# Trout Question



## salty_dawg (Mar 21, 2013)

I was at the Saltwater Sportsman seminar in Fairhope this past weekend. One of the inshore guides out of Fort Morgan said that he loved to catch trout in the Spring on the beaches just inside the first sandbar. I asked a couple of the guys that were with me if they'd had similar results in the Pensacola area and neither had heard of bragging levels of action in that zone. Does anyone know if the same holds true in this area? While I don't doubt you can catch them, I've just never heard of anyone targeting specks in that area.


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## a (Oct 2, 2007)

me either.....specs dont seem to live in the gulf around here


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

Neither have I.

Based on what I've read about trout, in the winter a large majority migrate out in the gulf and a portion remain inshore.

In the pier section of the forum you can read about trout catches off the Gulf Shores pier, so they are out there.

I have done a lot of beach walking for pompano in Navarre and P'cola and never caught a trout between sand bars.

Anyone ever caught one around here from the beach?


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## 60hertz (Oct 1, 2007)

The trout do migrate offshore, the thing is that the barrier islands off AL and west to LA are way offshore. 

The Chandeleur Islands off LA are probably one of the best trout fisheries around, with the exception of Lake Calcasieu, and they are about 20 miles offshore.

Our islands are just too close to shore. That's probably the difference.


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## sling2ling (Nov 14, 2013)

I know to the east of us Port st joe an Apalachicola, large trout migrate out of the bay and on to the beaches in the fall. I have also caught some very large winter trout on the gulf side of a certain jetty between there an Pensacola.


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## johnf (Jan 20, 2012)

I've caught quite a few in the first gut, but that was in Fort Morgan too.


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## panhandleslim (Jan 11, 2013)

There have been trout tagged in Apalachicola and recovered in the Chandeleur Islands but nobody I know, or have ever heard of, has caught them in the Gulf right here. 

Gulf Shores, you will see some monsters right under the pier at night. Chandeleur is a good ways out in the Gulf and you can walk on the trout out there. It's odd but we just don't have the conditions that are conducive or preferable to trout hanging out in the Gulf. I would suspect that it also has something to do with the salinity in the bay systems. 

Need a fisheries biologist to chime in here and end the 'Speculation'.


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## salty_dawg (Mar 21, 2013)

I went back and pulled out my notes from the seminar. The guide out of Fort Morgan is Rick Murdoch. I did a little digging on-line and found this from a Q&A session he did:

_Question: Around what type of structure do you fish at Fort Morgan?
Murdoch: We primarily fish oyster bars, public reefs, old oil and gas rigs, sandbars and holes in the bottom. We also fish the cuts and the troughs out on the front beach on the Gulf of Mexico side. Many people don’t realize that the trout also feed and hold on the beach side of Fort Morgan. Too, at this time of year, we catch some of our biggest trout fishing the front beach. The incoming tide is the best time to fish for speckled trout on the beach side of Fort Morgan. The mouth of the bay is a natural funnel for the baitfish and the speckled trout._

Considering where I live on the water, it wouldn't make any sense for me to run to the beach looking for specks. I was just curious if anyone had seen this type of action in Pensacola because Capt. Murdoch was raving that it was his favorite time of the year to fish for specks. If I'm ever down the Fort Morgan area that time of year, I'll give it a shot.


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## stauty trout (Jul 19, 2012)

I've caught lots of specks right off the beach in fort morgan... I would say that trout tend to hang around that portion of the beach because of where mobile bay opens up into the gulf and also little lagoon cut is right there... Lots of mullet like to cruise that area and therefore the trout follow them... I would say if you are on a stretch of beach that doesn't have a cut into some sort of brackish water system nearby and the typical kind of bait you are seeing in the water are crabs, sand fleas, ghost shrimp,etc (stuff burried in the sand) you won't find trout with any consistency... 

The barrier islands (horn, ship, pettis boi, etc) all have little marshy areas (grass, muddy bottoms, oyster shells, rocks) on them or grass beds that hold bait that trout like (shrimp, mullet, etc) and trout will migrate to a lot of these in the spring and summer once water temps rise and will migrate in a larger number if a lot of fresh water pushes all the bait from the rivers/bays into the gulf... Chandeluer has kind of it's own little estuary... while the fishing there usually is best in the summer & fall you can still catch trout in the winter and spring some of the marsh & river systems that are on the islands in the deeper holes... in the summertime and fall there you can fish gulf side and catch really large trout (during the mullet run)... I've always found that they like topwater baits in the surf as well (or catch 2000)... I used to love fishing ship island for them because I have some spots that you can catch pompano, redfish, & trout at... and even the occasional cobia that might be swimming by  

it all comes down to the bait to be honest... if there's a good enough concentration of a bait that trout like... the trout will be there


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## KingCrab (Apr 29, 2012)

Trout dont venture out in the gulf east of Alabama pass often. The water is clear & more salty than they are used too. Also they are more a food source in that climate for other fishes & Porpi's. They dont have the speed to get away from Predators as well out there. In the bays & shallows of brackish waters there are more stuff for the predators to eat besides them. The larger Trout do seem to venture further towards our passes than the smaller ones do. I have seen Specs around P cola pier Mainly after a major rain turning the gulf brown. They get lost & don't know where they are. Once it clears up, They head back towards the fresher waters of the bay. In Alabama & waters west, Their habitat changes as with water clarity & salinity. They are in the gulf west of dauphin island down to Texas I guess. They catch Specs At Gulf Shores state pier on the gulf. From there west on.


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