# Personal Best Speckled Trout 6-4-14



## steady23 (Nov 17, 2009)

I have been scavenging the forum recently and seeing a lot of fishermen catching big trout on the grass flats and docks. I have been fishing a lot lately with some success. However, the big gator trout has been eluding me, until today. I met up with my friend Brandon at Shoreline Park at 7:00AM. I picked up a dozen live shrimp from GBBT on the way. It was a beautiful morning. Winds were 4-5 out of the south and made for a pretty nice day on the water. Tide was incoming. We set off and fished around some of the docks with no success. Brandon then caught himself a nice 20” trout on a live shrimp. We paddled around Deer Point for about an hour with no bites so we decided to head back around towards Shoreline. I was using a new penny gulp on a red jig head casting towards the docks. Then, out of nowhere I get absolutely slammed by what I thought was a redfish. Got it close to the kayak and it was a nice speck. Got it in the yak after about 3 tries with the net, took a few pictures, then I released it to catch another day. She was my new personal best at 24”. After another hour of nothing but casting, Brandon had to go to work, so he paddled back to the truck. Since I am a teacher, summer officially began for me today so I decided to take full advantage. I am glad I stayed. I was casting my artificial when all of a sudden my rod with the live shrimp gets bowed over to where the tip is almost touching the water! I grabbed it and starting reeling it in and realized quickly that this was a big fish. Again, I thought it was a redfish by the way it was shaking and running. I was using a 6’ rod that I bought at the Outcast sale with 10lb mono. I got it close to the yak and realized that it is a monster trout! A few more runs and with one swipe of the net that sucker was in the yak. I could not believe how big this trout was. I have seen pictures of guys on the forum with 30+ inch trout but nothing compares to actually seeing it for yourself. I got the hook out and measured her. She was a hefty 28”. I was so excited! I have a 5 minute video taken from my GoPro but it needs some editing. I snapped a few pictures from my computer of the video. Sorry for the poor quality. I got back to Shoreline around noon. What an awesome day on the water. I consider myself lucky to live in a place where people come for vacation. Tight lines everyone. 
Todd


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## edfishing (May 29, 2014)

Congrats on the gator spec. Nice fish. Must be kinda cool to fish from a yak. Look forward to the video.


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## ChileRelleno (Jul 7, 2012)

Very nice Speck! Congrats on the new PB.


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## Pompano Joe (Jan 28, 2009)

Yeah Baby! Good job! Thanks for posting.


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## Spoolin Up (May 3, 2011)

Nice fish!!

Sent from my LG-VS410PP using Tapatalk 2


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## Reel Sick (May 4, 2009)

Awesome job man congrats.


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## Desert Eagle (Apr 25, 2012)

All of us who live in this area and enjoy fishing should be thankful that we have so much - so close...

Nice fish and nice report.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Way to go ! Congratulations !


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## gulfbreezetom (Jun 12, 2012)

Good work, Todd!! We ARE lucky!


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

Definitely a nice trout.
Congrats!!

and Shhhhh...don't tell everybody what a fantastic place we live in. lol


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## papabun (Jan 4, 2013)

Congratulations and thanks for the post! It's so noce to read an account that conveys the joy of the catch as well as the pride of the personal record.:thumbup:


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## davidjimm (May 22, 2014)

*Excited*

Nice fish. I'm heading down this weekend and I'm going to fish the Perdido Bay area. It's the first time I'm seriously fishing inshore in my life, and I'm really excited. Your story and picture are awesome. I will share when I get back.
Hoping to catch one Speckled Trout one Redfish one Flounder and one Sheepshead. Any one of those would be awesome, though.
I'll call it the "quadfecta".... lol

Y'all really do have an awesome place to live :thumbup:

Of course, since I haven't caught any of these species before, they'll all be my personal record biggest fish!


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## Gulflady (Jun 19, 2010)

Thanks for the report, great looking trout


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## beachsceneguy (May 20, 2008)

awesome trout and story guy !!!:notworthy::notworthy::notworthy::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


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## dmck711 (Feb 10, 2013)

congrats on a nice fish!!


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## holdisheadup (May 25, 2014)

Nice job bro

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk


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## FurBurger (May 27, 2014)

Kudos on releasing her. Great fish!


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## WhyMe (Apr 21, 2013)

Nice jobs and what a trout. Great job.
WhyMe 
Mako my Dayo


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## trophytroutman (Mar 13, 2014)

Very nice.


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## 7M (Jan 5, 2008)

Congrats on the gator!! Thanks for the release. May you catch her when she's 32 inches and 12 pounds.


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## Fishin' Lady (Jun 17, 2014)

Beautiful fish, thanks for sharing your story


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