# Trout Were Swarming



## madbayrunner (Oct 25, 2013)

went out to the end of my pier last night around 11 and found dozens of large trout feeding and popping the water around the lights. looked like glass minnows, no shrimp jumping and some mullet, but not going crazy. I threw everything with every conceivable retrieve, they would not even sniff it. this went on for 2 hours. eventually caught 3, I think by accident. any experience? live shrimp under cork? i'm sure they'll be back tnite


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## flatscat1 (Jun 2, 2005)

Go smaller on your bait. Tiny hook, no weight, flourocarbon leader. Sometimes they are spooky, but other times they are just stuffed and not inclined to eat lures, so maybe try earlier in the evening before they have gorged themselves so much and are still hungry? Personally I throw unweighted flies (as in fly fishing) at them, I can target specific fish and keep the lure right on their nose for a long time and entice them to eat....but don't know if you fly fish or not.


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## Chuck06R1 (Apr 7, 2015)

When I fish lights, I like to use those 3" mister twister shad. The clear/glitter ones work pretty good.


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## Winters97gt (Jun 20, 2013)

^this. 

When we had our bay house in SPI as a kid, trout would come in to our pier at night under lights. They would rarely hit lures or even live bait. Out came the fly pole. They ate those flys up.


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## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

*lure*

Yo-Zuri imitation glass minnow...... 1/16th or 1/8th oz


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## cfulbright (Jun 24, 2009)

Speck rigged 1/16 jig heads fin-s fish 2.5" white, opening night, or green. Other small opening night color baits work to. 

Otherwise live shrimp NO weight treble hook though the horn, fluorocarbon leader.


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## Gilbert (May 25, 2004)

Yozuri 3d glass minnow. Find the shallow running one.


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## 2brothers (Feb 6, 2006)

Gilbert said:


> Yozuri 3d glass minnow. Find the shallow running one.


Can confirm since 1995, nothing but under the lights. Lure out of production though but can be still be found on ebay.

Yo-Zuri 3D Minnow 70 F686-TM Clear 2 3/4 " Lure 1/4 oz. Suspending


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## Bocephus (May 30, 2008)

The small Mirrodine in the "S" color (clear with luminescent inserts) is a good one also.


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

Momma's Worry said:


> Yo-Zuri imitation glass minnow...... 1/16th or 1/8th oz


This. keep it small. Those fish are used to eating shad and having great visibility there skittish to say the least.

have fun.


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## Tilly_Bend (Jun 27, 2013)

Throw a fly rod. They will eat any crazy charlie type fly. We kill them all the time.


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

Spec rig!


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## duck commander (Sep 19, 2005)

Small clear paddle tails or crystal clear metal insert mirrominnow. Have a few you can't hardly see through from all the scratches


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## buckweet (Aug 8, 2011)

Cast net (square hook)..........



All of above
Also try small topwater retrieved in real fast not side to side


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## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

short Sabiki rig (4 #22 hooks) with white flies under popping cork....


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## big3slayer (Jun 29, 2008)

another thing were you standing infront of the light or casting a shadow? and next time try throwing on the outside of the light. Now if it was an underwater green light something small and light.


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## DCAVA (Aug 5, 2013)

glo tandems will work....

http://www.hhlure.com/products/speck-tail


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## madbayrunner (Oct 25, 2013)

i'm on a mission tonight and yes I tried every angle, retrieve and space. these were not dinks either, very solid trout
going to shop right now, report to follow at 2 am


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## DCAVA (Aug 5, 2013)

^^^^put the glo worms directly in the front of the light after every 3 -4 casts and those sucker will glo big time. Hook 'em up and post up some pics!!


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## Chuck06R1 (Apr 7, 2015)

Tell you what, invite us over tonight (we can bring the beer) and we can all take turns helping you to catch these trout.


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## Mr Duck (Dec 20, 2012)

Lots of folks putting in their 2 cents (all might work at one time or another) Ran into this situation st SLP park last year about this time. Could see literally hundreds of large specs but would not hit anything. Pretty much tried all of the above as well as shrimp & mullet.
Folks around me doing same throwing tackle boxes still nada. Glass minnows were my guess at time but did not see any. Must have been some kind of hatch. Going next Monday for couple of weeks will report back if I run across this again.


