Discover Techniques To Catching Spotted Seatrout

These tasty fish can be found in the Gulf of Mexico up the eastern coastline to Virginia.The average size is 1 to 2 pounds with some attaining 5 lbs. 17  lbs 7 oz is the world record. Seatrout are part of the drum family of fish. They are known as salmon trout, seatrout, black trout, winter trout, gator trout, and spotted weakfish to name a few. They have black spots on their tail, back, and dorsal fins. They have a white belly with silver, yellow body.

What is the time of year to fish?

You can find them in water temperature in the low 60's to low 80's. In the winter they migrate to deeper water.

What do they eat?

They eat shrimp, preferable live shrimp and other crustaceans. The bigger seatrout eat small fish such as mullet., pigfish, and pinfish.

Where To find them?

Near shore in grassy areas and sandy bottoms. They can be located near a pier or inshore where there is grass.

How to Catch Them? . Try fishing early mornings and late evenings. You can also catch them on overcast days. They spook easily. If the fish sees you he will move. Sometimes they can be hard to catch.

One technique is throw a lighted float at night in the water and fish around the float with live shrimp.

People do catch them from the pier. Throw a float out with 2 to 3 ft of line on it with live shrimp early in the morning and make a popping noise with the float. This is a fast whipping action of the rod from 2 o'clock position to 11 o'clock position. That noise attracts seatrout thinking another one is eating.

For lures use floating castana and the boone spinana . Twitch the bait  erratically and wait. Red and white seem to be the best color. You can also use Mirr-o-Lure's Top Dog and walk it across the water. Try silver or gold spoons, or bucktails.For soft plastics try the curly tails with 1/4 oz jig head.

For Equipment use a 6 to 8 ft fast  action spinning rod with 10-20 lb fishing line. The hooks can be 1 to 5 in size.

One word of caution, in most states there is a size limit to them and how many you can catch.. Check with State Game & Wildlife people. Or you can ask your local bait and tackle shop for the size and creel limits of seatrout. So wet your line and Happy Fishing!!!!