Big seatrout now turn up in many locations in the Sunshine State and can be taken on a variety of fishing gear. Photo by Capt. Rodney Smith

Catching a 'gator trout on a topwater plug had been a dream of mine since I caught my first big seatrout from the Clearwater Beach Big Pier 60 in the late 1960s. That 7-pound speckled trout had inhaled a live threadfin herring free-lined under the pier's lights.

Snook were the fish I was after, and at first that was what I thought nailed the bait. Then that fat seatrout came to the surface, thrashing its body hard and shaking its head with a wide-opened yellow mouth. At first I was disappointed. But after an old-timer fishing nearby helped me net the fish, that changed.

"She's the biggest trout I've seen caught off this pier for years!" he noted as I began to appreciate the catch.

In 1980 my wife and I moved to south Merritt Island, where we lived on 5 acres of thick jungle wedged between the Banana River Lagoon to the east and the Indian River Lagoon on the west. It did not take long to understand why this area had earned the reputation for being the world capital for spotted seatrout. Trout were abundant beyond belief. On any given day, there was no problem in walking out the door and returning within 30 minutes with a decent trout for dinner.

The Indian River Lagoon system had a perfect habitat for these prolific game fish. Miles of ankle- to waist-deep flats covered with lush seagrass with a scattering of sandy patches dominated the area.

Nearly year 'round, a small plastic jig or a Mirrolure rigged to a light spinning rod were deadly for these fish. But during the late spring and early summer, endless schools of mullet frequented the area, and we changed our tactics to a free-lined finger mullet or a noisy topwater plug.

As the 1980s rolled on, Florida's spotted seatrout fishery took a severe beating from several fronts. Commercial netting took a heavy toll, and recreational angling regulations were unrealistic: 50 fish per day, per angler with a 12-inch minimum size limit. Water quality was declining from rampant development along the shore. All of these things negatively impacted much of the state's most popular saltwater fishery.

Today, new rules on commercial and recreational fishing have solved some of the problems, and the fishery has rebounded.

SPOTTED SEATROUT
If you have ever caught a 1- to 3-pound seatrout (about the average size of these fish) on medium tackle, you probably realized that they are not the toughest fighters in salt water. You might even wonder why seatrout are the No. 1 targeted saltwater fish in the state that claims the title of "World's Sportfishing Capital."

Well, there are a couple of reasons. Spotted seatrout are easy to catch from shore, a boat, docks, bridges or piers. They can be caught almost anywhere in Florida's coastal waters, including bays, lagoons, rivers and creeks. Speckled seatrout are decent tasting and are considered good table fare by a majority of anglers.

Places For Catching Trout
Our state offers an unusually wide range of great year-round fishing opportunities for these prolific fish. On one trip early one fall before the Gulf of Mexico's water temperatures had dropped below 70 degrees, I was fishing with Robin Simile of Tampa and Capt. Jerry Metz of Ft. Pierce. The three of us were fishing a Cotee Jigs tournament a mile or two outside of the mouth of the Suwannee River. While drifting over gin-clear grass flats in 3 to 5 feet of water, we caught and released well over 150 legal-sized seatrout, most of them between 1 and 4 pounds. The fish could not resist our root beer or chartreuse plastic tails on 1/4-ounce red-headed Cotee jigs.

As we drifted, most of the fish were taken from the deeper edges of the flats. Once we floated off the flat, we would motor back and start another drift. Such action is not uncommon along the Big Bend coast.