Spotted Sea Trout

Spotted Sea Trout Description:

East Central Florida is home to the largest spotted seatrout in the world. After entanglement netting was constitutionally banned in Florida, seatrout have rebounded back to healthy numbers and sizes that we haven't seen since the early 1980's. Seatrout are an aggressive fish that will strike anything from topwater artificials, spoons, jigs, livebait and various fly patterns.

Some Trout Pictures:
[Sebastian Inlet Gator Trout]
[Girl with Stringer of Trout]
[Seatrout On Fly]
[Banana River Trout]
[Indian River Gator Trout]
[Stringer of Big Seatrout]
[Florida Sea Trout]
[Mosquito Lagoon Sea Trout]
[Banana River Sea Trout]

Where Spotted Sea Trout Are Found:

INSHORE and/or NEARSHORE over grass, sand and sandy bottoms. Winter time fishing in deeper waters with well defined thermoclines produce plentiful numbers of fish. We find that seatrout stage close to their winter holes on the flats between cold spells. Live bait works great for winter trout as they are usually less agressive and want to test the baits alot before they commit to a strike. The winter of 2004-2005 produced many trout in excess of 30 inches and we are looking forward to many more successful trout seasons ahead.

Florida Record Spotted Sea Trout:

15lb., 6 ozs.

Remarks:

Seatrout are often refered to as gator trout when they are large (over 6 pounds). Lagooner charters specialize in finding and catching large seatrout in shallow water areas. Here are some facts about these gamefish:

Matures during first or second year and spawns INSHORE from March through November; often in association with seagrass beds; lives mainly in estuaries and moves only short distances; adults feed mainly on shrimp and small fish.

Florida Spotted Sea Trout Regulations: Not less than 15" or more than 20" (statewide) except one fish over 20" per person. 4 per harvester per day South Region 5 per harvester per day N.E. and N.W. Regions.
Season Closure: Nov. & Dec. S. Region / Feb. N.E. and N.W.