The BIG trout have moved in. During the first half of May we had good weather and were able to go out and hit some deeper water and get after some monster trout. The speckled trout fishing is on fire. The average trout size was 18 inches throughout most of May with plenty of 20+ inchers landed. With the new speckled trout Louisiana fishing regulations we had to throw a lot of 20+ inch trout back, but boy they are thick and a blast to catch. Bouncing live shrimp and croakers off the bottom produced some of the largest trout of the season so far.
Top water action around islands also produced some crazy intense fishing. We caught plenty of big trout and reds working spoons and spook top water baits. If you have never top water fished for specks, you got to give it a try! Explosive action and usually only last for about the first hour of daylight.
During the second half of May we had quite a few days of high winds that had the water looking like mud soup. We focused on fishing in the marsh for reds on those windy days and had great action almost all morning with a lot of redfish limits caught.
We also had several offshore snapper trips that were some of the fastest limits I can remember in years. We had 2 snapper trips where we caught a 3 man and 5 man limit of red snapper in less than 30 minutes, then headed inshore to work on some trout and redfish. The snapper numbers are ridiculous and has made for some easy fishing.
As we approach June I expect the trout bite to remain strong and start seeing more trout move over the oyster reefs throughout the bays and estuaries.
If you would like to learn more about fishing for big trout during the spawn check out our blog article about Fishing the Louisiana Speckled Trout Spawn.