimp or small white bait fished with very light leader of 8 pounds or less and a 3/0 circle hook. Cast your bait to the edge of the light where the trout will be hiding in the shadows.
The spotted sea trout a.k.a. speckled trout is one of the most sought after fish in Florida. They are very abundant anywhere near grass flats. They can also be found around docks, bridges, oyster bars and mangroves.
Despite their name the spotted sea trout is actually a member of the drum family. Their cousins are the red drum (redfish), the black drum and croakers.
Sea trout fishing at night can be some hot and heavy action if you can find a dock or a bridge whose lights have attracted all of the trout. It is all about finding the feeding fish around the lights.
The great thing about speckled trout is they will readily eat lures, live bait and dead bait. In other words, they are pretty easy to catch if they are around. They are not the best fighters in the world but the bigger ones like in the photo above do okay.
They are also great to eat. Fillet and release into the grease!
I am an INSHORE FISHING GUIDE on the Treasure Coast of Florida and have been fishing the flats, oyster bars and mangroves around the state for over 40 years. I have been stalking speckled trout from one end of the state to the other.
In this article, I will tell you everything that I know about spotted sea trout fishing at night. We will cover what the best baits and lures are as well as where to find the fish. So let's get started.
Watch the video below to learn the technique to catch speckled trout with paddle tails.
Sea trout fishing at night--Docks
Most of the night time fishing for spotted sea trout that I have done is around docks with lights. The key to finding the fish is the lights. The lights of a dock shining into the water attracts all kind of marine life. There will be marine worms, shrimp, fish and just about everything else around.
The small things eat the plankton; the bigger things eat those creatures and so on up the food chain until we come around and eat the fish that we find at the dock lights. There are 4 different fish that I like to target around dock lights at night. The spotted sea trout, the common snook, the redfish and the flounder.
All of these predatory fish can be caught around the dock lights at night. It is a good thing when you are fishing for sea trout and catch a redfish instead. Right? You have to choose the right dock to catch a good number of fish.
I wrote another article on this website that covers the best baits and lures for catching spotted seatrout. You can read that article by clicking right here.
There are some docks that just do not hold many fish for some reason. I look for longer docks and docks with larger boats. The longer docks usually have deeper spots to fish towards the end. A water depth change is a great underwater topography feature to fish. Predators like to tuck into an underwater ditch to lie and wait for an unsuspecting prey item to swim within striking distance.
Docks with larger boats usually have nice underwater ditches where the boats are. The larger boats have larger engines that dredge out underwater ditches when they come and go from the their mooring places. That's what you want.
My favorite way to fish the docks is with a fishing kayak. If I find a suitable dock I will anchor up current if I am using live bait. This allows a softer presentation because I can cast towards the light and let the current bring the bait the rest of the distance. This approach is less apt to spook whatever fish are around.
My favorite live bait is shrimp. Just about everything eats shrimp but trout love them. A free lined shrimp will not be ignored if their is a hungry trout at the dock light. A finger mullet is another favorite of mine. Hook them towards the tail so that they stay on top and let them swim just inside the circle of light and hold on.
A nose hooked pilchard or other white baits is a guaranteed winner in this scenario too.
Pin fish is another great choice but they will always swim straight down so a cork of some kind is necessary. Just cast towards the light and let the current pull the cork towards the light.
The video below is about the best soft plastic lures for spotted sea trout fishing.
I think that the best lures for dock light fishing are soft plastics with a jig head. I thing that a white Berkeley Gulp swimming mullet or shrimp are the best for fishing around lights at night. Another great choice is a white soft plastic shad with a paddle tail and a red jig head. I like the DOA C.A.L. lures the best. The difference when fishing with the lures is where you are casting from.
I recommend casting from down current and working your lure back towards you with the current. Most of the fish will be facing the current and a lure that comes at them from behind might spook the fish and give them a bad case of lock jaw.
Cast way past the lights so that you can work your lure from the darkness into the light. The trout, snook, tarpon, redfish and flounders will be hiding in the shadows waiting for some unwary prey item to show themselves in the lights. Work your jig as slowly as possible for best results.
WANT TO CATCH A TROPHY SPOTTED SEA TROUT? BOOK YOUR KAYAK FISHING CHARTER TODAY!
Sea trout fishing at night--Bridges
Bridge lights attract fish just like the dock lights do. The main difference is the water depth. You will probably be fishing in deeper water when fishing the bridge lights. This means more considerations have to be made about current and weights.
My favorite bait is still the live shrimp for this scenario. The only difference is that I will attach a small split shot about 12 inches above the bait and use a cork to keep the shrimp down lower in the water column if the trout are down deep.
It is the same for a finger mullet or a white bait too. Use the split shot technique if the trout are down deep. The pin fish won't need a split shot because they always swim straight down anyways.
I wrote another article on this website that covers how to catch a spotted seatrout in great detail. You can read that article by clicking right here.
I use the same lures for the bridges as the docks. Just move up a size with the jig heads. You might need a 1/4 ounce or a 1/2 ounce jig head if the fish are down pretty deep and there is more current. Everything else is the same.
The bottom line is find some lights that shine into the water and you will find fish to catch. You can go to inlets or lit sea walls or anywhere as long as the light hits the water their will be fish around.
Best temperature for speckled trout fishing at night:
Speckled trout are cold blooded just like a gator or a snake. This means that they can't regulate their own body temperatures. They have to find the right temperatures in the water column and let that cool or heat them to the optimal temperatures.
The problem for fishermen is finding that optimal speckled trout temperature in the water column. Boats and kayak usually have thermometers but they only tell you the temperature at the top of the water column. What if the optimal temperature is deeper? What is the water temperature 10 feet down?
The video below will teach you the optimal water temperatures for speckled trout fishing.
Conclusion:
Spotted seatrout are one of the most sought after inshore fish species. Inshore saltwater fishermen just can't seem to get enough of this fish. In recent years, there have been lots of moratoriums on keeping seatrout because their numbers are in decline.
The FWC (Florida Wildlife Commission) just made a rule that you can't keep as many fish as you used to be able to. Some parts of the state there is no keeping of fish. The numbers are way down because of loss of habitat. The seagrass in Florida has been decimated over the last few years.
Spotted seatrout are one of those fish that are totally dependent upon a healthy seagrass area to spawn, hunt and live. In some parts of Florida, the seagrass areas have shrunk by 80% or more. I had some seatrout honey holes where I would catch 30 or 40 seatrout in a couple of hours. Those same spots today you are lucky to catch 4 or 5 seatrout in two hours.
Nevertheless, seatrout are a great fish to catch and release. I am going to keep letting them all go until their numbers start to rise in the areas that I fish. Once they bounce back, then I will start to catch and release into the hot grease again.
I hope that this article helps you catch more spotted seatrout or at the very least have more fun trying.
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