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## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

taking the Grady to Bayport west shoreline tomorrow night tide starts out bout 10PM if I got it right (Gulf Coast Fisherman)...try out YoZiri and Sabiki 

hope the feds don't attack for reasons unknown


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## Mr. Breeze (Jan 6, 2005)

Storm Kickin' Shad PRL.....deadly....fish it as slow as you can....trout candy under the lights.


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## JFolm (Apr 22, 2012)

When Walter umphrey pier opened up me and my dad frequented most Friday and Saturday nights. We used live shrimp sometimes but that is expensive. Most of the time we threw panfish assassins tandem rigged with small 1/32-1/16 panfish jig heads. This requires light line and a loose drag. Can't flip them up either due to bending hooks but I have caught more trout on those than any other lure in my life. My favorite colors were chartreuse, glow, and a glass minnow color (opening night). We also used fin s soft plastics and had great success, forgot about those. 

We also used a tiny suspending twitch bait called a mystic. This lure was about 2.5" long, slender, blue back, silver side, orange belly. They sold out to rapala I believe. We would put a split shot 6" in front of that to get it down in the water and would twitch it every crank or two of the reel. That was another solid performer.


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## steve holchak (May 18, 2012)

Silver spoon with yellow bucktail works in my lights. Also, chrome and any color SMALL rattletrap.1" long, I found them @ Buccees.


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## madbayrunner (Oct 25, 2013)

Chuck06R1 said:


> Tell you what, invite us over tonight (we can bring the beer) and we can all take turns helping you to catch these trout.


 lol


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## willygee (Jun 21, 2013)

madbay, had the same issue last night. fishing a neighbors dock (with his permission) and saw really nice size trout as we came up. me and a buddy threw everything but the only took a multicolored spoon or this narrow bucktail swimbait thing. gonna try earlier tonight and use some of the things suggested...


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## Gilbert (May 25, 2004)

Chuck06R1 said:


> Tell you what, invite us over tonight (we can bring the beer) and we can all take turns helping you to catch these trout.


x2. I'll bring my yozuri's.


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## 2brothers (Feb 6, 2006)

2brothers said:


> Can confirm since 1995, nothing but under the lights. Lure out of production though but can be still be found on ebay.
> 
> Yo-Zuri 3D Minnow 70 F686-TM Clear 2 3/4 " Lure 1/4 oz. Suspending


FYI: These are freshwater lures so it will float on top instead of suspending unless the hooks are change hooks to #6 and add an extra spit ring to the front eye hook.


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## BretE (Jan 24, 2008)

What general area are you in, I haven't had trout under my lights yet this summer?


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## notthatdeep (Feb 5, 2005)

I like the MirroMinnow 19 MR-S when they are eating glass minnows.


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## Gottagofishin (Dec 17, 2005)

Free lining live bait is the only thing that works consistently in the lights. Next best thing is a fly. Clouser or shrimp pattern. 

Anything with a cork, swivel, jig head, lead weight, etc will get ignored.


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## madbayrunner (Oct 25, 2013)

Gottagofishin said:


> Free lining live bait is the only thing that works consistently in the lights. Next best thing is a fly. Clouser or shrimp pattern.
> 
> Anything with a cork, swivel, jig head, lead weight, etc will get ignored.


 I totally agree after last night...


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## rattler (Feb 20, 2006)

These in the 2 1/2 model. But, change the hooks with better quality

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-XPS-Floating-Minnows-Slim-Body/product/51822/

Also, the 3" shad assassin in Salt & Pepper Phantom freelined with a small treble (size 10 or 8) with one hook ran through the nose of the bait. You go through quite a few baits this way so take plenty.

>E


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## Smackdaddy53 (Nov 4, 2011)

Flourocarbon leader can really help in these super finesse situations along with what many are chiming in with. Compare all these posts...small, clear/natural colored lures work best.


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## Jerrym (May 12, 2013)

We have a place at the end of West Galveston, same thing, when they are gorging on the clear minnows try the Sparkle Bugs by H & H , they come in clear and other light colors, hard to find some times. Academy has them and I thing Bass Pro. When we catch them there mouths are full of those small glass minnows, actually spitting them out of there mouth's.


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## KayakCowboy (Aug 25, 2005)

Keeping tackle small and light has worked when they're spooky.


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## Megalops Atlanticus (Nov 1, 2011)

Try the tsunami split tail minnow they work very well under the lights when there feeding on glass minnows.


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## sotol buster (Oct 7, 2007)

What worked and how many did you catch?


