Wait to dump fish in the ice chest
Time is of the essence when a school of speckled trout is turned on, and one fishing guide has an easy way to maximize every possible cast and keep more fish coming over the gunnels.
Capt. Marty LaCoste of Absolute Fishing Charters in Dularge bypasses his big ice chest and uses two plastic baskets to temporarily hold fish in the middle of a serious trout bite.
“I keep one basket in the front of the boat, and I keep one basket in the back of the boat,” LaCoste said. “When we get on a really good bite, instead of wasting time with every single fish you catch and walking to the ice chest and opening the lid and throwing the fish in there and walking all the way back to where you were, we just take them off and throw them in the basket and keep casting.”
It might not sound like a huge time saver, but LaCoste said it can make a big difference at the end of the day.
“I could catch four or five or six trout sometimes in the time it takes someone to walk to the ice chest, open it up and throw the fish in there,” he said. “It’s a waste of time.
“When you get on a hot bite, you want to keep your lines in the water as much as possible so you can catch as many fish as you can as fast as you can — before the school just breaks up. You can catch a lot more fish doing it this way versus using one ice chest.”
