Top 3 Spring Lures For Speckled Trout (Plus A BONUS Lure)
- By: Wyatt Parcel
- on March 8, 2022
What are the top 3 spring lures for speckled trout fishing?
What lures do you absolutely need to catch more trout this spring?
Keep scrolling down this page to find out what lures you NEED to target trout in the coming weeks.
Learn it all here!!
Spring Lures For Speckled Trout
Speckled trout are at their largest size during the springtime and they are quick to eat anything you can get in front of their face.
Now could be your chance to reel in that PB trout you’ve been searching for!
1. Large Paddletail Lure
Contrary to common spring fishing practice, big paddletails are useful when targeting trout in spring.
Usually, smaller paddletails and lures are the way to go in the spring, however, trout are an exception.
Trout are on the lookout for high-calorie, easy meals.
Although most of the bait profiles will be small, there will be larger mullet scattered throughout the schools of bait.
If you see mullet leaping out of the water and running away from predators, this is an indicator to rig up a larger paddletail and target hungry trout.
Additionally, you are able to cover lots of ground in a short amount of time with the large paddletails.
During this time of year, 1/4 oz. to 3/16 oz. jigheads or weighted hooks are best because the fish are not always up in the shallows but are in deeper pockets of water.
You will find most trout sitting in deeper holes just off the flats or on ledges leading into a flat.
The larger speckled trout will more often than not strike your lure as it drops to the bottom rather than when you jig it to the surface.
Trout are ambush predators with an angled jaw designed for coming up from below and striking bait.
The #1 choice for spring speckled trout is the 5″ Slam Shady Bomber Paddletail.
This lure has the perfect tail wag and action on the drop that catches the eye of the big trout sitting in potholes on flats.
2. Stick-Bait Style Lure
You should turn to a stick-bait lure when the fish are extremely finicky and easily spooked by the vibration of other lures.
As spring really comes to bloom, there are certain temperatures and aspects of weather that cause fish to spook off easily.
The winds will lighten up and the sun quickly warms up the water which pushes the trout up into shallower areas.
In addition, trout have a much more exposed lateral line when compared to redfish.
An exposed lateral line leaves the trout more in tune with what is going on around them.
This makes trout a very tough fish to get close to.
During these types of spring fishing conditions, even the vibrations from a paddletail lure can scare the fish off.
As far as the specific stick bait presentations go, you want to have either a shrimp imitation or a split-tail jerkbait.
These are labeled as stick baits because they don’t have much tail vibration and the intended presentation is a quick darting motion up and down along the bottom.
As mentioned before, trout are ambush predators keyed in on erratic movement.
The drop of lures after twitching or jigging them off the bottom is what will trigger trout reaction strikes.
If you are fishing the edge of a flat or a deep channel, cast your stick bait out and twitch it a couple of times but let the lure settle down to the bottom after the twitches.
You will find the trout will just pick up your lure right there as it falls down to their mouths.
As far as fishing in the shallows, this is where the split-tail jerkbait comes into play.
Split-tail jerkbaits are an excellent choice for sightcasting in clear conditions.
You are mainly aiming to catch the attention of trout with a quick darting motion.
The #1 stick-bait for spring speckled trout is the Alabama Leprechaun Jerk Shad.
You definitely want a split-tail jerkbait in your tackle bag this spring and few are better than the Alabama Leprechaun.
3. Topwater Lure
Spring is one of the best times of year to break out the topwater plugs for speckled trout.
Trout are more than willing to get up and after bait swimming near the surface in the spring.
As they slide up into the shallows, trout will begin to strike larger baitfish.
The new Moonwalker topwater lure is designed with rattles in the rear of the lure to mimic larger mullet flicking its tail on the surface.
It is critical to fish with a topwater lure that has a rattle to mimic the sound of baitfish.
Trout are very sight-focused hunters and will be attracted to something moving quickly that is also creating a disturbance along the surface of the water.
