As winter slowly starts to slip away and with those nice spring days hopefully just around the corner, I cant help but get sea trout off my mind.
Sea trout run the majority of Irish rivers to spawn from October-December then as spent fish fall back out to sea to feed and condition themselves at sea before returning to their rivers for their next spawning period. So sea trout are hungry predators gorging in the sea surely they will be easy to catch....think again, catching/chasing sea trout on lures, is to say the least challenging and sometimes quite frustrating (but can become an obsession very quickly), but well worth it when that bar of silver slides onto the beach.
These silver bullets are a great sport fish which will do everything they can to shake the hook and they have quite a nack of doing just that. It is also hard to get good hookups as sea trout have very soft mouths while at sea. Small trebles are a must when fishing sea trout if you want a good hook hold.
The key to locating sea trout is to find an area where you think they may be feeding, estuaries, lagoons etc. Visit these marks at various stages of the tide and if there are sea trout present they will show you wont miss them as they jump clear out of the water on a regular basis some say this is to knock off irritating sea lice they may have picked up at sea.
So once you have located the sea trout or know of particular marks where they are present there are a couple of lures I wouldnt be without. As most areas where sea trout hold have a flow of current I like to knock small jigs through the current such as duo press bait fusion and kamuy, p boys and nabura dekas etc. This method can be lethal for trout covering a lot of ground quickly fluterring baits just above the bottom where sea trout sit in wait for passing food.
There are also areas like back eddies (slack water) where small lures like the Zonk 77 and Grace minnow can be very effective lures for catching out sea trout feeding in these areas.
The sea trout are predominantly feeding on small sandeels and small fish therefore these lures seem to work well. Match the hatch!!!
Zonk 77
Grace minnow
Press bait fusion
Press bait Kamuy
Nabura deka
*Important Note*
If you intend to fish for sea trout you will need a licence. You can purchase your licence here
Nantes 2011
At the moment Cian is away in Nantes at the superb fishing show see here for some words from Henry Gilbey about the show. Cian will write up a full report of all new findings (lures/rods/techniques) from his visit over to France sometime next week.
Tight lines,
James.
