If you want to catch a speckled trout...

[awesome guy]

head to any of the coastal estuaries near VB over the next couple of weeks. The bite is off the hook! There's just a crazy amount of big fish pretty much everywhere. They're moving from deep in the backwaters to closer to the mouths of their bay, creek, and river systems. A fair amount of keeper stripers are also in these areas so it's just fantastic fishing on light tackle.

The bigger speckled trout aren't at all like their 9-12 inch sized ones most people catch in the summer. They hit hard, fight hard, and taste great. But you can't horse them in because their mouths are thin and it's easy to rip the hook out of the flesh unless you get them back near the gills or the fatty part of their lip. So it's more of a finesse game with a larger fish.

[awesome guy]

Since this about lunch...I ate the specs. Cook them like striped bass, old bay a tab of butter and then under the broiler. You need to cook them hard so they flake up, then you're in flavor town. I can't figure out if I like them, stripers, or redfish the best. They're all similar in taste, but trout have the most flavor but are the softest except the big ones over 18 or so inches. The bigger ones get firmer. Redfish are the oiliest and have a milder flavor. They're a little softer than striper. Striper is the firmest, but least flavor. Going for the Chesapeake trifecta this weekend, at least one of each. And some fried oysters.