# My favorite time of year! Pre-spawn giant trout!



## Bo Keifus (May 9, 2012)

It seems as if every year, right around April I come down with a sickness. I call it yellowmouth fever and it affects me 4-5 days a week from late march through the end of May. As the water temps creep up and bait fish begin flooding towards the flats, a beautiful thing happens in the eyes of a trout-fisherman. Big gator trout that have been picky and sitting idle during the cold months begin to roam and feed more aggressively. Water temps will skyrocket soon and the gator trout need to fatten up before they begin spawning! It seems to me that during the early hours of the morning they like to hang around structure in deeper water and ambush prey that the tide flushes by. Then, as the sun rises they like to move from their hiding places towards the shallows where they roam the grass beds and take in the sunlight.

I've found productive areas from as for north as the rivers all the way into the sound. This time of year is good almost anywhere you go however the more the water warms, the further away from the river you should go, IMO. I spend the low light hours of the mornings fishing bayous and their mouths throwing Unfair Lures and topwaters anywhere I see bait jumping or running from predators. The Unfair Lures Stickminnow and Rip-n-Slash have been the hot ticket lately! After the early morning bite slows I like to move onto the grass flats and weed through all the redfish until I connect with a big trout!

It's still early but the trout action is getting hot! Just this week I have caught/released 3 from 24"-28" and I'm expecting the bite to continue getting better throughout the entire month of April! *Get out there and get em boys, and please release the big girls! They're going to be spawning soon and the bigger the trout, the more eggs they produce annually! More released fish = more caught fish!* Plus the smaller ones (15"-18") taste better anyways!









*Below are some videos of me releasing a few big ones!*
Releasing a 28 inch trout!

Releasing a 25" trout!

Releasing another 25" trout!

Releasing a 24" trout!


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## stc1993 (Nov 23, 2014)

That 1st pictured looked like she was full of eggs. :thumbup: for letting them go.


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## MillerLight21 (Aug 9, 2010)

Very nice


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## OHenry (Apr 28, 2011)

Great report. Those are some nice fish!


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## AlbinoTurtle (Jan 7, 2017)

That is awesome!


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## Bo Keifus (May 9, 2012)

stc1993 said:


> That 1st pictured looked like she was full of eggs. :thumbup: for letting them go.


Yeah man she was hefty! That one was 24" and I'm guessing 5-5.5 lbs!


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## Tres (May 8, 2010)

Very nice!


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Fine Fine Fine Gators!!!!!!!


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## Cebral (Mar 19, 2017)

Great report. Thanks for sharing your info. I'm just learn about inshore kayak fishing and this really helps the learning curve.


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## Ocean Master (May 20, 2008)

The trout have been on fire in the Intercoastal. Behind my dock my son was 18 fish with 18 casts right at dark.


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## Bo Keifus (May 9, 2012)

Ocean Master said:


> The trout have been on fire in the Intercoastal. Behind my dock my son was 18 fish with 18 casts right at dark.


Well I know where I'll be tomorrow evening :whistling: Just kidding!


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## iJabo (Jul 6, 2013)

Great write up. I think I'll give it a shot tomorrow morning.


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## Set the Hook (Dec 20, 2011)

I must be fishing the wrong areas....12 inch trout aren't worth posting. Good job.


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## Bo Keifus (May 9, 2012)

You better believe I've been catching my share of shorties too! Just weed through them to get to the big ones!

Also I've found that trout tend to hang with similar size trout. So if you're catching a bunch of small ones, MOVE! You're very unlikely to catch a big trout in the middle of a school of small ones. Really big ones, 25"+ often hang in groups from 2-5 fish


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## MixMasterMike (Jul 5, 2016)

I saw a monster yesterday... won't guess at the size, but definitely a gator. Had two chances pitching a live shrimp, but never got her to eat. Was maybe 8-10" of water around 10:30am.

Glad some are finding them in numbers. I've been a little concerned about the stock recently; seems dramatically less than 3-5 years ago.


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

Bo Keifus said:


> ...So if you're catching a bunch of small ones, MOVE! You're very unlikely to catch a big trout in the middle of a school of small ones. Really big ones, 25"+ often hang in groups from 2-5 fish


This is good advice on big trout.
I seldom find them mixed in w/ small ones.


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## LIM-IT-OUT (Aug 26, 2014)

Definitely on some slobs!!! :yes:


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## stc1993 (Nov 23, 2014)

Just about all the biggest trout I've caught were caught with small live pinfish. They love them.


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