The Tampa Bay Times

Silver TroutAfter a long absence, silver trout returned.   Typically a wintertime species, they can be found year-round in the right spots.    They are easy to catch, fun action on light tackle and no limits, provide some fish to take home.      My silver trout spots are deeper:   Nine to twelve feet deep with sand bottom.    You use whatever you want but I use a pompano jig with a fly teaser.    The bonus to that:  You might catch a pompano while jigging the silver trout.   A rule of thumb:   Use something flashy to catch them.    You will also get ladyfish, grunts, pinfish and occasionally a seabass.    Not unusual to have a blacktip shark eat a silver trout that is on your line.   This is great action for kids.   Easy, all you have to do is be where they are.  They don’t care about the tides.   If you are into them, they will eat your lure.    I smoke silver trout.  Two hours with decent heat and I add wood chips a couple of times.   Preparation:   I chop off their heads and gut them.    After being smoked, you peel the skin off and get the meat off the bones.   This requires some effort because there are rows of small bones on the top and bottom of the fish.    If silver trout are big enough you can fillet them out and cook them another way.   Mostly, I’m smoking them whole.    No regulations, you can keep them any size and keep a lot of them.   An underutilized species, it doesn’t hurt anything to harvest this species.    

Neil Taylor

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Neil Taylor
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