The wide-gap hook design acts as a keel, keeping the lure upright as it’s worked. (Writer’s note: Landreneau is still the chief lure designer but Pure Flats, the company he founded to market Slick Lures, now belongs to Greg Sample, an avid angler headquartered in Atlanta.) The Slick is a “fat” lure, and smaller hooks just don’t punch through it adequately on the hook set. Joey Landreneau, the originator, advises using only the Owner Beast extra-wide gap (EWG) hook, either unweighted or with 1/8 ounce weight on the shank. The Slick Lure is highly effective fished on marsh edges, particularly where creeks feed in on falling tides. The Slick Lure has no action of its own so it’s up to the angler to bring it to life and with the right retrieve, it becomes a lunker trout magnet.įirst, though, these speckled trout lures need to be rigged right. “I have yet to find anything that outfishes it-and I’m not sponsored by the company.” How to Fish the Slick Lure “It’s the most productive soft plastic jerkbait I’ve used in over 40 years of trout fishing,” says Captain Bobby Abruscato, well-known Dauphin Island guide. There’s no fat swimmer tail, no fins, joints or built in flashers, no added scents or flavors.įor whatever reason giant trout love these speckled trout lures. It’s a soft plastic bait that looks sort of like an elongated gum-drop. įor a good trout lure that the largest fish can’t seem to resist, many expert trout anglers prefer a fish catching product that’s not widely-known outside the Gulf Coast and that is the Slick Lure, invented by North Florida flats angler Joey Landreneau. Many anglers are also big fans of the larger DOA Shrimp and the DOA Bait Buster. The Heddon Spook and Rapala Skitter-V are both legendary trout catchers, while for sub-surface action suspending lures like the Mirrolure Mirrodine and the Live Target Scaled Sardine are among the best. There are plenty of highly effective speckled trout lures for lunker trout, particularly when they’re in the shallows where topwaters come into play. Catching these baits and keeping them lively is more work than fun, which is why so many anglers prefer to chase trout with artificial lures. Large live baits are among the most dependable attractors for giant trout, with a six inch pigfish or finger mullet being at the top of the list. Then it’s a matter of fishing deep and slow to get them. In winter, many quality trout move into the rivers and dredged shipping canals along the coast, seeking to avoid the chill of open water. Some expert charter skippers fishing the big sounds of Mississippi and Louisiana know where sunken boats and oil rig debris concentrate these big fish in summer, but most anglers rarely target big trout in the dead of summer. Many of the large fish move into deep water in the heat of summer, settling around shipwrecks and other structure that will hold bait. Shorelines with old docks or other cover are another attraction in spring when water temperature is from 65 into the low 70’s. In cold weather large trout move into deep holes in rivers and ship channels where they can be caught on weighted lures fished near bottom. Remember that the big trout prowl into water barely a foot deep at times, making wade-fishing or a kayak the preferred way to get at them. The strongest bite on speckled trout lures is often on the three days on either side of a new or full moon. Large trout also prowl the mouths of creeks and sloughs like the many feeding into the Mississippi Sound, picking off bait that comes out of the backcountry on falling tides. Many experts wadefish the surf on days when seas allow, casting parallel to the beach as they go. If you’re targeting a giant female trout, hopefully for a photo and release, these fish will be among the easiest to find. They gather on the edge of deep channels or in sloughs along the beaches, particularly from the Florida and Alabama line westward, and spawn at night. Trout spawn from April to September in the northern Gulf, with the activity most intense around new and full moons. Pigfish tend to hang just off the edge of the shallowest flats as well as around docks, piers and other hard structure. You can sometimes spot a pinfish flat by watching for the flash of silver-dollar-sized pins as they feed in water two to four feet deep. A big, nutritious mouthful seems to be what they’re after, so look for areas where these species abound and you’re likely to be in the big trout zone. When schooling baitfish are not abundant, the big trout seek out pigfish and pinfish on the grass flats. The jumbos also run the trough of the beach, just beyond the first bar and sometimes inside the bar, in the spring months. This will often be in water just a foot or two deep, particularly at dawn and again just before dark. Jumping mullet-even mullet way too big for trout to eat-often reveal an area where huge trout will be prowling.
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