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## madbayrunner (Oct 25, 2013)

in summary, nothing worked. tried everything, everyway, you name it, except for live shrimp. some of the studied fishing guys might confirm, but I figured the minnows are seasonal and the trout love them, so that's what they target and ignore everything else. even the best look alike failed. I just installed my lights and this is the first summer with pier. I think the diets change as season, shrimp spawn, glass minnows, mullet in winter i'm guessing. it was amazing watching dozens of keeper trout surface and pop while you drag your best lure through with absolutely no interest. I did keep 5 over three nights, but those were accidents. great learning experience knowing you could be in the middle of a 100 trout and never get a strike...


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## jampen (Oct 12, 2012)

Seine up some glass minnows, freeze, run on a fle fly jig.


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## kenny (May 21, 2004)

Small bait like a lil fishy on a 16' cane pole. Dabble it over the fish you want and rip it right out of the water! The other fish will be looking around going, "what the heck was that?"


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## TrueblueTexican (Aug 29, 2005)

*Yep*



Jerrym said:


> We have a place at the end of West Galveston, same thing, when they are gorging on the clear minnows try the Sparkle Bugs by H & H , they come in clear and other light colors, hard to find some times. Academy has them and I thing Bass Pro. When we catch them there mouths are full of those small glass minnows, actually spitting them out of there mouth's.


Clear glitter with red dot will slay em in these situations --


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## KIKO (Oct 24, 2006)

http://www.basspro.com/Lunker-City-FinS-Fish/product/15695/ color Salt n' Pepper Blue Phantom 2-1/2"

I also caught them on a mini rattle trap


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## glojim (Aug 9, 2004)

My one and only time I encountered this I used a sabiki rig and did alot of damage to em.


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## wet dreams (May 21, 2004)

2" chartruse bass assassin or small 'little fishy's' in white/red, I have personally been on trips where we caught over 100 fish more than a few times, the most we have caught is 225 yrs back before any limits AND left them biting....BTW the 225 were caught on speck-jigs


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## TxSlammin (Apr 11, 2008)

Have fished SLP park for 18+years under the lights and there are just nights the big girls just won't eat the box or live. Best thing to do is admire them and drink a few beers while u keep trying and cussing them hahaha. But as said already mirrodine is a good go to in the mini clear or electric chicken for me this year. Yozuri crystal minnows are another really good choice.


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## DeerSlayerToo (Aug 4, 2010)

live shrimp freelined with #10 treble hook


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## elgatogus (Oct 27, 2010)

Chicken liver! lol


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## TxLiteBeer (Mar 4, 2013)

Castnet!


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## brp73 (Oct 26, 2010)

These tiny flukes work pretty dang well!


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## Monte45 (Jul 22, 2014)

I have seen this happen and was passed the secret when I watched guys limit out and we left at the same time myself empty handed...

Texas Tackle Factory - Killer Double Shad Rigs - Glo White

These are my go to in this situation. put them in the lights and they with glo better.


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## Hookem-Guy81 (Apr 3, 2013)

*Under the lights in Sargent on 8/10*

17 MRS Mirrodine 2 5/8 inch worked for us. Only caught 3 on shrimp then when we ran out we switched to these and caught 7 more keepers up to 18". Fished from 9pm until 11PM using shrimp and 1130PM to 1230AM with the 17MRS. Lost a few monsters that just surfaced and shook the smaller lures out! Water was a little murky from the dredging on the ICW we were at the Y on Caney Creek. Tide was going out until 11 then turned around after 1130 and came back in. Fished two nights and did good both nights. Didn't get any shrimp the second night though, just used the Mirrodine and finished earlier.


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## Hookem-Guy81 (Apr 3, 2013)

Also, my wife used the 14MRS which is only 2 1/4 inches long. That is the lure in the pic. I used the 17MRS but she caught more keepers than I did the first night and the second night we both used the 17 MRS.


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## trout250 (Aug 24, 2005)

we use the smaller mirro dine weighs 1/4 or 3/16 oz. Blk bk silver sides white belly or same in the dark green. they make a small version of the mirror minnow that works exceptionally well but you cannot hardly find them.
texas tackle factory makes ttf jr in glo with chrt tails that is also real good when rigged with just a 3/0 worm hook. it will almost float but is a slow sinker, cast across the light and worked back across it looks like a big white shrimp, walk the dog with it . also if water is real clear go to a smaller wattage bulb, this seems to help when they are spooky.


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