# advice needed on catching Speckled Trout



## jackatl

I will be heading to Dauphin Island on Memorial Weekend. I will be fishing from the pier underneath the lights. What type of rigs should i use for the specks and white trout?

During the morning hours i will use a poping cork with live shrimp.

At night, what type of rig for live and what kind of artificial lure can produce bites. 

Your help will be greatly appreciated.


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## Fishmaster

On a pier I have done well with cut mollet strips or live mollet on two hook rig with a piramid sinker. If fishing over a rock pile I use my highly confusing (LOL) "whiffleball" rig I talk about in another post (....ALMOST snagproof ) to help prevent geting hung up. As far jigs and lurers I have done well with "Gulp" shrimp used with as light as waight as you can get away with, either a sliding "egg" sinker or "splitshot" when jiging onder docks. I have also caught Sea Trout on silver or gold spoons, several types of jigs and plugs that resemble live mollet. These are some of my favort, but it all depends on water conditions and what kind of bait is in the water.


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## emanuel

DOA shrimp or live finger mullet. Use a light leader.


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## seajay

For live bait hard to beat a Shrimp under a Float rig. Fish it just off the bottom. A jig head tipped with a Shrimp or Mud Minnow works great also. A jig tipped with a Gulp Shrimp or Shad works also. The Chartreuse and Smoke colors are a good start. A Lot of folks also have good success with a D.OA. Shrimp.


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## SnookMook

Shrimp or shrimp imitation under a cork is definitely one of the most productive for spotted (speckled) sea trout. Cut shrimp or shrimp off the bottom on a drop shot type rig works great for silver trout. 

Also the old fashioned Love Lures work great for both.


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## plotalot

jackatl said:


> I will be heading to Dauphin Island on Memorial Weekend. I will be fishing from the pier underneath the lights. What type of rigs should i use for the specks and white trout?
> 
> During the morning hours i will use a poping cork with live shrimp.
> 
> At night, what type of rig for live and what kind of artificial lure can produce bites.
> 
> Your help will be greatly appreciated.


Not the Dauphin Island Pier, it is high and dry.









There is another pier close by called Cedar Point Pier which has lights and can be productive at night for speckle and white trout. I have fished this pier and have been productive on it and noticed what other productive fishermen do. 

Get yourself some Fin-S Fish from lunkercity.com in the 2 1/2" size. Bigger isn't going to do better. Also get some 1/32 and 1/16 ounce unpainted jig heads. You will want to fish this with 4-6 lb test, ok maybe 8 but that is stretching it in my opinion. Colors can be important or not, I have had success on the champagne shad, ice shad, smoke pepper shad and the straight glow is super hot at times. The reason this bait works so well is that there are a lot of glass minnows around the pier and when the trout start eating them they want nothing else.

Now as far as productive areas. Look at the picture below see the area i have labeled A that is the go to spot for specks, but don't just go out there like a herd of cattle. The fish there are spooked very easily. There are plenty of shopping carts at the pier shack and in the parking lot that are used as pier carts. Do not roll one of those clankers out there especially if folks are already out there, unless you want to alienate yourself in a hurry. Walk softly and it may or may not be on. The section labeled B is great for white trout My son and I have caught over 150 in one night more than once. There is way too much noise and traffic to be consistent for specks but an occasional one can be caught there. Now C can be good at times too sometimes a speck can be caught there since it is a bit further from the racket than B is. I don't bother with the end since that is where all the cut bait fishermen are and they have bait and fish scraps all over the deck and railings, just plain nasty.








If any of this is confusing once you get out there just watch for a few black men who fish these Fin-S Fish and mimic them one in particular reminds me of a tall Redd Foxx, he catches his share of fish and if he's not catching don't feel bad if you don't either.


