PA Fly fisherman catches first sea trout

Bruno

Bruno

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This had me laughing at myself all last week.

I went to Ocracoke Island, NC last week for vacation and fly fished in the salt for the first time. When I got to the spot that I had chosen for the morning there was a very serious fisherman there. He had the fishing truck from hell. Livewell, and fish table attached to the front bumper with an umberlla. He was very nice and helped me out with selecting the proper color and gave my nephew some live bait.

Anyway about 20 min goes by and I have something on the end of my line. I am all excited and when I land the fish I start yelling to my nephew to come over. The fish is about 18in long. Here is the exchange that followed.

ME: Damn, it looks just like a trout.

Fisherman: It is a trout.

Me: No really, it looks just like a trout.

Fisherman, looking at me like I am insane: IT IS A TROUT!

Nephew: Uncle Matt it looks just like a trout.

Fisherman: IT IS A TROUT!

ME: No you don't understand it looks just like a trout.

Fisherman looks at us both and shakes his head. He then walked very far away from the both of us.

Who would have thought a sea trout would look like a trout. :-D
 
Thanks for the story, got me to thinking about incidents like that, that I have been a part of. Glad you had a good trip.
JH
 
Now you have to go back and get one on Fly, largest I've caught is 12 lbs..(weakfish)
 
In Florida where my parents live, they call them specks, short for speckled trout, and the first time I caught one, I knew it was a trout because he shook his head like a big brown. Biggest for me was 26" and over 5 lbs.
 
Was it a "speck" or a "gray"? The latter being what we call a weakfish up here "down the shore".
 
They're not sea trout, they're weakfish. Catch them in Joisey all the time.
 
I think weakfish just refers to grays chaz. I could be wrong though.
 
Theres two types of "sea trout": the weakfish, which Im guessing is what you're calling the grays, which are all up and down the eastern sea board and most locals refer to them as Trout and the Spotted Sea Trout, which is down around the Gulf of Mexico which most refer to as Specks.

Heres something I found on a charter captains page about these fish.

Although the sea trouts are similar to the true trout's in appearance, the two groups are not related. These sea trouts are actually a member of the croaker family.
 
Thats how I remember it...Gray trout or weakfish are usually a little larger and lacking spots. They are also called weakfish (I was told) because you can, if you pull too hard, rip the jaw right off them if you strike too hard. Not sure how true that is but I was told that once. Specks or speckled trout don't usually get as large and like their water a little warmer. Which is why you can catch more Specks in the sound than you do in the surf. And usually catch Gays only in the surf or inshore. First one is a Speckled trout the second one is a gray trout. I pulled these from the NCDMF web site if you are interested. What's more important is that Bruno actually got into some which is encouraging because that means that some of my advice (or advice that I pointed him to and plan on using myself in 2 months) actually worked!!!
 
Dear Tom,

In the Gulf of Mexico there are a couple of other kinds of trout, I know because I used to catch them fishing around Fort Walton and Destin.

There are sand trout and silver trout. Neither have spots and neither grows much bigger than 12 to 15 inches. Sand trout have a golden brown back and silvery sides and silver trout are just plain silver but both of them have the same basic shape as a weakfish, or a speckled trout.

Weakfish are an Atlantic Fish but occasionally they are caught in the Gulf of Mexico. The specks and other trout are fairly common on both coasts but more common on the Gulf side.

Regards,
Tim Murphy :)
 
The area I fished was Pensacola (actually Gulf Breeze) and the "specks" (local term I was told) were silver with dark spots on the side. A real paper mouth on them but with 2 sharp teeth on the upper. A local told me to use any color I wanted as long as it was chartreuse. Most were in the 12 - 15" range but I did hold onto and land a 26". I hooked him in a canal and he headed for the sound but turned around just in time for me. I don't know anything about salt water fish except ewhat I was told while there.
 
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