Well, March is right around the corner, where does the time go? The word for this blog post is Amelia Island Speckled Trout fishing. These fish have been stacked up with the cooler water temperatures. The fishing has been on fire these past few weeks. These fish will be around for quite a while.
Structure has been the key to getting on these tasty fish. We have been floating corks over all kinds of bottom, such as oyster beds, rocks, old docks, and pilings.
Choosing The Right Bait and Rig
The best bait has been a live shrimp or mud minnow fished anywhere from 2 feet to 8 feet deep. It all depends on how deep the structure is because you want your bait about a foot off the bottom of the structure.
The main rig is 10-pound Fins braided line, it has a bobber stop to control the depth, a small bead then the slip cork, with another bead with the main line tied to a 3/8-ounce weight. The leader is about 2 feet and at the end a 1/0 circle sea hook.
When you see the cork go underneath you can just flip the bail closed. You do not need to set the hook hard, just lift the rod up easy. Keep tension on the line and reel slow and steady.
It’s always best to let the captain get the net under the fish before you lift up too high. What happens if you hook the fish in the soft part of the mouth is they can just pop off.
The limit on speckled trout now is each person can keep 5 fish between 15 inches and 19 inches. One of these may be over 19 inches per vessel.
Great Time to Fish Amelia Island
These fish make very good table fare. One of the local Amelia Island restaurants, the Salty Pelican, do a great job cooking these fish. They will fry, grill or blacken them.
This time of year, we are also catching a few flounder, redfish, and black drum. We have been using the same rig for the most part for these other species.
Have also fished on the bottom with dead shrimp and live shrimp too.
The weather can be a little cool this time of year but the fishing is well worth coming out for a day.