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## jackatl

plotalot said:


> Not the Dauphin Island Pier, it is high and dry.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There is another pier close by called Cedar Point Pier which has lights and can be productive at night for speckle and white trout. I have fished this pier and have been productive on it and noticed what other productive fishermen do.
> 
> Get yourself some Fin-S Fish from lunkercity.com in the 2 1/2" size. Bigger isn't going to do better. Also get some 1/32 and 1/16 ounce unpainted jig heads. You will want to fish this with 4-6 lb test, ok maybe 8 but that is stretching it in my opinion. Colors can be important or not, I have had success on the champagne shad, ice shad, smoke pepper shad and the straight glow is super hot at times. The reason this bait works so well is that there are a lot of glass minnows around the pier and when the trout start eating them they want nothing else.
> 
> Now as far as productive areas. Look at the picture below see the area i have labeled A that is the go to spot for specks, but don't just go out there like a herd of cattle. The fish there are spooked very easily. There are plenty of shopping carts at the pier shack and in the parking lot that are used as pier carts. Do not roll one of those clankers out there especially if folks are already out there, unless you want to alienate yourself in a hurry. Walk softly and it may or may not be on. The section labeled B is great for white trout My son and I have caught over 150 in one night more than once. There is way too much noise and traffic to be consistent for specks but an occasional one can be caught there. Now C can be good at times too sometimes a speck can be caught there since it is a bit further from the racket than B is. I don't bother with the end since that is where all the cut bait fishermen are and they have bait and fish scraps all over the deck and railings, just plain nasty.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If any of this is confusing once you get out there just watch for a few black men who fish these Fin-S Fish and mimic them one in particular reminds me of a tall Redd Foxx, he catches his share of fish and if he's not catching don't feel bad if you don't either.



thanks for the tips. Cedar Point pier is the place. I visited the other pier a year ago and did notice the lack of water. lol... so i fished cedar and had a blast. I have fished the spots you have marked and do agree those are the best spots. didn't know the heavy traffic of people spook the trout. Last time i was there, a guy had caught a huge black drum next to the B marker. 
i will check out the 2.5" fin s fish and my understanding is your pretty much floating it? I did see people using those small plastic lures the last time and did notice they could not cast into the dark areas which i believe the trout were hanging around. I will give it a try with my very light action rod/reel. Thanks again!


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## plotalot

Not floating them. The small 2 1/2" bait sinks fine with either a 1/32 or 1/16 ounce jig head. I have thought about trying them with just a hook and no weight since many strikes are right near the surface.

If you get into the white trout be sure to ice them down immediately. If not they will get mushy quickly this time of year. Good luck, be sure to post a report with pictures.


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## jackatl

Had a great time at Dauphin Island. Fished at Cedar Point and upon entering, they inspected my cooler full of beer and would not allow it on the pier. I took the cooler to my SUV and filled my back pack with 30 beers...lol brought back empty cooler and filled it up once i passed the old man by the sea. lol Caught about 75 white trout, 100 croakers, and 0 speckled Trout. Night time had the most bites....Day time very very slow. I saw a black guy using the fin s fish, and got good advice from him. Once, i saw a speck follow his lure but didn't take the bait... he grabed his cork rig and used a live shrimp and was able to catch her. about 2 lbs trout. He said to use more than one bait to lure the speck because they can be picky. Use a treble hook too.... lol
overall, the weather couldn't be better. Was stormy on friday nite but sunny the rest of the weekend. Took my yellow lab swimming behind our cabin which faces the bay. Caught fish back there as well... Overall awesome trip. Very good rates and very affordable quiet tourist area. Going back in a few weeks for a quick weekend getaway. Will probably crash on pier the first nite.....Fish on!


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## plotalot

I forgot to give you the heads up on bringing your own beer onto the pier. I always used to keep almost all of my beer on the bottom of my cooler beneath 30-40 lbs of ice and throw a few on top along with my son's Mt. Dews, once they catch the decoy brews and bring them back to the truck they never bother to check the depths of the cooler. Now I use a different technique to smuggle my brews on board, hide them in the bottom as usual but go inside the shack and buy one or two and throw them in as the cooler is being checked.

Enough about beer smuggling. Glad to read you caught plenty and the weather held up nicely, I live about 90 miles NE of there and we had crappy weather all weekend. If I would have know it was nice down on the coast I may have gone fishing.


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## montylfl

you need to try these for your beers. Great for the piers and the beach. fool all the cops.

http://www.amazon.com/Hide-Your-Bee...r_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1244084081&sr=8-1


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## plotalot

It isn't that beer isn't allowed on the pier. They sell it in the shack. There in lies the problem, there is some sort of law (associated with the piers beer license) that states that only beer that is sold on the premises may be consumed there. Since the law helps with the piers beer sales, they enforce it. Once you get past the initial inspection when you first come on to the pier the only person looking into your coolers would be the game warden and he doesn't care about beer.


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