The Tampa Bay Times
Trout action has improved with the slight cooling of the water. The size of the trout continues to get better as time goes on. Give it one or two serious cold fronts and it should get really good.
I throw nothing but artificial lures for trout. The five or six inch plastic jerkbait tail is a great choice. To tempt the biggest trout, topwater lures are a great bet. I only use one topwater lure. I like the green and white combination, mimicking the color of our baitfish we have here. Recently I have had success with a copper colored one and an off-white one. Noisy, splashy topwater lures will get the largest trout active. There are times (and situations) where that jerkbait is going to be a better choice. Topwater lures should be used in locations that are about two feet deep. I do not like using them too shallow and I believe that it is a mistake to use them in water that’s more than three feet deep.
Trout are predominantly “grass” species. If you are not fishing where there is seagrass bottom, you are probably not going to find many trout. Use very light tackle and very light leader. With trout, you can drop down to twelve pound leader. I’ll use 20 pound leader when it’s topwater lures (less chance of losing the lure). Light everything translates to long casts. Long casts translates to more fish seeing your lure. More fish seeing your lure means more strikes. More strikes means more fish are going to be caught.
Trout will be closed for at least another seven months. To keep a trout, you need to go an hour and a half north. This closure will hopefully strengthen our fishery.
- The Neil Blog… - July 26, 2023
- The Catfish - July 26, 2023
- update - July 22, 2023
