Specks in center and east side of bay out of Cypremort Point
Trout are beginning to move off of the coast and back into the marsh and inland bays, making it the perfect time to head into Vermilion Bay. In fact, 70-year-old Ray Hargrave, a lifetime recreational fisherman, recently caught his biggest speckled trout after fishing the bay.
“I thought that it was a redfish at first because she (the trout) pulled down and never surfaced. I knew it was something big though, so I didn’t horse it too much with my 12-pound test,” Hargrave said. “I like to use light line so that I can really feel that ‘thump-thump’ when it hits. It really wasn’t a tough fight. She finally surfaced and just swam straight into the net.”
Hargrave said that trout have moved all the way to the center and east side of the bay.
“We launched from Cypremort Point to Redfish Point and just bounced around back east from there,” he said. “They’ve been catching them on the west end of the bay, but at this particular time they (the speckled trout) are making their way to the east.”
Hargrave never uses live bait in Vermillion Bay, only colored plastic minnows with chartreuse tails. He occasionally brings bait shrimp after his daughter showed him up one day by bouncing the bait off of the bottom.
“With plastics, my personal favorites are the clear ones with a little sparkle in them (and chartreuse tail), but I use all colors regularly,” Hargrave said. “I just let it sink to the bottom and bump it every so often and reel in my slack. I like to use light tackle (12 lb. test) so that I can feel that little ‘thump-thump’ when they’re about to take it.”
Hargrave landed his personal record-setting trout on Aug. 4. He had first run to Redfish Point on the western side of Vermilion Bay and was working his way back, bouncing along oil platforms. When he found himself casting towards a platform in the middle of Vermilion Bay, the monster trout turned his head.
“My friend, Troy Amy, and his wife were tagging along until I reached that spot. I even told him to stay because I knew that the tide was about to start rolling out,” Hargrave recalled. “Then, sure enough 10 minutes later they started to bite.”
And bite they did, Hargrave pulled in 16 beautiful hammers, including the monster trout, on a black/chartreuse minnow.
Hargrave landed the 7.45 trout, but from this report and others like it around the Vermilion Bay area, there are many other monster trout just waiting to be caught.
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