Lure fishing for Sea Trout

I want to catch a sea trout in the sea using a lure.
What should I use and how is the lure best fished.
If you have specific experience of effective lures please let me know.

not being an expert on sea-trout fishing in saltwater...ive caught them flyfishing in lakes in donegal....friends of mine who go after saltwater sea trout in donegal have had success using a large wet fly behind a bubble float..Ken Whelan has also wrote about this technique and suggests that the splash the bubble float makes is believed by some people to attract the fish. The technique is meant to work well from dusk onwards and in calmer water where sea trout are active.

A German Spratt can get them interested. It's a silver bar with a bend in it, 3 or 4 inches long, fished on spinning gear.

Don't forget your sea trout licence!

a black lure fished at or after dusk seems to work. i'm no expert as i've a strike rate of 4 of them for about 100 trips. desperate i know. i've caught two on top of the water using a black jointed rappalla lure (not sure if these are still availbale) and two on the bottom retrieving a mackerel spinner. only thing common to both was that the retrieve was very slow, especially on the bottom.

What sort of line rating should you be looking at when fishing for sea trout and also for mullet?

Up in Donegal last year the locals were happy with the bubble float and blue and silver wet flys (various types). This was mainly used where there was a good flow to keep it moving. Further out and on the beaches they liked a small silver sprat type lure. Wasnt fishing at the time but watched one guy hit three or four with the spinner.

I have found the 18 g silver tobies excellent. They can be fished in slow or fast currents ,with fast or slow retrieves as they are quite light. The only drawback being the distance you can cast. However, sea trout can come in really close to the shoreline.
They are deadly in estauries, with a good chance of bass as well
Kev

Pat - what part of Donegal was that?

(this is GF80...can't log on here in work!)

Free lining with a sandeel works from the beach, u need to be near a river mouth, helps.

After buying a new rod, daiwa someting 10ft designed for salmon fishing, and a okuma reel, cost me about 135 euro, specially for fishing sea trout and mullet!!

How much are is licence for fishing sea trout, and wher do u get them??

I've only caught one sea-trout using a lure - it was a complete accident.

I was fishing for pollack off the rocks just round the corner from Leenen pier, in Inishowen, Co Donegal. Had only landed two all day and all of a sudden BANG - something hit my lure and almighty slap and gave me a great fight, even leaping clean out of the water twice. It was then I realised it was a sea-trout. Lovely fish, around the 2 1/2 lb mark.

Was fishing a silver lure - called a C bar or a Condor bar (around these parts anyway.) Sounds something simliar to that German Spratt thing mentioned above.

Find them deadly for pollack too.

I've also caught them (sea-trout) on sandeel in the big bay behind Finnar Army Camp in Ballyshannon, South Donegal. Be vary careful if you go there coz you have to cross behind a firing range. I usually be safe and trek 100000 kms across from the far side of the beach! A long haul with all your gear!

There's a big shelving bay just at the mouth of the river - just freeline your sandeel and let the tide rip it around the bay and you'll hit them. Never tried spinning here for some reason...

Me again ^ :oops:

Could you send me foto German spratt?? I want to see, haw looking this lure??
Thank you
My address: [removed] - please add to your profile instead / Sandman

See http://www.eddystoneeel.com/images/eddyst34.gif

Not a great quality picture but you get the idea. This lure goes by various names in different places.

I've removed your email address from your post above to avoid you getting spammed. Add it to your profile instead. That way, anyone who wants to email you will be able to do so without the system revealing what your address actually is.

i've caught a couple off greystones. find a blue/silver or black/silver jensen works best 14/16 gram.

Tasmanian devils, particularly the blue and silver type are excellent. If they aren't working then get your hands on an abu rocket, sort of a slim line version of the toby and an excellent representation of a sandeel.

I've also caught them (sea-trout) on sandeel in the big bay behind Finnar Army Camp in Ballyshannon, South Donegal. Be vary careful if you go there coz you have to cross behind a firing range. I usually be safe and trek 100000 kms across from the far side of the beach! A long haul with all your gear!

There's a big shelving bay just at the mouth of the river - just freeline your sandeel and let the tide rip it around the bay and you'll hit them. Never tried spinning here for some reason...

The Erne estuary can also be fished from the far side, there are a couple of access points, and boats can be hired at the Mall Quay in Ballyshannon... its best fished at low tide and for a couple of hours either side, at high tide the water covers about 3 times more area and the fish are spread out a lot more.
Also, the estuary is whats known as a ministerial fishery (owned by the minister) so there is a special local licence required to fish it, in addition to the State licence for salmon and sea trout. Think it costs about 12 euros but that might have changed. You can get it from the fishery board in Ballyshannon or local tackle shop in Bundoran... and you more than likely WILL be checked for it, so dont even think about it....!

Flying C red or black are also worth considering :wink:

I reckon they are a lot easier to catch in the sea than most people think. It's just we never hear much said about them and no magazine artciles etc. just makes them appear very elusive.

We ledger for them here in Kerry right through the winter in Estuaries with frozen sandeel, even mackerel works well and have had splendid days with a dozen trout or more, more like flattie bashing than fishing for sea-trout!

Spinning wise my own favourites have been Dexter Wedges (my fav), Bridun Launce etc. - any silver lure in the 10 - 18 grams range I reckon and your bang on. It can pay to cover water too in case they'te not in close but fishing in sandy estuaries means you can drop your line down to 6- 8lbs to give you extra range and not break off in a fish either. They are notorious for throwing the hook however but here's a great little tip I was shown - keep the rod tip down. It's that simple! Even when fighting the fish keep the rod tip down at water level and they'll find it much much harder to throw the hooks.

I recently met some "hard-core" guys who fish for sea-trout in the sea very regularly and they laughed at my smaller lures they reckon that they will grab normal size spinners too and were both using 40 gram Dexter Wedge's when I met them.

[img]http://usera.imagecave.com/Liamo/trout1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://usera.imagecave.com/Liamo/trout2.jpg[/img]

Have Fun!

Liam