Spotted seatrout lures come in a wide array of styles because trout are generally more than willing to slam an artificial. The convenience and sporting fun of fishing lures versus live baits is a bonus, and in many cases seatrout lures outperform live baits, especially for anglers hunting trophy-sized trout.
Speckled trout might not be at the top of the list of the most ferocious inshore species from an angler’s perspective. With relatively soft bodies that are easily squashed if you hold them too tightly and thin skin that quickly shows the dull greenish grip marks, trout don’t seem to fit the fierce criteria.
Just don’t tell that to the baitfish and shrimp that do their best to avoid these yellow-mouthed fiends. Fact is, speckled trout of any size display an absolutely brutal feeding style based on quickness and efficiency.
Even the little ones will unload on a topwater plug and thump a subsurface bait with attitude greatly exceeding their size. But tie into a legitimate “gator” trout in that 4-plus-pound size, and you might mistake the fight for a redfish or a snook.
I recall a day redfishing off Titusville, Florida, when three different trout, each breaking the 5-pound mark, grabbed our jigs, ripped off drag and had my partner and me assuming “linesider.” When those black-backed beasts finally dashed past the boat, jaws dropped.
No doubt a sporty target, speckled trout are also one of the prized food fish of Gulf and Atlantic inshore waters. Legal-sized fish offer respectable “yield,” so you only need a few for a generous dinner. A growing number of anglers, however, are practicing careful catch-and-release of larger specimens, even when they do fall into the legal slot, as those are the breeding females that renew the population.
For anglers ready to sling some seatrout lures, here’s a rundown of popular and productive baits that’ll charm the speckled trout.
Best Topwater Lures for Seatrout
Unquestionably the most exciting lure with which to catch trout, surface walkers mimic finger mullet needlefish and weak, disoriented baitfish. When a trout locks onto one of these taunting, vulnerable presentations, the sheer ferocity with which they attack defies description.
The frothy explosion doesn’t always yield a connection because a trout’s unbridled aggression might impede its aim. If your nerves can handle it, let the topwater sit perfectly still after a missed attempt and let that fish gather itself for another run at the meal.
Give it five or ten seconds, then twitch the bait a couple of times. Big trout often stalk wounded, disabled prey, and the slightest movement will trigger the follow-up attack.
MirrOlure has been a longtime leader in the topwater choices with various sizes and rattle styles. The 4 3/4-inch MirrOlure Top Dog, 4-inch Top Dog Jr., and 3/12-inch Top Pup all include thunking low-pitch rattles, while the 4-inch She Dog and 3 1/2-inch She Pup include high-pitch rattles.
MirrOlure steps up the visual appeal with the C-Eye Pro Dog Jr., a similar profile to the Top Dog Jr., but with natural clear 3D eyes. Featuring the brand’s signature reflective, luminescent insert, the 4-inch, 3/4-ounce C-Eye Pro Dog Jr. includes high-pitch rattles.
Yo-Zuri Top Knock Pencil
Offered in 4- and 5-inch models, this bait sits flat, rather than the common tail-down posture, for effortless walking. It’s offered in 36 colors.
Rapala Skitterwalk
Measuring 3 1/8 inches, the Skitterwalk features 3D holographic eyes. It’s offered in 26 colors.
D.O.A. PT-7
Breaking from traditional hard-body baits with dangling treble hooks, this 3-inch hollow-body soft plastic bait comes pre-rigged with a single 7/0 EWG hook for weedless surface action.
Subsurface Hard Lures for Speckled Trout
Working lower in the water column, twitch-style baits resemble sardines, threadfins and other inshore forage. Their erratic action mimics injured baitfish, and these lures are carefully weighted to provide for long casts to cover water quickly from a distance. These seatrout lures draw vicious strikes when fish are holding deeper.
Berkley Stick Shadd Saltwater
This versatile subsurface lure has a keeled belly, which creates an erratic, darting, jerking and walking motion. Offered in 3 1/2- and 4 1/2-inch sizes with eight colors.
MirrOlure MirrOdine
A convincing baitfish profile, this suspending twitchbait comes in a 2 1/4-, 2 5/8-, and 3 1/8-inch sizes. There’s also a soft body version, the Paul Brown Softdine, for winter months and anytime the fish are lethargic. Offered in 15 colors.
Cotton Cordell Red Fin
A slow retrieve keeps this floating bait at the surface, where it makes an attention-getting wake. Reeling it faster with a twitching action leverages the bait’s bill for subsurface darting. Offered in 4-, 5-, and 6-inch models with nine colors.
Bomber Saltwater Grade Mullet
Available in seven colors, this 3 1/2-inch bait is sized and shaped to mimic a finger mullet—big trout candy.
Shrimp Lures Catch Speckled Trout
Twitched or slow-rolled over grass beds, across potholes or along deeper perimeters of oyster bars, these shrimp-imitating lures are usually an easy sell to seatrout. Some come pre-rigged with hooks and internal weights, while others require a jig head. A cast-and-retrieve presentation works for strategic casts intended to target particular spots or to slice up a broad area to establish hot zones.
For added seatrout appeal, hang your shrimp lure beneath a popping-cork rig. With a sliding float flanked by noisy beads mounted on a wire stem with main-line and leader tie-offs, this buoyant tool adds enough mass to lengthen your cast. Sharp, downward rod snaps chug the cork to create surface commotion that resembles fish feeding. A good bet for windy-day drifts, the popping-cork rig keeps your bait above tall grass and offers an immediate strike detector.
