Speck mania is sweeping the waters in Pensacola along the ICW and in our back bays.
This has to be by far the best Speckled trout fishing I've seen in the past 5 years. On my past 8 trips, I've boated 4 – 5 fish in the 3lb range and a couple in the 4 – 5 lb range every time. It's been unreal! Popping Corks with a Blurp 4" shrimp in Electric Chicken shrimp has been working great to entice these spotted beauties. I just started using this bait recently, and it's working like a charm. Another good bait I've recently discovered is Bass Assassin's 5" Jerk Shad in Golden Bream and Electric Chicken. I know I mention Electric Chicken a bunch in my reports, but this color is one of my go-to colors. It rarely fails me. It's like Trout and Red fish can't resist it.
The trout bite should stay strong all summer. We had a lot of rain in the early spring and it pushed a lot of the trout that normally stay in the back estuaries and upper bays down to the ICW. The reason they left the upper bays was because the salinity level was too low, due to all of the fresh water from the heavy rains. Some of the big trout are moving back into the upper bays and estuaries, but many of the trout that have moved onto the flats will stay throughout the summer months.
The bite has been good from 6am till around 11am and then it seems to shut down, but then it picks back up for my afternoon trips. Along with the trout bite, I'm catching a lot of nice keeper redfish in the 20" to 26" range and a few right at the 27"slot. The tackle I'm using for most of my inshore trips are my new Quantum Boca 30's and my Energy 20's, spooled with 10lb Berkley Big Game Braid on Boca 7ft medium rods. This set up is perfect for light trout fishing, but also has enough backbone to handle the hard pull of a redfish.
A few more species that are showing up on the flats are Pompano, Spanish mackerel, Bluefish and Skipjacks. These fish are great fun on light tackle. I've not been out in the gulf yet this year as it's been way too rough to head out looking for kings or even jacks on the beaches. As soon as the seas get around a foot or less, you can bet I'll be out there bowing up on some big jacks and some drag-screaming kings. June is almost upon us and that means most of the baitfish are here and that also means the migratory fish are here.
June is one of my favorite times to fish as the fishing is top notch and it's not too hot.
If you're thinking about coming to the gulf coast near Pensacola, give me a ring and we'll get you hooked up on some great light tackle inshore Pensacola fishing.
Till next time.
Tight Lines.
Capt. John Rivers
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
850-341-9816
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
Thanks to my sponsors:
Mann's Lures, Power-Pole, SPRO Fishing Tackle
Gamakatsu Hooks, Fenwick Rods, Pure Fishing - Berkley,Stren,Quantum
