Speckled Trout Fishing with Lures Tips and Techniques
The best fishing lures for speckled trout are those that mimic a bait fish or a shrimp. In my opinion, the best speckled trout fishing lures are:
A lot of fishermen will disagree with my best lures choices but all you need is those specific lures or something very similar to become a speckled trout fishing machine. Those are the right types of speckled trout fishing lures to cover the entire water column.
Speckled trout are one of those fish that can be found throughout the water column. They might be all about top water lures in the morning and later in the day they might be in the bottom part of the water column. This means that you will need lures that can cover the entire water column if you want to keep catching them.
* I am not sponsored by any of the lure companies or lure brands that I mention in this article. I mention them because they are the ones that I like and use the most.
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the grass flats and oyster bars all over Florida for more than 40 years.
In the article below, I will teach you all that I know about the best tips and techniques for speckled trout fishing with lures. Let's get started.
Watch the video below for the best speckled trout fishing lures.
The best fishing lures for speckled trout are those that mimic a bait fish or a shrimp. In my opinion, the best speckled trout fishing lures are:
- Berkeley Gulp Shrimp/Swimming Mullet
- DOA CAL 3" Shad
- Zoom 4" Jerk Baits
- DOA Shrimp
- Gold Spoons
- Zara Spook/Mirrolure Top Dog
A lot of fishermen will disagree with my best lures choices but all you need is those specific lures or something very similar to become a speckled trout fishing machine. Those are the right types of speckled trout fishing lures to cover the entire water column.
Speckled trout are one of those fish that can be found throughout the water column. They might be all about top water lures in the morning and later in the day they might be in the bottom part of the water column. This means that you will need lures that can cover the entire water column if you want to keep catching them.
* I am not sponsored by any of the lure companies or lure brands that I mention in this article. I mention them because they are the ones that I like and use the most.
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the grass flats and oyster bars all over Florida for more than 40 years.
In the article below, I will teach you all that I know about the best tips and techniques for speckled trout fishing with lures. Let's get started.
Watch the video below for the best speckled trout fishing lures.
Speckled Trout Fishing with Lures on the Grass Flats
Speckled trout are creatures of the grass flats. If you want to catch some trout, then you will have to have some grass flats in the vicinity to catch a ton of them.
Where I live on the Treasure Coast of Florida the grass flats have taken a beating over the last few years. I have heard a lot of "experts" come up with lots of different reasons why the sea grass is disappearing. Some say it is too much fresh water; some say it is pollution from Lake Okeechobee; some say it is from septic tanks.
The bottom line is that if the grass goes away, then the speckled trout will go away too.
I love to catch speckled trout. They are on my FAB FIVE list that includes speckled trout, redfish, snook, tarpon and flounder. So I will be very sad if the grass flats all go away.
Grass flats are the number one place to catch speckled trout a.k.a. spotted sea trout a.k.a. specks. Many will spend their entire lives in grass flats. This means that you need to go there too if you want to catch a bunch of them.
My favorite way to fish a grass flat for trout is to drift it and fan cast with a jig.
Berkeley Gulp 3" Shrimp: The Gulp Shrimp and the Gulp Swimming Mullet are the best lures to jig with on the grass flats for trout. You will find that the majority of the trout will be in a certain water depth when you start catching a bunch of them.
Sometimes that depth might be 3 feet or maybe 6 feet. Once you figure out that depth that is holding most of the fish either anchor up or make sure to drift in that particular depth. Keep doing that until they move to a different water depth.
I have noticed over the years that trout like to hit your lure on the way down. So don't be to quick with your jigging and rod twitching. Give it a twitch, twitch, pause, reel, reel, twitch, twitch...…. type of retrieve. Often the pause is what will stimulate them to hit your jig.
My favorite Gulp colors are white, natural and root beer. I usually fish with white but if the bite is slow, then I will keep switching to see if they want another color that day.
You can put this lure under a popping cork and fish the grass flats that way too.
