Sea Trout Fishing in Tampa Bay is one of the stapes of inshore fishing and part of the Inshore Grand Slam that is available to be accomplished in the Tampa area. Often aggressive eaters, Spotted Sea Trout can offer a great level of inshore fun during your day on the water. Exciting top water hook ups, easily enticed on both hard and soft baits, and a tactical presentation of a fly are all methods used when targeting this fish species. Gator Trout are large adult versions of Sea Trout and are available in abundance in Tampa Bay. These Gator Trout can hit like a freight train and coupled with their head shaking aggressiveness, these always add to a great day out on the water.
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Capt. Jim Lemke has been featured in many worldwide television shows like ESPN2 Inshore Angler and Urban Angler along with many local shows like Hooked on Fishing with Capt. Bill Miller, The Average Angler and the 47 Fish Finder with many more.
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Sea Trout Fishing Information
Weather you call them Specks or Sea Trout – Spotted Sea Trout are a great species to target, make for great table fare if kept, and are available in Tampa Bay year round. Often found cruising the grass flats, or crushing white bait in channels or pockets, it seems no matter the weather a Sea Trout is there to turn your day around.
Baits span a wide variety of inshore favorites, and there is really no bait that won’t entice the strike of a hungry Trout. Fishing with the “twitch, twitch, stall” methodology, Trout love the chase but prefer to hit on the drop. One of the better exceptions to that rule is top water baits, where a steady “walk the dog” technique will cause some great surface explosions by these toothy critters.
Trout can be landed on fairly light leaders, and as with most all inshore species – a lack of terminal tackle in your rig will increase success rates. Live bait can be either shrimp or small white baits, but since Trout are one of the less finicky inshore species, you can see just the same success on artificials. Targeting grass flats with a small bit of depth (3-6ft) is probably the best place to locate these species in Tampa area waters. However, when white bait is running up channels and into pockets into the flats, Sea Trout are a near guarantee to be found hitting the school.
