Speckled Trout Advice Needed

[tarponguy]

I live on Kent Island and have been doing pretty well catching Stripers on paddletails and have been told there are specs in the area where I've been fishing so just wondering if someone might be willing to share their advice and tactics for catching specs. Have not caught one this season. I only fish from a kayak and only throw artificials mostly white and chartruse paddletails and occasionally topwater. Not looking for locations - just general advice on tactics and baits that are working for others? Any and all advice is much appreciated !

[J.A. Veil]

A few specks are in the waters around Kent Island. But in my experience, they are not abundant enough to target them. So far this spring/summer, I caught 2 specks in Prospect Bay and 1 in the Chester River (at the two spots I showed you last year). The hit the same lures that I was trolling or casting for stripers (3" or 4" paddletails or Gulps on light jigheads). Essentially, they were low probability catches while I was striper fishing. The photo below was taken on July 15 in the Chester. During that trip, I caught 29 stripers and one surprise 18" speck at the end.

2021-04-11-001.jpg

Now that Maryland's striper season is open again, you can continue fishing for them and may luck into a speck. To increase your odds of catching a speck, travel much farther south (the lower MD and the VA portions of the eastern shore, or southern MD on the western shore. Specks like grass beds. Look for areas with good grass and maybe you can find some.

[ski357]

I favor pink/pink variant paddle tails for them. The last few weeks I've casting/trolling the edge of grass beds with little success compared to Big Mike. The thing that has kept me at it are the teeth marks and bitten off tails I keep retrieving. I keep seeing (what I tell myself and appears to me) that telltale two tooth marks. I've managed one small guy this season and a bud I fish with got one last weekend. As John said though, in years past I've had them hit everything a rockfish would. Best of luck, tight lines.

[Big Mike]

You will definitely increase your chances by fishing St Mary’s or the southern Eastern Shore despite John’s catch today. We’ve been having success with Z-Man Swimming Trout Tricks in Cajun Creole and Pearl Blue glimmer on 1/8 to 1/4 OZ jigheads. This year we’ve found more trout over hard bottom in 3-4’ of water than tight to the grass. The grass beds are very thick this year so they may be finding easier hunting in open water. You’ll also find they like a slower retrieve, in fact bouncing the jig on the bottom can illicit strikes when a straight retrieve is getting no or only short strikes.