That’s right we are still catching limits of beautiful speckled trout right here in Lake Hermitage just a short distance away from the cabins. It is typical that we are catching one hundred trout limits this time of the year as it has not gotten real cold yet. The fall speckled trout season normally starts some time in October and will run until sometime in January depending on what kind of winter we have. If it doesn’t get really cold until January then the speckled trout will stay in close to the fishing village until we start getting some freezing nights. If we have a really cold December well then the trout will move out to deeper water to keep from getting caught in the shallow waters and possible suffer from a hard freeze. As I said so far this fall season we have been catching some beautiful trout within a mile from the log cabins and it doesn’t look like anything will change in the near future. We are still using live shrimp for bait and it is working just fine. We will continue to use live shrimp as long as we can keep catching them. I do find the size of the shrimp are getting smaller and that is what normally happens this time of the year. Sometimes you will put a live shrimp on your hook and think to yourself this shrimp is too small for a speckled trout to bite on but as soon as it hits the water it is gone. That is because the amount of live shrimp are getting less ans less and the speckled trout are competing more and more for the feed that is left to chose from. Every year by the time December is over with we will all swap over to soft plastics for the remaining of the winter fishing season. Some folks have there favorites however if you really want to get down to the truth, they all work just about the same. I remember back in the day all we ever fished with was a yellow and white double shad rig. Anyone old enough to remember that was the bait of choice back in the day. Now you go to any sporting good store and there are thousands of baits made by many different company’s. Most of the time the only thing extra all those baits will catch for you, is you at the cash registrar. Be careful about getting caught up in paying way too much for soft plastic baits then just the normal rate. Remember if the speckled trout are there and they are hungry, they will bite on just about anything you throw at them.
Now getting back to the time of the year and how the bite is still strong you must remember fishing for speckled trout this time of the year is always relative to the conditions of the weather. What I mean by that is, think about it we normally get a cool front to roll through here ever seven to ten days. Well the way you should plan your fishing trips is as followed. Never plan a speckled trout fishing trip twenty four to forty eight hours after a cool front depending on how strong of a cool front it was. A few things happen to the water after a cool front, first of all the north wind blows twenty to twenty five miles per hour out of the north for at least two day bring the cold air down. What happens to the water with all that north wind is it drains the marsh and shallow duck ponds. When that happens the top silt will move with the water and dirt’s up the water. Remember the trout will not swim around and feed during the time that the water is dirty. They will find a deep hole and just sit there because by swimming around and feeding they need D.O. , that is dissolved oxygen so they can breath and when the water is full of very small partials of dirt it makes it hard to extract the oxygen out of the water so they can breath. As a result they will go to a deeper part of the area they are in and just sit there until the water cleans up a bit so they can start back to there feeding patterns. Taking all that into consideration, you want to plan your fishing trips at least two days after and fish anytime all the way up to the next cool front. You see the water cleans back up and they know the next cool front will be coming through in about five more days. That my friend is when you want to go fishing because the the trout can breath and they are hungry because they haven’t eaten in two days. Also remember most of the time after a cool front, that is also known as a low pressure system, that system will bring a high pressure system on it’s heels. When you walk outside the day after a cool front and look up into the sky and do not see a cloud in the sky, you know those blue bird days and you think man I wish I would have gone fishing today, look how nice it is outside. Well that is the day you do not want to go fishing because remember the high pressure always follows a low pressure and that is the time that the water is low and dirty and the speckled trout are in a deep hole not feeding just waiting the conditions out until they can start feeding again. Understanding this concept will greatly improve your fall speckled trout fishing trips as you go forward. As you practice this concept you will get a better understanding in picking the days in between the cool fronts that is the best days to be on the water. This is one of the most important things to consider when planing your speckled trout fishing trips during the fall and winter months.