DOA CAL 3" Shad with a Paddle Tail: This is a lure that is almost always tied on one of my fishing rods. This is another one of those lures that will catch all of my FAB FIVE species. You will have to switch up your technique to catch a flounder versus a trout but the same lure will catch just about everything that swims.
I will fish this lure exactly the same way that I fish the Gulps. You will want to do the same twitch, twitch, pause technique with this one. BUT on days when I have jigged my arm off I often just cast them and reel them back at different speeds.
Just reeling this lure and varying the speeds will also catch speckled trout effectively. The paddle tail sends out those delicious sounding/feeling low frequency vibrations that drive trout crazy.
You can also fish this lure underneath a popping cork and catch a ton of trout.
DOA Shrimp: The DOA Shrimp is another go to fishing lure for trout fishermen. Trout love to eat shrimp and any shrimp imitation will catch a whole bunch of trout. It is really as simple as that.
The DOA Shrimp is a best of breed shrimp lure but they are kind of expensive. Every fake shrimp lure that I have used has worked just fine but I think that the DOA Shrimp gives you the most natural presentation under the water.
The DOA shrimp will glide at an angle through the water at a gradual decent versus an almost vertical one that many fake shrimp lures have.
I almost exclusively with fake shrimp under popping corks when fishing for trout on the flats. It is such an easy technique that can be mastered by even the first time fisherman.
The technique is cast as far as you can; Twitch, twitch, pause, reel, reel, then repeat the process. It is a no brainer technique that will yield lots of specks if they are around.
My favorite colors are natural ones. Find the most realistic shrimp color and you are all set.
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Zara Spook/Top Dog: When the water is shallow or first thing in the morning or last thing in the day the top water trout bite can be amazing. I like to use a walk-the-dog type of top water lure when fishing for trout.
Just remember that big trout like big lures. If you are looking for your personal best with a top water lure, then go with the big one. If you just want to catch a lot of trout, then go with a smaller one.
Those are the two brands that I like to use because they have all different shapes and sizes to choose from. My favorite colors are bone or white and something natural looking.
Watch the video below and catch more speckled trout with DOA CALs.
Speckled Trout Fishing with Lures around Oyster Bars
Oyster bars are another great place to find speckled trout. They will run up the tidal creeks to hit the shallow oyster bars or hunt around the ones directly adjacent to the grass flats.
This is one of my favorite places to hunt for trout in skinny water. I like to find scenarios where the water is 5 feet or less and the tidal creek is no wider than 50 or 60 feet. I like this scenario because I am lazy.
I want to find a choke point where I know that the speckled trout will have to come by me to feed on the shrimp, crabs and small fish in the creek. A oyster bar on both sides of the creek is the best set up for this.
The specks will roll into the creek with the incoming tide from their nearby grass flats. Then they will come rolling out with the outgoing tide right past my ambush point.
They will be in schools so as they roll through the bite will be hot and heavy for 30 or 40 minutes and then nothing. You can wait for another school of fish or try and follow them up and down the creek.
Berkeley Gulp 3" Shrimp: It is hard to beat a Gulp shrimp in this scenario. I will couple that with a 1/8 ounce jig head most of the time. If the current is strong, then I might go up to a 1/4 ounce jig head.
You can cast it up current and figure out where the trout are in the water column. They will probably be in the to 3 feet in this scenario but I have caught plenty of them right on the bottom too.
You will want to use the same technique that you used on the grass flats. ie. twitch, twitch, pause, reel, repeat..... This will get you the most strikes as the school of specks will want to be the first to the bait.
You may want to couple the Gulp with a popping cork in this scenario too. That usually works just as well anyways. Cast it up current and work it back to you then repeat until the school moves past your spot.
DOA CAL 3" Shad: The DOA CAL is my second pick in this scenario. It has one major disadvantage in that it doesn't have all of the odor molecules that the Gulp has. BUT it has a major advantage of the active paddle tail.