A bonus topwater lure hint is to continue working your lure even if a fish pops the surface behind it.
The fish will continue following your lure until it decides to fully commit and strike the lure.
Topwater lures are also excellent for picking through the trout for the larger fish, however, are not the best for catching high quantities of trout.
BONUS LURE: Slow-Sinking Twitchbait
The reason this lure was not directly included in the top 3 trout lures for spring is that there is not a set situation to use this lure in.
You should throw the other lures mentioned above before trying this lure style out.
The advantage of this lure style is that it includes all of the movements of the lures mentioned previously.
You can walk the dog with this lure and it moves erratically back and forth like a stick-bait.
Also, the profile of slow-sinking twitchbaits is almost the same as larger paddletails.
The biggest issues with this lure are its failure to cover ground quickly and difficulty to learn in a short amount of time.
This lure is more of an “Ace up the sleeve” when you are struggling to get bites with the aforementioned lures.
The #1 slow-sinking twitchbait for speckled trout is the Paul Brown Fat Boy Pro or Corky lure.
Spring Lures For Speckled Trout [VIDEO]
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Conclusion
The springtime brings back energized fish willing to aggressively hunt and prey on newly spawned baitfish.
Be sure to keep in mind how fish diets may change as well as their behavior in response to warmer temperatures.
If you want to catch more trout this spring, you can’t leave the house without the lures mentioned above!!
Do you have any more questions on spring lures for speckled trout?
Let me know down in the comments!
And if you know someone who wants to learn more about spring lures for speckled trout, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
P.S. – Want to know how to retrieve all the different types of inshore fishing lures in a variety of ways? Check out our Artificial Lure Retrieval Methods Mini-Course.
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Thanks Wyatt! The anticipation of spring trout is always exciting; tight Lines
Be careful of predator birds when using a paul brown. A Bald Eagle swooped down and stole it on the first cast.
Haha, when it fools the birds, you know you’re throwing the right thing!
Awesome report Wyatt!!! Really great tip and report
Thanks so much Pablo!! Glad this tip was useful for you sir!
Great report Wyatt! Gotta love that top water trout bite 👍. I still haven’t tried one of those Paul browns yet
You definitely should! They’re a killer bait and have saved the day a couple times for me, and are suprisingly effective when fishing directly into a school of fish!
Great summary giving proven lures and techniques. Thanks!
Absolutely! Thanks for watching Steve!!
Thanks Wyatt for sharing this video.
Absolutely James! Glad you found this one helpful sir!
I’ve compared 3″ and 5″ paddletails side-by-side, and like you, find the 5″ gets about 3X more trout strikes.
Yep! I think that because of their mainly large baitfish diet, the bomber presents a perfect meal!
Thanks Wyatt
Absolutely Jerry! Thanks for watching sir!
Didnot think of the larger profile lure usually here in northeast FL I use a smaller profile paddletail and topwater plug to match the hatch so to speak I usually dont break out the apook jr until around mid may early June but maybe this year I’ll make and exception as I said earlier when I first bought the moon Walker I wasn’t impressed with this plug to me it lacked the awesome action that strangely enough looks just like the spook jr in size and looks but the action isn’t anything like the spook jr as also the sound is different as well no I’ll stick to my spook jr I also like the flash of silver the bone and silver adds gives the plug here in our murky waters a little more visibility anyways though I’ll try the bigger paddletail and see what happens because I purchased some a few months back when saltstrong first offered them thanks for the info and all you do😉👍
You absolutely should! Most of my biggest trout of the year come on topwaters in early spring, and with the ew improvements to the Moonwalker, they’ll be perfect for the upcoming bite!
This is really helpful Wyatt. I’ve been saving the 5″ bombers for fall, but your explanation for using them now (and it deeper pockets) makes sense.
Thanks Al! Glad to hear you’ll be breaking them out in the Spring as well!