Winter Speckled Trout Fishing

[Jman]

I was experiencing some cabin fever, so I spent a few hours on the water in the afternoon in search of some reds and speckled trout. I was poling around and saw a huge trout close to 30" just cruising around near the surface. This was easily the largest trout I've seen alive. I couldn't capture it well with the GoPro and my phone was out of reach unfortunately. I tried throwing a weightless paddle tail and a Mirrorlure, twitching them as slowly as possible, but I couldn't produce a bite. I explored some of the back creek water hoping it would warm up enough there for some activity. I saw a few large reds and some really large mullet hanging close to the bottom, but they were spooked easily. I tried at another large speck I saw, but it wasn't interested. Later, I hooked into a trout that ended up being about 20". It had sores on one side of its' body and I released it after a couple of photos. Nice day to be out!
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[Big Mike]

I can’t tell you how happy I am to see this report. With the cold snap I feared a huge collapse in the fishery for trout and reds and you’ve given me a spark of hope. Well done.

[ronaultmtd]

Specks rebound fairly quickly- redfish-not as fast so like Big Mike says this gives us Southern Maryland guys a spark of hope that our beloved Redfish/Speck fishery hasn’t been decimated by the abnormally cold winter...and the flounder come back continues...

[yakscientist]

I was experiencing some cabin fever, so I spent a few hours on the water in the afternoon in search of some reds and speckled trout. I was poling around and saw a huge trout close to 30" just cruising around near the surface. This was easily the largest trout I've seen alive. I couldn't capture it well with the GoPro and my phone was out of reach unfortunately. I tried throwing a weightless paddle tail and a Mirrorlure, twitching them as slowly as possible, but I couldn't produce a bite. I explored some of the back creek water hoping it would warm up enough there for some activity. I saw a few large reds and some really large mullet hanging close to the bottom, but they were spooked easily. I tried at another large speck I saw, but it wasn't interested. Later, I hooked into a trout that ended up being about 20". It had sores on one side of its' body and I released it after a couple of photos. Nice day to be out!
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Very good to see these fish caught in the colder months. I don't need to know the exact spot, but what river is this, or is this even southern MD or ESVA?

[Jman]

Very good to see these fish caught in the colder months. I don't need to know the exact spot, but what river is this, or is this even southern MD or ESVA?

This is at Rudee Inlet in South East VA. Most folks that know the area are familiar with the spots, because it's relatively small. I look at the plotted daily water temperatures on NOAA to look for warming trends and then I pole around the creeks because they're usually shallower and warmer. I have a video where you can see some tailing fish chasing around bait that I'll get to at some point.

[Seasalt]

Nice video and catch Jake!!!!

[ComeOnFish]

Thanks for the report.
Instead of fishing, I've been monitoring the water temp, doing maintenance work on kayaks and reels, and buying more lures and jig heads.

Thanks

Joe