Speckled trout love this tiny treat found in shallow marsh grass
I can remember it like it was yesterday. Zig-zagging the Magnolia pipeline canals in Belle Chasse with my father. Our destination: a small opening in the marsh that measured 9 feet in diameter. What came from that pothole would often dictate if we caught speckled trout that day.
I knew the routine. My job was to toss a frozen crab onto the bow of my father’s bay boat and step on it just enough to bust it open. Then, bait the minnow trap and wait for the boat to reach the marshline. After the bow plowed into the marsh, I was to jump out and walk a few yards into the marsh where I tossed the minnow trap in the shallow pothole.
This was a routine that I repeated for over a decade. During that period I can remember some of the best speckled trout fishing trips of my life, and it was all due to a small baitfish called a sheepshead minnow.
What is it?
A sheepshead minnow is silver with dark gray vertical stripes resembling a sheepshead. These minnows are in the pupfish family and have short, stout bodies. They have one dorsal fin and one anal fin, and no lateral line. Their mouths are on the upper portion of their heads signifying that they are surface feeders. But that’s not all they can do along the surface of the water. Sheepshead minnows can survive in shallow water because of their ability to gulp air. They average only an inch in length and it’s for that reason why they can be a challenge to find and catch.
Better than cocahoes?
Will Plauche of Mandeville fishes Hopedale and has recently discovered the power of these speckled trout delicacies. Plauche was fishing Lake Athanasio and decided to hedge his bets by bringing along some live bait.
“I did a little scouting on Google Earth and spotted a section of water that was tucked just off the road in the marsh,” he said. “I decided to set my minnow trap hoping to catch a few cocahoes.”
The 22-year-old baited his trap with dog food and left it in the shallow pothole. He launched his 24-foot Tidewater, secured it to the dock, and walked back to the spot where he left the trap.
“I knew there was something in there by all the commotion in the trap,” he said.
When he pulled the trap out of the water it was alive with over 30 sheepshead minnows.
“I was disappointed that I didn’t catch cocahoes but I figured I’d give these a shot,” he said.
Plauche transferred them into a bait bucket and headed down the MRGO as the sun peeked over the horizon.
A limit of trout
After arriving at his first spot, he threw the trolling motor down and approached a small cut spilling out of the marsh. There was a crane on one of the grassy points, which was a good sign.
“Those birds tell me that there are baitfish around,” Plauche said.
Then he spotted some activity on the surface of the water; a fish was chasing a small minnow that was skipping out of the water trying to escape. Plauche jumped into action.
“I passed over the rod with the plastic and went straight to what I thought would work — those little minnows I had in my bucket,” he said.
The frantic angler threaded a sheepshead minnow onto his drop-shot rig.
“I whipped that little minnow out there and started turning the handle slowly leaving a slight bow in the line,” Plauche said. “Well, that bow disappeared and the line went tight in all of five seconds!”
Plauche set the hook and immediately knew it was a speck as the fish surfaced and started shaking its head. His first cast resulted in his first fish of the day — a 15-inch speckled trout. Plauche sat in that one spot and finished off a limit using only sheepshead minnows.
“I love using cocahoe minnows but after this experience, I’m sold,” he said. These things are better.”
How to catch them
Because they are small, sheepshead minnows have tons of predators and have been known to even be bullied by cocahoe minnows. It’s for this reason that they stay tucked in the marsh grass. Plauche recommends finding water that is shallow with lots of structure.
“Marsh grass or lots of rocks is what I’m looking for,” he said. “These fish are always in the areas where it’s hard to get to them.”
While Plauche used to set his minnow trap near the boat launch, now he stands on the bow of his boat and scopes out holes in the marsh.
“I’ve got a few ‘secret’ spots out there that are my go-to holes,” he laughed.
When baiting his trap, Plauche stretches a rubber band from the hinge of the trap where it opens to the clip that holds the trap closed.
“You want that crab to be directly in the center of the trap so the minnows can’t peck it from the outside of the trap,” he said.
Inside the rubber band, he places half of a blue crab. Plauche has tried many different kinds of bait but he said crabs work best.
As the cold fronts arrive, sheepshead minnows will become more of an option for anglers as the north winds will begin to blow water out of the marsh, making these fish more prevalent.
