Speckled sea trout are the species of the moment in Florida, with the Florida Insider Fishing Report telling viewers in early May that the statewide bite is the most consistent it has been in roughly a decade.
Captain Mike Anderson, who covers the Casa de Vela Northwest region out of Crystal River, was the first to put numbers on the run. He told viewers the grass flats from the south end of his region all the way north are holding plentiful schools in three to eight feet of water and called it the best he has seen in at least 10 years.
Anderson's number-of-fish approach is a pearl-coloured paddle tail fished low and slow along the top of the grass, where trout sit with their eyes pointed skywards. For a quality 25 to 30-inch fish he switches to a cut pinfish soaked along oyster bar edges or a live pinfish drifted under a popping cork.
Down the coast in Sarasota, Captain Jeff Paige attributed the broader run to a clean-water cycle stretching back almost eight years. He told the show his region had not had a bad red tide or sewage spill since 2018 and pointed to the Coastal Conservation Association's fingerling-release effort a few seasons back as a quiet but meaningful contributor.
"It all adds up to the trout fishing is really good," Paige said.
His May tactic file begins with surface presentations. When pilchards and scaled sardines are dimpling early on the flats, Paige assumes trout are stacked underneath and reaches for a Heddon Zara Spook Junior in chrome or bone on calmer days, sizing up when wind kicks the surface or distance is needed.
His most exportable trick is a popping-cork rig that estuary regulars in Australia could mirror almost line-for-line. Two to four feet of leader runs under the cork, terminating in a 1/16th or 1/8th-ounce jighead and a three-inch white Berkeley Gulp shrimp.
"What the 16th does, Rick, is after you've popped that cork a couple times, it allows that shrimp to spiral down instead of just zooming down if you had a quarter or a 3/8 head," Paige said. "It gives it a slower sink rate. Gives that trout a shot at eating that thing a little bit better."
Anchor co-host Captain Rick Murphy bracketed the trout segment with the kind of story that explains why Florida Insider has run for 22 seasons. He described drifting past a 33 to 34-inch speckled trout floating upside down with a 2.5-pound mullet jammed in its throat - the gases of decay had flipped it. Murphy lifted the fish into the boat bare-handed, freed the mullet and watched the trout swim away, a personal best he never had to cast for.
The Florida Insider broadcast also caught up on a kingfish run holding in 20 to 60 feet along the beaches, a building tarpon push around Egmont Key off Tampa Bay, and a red grouper bite running from 115 to 130 feet of water on Northwest region hard bottom - all detail that backs up the captains' read on conditions still pushing fish into shallow strike zones.
Paige and Murphy will host a Berkeley Tackle Talk at CB Outfitters in Siesta Key on June 11 with an after-party at the Daiquiri Deck.