The speckled sea trout bite is hot along the ICW, with reports of good catches coming from areas in Calabash River on up to Ocean Isle Beach. The fish are schooling though, so while the specks are thick in some areas, they are not present in others.
Anglers are having success along oyster shell-lined banks near deeper water using both lures such as VuDu shrimp and Z-Man Trout Tricks as well as live bait.
When using these lures, the trick is to let them sink once you cast them. Reel in a little, give your wrist a snap a few times to give the lure some quick jerks, reel in the slack, then repeat until the lure is back to the boat.
It’s easy to give up once the lure is fairly close to the boat, but anglers should ignore the temptation to quickly reel in once the lure is a certain distance away. Finish out the lure retrieve normally. Some fish follow the lure a lot longer and often strike the lure when it’s almost back in the boat.
The outgoing tide has been the best for local anglers looking for Speckled Sea Trout , and finding areas with large portions of acreage that turn to sandbars during low tide can be a gold mine if there is deeper water nearby. Good luck out there !
