Speckled trout (spotted seatrout) are among the most
beautiful saltwater fish found in the Chesapeake Bay and coastal
areas of Maryland and Virginia. The fish have a streamlined
body, silvery gray back and white belly. The upper parts of the
fish have an iridescent sheen and black spots. The dorsal and
tail fin are also spotted.
Speckled
trout are caught locally using a variety of methods including
fishing with live bait, cut bait and casting
artificial lures, even by trolling.
In some areas, speckled trout can be caught by anchoring and bottom fishing with cut peeler crab
or soft crab baits. Fish are sometimes caught in deep water
along a channel edge, but most bait fishing for specks occurs around grass beds in 2-4 feet of water. In addition to peeler and soft crab baits,
squid, bloodworms, cut spot, live spot and even chicken breast soaked in peeler crab oil
are sometimes used.
Shallow water fishing for speckled trout is also done using
artificial lures. Anglers cast small jigs, soft plastics and
other lures around the edges of grass beds, stumps, points and
other likely areas. Fly fishermen also target these areas,
fishing a variety of flies that mimic bay local baits such as
bay anchovies, mullet, spot, shrimp or blue crabs.
Tides are sometimes important for catching speckled trout.
Many Chesapeake Bay anglers prefer fishing the last 2 hours of the incoming current and the first 2 hours of the outgoing. If this coincides with dusk, the fishing is more likely to be
good.
Shallow water fishing for speckled trout is done in a number
of areas throughout the bay. In the mid bay, areas such as the
lower Honga and Nanticoke rivers are known for being productive.
This region also include several small islands where
speckled trout are found such as Holland, South Marsh,
Smith, Tangier, Watts, Fox Islands and others.
Shallow water fishing can be very exciting as speckled trout,
gray trout, croaker,
striped bass, bluefish, black drum, red drum and other species
share the same areas. This fishing is often best from sunset to midnight.
Anglers also fish by casting bucktails to structure such as rockpiles, jetties and shipwrecks found in
the bay. Popular lures include a plain white bucktail with a plastic worm and a piece of peeler crab. Other
popular jigs for casting to structure include soft plastic lures
in a variety of shapes and colors.
Speckled trout are sometimes caught while trolling with wire line.
Often, catches are accidental but some anglers target gray and
speckled trout with wire line.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and other structures provide
areas where trolling bucktails or other lures is done for
trout. This technique can be very productive, especially if targeting large trout.
