24 Inch Speckled Trout in Bayou Chico

I had a pretty good day in Bayou Chico on this midday trip that started around 10 am. The tide wasn’t doing much but I was counting on east winds to push water into the bayou. I caught a trout close to the boat launch and got a few bites. I proceeded to the mouth of the bayou hoping bigger trout were hanging out and ambushing bait fish around structure. I caught a few along the way and then proceeded to fish the piers and structure. I hooked up on a big fish right at the kayak and it felt like a blue fish. To my delight it was a nice speckled trout. It measured just under 24 inches. I could see its friends swimming underneath and I was hoping to catch another big trout. One big one I estimate around 20" inches did hit right at the kayak but I didn’t get a good hookset. All totaled I caught 6 speckled trout and most were in the 15-16 inch range. The lurer of choice was a 4” paddletail. I did throw a Yozuri suspension bait but it didn’t get any takers.

This osprey was using a sailboat mast to search for fish. I caught a speckled trout in this area. It appeared to me the osprey could see the lurer I was using as its head followed the retrieve. I imagine it was noticing the strikes I was getting with the swimbait.