You can just cast this lure up current and swim it back to you and catch plenty of trout. I would suggest twitching it but you can catch plenty of fish by simply swimming it back in an erratic way.
You can put this lure under a popping cork too.
Gold Spoon: This is a scenario where the gold spoon shines, literally and figuratively speaking. Trout like to eat small shiny fish and the gold spoon perfectly mimics that food source.
You can fish it just like a jig. You can swim it or bounce it on the bottom depending on where the fish are in the water column.
You will often get a hit by just casting your spoon up current and letting it flutter to the bottom. It looks just like a wounded or dying fish and the trout will crush it as it descends.
The great news about fishing with a gold spoon in this environment is that the redfish and flounder like it too. It's a good day when you cast to a speckled trout and catch a redfish instead, right?
Watch the video below and catch more speckled trout around oyster bars.
Speckled Trout Fishing with Lures around Docks
Docks are a great place to catch speckled trout. In my area of the Treasure Coast of Florida the dock fishing for trout has gotten better. My theory is that they have less grass to hunt in so they come to the docks to hunt more often than they used to.
Whatever the reason; docks are a great place to catch speckled trout. Docks pilings will become a mini ecosystem within the greater area. They will grow sponges and marine plants on them. Oysters and barnacles will attach to them. Crabs, shrimp and small fish will live around them.
The predators know this and will come to the docks to eat all of those yummy dock piling creatures. Speckled trout are one of those predators. If you see that there are lots of finger mullet in the vicinity, then it is a good bet that the predators are feeding on them.
You will want a lure to mimic a finger mullet for best results, in this scenario.
Jerk Baits: Jerk baits are great trout catching lures. I like the 4" Zoom Super Flukes and the 5.5" DOA jerk baits for this scenario. You will want to try and match the size to the bait as best that you can. Yes, jerk baits are often considered bass baits but they work really well for speckled trout too.
Bass fishermen will yawn when I explain how to use a jerk bait but stay with me here. The jerk bait is the perfect wounded and dying fish mimic lure. They are almost always rigged weed less which also gives them an advantage over other lures when fishing near structure.
The fishing technique is very simple to master. Cast your jerk bait to the dock and let it sink in the water column to where you think the fish are holding; Then give it two quick jerks. Twitch, twitch, pause for a 5 count reel in the slack and repeat. That is all that there is to it.
This will drive the snook, tarpon, redfish and of course any speckled trout in the area nuts. They will try to get to that dying finger mullet as quickly as they can. They will hold onto a soft plastic lure longer than they will a hard plastic lure. This is another advantage of jerk baits over other lure types.
My favorite colors are something natural looking, something dark and something white or glow.
DOA CAL 3" Shad: The DOA CAL is another great choice for fishing the docks for speckled trout. This is especially true when they are feeding on white baits. White baits are any small fish that is shiny with a dark back. Menhaden, sardines, herring are some of the species that are lumped into the term "white baits".
The best way to fish the docks for speckled trout using the DOA CAL is either a steady retrieve or the twitch, twitch, reel, repeat retrieve. Both work very well around the dock pilings.
If you work the lure closer to the bottom, then you will also catch flounder, reds and snook too.
DOA 3" Shrimp: This is a good spot to use the old fake shrimp lure too. You will want to fish this lure very slowly to mimic a shrimp in its natural habitat. Shrimp are not fast swimmers like mullet and white bait so you need to slow down your presentation to get the hits.
Just like with all of your lures you will want to cast up current and slowly work the shrimp back to you in the upper and middle parts of the water column. Once you figure out where you are getting all of the hits you just need to focus your efforts there.
Use natural looking shrimp lures for best effects. I like the ones with gold and copper colored glitter in them.
Watch the video below and catch more speckled trout around docks.
