April and May are outstanding months to target trophy seatrout—fish from 8 to 12 pounds in the East Region. It’s the time of year when we see a lot of extreme low tides around the new and full moons and those low tides really concentrate the fish on the flats making them easier
to find and catch. When all the water goes off a flat, all the bait, the shrimp, mullet, pinfish and pilchards all have to go into the deeper potholes, and the big trout are there waiting for them.
Like a lot of predatory gamefish, spotted seatrout have an appendage in their eyes that lets them see better in low light conditions, much like a deer, cat or dog. The baitfish don’t have that appendage in their eyes, so the trout tend to learn that they are more effective at catching their food in low light conditions, which is why the best bite is often at dawn and dusk.
Eighty percent of a mature trout’s diet is finfish, primarily mullet, pinfish and pilchards in the spring. Knowing that, those are the prime baits to fish with for big trout. They’ll also eat juvenile seatrout, but you can’t use them for bait, but lures with a lot of spots (seatrout pattern) work pretty well in the spring.
Big trout like a big meal, so don’t be afraid to use a palm-sized pinfish or 8 to 10 inch mullet. Pinfish should be fished under a cork, to prevent the bait from diving down and hiding in the grass. When using a pinfish, you’ll know when a big trout is around because the bait will come to the surface and make circles around the cork with its back out the water just before it gets eaten. Also, with pinfish, and only with pinfish, when you set the hook the trout will jump, so be prepared to bow to the fish and put slack in the line so it can’t pull the hook.
Live mullet can be hooked in the back in front of the dorsal fin, or in the rear underneath the bait and just behind the anal fin. Trout swallow baitfish head first, so you want the hook to be in a positive placement when you come tight and set it. Pilchards, I generally freeline and hook through the nose.
I’ll use anywhere from 10 to 20 pound test braided line when live baiting trout, and 30 inches of 40 pound fluorocarbon leader because you usually get snook as well. A seven foot, fast action rod will give you maximum casting distance while still providing a lot of lifting power, and I use VMC circle hooks, in anywhere from a 3/0 to 5/0 size depending on the size of the bait.
If you like to throw lures, topwater plugs like a Skitterwalk, Sashimi Pencil or Zara Spook will get a lot of bites at first light, while the larger soft plastic baits like a Bass Assassin 5 inch shad or Texas Shad in Drunk Monkey, Houdini, Chicken-On-A-Chain or Stinky Pink really work well. I don’t catch a lot of big trout on soft plastic grubs or baits less than 4 inches long, so I only throw the larger ones when targeting seatrout.