You’ll catch more big trout by fishing for big trout.
By Mike Holliday
Once trout reach this size, it's time to tempt them with baitfish or baitfish-style lures.
“Nice snook,” said Jay Jones, as the fish ripped drag while motoring across the flat.
“I don’t know Jay, it’s acting more like a trout,” I said.“No way. There’s not a trout that big on this planet,” he replied. “Trout don’t fight this hard.”
Jay and his fishing partner, Jimmy Fisackerly, had traded hookups on small snook for the last hour, so it was understandable that he was certain he’d finally hooked a slot-sized snook. But the way the fish ran onto the flat and then stopped and shook its head had me thinking we’d finally found one of the big trout we were after.
Jay lives in Texas, and Jimmy in Louisiana, so they’ve seen their share of big trout, but they also knew that springtime on the Indian River in Florida is when the seatrout records make the books.
When Jay got a look at the fish he almost fell out of the boat. I’ve seen fly fishermen literally quake at approaching tarpon, but had never seen someone’s legs go to rubber after he’d hooked a fish.
“Oh my God! Get the net!” he shouted.
“Net?” I replied. “What net?”
“Please don’t tell me you don’t have a net,” said Jay. “That’s the biggest trout I’ve ever seen.”
There are a lot of arguments as to what size fish constitutes a true “gator” trout, with the size range anywhere from five to nine pounds. In my book, if it takes two hands to get a firm grasp around the fish’s body, then it’s a gator, and that’s exactly what it took to grab Jay’s fish.
The Unfair Advantage
Not all fish see the same things. There’s a tremendous difference in vision between humans and fish. We share many similar eye structures, but fish eyes tend to focus by moving the lens back and forth as opposed to “stretching” it, as in the case of humans. Fish also tend to have a larger eye surface and peripheral exposure, so they have fewer blind spots, giving them a distinct advantage over predators approaching from many angles.
Spotted seatrout have extremely large retinas that allow the fish to absorb a large portion of the reflected light. As a result, fish see better in glare, somewhat like polarized sunglasses. They also possess an even greater advantage called the tapetum lucidum, a reflecting appendage behind the retina that reflects light back through the retina a second time, effectively amplifying the light and giving the fish a better view in low light or high glare conditions.
The tapetum lucidum is common in species like cats and deer, and is responsible for the yellow or orange eye sheen seen when these animals are exposed to lights at night. This extra reflective surface allows seatrout to stalk prey in no light or low light, which is why the species is more aggressive at dawn, dusk and after dark.
—M.H.
Jay’s rubber-legged reaction was certainly a first for me, as was watching a grown man dance around my entire flats skiff once that fish was in the boat. It was obvious Jay had achieved a goal he’d been after for some time.
“She’ll go 10 pounds, won’t she?” he inquired.
“More like 11,” I said. “She’s one of the largest fish I’ve seen this year. You won’t see many like this.”
I had no idea that we’d see two more over 10 pounds and three over nine pounds later that morning during what has to be one of the best days of trophy trout fishing I’ve ever experienced. In all, we boated and released nine fish over six pounds before noon, and even more amazing was that we caught at least one trophy seatrout in every spot we fished. The key to the trip was simply fishing baits the smaller trout would refuse.
Unlike their younger brethren, adult seatrout exhibit specific feeding, mating and comfort behaviors. Knowing those traits and using them to our advantage, we were able to find big fish in a variety of different locations. These behaviors aren’t necessarily regional, and the times of year they occur may be different throughout the coastal United States.
The diets of juvenile seatrout are 80 percent comprised by crustaceans, and 20 percent by finfish. When the fish reach maturity that equation flip-flops. But there’s more to this feeding pattern than random forage. For the most part, mature seatrout feed on shrimp because they are especially available, when they are “running” or moving in great numbers in any given location. After all, most predators focus on a prominent, reliable food source. That’s the time to target big trout with live shrimp or soft-plastic shrimp imitations. In Florida, that means late winter and early spring when the tides are their strongest around the new and full moons. Any time shrimp are running, you can bet the older, more experienced seatrout have an appetite for the easy meals.
In Texas and Louisiana, the big shrimp runs take place in the fall, when the water comes out of the marshes, and the shrimp that were juveniles in early summer are starting to reach maturity. The same goes for the coastal mid-Atlantic states such as Georgia and the Carolinas.