Speckled Trout Fishing with Lures near Mangroves
The mangroves are another great place to find speckled trout during the higher parts of the tide. During the higher parts of the tide predators will cruise the roots of the Red Mangrove Trees. Those mangrove roots are chock full of delicious shrimp, crabs and small fish for predators to eat.
All of my FAB FIVE can be caught near the mangrove roots during high tide. You can catch snook, redfish, tarpon, flounder and of course speckled trout around the mangroves at high tide.
The mangrove roots are very hard to fish because they are covered in oysters and your line can get tangled very easily. The best lures are those that you can rig weed less. You will still lose some lures but you will lose a lot less.
Berkeley Gulp 3" Shrimp: The Gulp shrimp rigged weed less is a great choice for the mangrove roots. This lure stinks so much that it will attract all kinds of fish from down current to its location. You can even dead stick this lure and catch fish.
Dead sticking is a technique where you treat the artificial lure the same way that you would a dead bait. You simply cast the Gulp up into the roots and let it sit and stink until something comes along to eat it.
This works for snook, redfish, flounder and of course speckled trout. I do not suggest this technique because a moving stinky bait attracts more fish. BUT if you are feeling very lazy, then go for it.
I like to pitch this lure into or as close to the roots as I can get it and slowly bounce it back to me. If you can get a cast that is parallel to the mangrove tree line, then do that for the best results.
Jerk Baits: Jerk baits are another great choice for the mangrove roots. The jerk baits can be fished on top like a top water lure or anywhere lower in the water column depending on the tide levels. This makes it a great bait for catching specks in the mangroves.
When the finger mullet are in the vicinity, then you can bet that they will be close to the mangroves for safety. AND the predators will either try and pin them up against the roots or be in the roots waiting to ambush them.
Either way the jerk bait is a great lure to get their attention with. I water that is 3 feet or less I like to do the twitch, twitch and let the lure sink to the bottom then repeat. That drives the fish crazy if they are near.
Zara Spooks/MirroLure Top Dog: When the tide is high at first light and last light a top water lure is a very fun choice. I almost always like to start my fishing day and end my fishing day with top water lures.
Zara Spooks and Top Dogs are my go to lures for speckled trout.
To me there is nothing like a top water strike to get the juices flowing. If you luck out and have a high tide at first light, then use your favorite top water lure to catch some big speckled trout.
A cast parallel to the mangrove roots will usually tempt some predator to crush your lure. It might be a speckled trout, or a tarpon, or a snook, or a redfish...… My point is that a top water lure is a great choice in the beginning and end of a day. This is especially true if you are fishing the mangroves.
Conclusion:
Speckled trout are one of the most sought after fish for a reason. Inshore fishermen love to target them because they are fun to catch and great to eat. I like to catch them because you can usually catch a bunch of them if you can find the schools.
They will readily eat all kinds of lures too. That is another reason that they are so popular. They are all over the South. You can catch them from the Carolinas down to Florida and around to Texas.
If you ever want to catch some on the Treasure Coast of Florida, then book a kayak fishing charter with me. We can almost always find some to catch during all times of the year.
I hope that you enjoyed this article. I also hope that it helps you catch a lot more fish or have more fun trying.
Do you like how to fishing articles like this one? If you answered yes, then get on our email list because we will send you a new article every week. Sign up now and get your first one today.
Speckled trout are one of the most sought after fish for a reason. Inshore fishermen love to target them because they are fun to catch and great to eat. I like to catch them because you can usually catch a bunch of them if you can find the schools.
They will readily eat all kinds of lures too. That is another reason that they are so popular. They are all over the South. You can catch them from the Carolinas down to Florida and around to Texas.
If you ever want to catch some on the Treasure Coast of Florida, then book a kayak fishing charter with me. We can almost always find some to catch during all times of the year.
I hope that you enjoyed this article. I also hope that it helps you catch a lot more fish or have more fun trying.
Do you like how to fishing articles like this one? If you answered yes, then get on our email list because we will send you a new article every week. Sign up now and get your first one today.