Popular shrimp lures for seatrout options include:
Z-Man Prawnstar Z
Released in 2024, the Prawnstar Z comes in 2 1/2-inch (1/16-ounce) and 3-inch (1/8-ounce) sizes. Z-Man also introduced a loose body offering of the original 3 1/2-inch PrawnstarZ with its PrawnstarZ LB, which allows anglers to rig the bait as they prefer.
D.O.A Shrimp
This mainstay of inshore fishing was designed with a natural body curvature and prominently protruding eyes. It comes in 3- and 4-inch sizes, rigged and unrigged, with 43 colors.
Four Horseman Baby Boom Boom Shrimp
A 2 1/2-inch version of the original 3 1/4-inch design, this pre-rigged bait has a swimming shrimp action and comes in four colors.
LIVETARGET Rigged Shrimp
Created with ultra-realistic details, down to the antennae filaments, this pre-rigged shrimp lure is ideal for fishing beneath a popping cork. Available in 3- and 4-inch sizes with 8 colors.
Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Turbo Shrimp
On retrieve, this lure’s unique legs are designed to oscillate with a lifelike motion while dispersing Berkley’s proprietary scent. Available in 3-, 4-, and 5-inch sizes with 11 colors.
Soft-Plastic Seatrout Lures
Whether it’s the active presentation of paddletails, grubs and swimbaits, or the darting appeal of slender jerkbaits/twitchbaits, soft plastics offer the flexibility to quickly change sizes, shapes or colors to accommodate the scenario.
Soft plastics are the most versatile seatrout lures available. Work these baits over grass flats and sandy potholes, as well as deeper drop-offs around oyster bars, island points or shallow rock reefs. If floating grass presents too much snagging risk, rig your soft-plastic bait weedless on a weighted wide gap-hook. Otherwise, lead-head jigs work well.
Wind and casting distance can affect jig size selection, but the general rule says to go as light as possible while retaining the ability to reach your target area. On deeper grass flats of 4 to 8 feet, Sarasota’s Capt. Rick Grassett likes a 1/8-ounce D.O.A. CAL jig with a paddletail or grub, while shallower spots call for a 1/16-ounce. Here are some of our favorite soft-plastic seatrout lures.
Z-Man Trout Trick Thick Trick
Made of proprietary ElaZtech material, this 3.75-inch twitchbait’s plump, ribbed body emits vibrations on the rise and fall, while the tapering pintail presents a narrow profile. Twitching erratically like a fleeing shrimp or baitfish, the Trout Trick pairs well with Z-Man’s Trout Eye jighead. Offered in 12 colors.
FishLab Darting Swimmer
Following the familiar fluke profile, the Darting Swimmer features a keeled belly for side-to-side swimming motion. Offered in 4 1⁄4-, 5 3⁄4-, and 6 3⁄4-inch sizes with 11 colors.
Coastal Brew Bait Company Dart
Treated with a proprietary coffee scent, this inshore fluke-style bait is made with a long, whippy tail for maximum action. A shallow back and belly-hook slot facilitates weedless rigging.
Saltwater Assassin Sea Shad
A shad body and paddletail offered in 4- and 5-inch versions with more than 60 color options.
MirrOLure Lil John
This 3 3/4-inch bait has a tube-like body and a tapered tail for long casts and infused shrimp scent.
Swimbaits for Giant Trout
For giant seatrout, consider a Z-Man Mulletron swimbait or LIVETARGET’s ultra-realistic swimbaits. They offer Sardine, Croaker, Mullet and Pinfish models.
What’s the best fishing lure for seatrout?
The best lure for catching seatrout varies and depends on a host of variables that include location, water clarity, tide stage, water depth, time of day, time of year and the types of habitat and forage species available where you are fishing. Fishing lures that imitate shrimp and baitfish are productive across the range of speckled seatrout.
What do seatrout eat?
Spotted seatrout are opportunistic carnivores. Shrimp is the staple of a seatrout’s diet, especially for younger, smaller trout. Once they reach a certain size, their preferences shift toward baitfish such as mullet, pinfish, menhaden and pilchards.
What is a gator trout?
“Gator” trout is a nickname for large spotted seatrout. The size that qualifies for gator-trout status varies depending on where you’re fishing. In most fisheries, a 25-inch trout might weigh 5 or 6 pounds and qualify as a gator. In trophy fisheries, like the Texas coast, some anglers might not consider a trout a gator until it reaches a length approaching 30 inches. Such a fish might weigh 10 to 12 pounds.
How do I target gator trout?
The large females that are considered “gator trout” are more solitary than smaller trout, which school-up and are easy to catch once you find them. Covering water is important when specifically targeting large seatrout, as individuals or pairs of big fish will hold on isolated pieces of structure or cover. They are ambush predators, so look for areas where tidal current delivers baitfish to them. Potholes on grass flats are prime habitat in summer. They also like drop-offs, cuts, docks, bridges and jetties where they can hang in an eddy and pick off baitfish or shrimp that pass in the current. Live baitfish, such as croakers and pinfish, are good baits for gator trout, but some anglers prefer to throw lures to cover more water quickly.
What is the world record seatrout?
The IGFA all-tackle world record spotted seatrout weighed 17 pounds, 7 ounces. It was caught from the Indian River Lagoon near Fort Pierce, Florida in 1995 by Craig F. Carson.
