The Inshore Edge

Well, the past couple weeks have been a mix of trips between our barrier Islands and our inshore reefs. But honestly, it’s hard to get away from these reefs. They are full of fish right now, and still have quite a few big ones on them. The clock is always ticking on these reefs, as the majority of fish move out to the saltier waters around our islands, but it’s hard to not ride that clock out. 

As you’ll see in the pictures, my son has taken full advantage of his father‘s guide service (I’m not a guide), and put quite a few 3 to 4 pound trout in the boat. He’s moved up to 3rd in the Heavy Hitters Youth division, with 10 trout for 36 pounds. This is probably temporary, as most of the competition are kids fishing amongst the monster trout swimming in Texas. But he’s had a blast and we’re making memories. And I’m proud of him. He’s starting to put all the lessons together dating back to age 4 when he first started fishing with me. Most of these fish in the pictures were caught despite me “back boating” him to the best of my ability. Looking forward to him moving out in a year so I can have my boat and big trout back. I’m kidding….kind of.

On to the report. We’ve been mostly targeting larger trout with big swim baits and glide baits. Paralleling the reefs when the wind allows, and casting these big lures into all the shallow pockets of water up on the reef. These trout love to get up close to ambush mullet. Presenting the lures can be tricky, and requires some casting accuracy, and heavier rods to keep them out of the rocks when we hook up. I got embarrassed by a 5 lb plus trout the other morning fishing with too light a rod and she broke me off. Hard lesson learned.

Alright, the winds are laying down, so get out to those reefs and get some trout while the getting is good!

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My search for big trout is heating up, and so is my understanding of how to use glide baits and swimbaits, like the Berkley Chop Block. Make sure to watch this one to learn where big trout like to hang out and how to utilize the Chop Block to put them in the boat! The link to the video is in the first comment.

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That’s a 6” Megabass Magdraft in a 21” trout’s mouth. It was half way down when she made it to the net. I’ve been fortunate enough to see it in a 27” trout’s mouth also….and it looked small. So here I am. I knew it would eventually happen. Moving up to the 8” Magdraft. What do you think? Is there such thing as too big of a lure for big trout?

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The journey to figuring out big speckled trout got a little more interesting on this day. Throwing a 6” Megabass Magdraft swimbait, I hooked into a beautiful 27', 6.5 lb Mississippi toad of a trout. I'm psyched to show all of you the "how" and the "why" in getting this fish to the boat. As always with the big trout, she posed for some pictures, and swam away!

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Something new and something old has collided in my short time here on the coast. The old refers to what big trout do this time of year (every year) leading up to the summer spawn, and the new is my understanding of that. The results have been awesome. I’ve managed to stay near these big fish, and have started to figure out how to catch them. I say all of this with humility, and consider it a privilege to pursue these incredible fish. And because I believe I’m truly blessed to do this, I want nothing more than for other anglers to experience the same. The process of “hunting” these fish and then fooling them with lures, appreciating their beauty after the catch and then finally watching them swim off, is nothing but pure joy with plenty of adrenaline spent.

With that said, if I could only share the ONE most IMPORTANT key to finding these fish right now, it is this. Look for obscene amounts of mullet in relatively shallow water from our “front marsh/beaches” all the way to our barrier islands. These are our saltiest waters right now and have the majority of mullet. What do I mean by “obscene?” It’s the visual that causes you to pause or double take, and say, “Dang, that’s a lot of mullet!” When you start looking for them, and start to find them, it will make sense.

And this is WHERE big trout will be. These are mullet eaters, and they like to lounge around the buffet. Using shallow water to bring these big mullet close to the vacuum that is a big trouts mouth.

What is the definition of big trout? Well that varies state to state. But there is no doubt as they climb the length ladder, they look for bigger and bigger mullet. Here in Mississippi, I get excited about 20”s and up. I hope that never changes. Yet, this spring I had the opportunity to bring two 27” six pound trout to the boat and a 25”, 5 pound trout. What an incredible experience, probably only surpassed by 30 trout total over 20”, of which 17 of those were 21” or better, 3 pounds and up. Credit to Heavy Hitters program for adding friendly competition to this journey.

Last but not least, I’ll share much more in the next month in the form of videos and reels of some of the biggest cast to catch fish, and additional videos breaking down the lures and rods/reels I use to fool these fish. Hint….the lures are BIG.

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