As to bait presentation, fish popping corks with mullet strips on the upwind side of your vessel. Make sure that your drifting baits are far enough away from your hull to give the trout, which you may have spooked on the drift, time to settle down. I routinely fish mullet strips 100 feet upwind and use microbraid lines to compensate for the relationship of long lines and poor hookups.

Poling-and-casting the trout flats is a technique that ignores the wind and involves deliberate pushing the vessel near to fishy-looking spots and fan-casting those areas with baits or lures.

With this technique, it's essential that you cover the entire water column from top to bottom. This method need not be done just by poling. You can use oars, paddles, or even electric motors. The important distinction between this method and drifting is that you can pick where you're going.

Seatrout are generally not sight-cast as individual fish. Instead, anglers fan-cast to areas that are likely looking hangouts. These are generally potholes and dropoffs, especially if they hold schools of baitfish.

Working the mullet muds for seatrout can be an extremely productive method. Muds are enticing to seatrout because when mullet root along the bottom eating algae, they stir up bottom life, like shrimp, into the water column, making easy picking for the trout. If the mullet muds are created by finger mullet, the seatrout will grab them as well.

When approaching a mud, having the highest vantage point possible is a real plus. That way, you can see the mud actually welling up, indicating in real time where the banquet is being served. In my experience, the best place to do this is from the poling tower of a flats boat. When searching for muds, wear glare-blocking polarized sunglasses and a long-peaked cap with a dark underside.

Some of the best baits for fishing muds are soft artificial lures that have bright colors, with scents impregnated or added. Bucktails tipped with a piece of fresh shrimp also work well.

Although it may come as a surprise to seatrout anglers, some of my best days on the grass flats have come from chumming. The ideal times for this are extremely windy, cloudy days that also feature good current. All you need is the standard ground-fish block chum, a mesh bag, and a good anchor and line to keep your vessel steady.

On the rising tide, let the chum scent pass onto the flat. On the falling tide, position your vessel on the channel edge and chum the dropoff to draw the trout exiting the flat.

When you try this method, you'll first see pinfish and pilchards rising off the stern to gobble the chum particles, eventually followed by the seatrout. This is an ideal time to fish finger-sized mullet strips well back in the chum line on straight 10-pound spinning rigs, with 1/0 hooks and no leader. This is a method of trout fishing that can always be employed during inclement weather on the Gold Coast grass flats.